Shrine is the result of meticulous research into sound and structure, with the three musicians seeking to go beyond the threshold and create new sensations for the listener. Lasting 54 minutes and featuring only 3tracks, the album retains the same influences that characterize Onioroshi‘s sound, but takes the experience to a whole new level of complexity and depth.
Album Artwork
TUTV: My dictionary tells me that a shrine is a place regarded as holy because of
its associations with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, marked by a building or
other construction.
I’m not sure if these three Italian noise-experimenting crusaders want to take us to such
a kind of place, but it sure feels that way. I think, to a degree of certainty, is that they have all Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor records on their shelves.
They produce a similar kind of prog rock textures, guitar-excessive jams and otherworldly
sonic escapades. Put on your headphones, dim the lights, relax and let Shrine trigger
your darkest phantasies.
Artist: TDID Who: A musical project originating from the Strasbourg area in France. Its name
is inspired by Trouble Dissociatif de l’Identité (TDI in French) and Dissociative Identity
Disorder (DID in English), a condition where multiple personalities coexist within the same individual. A perfect metaphor for TDID’s musical vision: an ever-evolving artistic identity, embracing different sonic facets while remaining anchored in a dark and immersive aesthetic.
Press info: TDID takes us on a journey through ethereal soundscapes and haunting rhythms. Each track delves into themes of isolation, confronting darkness, and the search for truth. The album oscillates between melancholy and raw power, driven by cold synths, deep basslines, and a spectral voice that echoes like a call in the night.
TUTV: A fitting soundtrack for every Goth addict who wants to go out, hit a sinister nightclub and lose him/herself in the hypnotizing vortex of mysterious darkwave dynamics.
Echoes of early Siouxsie bone-chilling wailing and Lene Lovich‘s enigmatic melodiousness inject Xx Phlegmatic with ominous sonic shadows you love to be surrounded by. TDID creates a ghostly world where surreality and reality meet. Fascinating.
James Dean Bradfield (frontman): “As you get older and as all the concepts, ideologies
and understandings that you’ve grown up with start to dissemble and crumble around you – whether it be left, right or left of centre – once you realise that they become a separate tense and economies work in different ways – the game is up. You can’t think the way you used to think. You’ve got to have a looser way of thinking and see what comes out of it. That’s what
we did with this record.”
Photo credit: Alex Lake
NME says: “With warm but spiky ’80s art-indie, the Welsh rock veterans’
15th album finds no absolute design for life – but still plenty of fight.”
TUTV: The Manics are one of my all-time favorite bands, on record and on stage,
but for the last 3 albums (this one included) they sound at times too mellow, too sugary, too poppy. I understand why. In your 50s, you can’t have the same flame burning as it happened in your 20s and let it hear you the way they did with cutting punk flair and roasting rippers.
Mind you, they still know what an anthem should/could sound like and they come up with a handful (Critical Thinking / Decline & Fall / Brushstrokes of Reunion / Hiding in Plain Sight / One Man Militia) but the new ones do not strike and adrenalize the way their many classics did/do. No, this isn’t a bad record at all but also not one to archive as a great one.
MOJO Magazine: “The combination of Schultz’s desperately appealing voice and
Fraites’s lonesome but poppy piano still hits hard. They’re still doing things right.”
TUTV: These are ecstatsic days for folk rock-pop fans. The Luminineers ‘ new one is out ow. The Lathums‘ 3rd one, titeld Matter Does Not Define lands on 7th March and Mumford & Sons 5th, named Rushmere comes out on March 25th. The Luminineers take it easy.
Except for anthemic, upbeat openers So Long and Asshole they entice with a series of sepia-colored torch songs, passional musings and picturesque balladry. Gather around romantic hearts, lit some candles and enjoy the longing melodrama at play here.
Press info: “This set grooves with social anxiety, internal strife, compulsive behaviours
and the dilemmas and tribulations of Los Angeles life, where vocalist/guitarist/songwroter Matthew “Murph” Murphy and his family live. From behind the band’s deceptively cuddly façade, Murph has always written openly about his anxiety, depression and addictions
(he’s now “sober as hell”).
But with this collection there’s a sense of progress towards confronting, accepting and coping with his issues. Alongside familiar sounds they explore new genres from glistening tech rock to sci-fi pop, futuristic fuzz rock to bluesy rock’n’roll, with touches of disco and hip-hop-inflections.”
UNCUT says: ““What may be The Wombats’ most plain fun album to date.”
TUTV: Lots of primo tunes to play out loud while driving in your car with the windows down, your hair in the wind and the sun up high. Wait, it’s still winter. So windows up, heating on and hair down, but don’t change the volume and your thrilling state of pop paradise mind.
Artist: IMUSTBE LEONARDO Who: Berlin-based Italian singer-songwriter who, since 2016,
has composed, recorded, and played songs around Europe and America. He has, so far, 2 albums and 2 EPs on his résumé.
ML: “The story of “Berlin, Ohio”, begins one morning in February 2022. Ten years had passed since I moved to Berlin, and that day I looked out the living room window and thought about some of the people I had met here, and who had left the city and the rooms they used to call home. Berlin appeared to me as a sort of unstoppable vortex made up of figures who arrived with their aspirations or who left because their future was now somewhere else. Those who remained had only two states of mind available: that of those who are making their dreams come true and that of those who are giving up. I thought I should tell the stories of those empty rooms, and of the ones who had left them.
“Berlin, Ohio” is a 36-minute album. It contains imperfections, smudges, wrinkles, flaws, and it is a work made with all the honesty, dedication and seriousness that Howard, Peter and I have been capable of. I am proud of this record, I am happy that it exists thanks to me, and I am bold enough to say that this work belongs to the present, to the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century – because many of the stories and thoughts it is made of could not have existed before now.
TUTV: IMustBe Leonardo is at his best when he translates his mixed emotions, his busy mind and his stream of consciousness in stripped-to-the-bone ponderings wrapped in intimate, introspective songs. Except for a couple of one-man-garage-rock band explosions (my favorite knife / the place) he and his expressive guitar do the talking.
Give the record a couple of spins, let the music
grow on you and you’ll find sonic tranquillity.
As we know for some years Young‘s musical archives are
inexhaustible. One wonders when he wrote/recorded all
his stuff.
That said another previously unreleased
LP, named OCEANSIDE COUNTRYSIDE is
now available.
Young: “This analog original album was recorded in 1977 and unreleased. These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings in the order I planned for the album. I sang the vocals and played the instruments on Oceanside in Florida at Triad studios and Malibu at Indigo studio.
I sang the vocals and recorded with my great band of friends, Ben Keith, Joe Osborn, Karl T. Himmel, and Rufus Thibodeaux at Crazy Mama’s in Nashville on Countryside. I hope you enjoy this treasure of an Analog Original recording, recorded by Tim Mulligan, as much as I do. Listening to it now, I think I should have put it out back then.”
It’s not on any streaming platform.
You can buy the vinyl version HERE.
Musician Kevin Haskins (Love and Rockets, Bauhaus) and producer Nick Launay
(Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, IDLES) came together after witnessing the destruction of the homes and livelihoods of not only fellow artists but also of their support structure of crew, publicists, marketing teams and of their collaborators, producers, recording and mastering engineers.
Digging into their own archives for unheard songs, they decided to reach out to
like-minded artists for their own contributions, and the response was overwhelming.
Big names such as Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker, Danny Elfman, Gary Numan, and Primal Scream contributed with unreleased material (mostly remixes of old songs) for the cause.
The compil is selling exclusively via Bandcamp. All proceeds from the compilation go to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. A nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to career musicians and music industry professional’s, who face financial hardships caused by unexpected life altering circumstances.
Two tasters.
GRINDERMAN (Nick Cave)
. PULP
Acoustic cover of The Mama’s and Papa’s
big 1966 hit California Dreamin‘.
01 PJ Harvey with Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans – “The Red River” 02 Grinderman – “Worm Tamer” (LaunayVauz Remix) 03 Gary Numan and Titan – “Dark Rain” 04 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Turn Into Redux” 05 Band Of Skulls – “Cold Cold Sweat” (LaunayVauz Remix) 06 Jarvis Cocker – “California Dreamin’” (The Mamas And The Papas cover) 07 Primal Scream – “False Flags” (Orchestral version) 08 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – “Michelangelo” 09 Haskins, Vandermolen and Lohner – “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” 10 Danny Elfman – “Monkeys On The Loose” (LA Rising version) 11 Devo – “Shoulda Said Yes” 12 Siobhan Fahey and Titan – “Deep In LA” 13 CRX – “Blip On The Radar” 14 David J – “No New Tale To Tell” (Original demo version) 15 Flea, Frusciante, Haskins and DeAngelis – “A System For Shutting Everything Out” 16 US Girls – “Four American Dollars” (Demo version)
Brighton‘s indie stars SQUID hit the bullseye immediately with their debut LP Bright Green Field that came out in 2021 and went Top-5 in the UK and with
their sophomore album O Monolith they doubled their fanbase.
And here’s longplayer number three, named COWARDS.
New album artwork – Design by Ben Sifel / Photography by Tonje Tielsen.
Press info: “Cowards is about evil. Nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong. It’s Squid’s most courageous album: simultaneously growing in scope
and returning to basics.”
Stereogum says: “Cowards marks Squid’s third album in just under four years and,
ike many of their contemporaries awkwardly lumped together under the “post-punk
revival,” they continue to restlessly mutate far beyond the signifiers of their original breakthrough sound.
The songwriting and lyricism alike sharpen to get to the guts of things, capturing an illness at the heart of the world that only seems to have metastasized during the years the band has been chronicling it. On Cowards, the band’s world and sound alike open up. It feels as if their story is just getting started.”
TUTV: Squid resonate like a volcano in motion with boiling lava streaming
in every direction. Always pressure, tension and danger in the air, but no
explosions. Always eldritch, sinister and wicked, but never soul-destroying.
They easily could be family of The Murder Capital. In the end I’m left behind
with mixed emotions about Cowards.
Singles: Crispy Skin / Building 650 / Cro-Magnon Man
It’s the first album which credits her band, named
for the occasion, The Attachment Theory.
Van Etten:“For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam.
Words that have never come out of my mouth – ever! But I loved all the sounds
we were getting. I was curious – what would happen? In an hour we wrote two
songs that ended up becoming “I Can’t Imagine” and “Southern Life”.
“Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It’s like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day.”
Album artwork
UNCUT Magazine says: “Enjoying a kind of midlife techno-goth glow-up,
on tracks “Idiot Box” and the incendiary “Indio” coming on like a female
fronted Future Islands or Pat Benatar joining Curve.”
TUTV: Sonically, Van Etten‘s most vigorous record to date. At times Van Etten
rocks out (Idiot Box / Indio / I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way) / Somethin’ Ain’t Right)
as she had never done before, with the help of the zealous Attachment Theory band.
Overall the sound is more puissant, more dynamic, more sinewy than on her previous work, with waves of synths, firm percussion and buzzy guitar electrification. You can feel the joie de vivre at work here. Never a dull moment. Only solid gold songs.
Next to the three topflight singles, the closing track is the magical highlight. An almost
7-minute, melodramatic piece of bone-chilling music that makes the hair in your neck stand up. A masterly vocal tour de force. A majestic end of a majestic album. Simply her best. Splendiferous.
SINGLES: Afterlife / Southern Life (What It Must Be Like?) / Trouble
DIY: “As an exercise, a flexing of musical muscles, ‘The Singing Winds pt. 3’
is interesting enough so long as you’re only seeking bops as a bonus.”
TUTV: On his solo work Kele sounds like a Bloc Party Light. His trippy cocktail of ambient, trip-hop and guitar pop is entertaining with several bouncy tracks but misses some peppy punches and stand-out tunes. The three best pieces are the singles (listen/watch below). On the other hand, Kele‘s guitar play is (again) sterling, elaborate, and sparkly and his light-toned vocals are as euphonious as ever.
Singles: Hometown Edge / It Wasn’t Meant To Be / Kintsugi
84-year-old beatleRINGO STARR can’t stop making/playing music.
Besides his 22 solo LPs (new one included) he toured for years with
his All-Star Band, which had several legends line-ups.
Back in time, in 1970, he released a sugary country album.
And Starr returns to country melancholia with his first longplayer in 6 years. LOOK UP was produced and co-written (9 out of the 11 songs) by that
other musical legend T Bone Burnett.
The album’s impressive guest list features Alison Krauss,
Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius, Molly Tuttle and more.
Ringo: “I’ve always loved country music. And when I asked T Bone to write me a song,
I didn’t even think at the time that it would be a country song – but of course it was, and
it was so beautiful. I had been making EPs at the time and so I thought we would do
a country EP -but when he brought me nine songs I knew we had to make an album!
And I am so glad we did. I want to thank, and send Peace & Love, to T Bone and
all the great musicians who helped make this record. It was a joy making it and
I hope it is a joy to listen to.”
Rolling Stone says: “Burnett appreciates the fine points of Ringoism the way he appreciates the folkways of the country tradition. He also doesn’t sweat it if the vocals occasionally venture an inch or three out of tune. As a result, Look Up is the sound of Ringo being himself, the least jaded rock star in the universe, which is exactly what we want from this wise old sage.”
TUTV: Ringo is a 60s rock/pop survivor who was/is addicted to music his whole life.
He never made a solo masterwork but through time he came up with chirpy tunes
now and then. And we get a handful of new ones right here.
Tunes you can whistle and hum, tunes you can tap your feet to. Out-and-out Nashville ambiance. Familiar, laid-back Americana country as we know it. Entertaining, nothing more nothing less. And by the way, Starr‘s voice is pretty fine here and fits the genre like a glove.
American singer-sonwgriter Joshua Michael Tillman (43) aka FATHER JOHN MISTY
was a member of dream pop ensembleFleet Foxes as their drummer from 2008
until 2012.
In between, he released solo work as J.Tilman with no less than 8 LPs between 2003
and 2010. Afterward, he changed his artistic name to the one all of his fans know.
Now he has released his 6th LP, called MASHASHMASHANA as Father John Misty.
Uncut says: “This is another set of brilliant, beautiful, occasionally
frustrating songs themed around ideas of ending and death.”
The album artwork was designed by artist Joe Roberts. Its title refers to the Sanskrit word Mahāśmaśāna (महाश्मशान), meaning ‘great cremation ground‘.
FJM: “It’s an experiment in seeing what happens when I erase myself from
my work and Mahashmashana is definitely work about erasing myself”
He’s a crooner at heart,
an emotive romantic,
an inspiring poet
a great songwriter.
Even at the age of 91, Texas-born country icon WILLIE NELSON has no intention to retire. On the contrary, last weekend he released his 76th (!!) solo longplayer, (his 153rd overall, including collaborations, soundtracks, and compilations), baptized Last Leaf On The Tree.
It features Nelson‘s interpretation of 11 songs by rock legends, idiosyncratic singer-songwriters, alt-rock heroes, and indie folk artists such as Tom Waits, Neil Young, Beck
and The Flaming Lips. See the full tracklist below.
One song, Color Of Sound, is written by Willie and his son Micah, who
also produced the LP, and one song, closer The Ghost is a restored one
from 1962.
Nelson‘s characteristic Americana voice colors the melancholic tunes with his warm, endearing and relaxing vocal timbre. His voice sounds vulnerable and, yes, a bit broken here and there. Not unusual, of course, at his blessed age. It makes his performance on this album feel so human and genuinely heartfelt.
Son Micah says he identified the through-line of the album as “facing death with grace“. That’s a gripping and realistic observation. No wonder that one of the covered tracks
is Do You Realize? by The Flaming Lips.
Do you realize
that everyone you know
someday will die?
ALBUM
1.Last Leaf – Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits 2. If It Wasn’t Broken – Sydney Lyndella Ward 3.Lost Cause – Beck 4. Come Ye – Nina Simone 5.Keep Me in Your Heart – Jorge Calder & Warren Zevon 6.Robbed Blind – Keith Richards 7.House Where Nobody Lives – Tom Waits 8.Are You Ready for the Country? – Neil Young 9.Do You Realize? – The Flaming Lips 10.Wheels – Micah Nelson 11.Broken Arrow – Neil Young 12.Color of Sound – Willie & Micah Nelson 13.The Ghost (includes hidden track) – Willie Nelson
