British identical twins PAUL & BARRY RYAN were both singer-songwriters who started
as a duo and had some hits together. The biggest Ryan one for the family was ELOISE. A supreme symphonic pop opus performed solo by Barry, but written by Paul. It peaked at #2 on the UK Singles Chart when it came out in 1968.
The Ryan brothers were born 74 years ago today , on 24 October 1948. Paul died of cancer in 1992, aged 44 and Barry passed away last year after complications from a lung disorder. R.I.P.
Here’s that 24 Carat gold pop pearl…
Punk legends The Damned scored a #1 hit wuth their version in the UK in 1986.
It’s the first single of her upcoming debut album Living Rooms, out on 20 January 2023.
A record that will tell stories of multiple lives lived and lost in the city, of friendships that meant everything and the characters you’ll never meet again, of transience and loneliness, and of getting by and moving on; it promises to be every bit as enrapturing and
enigmatic as the artist at its core.
Two experimental artists popped up in my mind upon hearing Quintessential England. Firstly legend Kate Bush because of the capricious turn and twist pop briskness at play here and also Goldfrapp‘s ghostly vocality. Need to know more? I don’t think so. Yes, something special is coming up…
FE SALOMON: Facebook – Instagram
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: DAZY Who: The moniker of Richmond, VA-based
musician James Goodson
From his upcoming debut album OUTOFBODY – a 12-song / 25-minute debut that was narrowed down from over 100 songs. Perfect bite-sized fuzzed-out pop songs that will
get stuck in your head like bubblegum. Out 28 October via Lame-O Records.
On My Way is a glam wham-bam psych juggernaut that
activates your adrenalin stream on the spot. Bingo.
Molly O’Malley “I think this is the first ‘diss’ track I’ve ever written. Felt really good to write.
It’s about having a friendship with a narcissist, and all the ways they try to bring their friends down around them. Fun fact about this song is that it was written and recorded on one of Joe Trohman (of Fall Out Boy)’s guitars.” –
Diern is a wayward moving groove inflamed with crackling guitar layers while O’Malley‘s spooky vocality sneers all over it, accentuating the fear factor of this electrically-charged crackerjack. Top stuff.
Artist: TOILET RATS Who: A one-person operation conceived, performed, and maintained by Tommy Ratz,
an elusive character who allegedly operates out of a small studio in the sewers beneath Minneapolis, MN where he is surrounded by synthesizers, guitars, and fast food wrappers. Unable to get internet or television signals in the sewer, Ratz collects discarded VHS tapes, audio cassettes, and brochures, which inform his sense of reality and worldview. As a result, he is regularly expectant of national threats that have long passed, and wildly behind on trends and cultural norms.
Whether the story above of this Einzelgänger is true or not, it’s definitely a fascinating one. No wonder he makes manic-motorik-driven electro-drum-jagged jams like this in his haunted house.
“Vår is a stream of thoughts about the times we live in and how we perceive both looking ahead to the future but also very much clinging on to the past. It’s about the eternal desire of man to dream away to a better place and about how we often miss the times behind us and re-imagine them like dreams.“
It’s the first taster of their new album Mørket på Solens Krop (‘The darkness upon
the body of the sun’) set for a release on January 27th, 2023. More info here.
Expect scintillating world music beats, trance-like electronic vibrancy, and eerie chants. When music sounds this engrossing you don’t need to understand the words to get into the core of it.
RUNNING UP THAT HILL: 50 VISIONS OF KATE BUSH is a brand new, multi-faceted biography of this famously elusive figure, viewing her life and work from fresh and illuminating angles. It’s written by respected British music journalist and author Tom Doyle.
Louder Than War writes: “Ever since a teenage Kate Bush arrived chanting Heathcliff’s in 78, stretching the key of C sharp like an oscillating wave, there’s been a sense of the otherworldly about her. As much a ground zero moment for pop as the Pistols were for the denim brigade, Wuthering Heights, a chart hit not in 4/4 time, sang about an eighteenth-century troubadour should have been an anomaly not a blueprint for a career that has now stretched out over nearly five decades and shows no sign of ending.
That veil of secrecy and strangeness is such that Kate Bush is one of the few artists you can actually look forward to books being written about. This latest release 50 Visions of Kate Bush by Tom Doyle might well be the punchiest one yet, beginning with her childhood in Welling Kent, where Bush would sit at a Mustel pump organ for hours working out chord structures and setting in motion the foundations for her future career in Dadaist pop.
Doyle, a respected music journalist does an excellent job of getting behind his subject. He’s even granted a rare interview with Bush, which acts as a preface to the book. It’s the closest we get to see the singer with her guard down, upbeat but slightly paranoid about the release of her Aerial album. With the record industry changing for the worse and with outside pressures seeping in, Bush is keen to dispel the layers of myths built up around her. “I just find it frustrating that people think I’m some sort of weirdo recluse that never comes out into the world,” she says.”
The book is out this Friday, 28 October. You can order it here via Amazon.
Miami’s DJ/producer/musician LAVI BEATS invites us to sing a long to his
new anthem FOR FREEDOM (BARAYE AZADI), that focuses on the struggle
of young women fighting for freedom of personal choice.
Beats: “Every day we are witnessing demonstrations for freedom of personal choice
by young women in major cities around the world. We produced this song to publicize
this struggle.”
The lyrics are inspired by a song, titled Baraye Azadi by Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour . A protest song to support human rights and freedom, especially
for women in Iran.
If the whole wide world doesn’t raise up in unity to support
all suppressed women on this male-dominated planet, nothing
will change.
It’s never too late to act. Let’s start right now, right here,
all together in good spirits, moving to the beat…
Iconic actor Al Pacino about You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught written
by legendary duo Rodgers & Hammerstein. The song featured in 1958 movie South Pacific. It’s still a crucial time for America, 64 years later.
This British bulldozer trio was part of a 3-indie bands night along with
Scottish gunslingers Gallus and South London’s hit team Deadletter.
They had to go on first, but got stuck in traffic after playing Paris the night before.
They came late, and were as nervous as hell, but kicked off all of their frustrations
in a flabbergasting half-hour of deafening fucktastic post-punk hullabaloo. They made excuses now and then for being late, but nobody of us cared, we were too busy going bonkers in the moment.
These three young wolves (Huw Allen on vocals and bass, Connor Dack on guitar and Louis Lanfear on drums) played their hearts out and left all their energy on the floor. Why try to make an impression in 2 hours when you can blow spectators’ heads off in just 30 minutes. I’m a sucker for Blitzkrieg gigs like this, which make my jaws drop to the ground
in awe. All cylinders on, all burners on. A shocking stream of adrenalin is what T.B.G.F.C. caused and it felt astonishing.
An idea of their mind-crushing live dynamics, here below…
Watch/listen to one of their newest pieces.
It’s called Doorstep and slowly but surely it will do your head in. Aaaarrgggghhh!
Band: FOO FIGHTERS Who: Immensely famous and beloved
rockers with Dave Grohl in the middle Active: Since 1994 – 10 studio LPs, so far
Anniversary LP: ONE BY ONE Released: 22 October 2002 – 20 years ago
Pitchfork: “I expect to see the Foo Fighters featured in “Have You Seen Me?”
ads on the backs of milk cartons… I just can’t help but miss the sincerity of their
older material. At one time, Foo Fighters could pull off “great” with a fraction of the
technical support; One by One had its sights set on “good enough” from the very
beginning.” Score: 5.5/10.
TUTV: Great singles, but it doesn’t save the overall mediocre album.
Singles/clips: All My Life / Times Like These / Low
Experimental ambient voyagers VIOLET NOX – Dez DeCarlo and Andrew Abrahamson – from Boston contributed two pieces to a compilation entitled Enko Landmann’s Empire of the Four Moons. A project organized by German label Gruselthon putting the Utopian novel by German author Enko Landmann into music.
SENZOR is one of the two tracks. It’s a multi-layered electro stomper,
a razzle-dazzle enterprise into space, an intoxicating illusion.
The duo have a video out now for Senzor. A glitzy psychedelic-colored collage
of what looks to me as an ocean in motion beyond the earth’s atmosphere.
