The 7th day is one to be lazy, to relax, to walk in slow-mo
from your bed to your couch, to have a glass of wine and
to listen to musings/reveries/ballads that massage your
ears and mind gently.
Turn Up The Volume picked 10 new musings
to create the fitting atmosphere for a blissful trance.
New track by Paris-based singer/songwriter. An ode to
the late giant guitar hero Jimi Henrdix. His debut album Get Out Into Yourself comes out on 4 November.
Featuring Fat White Family’s vocalist Lias Saoudi and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (Self Esteem).
Murder ballad from 2017 debut longplayer Interplanetary Class Classics.
The moniker of songstress/multi-instrumentalist Brittany Tsewole from Boston, MA.
This new piece is a meditative and dance-y track that’s lyrically centered around overcoming addiction and becoming mentally and physically healthy.
The song is a gripping tribute to Prime Minister Of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern
who embraces all humans. It’s part of the band’s 4th album Small Wonders.
Terouz: “it’s about massive ego wars. A dark twist that reimagines
epic tales of vengeance and betrayal in retrowave galore!. ‘Big Boy
Games’ will hype you up before any challenge you viciously mean to
obliterate. It’s why I built it for myself. I need the beast in me caged
but ready.”
(Photo by Felipe Collado)
Turn Up The Volume: This riveting piece starts with a mid-tempo
drum-driven intro gliding quickly into a swing and shake your hips
chorus, followed by a moment of reflection. The whole process
repeats itself and gets slowly but surely under your skin. Trust
me, you’ll love every second of this electro roller coaster.
And again Terouz‘s dark voice reminds me of Stuart A. Staples,
the frontman of British band Tindersticks. Haunting, sombre
and tenebrific. Yes, pretty fascinating.
Yes, we have already reached the middle of 2021. The world, finally, looks brighter
than last year. Mad summer parties are just around the corner. And here’s the perfect soundtrack… Turn Up The Volume’s 20 best knockout tracks of 2021, so far!
All together on Spotify…
. Track by Track…
1.‘Finger Pies’ by ANIKA (Berlin)
Electro earworm that moves and grooves from the get-go driven by a rolling
bass riff. Strangely catchy, mysteriously designed with a hypnotic effect. Top!
Catch the vibe…
2.‘Nike Soldier’ by ALAN VEGA (US)
Alan Vega is dead! Long live Alan Vega! This spine-chilling
slo-mo groove comes from his lost album Mutator.
Check in…
3.‘Night Is Mine’ – ULTRA SUNN (Brussels, Belgium)
Combine D.A.F.‘s industrial vibes, Sisters Of Mercy‘s gloom and doom hallucinations, and Depeche Mode‘s pop-noir thrills and you know it’s time for a dazzling night. It’s the title track from their standout debut EP.
Put on your leather jacket and dance…
4.‘One + One’ by DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 (Canada)
With Is 4 Lovers the Canadian champions of drone noise rock made one of their best
full-lengths (so far). And the lead-single ‘One + One’ is a bulldozing, yet catching power blast that comes right at you.
Get slammed…
5.‘Ten Points On The Damage Meter’ by HOW TO LOOT BRAZIL (Germany)
No rest for all who are addicted to dance their asses off. This is a hip-shaking belter, 145 seconds of steamed-up pop-punk euphoria. Imagine German dark disco legends D.A.F. on speed, fronted by Brit-girls Shampoo who are in trouble again.
Here comes the shot of adrenalin…
6.‘Coma-Inducing Gibberish‘ by PIZZA CRUNCH (Scotland)
Scottish hit the bullseye with this sturdy stunner. A fab-tastic masterstroke to shut up all narcissists. Beware of getting too excited. It can lead to a rock ‘n’ roll coma. Whatever! Go for it!
Right here, right now…
. 7.‘Stay’ by ONISM E (New York)
A soul-stirring and highly affecting vocal highlight – from one of the best albums of 2021 – by this rad emo-striking NY-based outfit. Stream/buy ‘Survivors’ LP here.
And stay for this pearl…
. 8.‘Fall Of The Big Screen’ by DEADLETTER (South London)
Imagine George Orwell fronting The Fall back in Nineteen Eighty-Four scaring the
world with a grim, futuristic vision of humankind about to collapse in 2021 due to
a deadly virus. Scary!
Turn up the heat here…
9.‘Wake Up’ by LOBSTERBOMB (Berlin, Germany)
A screaming triumph. This up-and-coming Berlin trio combines Bikini Kill‘s rough
outcries, L7‘s detonating gusto, and B-52‘s peppery liveliness. Touchdown!
Wake up here…
10.‘Heroin’ by PERMO (Scotland)
A sizzling slice of trash and slash punk. Expect 135 striking seconds of heavy thunder
and creepy lighting. Totally insane drums and bass, deranged guitar frenzy, and cranked-up, psych-o-tic howling. Fucktastic intensity!
Hell yeeeaaahhhh…
. 11.‘We… Are Doomed’ by THE IRRATIONAL LIBRARY (Dutch-American)
A challenging rap and roll rant by an open-minded-plainspoken-ass-kicking-anti-establishement-and-other-scumbags force of doom and gloom. The title track from
this caring collective’s excellent new album.
Apocalypse now…
12.‘Boilermaker’ byROYAL BLOOD (UK)
The blues-rock tandem is back with this motherfucker of
a slam dunk from their brand new album Typhoons.
Wham bloody wham bam…
13.‘The Men Who Rule The World’ by GARBAGE (US/Scotland)
A surprisingly funky disco banger that triggers your head’s up-and-down movement the very moment the money drops into the corrupt politicians’ pockets. I still love you, Shirley!
Let’s roll…
14.‘This Is Not’ by CROWS ON WIRES (Germany)
Sultry synths, punchy percussion, glimmering guitar lines, and vibratory vocals.
Sounds like Sisters of Mercy are back, produced by Bauhaus who listened to Soft
Cell on repeat. A stunner, indeed!
Get magnetized here…
15.‘Vendetta’ – ICEAGE (Denmark)
An intoxicating jam with a threatening pace. A glam
power punch from their best-ever album Seek Shelter.
Press play and get moved…
16.‘Not To’ by WOLFVANWYMEERSCH (Belgium)
Melancholia at its starry-eyed, synth-pop best. Here’s a romantic at heart, going
solo, who’s sanely obsessed with creating music, playing music, and enjoying music,
if possible, all at the same time. Damon Albarn‘s moody side comes to mind.
Dim the lights and enjoy…
17.‘Unspoken’ by ANNIE TAYLOR (Switzerland)
A troubled love reverie with a sorrowful touch. Heartbreaking romanticism at its balladesque best, notable for its vocal splendour and silver-toned resonance.
Enjoy the sweet little pearl…
. 18.‘Carry Me On’ by THE BANKROBBER (Italy)
This new musing feels like a nightly gloaming. Acoustic soul-searching and intimate tenderness. The darksome sorrowfulness of several past and present crooners come
to mind when hearing this gloomy song.
Dream away…
19. ‘Man Alone (Can’t Stop The Fadin’)’ byTINDERSTICKS (Nottingham, UK)
Surprising stonker! An 11-minute psychedelic and epic journey. Trippy and spacey.
From their new, 13th album, Distractions.
Follow the flow…
20. ‘Amsterdam’ by MOONLIGHT PARADE (UK)
Magical and red-colored ballad, combining the melodic melancholia of Teenage Fanclub and The Coral. A sweet little gem about a wonderful city I’m in love with for a long time now. Press play and let your thoughts drift away on a cloud.
Artist: ROBOT Who: Robot is the alter ego of Robbie Moore. A London born, Berlin based singer/songwriter, a producer with his own studio in Berlin. he also runs
a label called Impression Recordings.
Released: 25 September 2020 Info: A homage to his home in Berlin, the area Wedding. The record is like a butterfly
to a chrysalis and back again, this is pop music with metamorphic threads. The bones
of the album were initially written as a series of sketches using his ‘flow-writing’ method,
a process devised to transform procrastination and crippling perfectionism into a state
of childish adventure and naive creativity.
Key references: Bill Callahan, Kevin Morby, Tindersticks, Bon Iver, Perfume Genius
Turn Up The Volume: “Sit down, relax, light some candles, open a red Bordeaux
wine and let Robot’s affecting, nostalgic, heart and soul music take over.”
Clamorous frontman Alex Edkins of Canadian noise engine Metz and Graham Walsh, keyboardist of dance punks Holy Fuck, got together for a project of their own, named, Noble Rot. They have their debut ‘Heavenly Bodies, Repetition, Control.‘ out next month.
They just dropped first single Casting No Light. A motorik Krautrock-like mindfucker that circles around like forever, pushed by a pumping synth/drum/guitar riff-boom-beat that grows in hypnotic intensity along the way. Fucktastic!
This Scottish dance-funk-punk trio is on an unstoppable roll. Their new, 3rd LP Heavy Heavy is a total triumph (Turn Up The Volume‘s Album of the Month) and their swirling concert in Antwerp (Belgium) blew the roof off the building.
One of the standout tracks on the album isDrum.
A flamboyant, head-over-heels stormer.
The Belgian Gods released their new longplayer How To Replace It?,
their first in 10 years, a couple of weeks ago.
The title song is a phenomenal piece. A mid-tempo stunner, driven by big
drums and frontman Tom Barman‘s bewitching vocality. It advances with
swelling orchestration toward the grand symphonic climax.
The amazing Los Angeles Amazons delivered their
best album (so far) Islands In The Sky only last Friday.
The title track is a blissful guitar-pop earworm that sticks from the get-go
with Bonnie Bloomgarden‘s spell-binding vocals inviting you to her island of joy.
I’m on my way. Join me.
You’re in charge of your perception of your life
You can choose what you keep
And what you leave behind
This Seattle-based Cyberpunk duo – Wesley and Jewels Foster – nailed it with this arousing mid-tempo, electro-drum-beat-driven knockout from their upcoming full length World’s End. It’s sexy, catchy, trippy, and makes your blood pumping through your heart.
Newest single Scatterbrain is a riff-roaring rocker that grows on your ears
with every spin. It has a moody, shoegazy resonance annex reflective vocals.
Striking stroke. Bring on the album.
This fresh high-energetic trio features members from Shudder To Think, Guided By Voices and The Dambuilders.
Their self-titled debut LP will see the day of light on 17 March.
What If? is a freaked-out, riff-drunk sucker punch that could
easily come from a Hüsker Dü LP. Herky-jerky electricity with
a steamrollin’ sticky chorus. Wowzers.
This dark-Goth-wave duo from the City of Angels look like vampires,
they sound like vampires and they fabricate vampirish stuff.
The torrid tandem unleash their
new album KRYPT on 28 April.
Ahead of the release, to get us in the right make-up mood, they hit us
with first single I Expire. A punked-up electro uppercut to set batcaves
on fire with. One listen and the brisk beats will haunt you all day long.
In the accompanying video, Male Tears get straight in
your scared face and suck you into their wicked world.
His new song is a groovy love-drunk gem featuring the sensuous voice
of his ex-partner. It gets under your skin from the kick-off. Two spins and
you’re hooked.
NECRØ is the latest project of Portuguese musician João Vairinhos
featuring idiosyncratic singer and keyboard player Sara Inglês,.
The title track of their 6-track EPDeath Beats
is Turn Up The Volume‘s favorite.
A dark-techno-wave rumbling that stomps and whomps with intense
impetus doing your head in from the get-go. Doomed beats for twilight parties.
The tenebrous vibe at play here sends shivers down your spine, while Sara Inglês‘s
ghostly wailing is reminiscent of shadowy Siouxsie Sioux moments.
This Charlotte-based collective seduced my sensitive ears with the title track of
their 3-track EP What A Day. The harbinger for upcoming 7th LP ‘Haunted Organic Machines’.
Feel-good tunes like these are always welcome on my headphones. What A Day is
a breezy synth-scintillating vibration that triggers sensual body moves. Its featherlight tonality causes a dreamy state of mind with trancy tinglings. And when that sweet flute came on, I swear, I saw a Spring bird flutter in the blue sky.
I’ll be a pretty special one as the pair wrote a collection of bilingual duets, with both of them singing in English and Spanish and explore a variety of European music cultures. First single Lonely Town is a sweet, little pop ditty. You can sing/hum/whistle along.
17. ‘I Remember What You Said’ by Artist: DYAN VALDÉS (Cuban-American)
(Photo credit: Petra Valdimardottir)
This Cuban-American singer-songwriter, living in Berlin, played/plays
in several bands and works as a solo artist too and has now a new single
out, named I Remember What You Said.
It follows her last year’s excellent debut album Stand.
The pretty poppy song is about a nightmarish memory of a poisonous
relationship. With its agitated words-flowing drive it feels like Valdés
wants to wash away all the BS and move on. Mission accomplished.
Summit Of The Big Low is the moniker of British musician Toby Uffindell-Phillips,
who was a member of the early 00s folktronica group Sound Sanctuary.
This new piece, from his self-titled album out on 19 May, is an affecting folk-pop reverie that streams as a brisk brook. Sparkling, crystal clear, and glimmering in the sun. Its wistful tone, smooth vocals, and frisky finger-picking guitar play combine for a sweet little pearl.
This 4-piece from Nashville produces a mix of metal, opera & 80’s rock.
Their new single Prisoner is about being captured and trapped by someone’s love.
It’s a mid-tempo power ballad that slowly but surely infiltrates your ears with its
anthemic dynamics, impassioned vocals, and weeping guitars.
This musical project started in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2014 and presents a soundscape based on electronic backgrounds and a more classic rock instrumentation blended with mellotrons, vibraphone, santur, harmonium and other alluring sounding instruments. In short, atmospheric psychedelic darkness with occult undertones.
A swirling fusion of rhapsodic rippers and cool crackerjacks,
that activated my bloodstream and my limbs this past month! Turn Up The Volume‘s 15 Knockout Tracks for January!
‘Fall Of The Big Screen’ by DEADLETTER (South London)
Imagine George Orwell fronting The Fall back in Nineteen Eighty-Four scaring the world with a grim, futuristic vision of humankind about to collapse in 2021 due to a deadly virus. Ace!
‘Heroin’ by PERMO (Scotland)
A sizzling slice of trash and slash punk. Expect 135 striking seconds of heavy thunder and scary lighting. Totally insane drums and bass, deranged guitar frenzy and cranked-up, psych-o-tic howling Fucktastic intensity!
. ‘Nothingness’ by DEAFDEAFDEAF (Manchester)
The unbridled energy, the chaotic state of mind, and the listen-to-me clamor of DeafDeafDeaf echo the early days of angry young men such as Joy Division, The Fall, and Wire. It must be terrible to be young today with all the political unrest in the world and most of all the drastically freedom-limiting consequences of the horrible pandemic.
. ‘Caddy Daddy’ by MELVINS (USA)
Veteran punks coming up with some paranoid Black Sabbath drones. From their
new upcoming, 24th (!) album, entitled Working With God (brilliant title). Holy smoke!
‘We… Are Doomed’ by THE IRRATIONAL LIBRARY (Dutch-American)
The challenging rap and roll spirit of an open-minded-plainspoken-asskicking-anti-establishement-and-other-scumbags force of doom and gloom. The title track from
this caring collective’s excellent new album. Apocalypse Now!
‘The Way I Like It’ by BROOZER (Wolverhampton, UK)
After a badass intro Broozer storms immediately in a grungy Nirvanesqe mode. No brakes, no looking back, not giving in and inviting you to scream at the top of your lungs when the massive chorus comes on-stream. Turn up the heat!
‘Man Alone (Can’t Stop The Fadin’)’ byTINDERSTICKS (Nottingham, UK)
Surprising stunner! An 11-minute psychedelic and epic journey. Trippy and spacey.
From new, 13th, upcoming album Distractions. WOW factor!
‘Beside Myself’ by SISTER PSYCHOSIS (UK/Canada)
A sticky pounding psych groove that rolls with flair and panache, with a shadowy color. Amanda May looks like a femme fatale and sounds like a femme fatale. Sensuous, sexy and sensitive. I want more! ASAP!
‘A Hero’s Death’ byFONTAINES D.C. remixed bySOULWAX (Ireland/Belgium)
Irish rockers Fontaines D.C. sounding vibey and funky? Absolutely. Well, after the Belgian dance brothers Dewaele aka Soulwax put their hands on the title track of the Irish band.
‘Fear’ by BOAF (Belgium)
Fear is a quietLOUDquiet giant as impressive as the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (before the fire). Majestic metallic grandeur and feverish glow. Huge wall-of-thunder-and-lighting sound! Hell yeah!
. ‘Bad Vibrations’ by THE ROGUES GALLERY (St. Albans, UK)
A no-nonsense-bluesy-guitar-driven steamroller for all the boys, the girls, and everyone in between. A bare-bones ripper spreading let-the-good-times rattle vibes. Stomping way to hit the scene, guys! Go for it! Going bonkers time!
‘Mistakes’ by RUBBER VELVET (Wales)
It’s a gripping and moony lullaby-like melody with ardent duo harmonies, glimmering Kurt Vile guitars, frolic piano touches, and a close your eyes and float away chorus. Stirring score.
. ‘Look Away’ by DEAP VALLYfeat. Jennylee (Warpaint) – (US)
A yearning love groove. A melancholic lullaby. A bittersweet symphony. Quite special and sonically quite different from their powerful trademark sound.
. ‘When It Calls’ by A. SMYTH (Dublin, Ireland)
Starry-eyed music for the twilight hours. Meditative, brooding, and making
you hum along from start to finish. Midway, a weeping Neil Young guitar fragment electrifies the mood briefly before Smyth‘s voice takes over again with its calming timbre. All you need to let your thoughts float around your head.
Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…
10 October 2018
Band: TINDERSTICKS
Album: TINDERSTICKS – double album debut
Released: 11 October 1993 – 25 years ago
ALL MUSIC review: “A thrilling, revelatory debut, Tindersticks is a chamber pop masterpiece of romantic elegance and gutter debauchery… Fascinatingly constructed and strikingly ambitious, Tindersticks is insidiously labyrinthine: the music speaks softly but carries tremendous weight, and its hold grows more and more unbreakable with each listen.”
Full review here – Score: 4.5/5
TURN UP THE VOLUME! says: Spooky, nightmarish and perplexing & hypnotic at times. The double album start of Nottingham‘s midnight hour crooners Tindersticks was nothing less than obscurely impressive.
50 years ago, on 1 November 1969, SCOTT WALKER released his fifth solo album,
yet it was titled SCOTT 4 as his previous longplayer, a collection of songs he had performed for a BBC television series had been his fourth. The LP was issued under his birth name Scott Engel, and was the first to contain only self-penned songs. Unexpectedly, despite its consistent top quality it failed to chart and only years after its release it got the praise it truly deserved. I’m sure Scott 4 is a record owned by singer/songwriters/crooners such as Nick Cave, Bon Iver, Richard Ashcroft, The National, Tindersticks and many more…
AllMusic wrote: “Walker dropped out of the British Top Ten with his fourth album, but
the result was probably his finest ’60s LP. While the tension between the bloated production
and his introspective, ambitious lyrics remains, much of the over-the-top bombast of the orchestral arrangements has been reined in, leaving a relatively stripped-down approach that complements his songs rather than smothering them. This is the first Walker album to feature entirely original material, and his songwriting is more lucid and cutting.”
Full review here – Score: 4.5/5
While recording new songs for his upcoming album Belgian singer/songwriter Johan Verckist and his musical vehicle WARDROBE, stimulated by their producer, had a stroke
of instant productivity and inventive imagination and covered COME BACK AND STAY in
a flash of time. Yes, that longing love song made famous by Paul Young back in 1983, but actually written by Jack Lee, the guitarist of 70s Los Angeles power pop trio The Nerves.
Wardrobe‘s version is a much darker affair, due to a yearning violin that comes and goes and returns as if it wants to put an evil spell on the lovers’ future. Add Verckist‘s almost whispering voice and suddenly you’re in Tindersticks land. Light a candle and listen/watch right here…
Who: A fresh quintet formed only this year in Birmingham, UK.
“The Taboo Club are entirely of their own, comprising of and expressing the values
of its individual members to create something heart-breakingly cathartic – a sound
that commands attention and welcomes intimacy.”
Track: BIBLE JOHN
Score: Close your eyes and you’ll hear atrabilious echoes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds‘s profoundest moments and the Tindersticks gloomiest sentiments. Indeed, Bible John has that tenebrous timbre, that abstruse toughness that has the cutting strength to penetrate the dark side of confused souls. The combination of singer Rob Lilley‘s sonorous, crooning vox and the saturnine orchestration of this slow-moving melancholic contemplation works frighteningly perfect. Music to be played on a jukebox, late at night, in a shadowy bar at the edge of the town where all the lonely ones look for a bit of comfort. Feel it here…
