It’s been 4 years now since Danish amplified pop darlings Iceage released
their top drawer albumSeek Shelter. In 2022, they kept their fans happy
with a collection of rarities and outtakes.
On the other hand, their charismatic leader Elias Rønnenfelt is a busy man.
He wrote a book of poetry, worked with other artists, and released his notable
solo debut LP, named Heavy Glory, last year, in October.
Earlier this year, he shared a couple of stand-alone singles,
and now the news came in that he has recorded a follow-up
full-length. It’s baptized Speak Daggers and comes our way
on October 17. More info here.
Artwork single
Lead single USA BABY is sung from the perspective of a non-American
watching his American girlfriend get messed up by her home country’s
political administration.
Affecting, feverish and magnetic. Top-tier track.
Oh mama, mama come back to me
Streamlined baby in Delaware
Oh, like that and like this and there
Your love’s at range, but only God knows where
Dumb rider of nowhere
La lune regarde, devil may care
Sleepless mon cheri
Hope I’ll land on my feet
Oh my baby’s known better days
They cut her off, that’s how they play
Oh my baby she doesn’t care
In the USA they rip and tear
Hold for famine, gotta get a grip on my soul
There I’ll open damn near every openable hole
Hey hey hey
Band: ILA Who: Vigorous Belgian rock quartet led by formidable singer-songwriter/guitarist,
with Turkish roots, Ilayda Cicek who’s blessed with a unique voice and shares
unadulterated emotions, sonically and lyrically.
TUTV: The imperishable cliché is totally accurate here. No fillers, all killers. Heartfelt ardency in motion. 12 heart-and-soul stirring pieces of poignant music that put you in
a feverish trance. Cicek‘s devout voice is the seductive heroine in the middle, surrounded
by a rock-solid band that got better and better over the past couple of years. You can hear/feel her genuine vocal/lyrical passion throughout this highly emotionally striking record.
Prominent artist, high-quality songwriting,
astonishing debut, very bright future.
SINGLE
ALBUM
. Instagram – Apple Music
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Band: FAT DOG Who: Five London disco-punk cowboys
who found each other during the awful
2020 lockdown year.
NME said: “Unserious, unhinged and sensational London’s must-see
live band justify the hype with a reckless and raucous debut album
pumped full of adrenaline.”
TUTV: Expect a punk disco drone machine with a, yes, Eastern music-inspired sultriness
on the orgasmic choruses. This turbulent ride will create maddening moshpits around
our messed-up planet with people who desperately want to escape their straight jackets and the exhausting rat race as we know it, at least on the weekends.
They build up their songs, then zigzag their way to a mind-blowing refrain, smack them
down afterward, and start all over again. This barking gang is chaotically awesome,
on record and on a podium.
SINGLE
ALBUM
. Instagram – Apple Music
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Pitchfork wrote: “Sprints channel rage into communal uplift Letter to Self
is a bracing, frantic record designed for both thrashing mosh pits and solo
meltdowns, best heard with the volume turned up loud.”
TUTV:‘Letter To Self’ landed on the first official album release day of 2024
and is still spinning regularly, out loud, on my headphones. These Irish
indies burst with astounding vehemence and sharp-teethed gusto. Their
high-voltage riff-rippers trash and slash along their build-up/break-down
course.
Schizo guitars, unrestrained bass/drum forcefulness, and Karla Chubb‘s
borderline vocality combine for exorcistic flare-ups. Sprints hit the scene
with a big bang on record and on stage. They’re here to stay. Fact!
Pitchfork said: “The Iceage frontman experiments with a newfound sincerity and
an Americana-inspired sound, searching for beauty in the small and insular.”
TUTV: We already knew from his work with Iceage that Elias Rønnenfelt is a genuine
singer-songwriter-performer and he confirms that status on his debut with engrossing
pop songs, slow and fast, intimate and upbeat.
He’s a romantic at heart and wraps his personal daily-life impressions, desires, demons, going-ons and anything that impacts his existence in through-and-through heart-melting stories and melodramatic melodies.
Artist: KIM DEAL Who: For those who lived on another planet the past years, Kim is best known as the utterly cool bass player of indie
icons Pixies and from her own band The Breeders, featuring
her twin sister Kelley.
MOJO (British music monthly) said: “Nobody Loves You More is a singularly
uplifting, life-affirming listen, where joy and despair, love and loss, are irrevocably
entwined, and kept afloat by Deal’s unfailing lightness of touch.”
TUTV: In the past Deal wrote/shared some of her self-made songs without any real attention from the outside. Now, finally she expresses her mixed emotions about past
and present personal experiences on a full debut LP with several meditative, moony,
and subtly orchestrated reveries. All charming songs for a quiet winter night inside.
Deal‘s slightly hoarse voice is instrumental. Its tender-hearted aura creates a relaxing ambiance, interrupted now and then by more uptempo, upbeat tracks like stand-out
vibe Crystal Breath, the vigorous guitar-frisky Disobediece and the buzzing Big Ben Beat
jam. Forget those past bands, Kim, come back solo. Nobody loves you more than TUTV.
TUTV: No pop tunes, no songs about the bees and the trees. This album is stuffed with manicial mind-fuckers and badass brain-breakers that trash and slash your poor stereo relentlessly and mercilessly. The maddening man in the middle, mental vocalist Jasper, screams and howls, and spits and sneers, with bone-chilling and psychotic horsepower.
Think Kurt Cobain with 4 lungs, fronting a hellish hardcore gang featuring 3 other ruthless punks on an ear-splitting mission. No brakes, no breaks. No rest for the wicked. Ronker is
a barbaric force, their singer is an out-of-this-normal-world performer, their debut is a flabbergasting monster. AARRGGHH!
Band: BAD RITUAL Who: Polish trio formed at the beginning of 2020 by three architects.
They play songs immersed in a dark and unsettling atmosphere. Their
music is a blend of indie-folk, swampy blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. It often
evokes associations with David Lynch‘s films, spaghetti westerns, and
film noir.
TUTV: As mentioned in their bio this trio’s music has a shadowy cinematic film noir resonance. They offer songs for the midnight hours, songs for nightclubs where misfits, loners, marginalized characters and dropouts seek some human warmth and a free drink. The tone is melancholic, the timbre is heavyhearted. Think glam legend Chris Isaak, famous crooners The National, and moody Bad Seeds moments. Splendid debut.
TUTV:Virgins take you on a flight at supersonic speed way up into the sky above the clouds, where reality becomes surreality, where layers of seventh heaven shoegaze symphonies blast from the space shuttle’s speakers. For 40 phantasy-stimulating minutes, you’ll forget all about what happens down there, on our dramatically disturbed planet.
Layers of glowing guitars, hallucinatory vocals, and an overall lyrical sonority will trigger your fantasies and will make you feel floating high(er) forgetting all about our daily, mind-boggling rat race.
NME:“The fantastic and the everyday collide on this landmark debut – an adventure in
sound and words. What you have in ‘This Could Be Texas’ is everything you want from a
debut; a truly original effort from start to finish, an adventure in sound and words, and
a landmark statement.
TUTV:English Teacher are special, their debut LP is special. It sounds indie,
but certainly not in a familiar way when it comes to the stunning creativity
and striking architecture of the songs.
Expect a mix of prog-rock dynamics, bits and pieces for a reality musical, wayward euphony and sudden, yet accessible changes of pace and flow, rhythms and moods.
You really need several spins to get into This Could Be Texas but once the mist is gone
you’ll be dazzled by its sheer ingeniousness and the impact of frontwoman Lily Fontaine, vocally and emotionally.
WHO: Seasoned American songwriters Brad Armstrong and Megan Barbera.
Their music blurs between Sunday afternoon country folk and the golden age
of the 1970s. Combining influences from Megan’s mountain roots and Brad’s
southern roots, The Glass Hours is currently based in New York’s Hudson Valley.
TUTV: This is the kind of music I love to play at the end of a busy day and after
listening to (too much) noisy stuff. The soothing mix of melancholic country, musing
folk, sepia-colored blues, some bluegrass, roots, and pop/rock influences can work magically to slow down your stressed mind, as it happens here.
The heroes of the sensitive songs here are the duo’s wholehearted voices, solo or harmonizing together. Armstrong and Barbera are both blessed with a characteristically warm, tender and yearning Americana voice.
References? Young and old(er) artists such as Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Lana Del Rey, Willie Nelson, Crystal Gayle, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. Impressive, right? Definitely.
Add romanticized stories about all things good and sad, bright and
dark in life, and you have a sonic companion for relaxing moments.
Daily noise that works faster than a stream of caffeine
12 November 2024
It’s been 3 years now since Danish pop-punk heroes ICEAGE released their top-tier
albumSeek Shelter. And in 2022 they made their treated their with a collection of
rarities and outtakes.
Album artwork
Last year frontman/songwriter Elias Rønnenfelt wrote a book of poetry.
A couple of weeks ago he launched his first solo LP, named Heavy Glory.
An impassioned record that’s up there with the best of 2024.
Band: BABY SCHILLACI Who: Welsh alt-act producing a raw, unfiltered sound. Rooted in post-punk
and noise, the band’s aggressive yet intricately layered compositions evoke
comparisons to seminal acts like Mclusky, At the Drive-In, and Fugazi.
Track: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA
From their upcoming debut album
‘The Soundtrack’ out next week.
A barbed slice of mayhew. Think Sonic Youth going forth
and back, and finishing with a flabbergasting finale.
Band: BLACK DOLDRUMS Who: British synth-pop-Goth trio, with key
members Kevin Gibbard and Sophie Landers.
Track: SUMMER BREEZE
Song from their their second longplayer In Limerence which lands on October 18.
No, this is not a New Order song but it could easily be one, actually a stellar one.
It’s a pure synth-pop pearl for all seasons. Uplifting, heart-warming, and gratifying.
The high-octane rock ‘n’ roll explosion tells the darkly humorous and gripping tale of a woman who has taken drastic measures against a deceitful lover. Noanne ventures into uncharted emotional territory, portraying a dramatic shift from dependence to outright animosity—and beyond.
Band: SOME REMAIN Who: Young punk gunslingers
from Ireland.
Track: DEATH DEFYING STUNTS
The first taken from an upcoming EP
slated for release early 2025.
Not only does it defy death, it pretty much defies description as it takes you on a glorious and wild ride through early UK punk (Read About Seymour – Swell Maps) and surf rock (Miserlou – Dick Dale) with some Dr Feelgood and The Cribs thrown in for good measure.
“A hectic party tune that leaves you feeling like you’ve
just landed a sick kickflip over a tank of sharks.”
CC have that uplifting drive of the Levellers and the eurythmic catchinesss of Mumford & Sons. Wash Away The Day is a brisk pop tune going forth and back, from
low-key to vivacious and back, while ardent harmonies and energetic violins complete
the swirling sonic picture.
Band: SOFT SKIES INC Who: Philadelphia-based identical-twin duo and longtime musical confidants Ryan and Martin Rex, their shared sonic compass draws a straight line from the
classic alternative of their youth to the modern alternative and dream-pop of
today.
A song of hope, riding those tender waves of nostalgia, understanding that a loss of innocence comes with age but that we emerge from the other side with newfound perspective and awareness.
Melodic guitar pop at its Sebadoh best. Uptempo shoe-slacker-gaze
spiced with scintalling synths and ethereal vocals. Start dreaming in
overdrive. Right here.
Nicks: I wrote this song a few months after Roe v Wade was overturned. It seemed like overnight, people were saying ‘what can we, as a collective force, do about this…’ For me,
it was to write a song. It took a while because I was on the road. Then early one morning I was watching the news on TV and a certain newscaster said something that felt like she was talking to me ~ explaining what the loss of Roe v Wade would come to mean. I wrote the song the next morning and recorded it that night.”
A vehement pro-reproductive rights anthem that
overwhelms on the chorus. Nicks‘s impressive voice
lights in the middle.
The first composition of the Goth icons’ upcoming 14th LP, their first
in 16 years, titled Songs Of A Lost World. It’ll drop on planet Earth on
November 1st.
Alone is an almost 7-minute funeral march, a slowly progressing lament, layered with mourning synths. Smith only starts singing halfway and augments the sombre atmosphere all the way through. After a couple of spins the songs keeps on coming back to haunt you. Sonic cure for restless minds.
Band: JOHNNY MARR AND THE HEALERS Who: Short-lived (2001-2004) Johnny Marr project
after he left The Smiths.
Track: THE WAY THAT IT WAS
Previoulsy unreleased song from the deluxe
reissue (released last week) of their one and
only album, named Boomslang.
A sweet 18-carat pop diamond with a melancholic resonance and impassioned
and affecting Marr vocals. No idea why this gripping reverie was hidden for so long,
but happy that my ears can enjoy it today. The Way That It Was wouldn’t have been
out of place on The Verve’s 1997 classic ‘Urban Hymns‘.
Band: LIVE Who: Famous American rockers from Pennsylvania with
singer/songwriter Ed Kowalczyk as commander in chief. Active: 1984–2009, 2012–present
The band (with Kowalczyk as the sole original member) is on the road
now, with Stone Temple Pilots, celebrating the 30th birthday of their
1994 LPThrowing Copper.
But Kowalczyk decided that it was time for a new tune too.
Enter LADY BHANG (SHE GOT ME ROLLIN’). His voice still
is as imposing as it ever was.
Daily noise that works faster than a stream of caffeine
30 May 2024
It’s been 3 years now since Danish pop-punk heroes ICEAGE released their top-shelf
albumSeek Shelter. In 2022 they made their fans happy with a collection of rarities
and outtakes.
Last year frontman/songwriter Elias Rønnenfelt wrote a book of poetry
and just now he shared his first solo track, called LIKE LOVERS DO.
