Who: Acclaimed psych rock outfit fronted by Rishi Dhir,
songwriter and sitarist who has spent twenty years
blurring the lines between Western psych-pop and Indian classical.
Band: RADIO FREE ALICE Who: Post-punk, art-punk, and new-wave rockers from down
under with an energetic, operatic swagger reminiscent of 1980s
bands. So far they have released 3 EPs.
Another batch of 5 new, stellar tracks has
been added to Turn Up The Volume’s Jukebox.
Turn it up.
ALL TOGETHER
. TRACK BY TRACK
Band: ELEPHANT STONE Who: Acclaimed psych outfit fronted by Rishi Dhir, a songwriter and sitarist who
has spent twenty years blurring the lines between Western psych-pop and Indian
classical.
The 2nd preview, following Everything Evil from their
new LP, baptized Asha, out August 26th. More info here.
The song confronts the global rise of fascism with the unflinching authority of history.
The official video repurposes footage from One Got Fat, a 1963 public domain film
whose unsettling imagery of masked children proves a disturbingly fitting backdrop.
TUTV: This psychedelia-drenched, sitar-spicy groover, wouldn’t be out of place on Doomsday‘s soundtrack. The far-right rules again as it did in the last century’s 40s, but
the world survived, and as long as bands like this keep on challenging the fascists with fiery rockin’ and rollin’ force, I’m sure we’ll survive once again.
Artist: ATOM LUX Who: Solo project of Lucio Filizola, Italian multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Lucio Filizola. After early experiences with piano and clarinet, Filizola discovered rock ’n’ roll and shifted toward guitar, beginning a long exploration through progressive, psychedelic and alternative rock territories.
TUTV: Imagine Deep Purple and Black Sabbath have some mindblowing loud fun together, then this psych-infused speedball could well be the outcome. Riff-raging razmataz all the way trough, electrified with spaced-out vocals. Check your speakers before you let them get attacked with this jumbo jackhammer.
Band: CHARMING ARSON Who: Boston-based alt-rock power-pop quartet that wants to excite your imagination and feed your mind. Soaring guitar licks and expressionist lyrics are the yin and yang in their songwriting alchemy. The song as story, the story as song.
David Cameron (lead vocals, rhythm guitar): “While this song clearly has themes
of desiring something utterly elusive, some of the lyrics are there simply because they’re
fun to sing. Meaning-wise, I’m not going to pretend it’s anything more than lyrical excess.”
TUTV: Trad Americana rock galvanism and orthodox 6-string riffs provoke stoked-up zeal and kick-ass perkiness that triggers air-guitar fun and head-spinning movements. It’s only rock and roll, but the walloping way it’s served here, we will like it forever.
The song is a harmony-drenched spiral through romance, denial and emotional
collapse. It’s the beginning of an upcoming, summer-long debut EP campaign.
TUTV: From the kick-off Aurelia take you on a high-speed, riff-reverberating trip
and satisfies your eardrums with vitalizing harmonies. Angelina is an overwhelming,
mixed-emotions, knockout that floors you after one spin. Overmastering score.
Artist: MÉLIA MARTIN Who: 19-year-old musician from Chelsea, Québec. She’s classically trained in flute .
She also plays multiple instruments and draws inspiration from a wide range of styles, from indie-folk to electronic music.
“We all know once doesn’t mean forever, but then why do the things that last the shortest often stay with us the longest? This song is a reminder that something doesn’t have to last forever to be worth living.”
TUTV: This light-hearted, life-embracing musing induces romantic daydreaming and
easy-going relaxation. Martin‘s sensuous vocals fit this summery tune perfectly well.
Endearing singer-songwriter quality for carefree moments.
It’s always an aural pleasure to have Canadian psych-pop dreamers ELEPHANT STONE
on my headphones (and see them play live), and it’s always a thrill when they come up with new music, which they have done for almost 15 years now, fronted by maestro, sitar player Rishi Dhir.
Their sixth longplayer, baptized BACK INTO THE DREAM
will see the day of light on 24 February 2024. Order-info here.
Album artwork
Dhir: “Centred on the enigma of dreams—whether they’re subconscious murmurings
or portals to parallel universes—’Back Into the Dream’ encapsulates the eternal cycle
of waking and dreaming. “We’re perpetually oscillating between two realms, trying to comprehend each. If our music can serve as a bridge between these worlds, then we’ve accomplished our mission.”
The band already shared six tracks out of the total of 10. So far, so very good.
It’s always an aural pleasure to have Canadian psych-pop dreamers ELEPHANT STONE
on my headphones (and see them play live), and it’s always a thrill when they come up with new music, which they have done for almost 15 years now, fronted by maestro, sitar-player Rishi Dhir.
Their sixth longplayer, baptized BACK INTO THE DREAM
will see the day of light on 24 February 2024. Order-info here.
“Centred on the enigma of dreams—whether they’re subconscious murmurings or portals to parallel universes—’Back Into the Dream’ encapsulates the eternal cycle of waking and dreaming. “We’re perpetually oscillating between two realms, trying to comprehend each. If our music can serve as a bridge between these worlds, then we’ve accomplished our mission,” says Dhir.
Album artwork
New single: THE SPARK
The 4th shared piece from
the upcoming LP. Stream them
all 4 below.
Rishi Dhir: “Crafting a song is like tapping into a kind of magic that exists beyond the realm of the ordinary. I’m in perpetual pursuit of that elusive sensation—the spark that turns fleeting thoughts into something immortal. ‘The Spark’ is my love letter to the art of songwriting, a tribute to the creative process itself. It’s about that serendipitous moment when time and space align, allowing you to capture lightning in a bottle. From that ineffable feeling, I labor to find the right words, striving to make the abstract both concrete and deeply personal. Each completed song leaves me both satisfied and hungry—satisfied that I’ve said something meaningful, and hungry to rediscover that spark once more.”
TUTV: The Spark is vintage ES. A mind-relaxing, psychedelic rainbow that makes you forget our messed-up world for a while. A yearning dream pop tune with breezy Beatles-esque harmonies and a floating feel. Sonic surreality you can connect with. Beautiful.
It’s PART 6 of Turn Up The Volume‘s yearly hot summer playlists.
A mix of new and old tunes. A mix of adrenalin-infused punk/rock
anthems, dance fireworks, and some moony musings to end the
party when the sun comes up.
The EP follows last year’s magnific album Hollow and their French EP Le Voyage De M. Lonely Dans La Lune. Rishi Dhir says D, D, D is a dive
into their journey through creation, life, and death, inspired by American
writer/professor Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and his Foundation work.
Godstar begins with a rumble, a drone, the deep vibrations of a tabla, and the echoes of distant voices, evoking the feeling of a ritualistic ceremony. It’s a short, dreamy, calming instrumental with moody sax too. My ears wouldn’t mind if it was 10 minutes long.
. The Imajinary, Nameless Everybody In The World takes listeners on a journey through innocence and wonder, ego and power, and finally, acceptance and transcendence. Reflecting the philosophical depths of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, the lyrics delve into themes of knowledge, pride, and wisdom. The first thing that popped up on my stereo
in my head was the psychedelic harmonies of The Beatles circa Revolver. This track moves in different structures featuring sparkling guitar play, jazzy saxophone fragments, 60s organs, guitars played backward (Revolver again), and Rish‘s heavenly voice.
Kamikaze guitars, boiling bluster, insane vocals. The London’s post-punks
are back with a holy smoke hammer as a warm-up for their second LP,
titled Beware Believers, out 1st of April.
I know it’s only January, but this is//will
be one of the best singles of 2022.
After 28 years, Skunk Anansie still is a massively popular band with Skin
screaming her lungs on this new killer single as if she’s still 28 years herself. ‘Piggy’ is an enraged eruption calling out all incompetent governments,
specifically UK’s short-sighted Brexit statesmen.
This red-hot-blistering shock wave explodes like
a metallic bomb with a volcanic Skin chorus.
These politically charged indie gunslingers from Leeds are the talk-of-the-town
lately. Every music website/zine is raving about, them. Their dazzling debut longplayer entered the British charts on #2 last weekend. One of the highlights is this bass-driven jackhammer. Infectious from the kick-off.
A sirens intro, David Bowie‘s saxophone, and steel drums straight from Trinidad. Sounds like an exotic swing and shake ditty is coming up. No folks, it’s a lazy rap-sody you can play the morning after a drinking marathon. A slow start to get out of bed and sober up. Soul voice Clare Gillet takes care of the chirpy chorus and finally Domestic gets up for a couple of Mañana shouts.
After a ghostly intro, the drone machine starts up hitting like
a massive sledgehammer with an industrial exuberance. Merciless
and puissant. No rest for the wicked. Think The Horrors and NIN.
Following in the soundsteps of legendary mega-funk-groover Sly Stone with
a 21st Century post-punk coolness and a pumped-up synth-tastic puissance
this London combo activates all of your muscles, your bloodstream, and your
appetite for behaving like a midnight rambler.
This mid-tempo disco jam helps you to keep in shape at your hot spot
at home until the nightclubs reopen. It’s a Warmduscher affair, folks.
Socially engaged indie pop-rockers who started their journey back in 2003.
In the very beginning, they operated as British Air Power, but changed it quickly
to British Sea Power. But last summer the band announced another name change,
dropping ‘British‘.
Their new, 7th full-length, titled Everything Was Forever lands on 11 February.
With new single Green Goddess they do what they do best, writing anthemic pop
tunes that stick after one play.
After a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown this rocket blasts into space with supersonic speed.
No looking back, full steam ahead, pushed by a banging drum/bass beat and crazed guitars. Somewhere in the middle, it’s time to reload the batteries and start all over
again fueled by swirling synths etles dernier mots de M. Lonely.
Psychedelia at its mind-boggling best.
Un coup de poing formidable!
Eels made another Eels album sounding like an Eels album.
But as Mark Oliver Everett moves and grooves, rocks and rolls
like in the good days Extreme Witchcraft feels like he’s having fun,
although you never know for sure with his capricious state of mind.
This twilight hallucination resonates as the shadowy side of Depeche Mode
and the enigmatic darkwave murk of The Soft Moon. The iterating synth-riff
at work here gets under your skin without asking. The atmosphere is impending,
the tone is obscure, the color is black. All you need for a sonic nightmare.
New cut from the Boston duo’s forthcoming
sophomore album Moon Reflections.
This is a rotating remix of the title track of Anika‘s excellent album
released last year. British electronic musician Planningtorock
turned the song into a trippy and vibrant electro beat-breaker.
Anika‘s distorted voice changes the mood
of the original recording. More mystifying,
more mysterious.
The smooth pop elegance of Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), the mellow
vocality of Adam Granduciel (The War Drugs) and his twinkling guitar
play to end this sweet little pearl. Sonic dreaming at its finest with
a tantalizing pearl that gets under your skin, slowly but surely. Top!
This is the moniker of Vancouver-based Dubliner Stephen Nicholas White describes
himself as a post-punk/nugaze/electro artist. This new single circles around a repetitive
guitar riff and shiny synths with Eels echoes. Magnetic, hypnotic, and mesmeric.
In the past few years, another Britwave of young rousing wolves
has emerged and looks to turn into a sonic tsunami. Black Midi,
Black Country New Road, Black Honey, Fontaines D.C. (I know they’re
Irish), Yard Act, and several more prove that guitar rock is
alive and kicking again.
Now you can add Leeds’ hungry squad Eades. With
6-track EPAbstract Education EP, released last Spring,
they made it loud and clear they’re not a one-trick pony.
This is a mindboggling knockout. You The People starts as a meditative harbinger
for a mindboggling sonic orgasm midway, inflamed by whamming percussion, an
ear-shattering guitar explosion, and haunting male/female, English/Italian vocals
before an abrupt comedown ends this rad rush of blood to the head. Wow!
Gallows progresses like a death march, on its way to the graveyard,
with a somber and macabre reverberation. Its repetitive and raucous
slo-mo dynamics evoke images of confusion, agitation, and transitoriness.
19. ‘Happy Birthday Forever’ by TESS PARKS (Toronto, CA)
Toronto-born, London-based femme fatale Tess Parks has a new album,
called And Those Who Were Seen Dancing, out 2 April. Her first longplayer
in 13 years.
Lead single Happy Birthday Forever is a pretty catchy surprise.
It spins around in your head before you’re even aware of it.
This is the solo project of Jérôme R. Desrosiers, who played
drums in different Black Metal and Death Metal in the late 90s.
He’s making synth music for about 20 years now, but it’s only
since 2018 that he decided to share his work.
He just issued his new album Mon Odyssée. An imaginative
journey with cinematic synth symphonies, like this one…
“The EP follows the band’s previous album Hollow, and continues the themes
of destruction and survival from a personal aspect, as M. Lonely comes to realize
life in an imperfect world might not be so bad. Sung entirely in French, a first
for the English-speaking band, the EP is dubbed a love letter to the band’s
French-speaking fans around the world.”
Dhir: “The song is about M. Lonely boarding a rocketship to the moon… so I felt that
the music should be high intensity, while also ebbing and flowing with the journey. I am
sci-fi obsessed, so, as in the past with ‘Andromeda’, I included a snippet of audio from
NASA for the intro and the middle section – maybe you can decipher the morse code?”
Turn Up The Volume: After a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown this rocket blasts into space with supersonic speed. No looking back, full steam ahead, pushed by a banging drum/bass beat and crazed guitars. Somewhere in the middle, it’s time to reload the batteries and start all over again fueled by swirling synths etles dernier mots de M. Lonely.
Psychedelia at its mind-dazzling best.
Un coup de poing formidable!
Canadian psych-rockers ELEPHANT STONE just released a brand new special single. AMERICAN DREAM sounds like a sweet poppy lullaby but is an nightmarish vision
on today’s rotten state of the land of opportunities and freedom.
No more American Dream for many Canadians who chased a bright future in the U.S.
Since that narcissist Donald Trump took over the White House the United States are totally and severely divided. While people die every single day, due to that horrific virus, Trump tweets about his ratings, tries to shut up the media that doesn’t swallow his nonsense, and claims total authority like fascist leaders do. He preaches hate every single day. He leads his country to the abyss. He’s indeed an American Idiot!
Elephant Stone’s leader Rishi Dhir explained the sentiments behind the new song: “Growing up in Canada, it was hard to not feel like an ‘also-ran’ when you’re constantly sold the glitz and glamour of America. Over the years, many of my Canadian friends have moved south of the border in search of the American dream, only to find that it really was just a dream. And now, with the dangerous path America is on, I wonder if my same friends are questioning their move and longing for home.”
All proceeds of this sorrowful meditation will be donated to the PLUS1 COVID-19 Relief Fund, which directly supports touring crews and others in the live music industry who have lost work or have gotten sick during the COVID-19 crisis, and those whose physical health, mental health, safety, and wellbeing are most at risk.
American Dream
They say that we got it real bad
Thousands dead in the streets but not enough body bags
I don’t want no more of this American dream
Yankee kids spend their break on the beach
Fascists carry their torches; the president gives a speech
I don’t want no more of this American dream
Gee, Ma, I want to go back to Ontario
Gee, Ma, I want to go home
Clips that will have an impact on your eyes and your ears…
21 April 2020
Last February, on Valentine’s Day, Canadian psych-pop rockers ELEPHANT STONE, formed in 2008, led by renowned sitarist and singer/songwriter Rishi Dhir released their sixth LP, entitled HOLLOW. An intriguing and fascinating concept record with a mesmerizing and spiritual resonance despite the gloomy context of the record.
The band just shared a pretty cool clip for FOX ON THE RUN (no, not that The Sweet song) one of the highlights of the album. Rishi Dhir told what inspired this track: “During the writing of this track, I was listening to a lot of Yo La Tengo, specifically ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out’, I loved the hypnotic element to their tunes. At the same time I kept hearing reports about ICE agents taking people away in the middle of the night—people who have been in America for years and worked hard…only to be now targeted by Trump and his cronies. The song was written from the perspective of someone who just wants to be somewhere safe and with their family.”
