Taster from her upcoming 13th LP, baptized The Orchard. Out in October.
A song about the intoxicating feeling of longing that comes
when you feel chemistry with someone, but aren’t sure if
it’s all in your head.
TUTV: The song’s footstomping, iterative, groovy drum/bass beat gets you in
a trance from the first listen. On top of the stream comes Nova‘s gentle and
crystalline voice. Transfixing pop ardour.
Band: VEDA RAYS Who: Indie duo from Philly, making ethereal indie rock rooted in dream pop, post-punk, and traditional shoegaze, with lyrics that explore liminality and abstraction, channeling subconscious impulses into the present moment.
TUTV: Veda Rays deliver some glorious guitar pop gusto infused with
a capriously catchy drive here, pepped up with expressive vocals and
a kinetic chorus. Striking stroke.
All the days go careening by
strangers replaced when we tried to hide
All the days went careening right by
capricious fates upending the ride/
capricious fates upending the ride
Artist: E.T. Who: Captivating singer-songwriter Eric Turner from Chattanooga, TN
whose music is built on honest storytelling that comes straight from the heart.
While he has spent time in several notable bands over the years, most of E.T.’s
career has been on the road as a solo acoustic performer.
TUTV: Get ready for some old rock ‘n’ roll time vibrations. A mix of boogie woogie swagger, pelvis-twisting Americana rock, galvanic guitar hooks and spot-on fitting vocals will get you in the mood to jump into a convertible Chevy oldtimer and hit the road, hair in the wind and playing this sepia-colored earworm. I won’t take you long to enjoy the ride.
Band: DIIV Who: Noisy shoegazers
from Brooklyn, NY.
Track: KID
Taster from their new, 5th full-length, entitledZIRP!.
Out October 30th. Tracklist and more info here.
New album artwork
TUTV: I could have sworn this is a Grandaddy song. Its soft, dreamy tonality, melancholic vocality and romantic timbre assured me of it. But, hey, it’s DIIV at their most relaxed.
Another batch of 5 new, stellar tracks have
been added to Turn Up The Volume’s Jukebox.
Turn it up.
ALL TOGETHER
. TRACK BY TRACK
Band: VEDA RAYS Who: Indie duo from Philly, making ethereal indie rock rooted in dream pop, post-punk, and traditional shoegaze, with lyrics that explore liminality and abstraction, channeling subconscious impulses into the present moment.
Track: TRUE AGENCY
It’s the first chapter in a song
cycle years in the making.
The songs are rooted in liminality and abstraction, the songs channel subconscious impulses into the present moment, where past and future blur and meaning remains
in flux.
TUTV: Guitar dream pop at its feverish and jangly finest. True Agency sticks after just one spin. It’s pick-me-up drive and infectious euphony causes elation, yet lyrically the tone is somewhat darker. A triumphant return to the scene for the Philly tandem.
TUTV: Vampire Queen is a double-edged crackerjack. Partly a glam-rock stomper,
partly a high-octane missile. The two parts assembled combine for a super-duper rollercoaster that goes back and forth. Striking stroke.
Track: A HARD LESSON
Newest piece from his 11th LP o\i.
Release date TBA.
Gabriel: “This is the oldest track of the project. It probably started in the late 80s
or early 90s when I was in Senegal. I was falling in love with the music I heard there.
I loved the tension created by the use of polyrhythms, particularly the threes and
fours, so that was the start of this song”.
TUTV: Gabriel sticks to trippy beats
and trancy vibrations. And it works
damn well.
TUTV: Vicious blues-rock riffs and sinewy sneers open up the debates, followed by a
dreamy introspection flash, turning in a few seconds into a wall-of-agressive electricty. Swing moods mess with your head, but if you bang it against a wall, all demons will be crushed. Just do it.
Artist: KRISTIN HERSH Who: Singer-songwriter luminary (now 59), best known for her band Throwing Muses and, to a lesser extent 50 Foot Wave. And she has
11 solo albums on her résumé.
It’s the lead single of her new, upcoming LP,
titled Sugar On Blackstone. Out August 18th.
Tracklist here.
Hersh: “He was a ‘Dark Eyed Junco’ and I was a light-eyed weirdo. We’d play basketball until after dark then, when we couldn’t even see the hoop anymore, so that we didn’t have to go home. After our stepfather moved in, it wasn’t a home anymore.”
TUTV: A feverish torch song spiced with Hersh‘s ever-transfixing vocality.
I discovered this brilliant post-punk turbo last month at an indoor festival in Amsterdam. The whole crowd went bananas. These motherrockers slash and trash with a burning vehemence and a flabbergasting fervency. Miami Lounge is the crackerjack opener of this year’s released 5-track EP Bad Time.
Now it’s your turn to discover this awesome London squad.
Earlier this month this dynamite hit team blew all punters away with their jaw-dropping gig in my hometown Ghent (Belgium). They razzled and dazzled with ebullient exertion, blistering British bluster, and a fuck Brexit fierceness. The roof went off.
Ded Würst, their newest single, is nothing less
than a nasty and filthy sledgehammer. Das super!
6. ‘His Ilk’ by BRONSON ARM (Kalamazoo, Michigan, US)
From Michigan here come 2 Pc Noisey Slacker Psychedelic Sludge Punks.
They joined Canada-based indie label Off White House Records
this year with a big bang.
Their newest outburst is a riffin’ rollercoaster that makes the hair in
your neck stand up with its metallic resonance and relentless bass
frenzy. Add nightmarish vocals and I’m sure Santa Claus will run
away in fear.
The alias of British singer-songwriter of Bobby Anderson.
Never Ready is a vicious droning blast. Wïlderman rankles,
rages, and has a bad taste in his mouth. Never ready for
her look and her voice. 133 seconds of sonic sex.
Hot groove, hot intensity, hot slam dunk. Fucktastic!
8. I Don’t’ Love You Anymore’ by CHATEAU CHATEAU (Tucson, Arizona, US)
Glam and glitter riot tattoo grrl Blue attracts all attention,
sonically as well as visually. She swirls and scintillates on this
new kick while cursing idiots who hate the LGBTQ+ community,
who hate tattoos, and who hate anybody who doesn’t live by
their ultra-conservative rules.
To hell with all these idiots.
Meanwhile, enjoy this jangly earworm that sticks as
first-class glue and reaches an aural orgasm every
time the chorus pops up.
With Absent Transient they show their masterly skills of writing ear-and-mind
pleasing pop tunes charged-up with rotating riffs and dreamy vocal harmonies.
When an old skool DJ teams up with Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker you
get a sizzling acid house corker to start and end all upcoming New Year’s Eve parties with.
13. ‘What You Keep Telling Yourself’ by DOWN WITH SPACE (Montreal, Canada)
The motorik and magnetic rhythm of this electronic exploit makes your head
turn 360°. The catching combination of near whispering vocals, scintillating David
Gilmour guitar vibrance and cybernated elegance create an overall ear-ecstatic
vibe culminating in a dynamic finale.
Expect flashy echoes of the 80s British New Romantics movement with
this instant catching pop spark, fueled with glimmering guitar/play,
impassioned vocals, and a non-stop drum beat.
This sugary pop bliss feels good at first, better the second time,
and the best with all other spins. Great pop-ular music is about
lifting up the listener’s mood to a euphoric level for about
3/4 minutes. Easier said than done, but not here.
Still is a glorious harmonious touchy-feely gem that appeals from
the kick-off with Gardiner‘s tantalising voice and Kuras‘ vitalizing
guitar ravishment. Add a delirious chorus and you have yourself
a 24-Carat top thrill.
This Italian singer-songwriter, born Patrizio Ottavianiiter,
produces a blend of psychedelic rock and Arabic harmonies.
Knight Of Cups is the latest single in a series of monthly releases this year.
Electric dream-pop at its tempting best. Sparkling, spirited, and seductive.
Nell Smith is a 13-year old fan of Oklahoma’s eccentric stargazers Flaming Lips
(one of my all-time fav bands). Frontman Wayne Coyne spotted her at one point
as she attended several gigs with her father. They got in touch and after Coyne
found out that she’s a singer he proposed her to work with the band on a Nick
Cave tribute album he already had in mind for some time.
They got all in the studio and the result is a 9-song Nick Cave
covers album baptized Where The Viaduct Looms with
the nightingale voice of Nell as the heroine in the middle.
You can stream the brand new record on Spotify
One of the standouts is her version of
the heart and soul ballad The Ship Song.
19. ‘Always Together With You’ by SPIRITUALIZED (Rugby, UK)
Jason Pierce and his orchestra have a new LP,
called Everything Was Beautiful coming on
25 February 2022
With this spellbinding symphony, he does what he does so splendidly for so long. This
first new piece is another soulful spiritual growing slowly into a gospel-like trance. Epic!
Last June mega-star-crooner Cave and his bad seed friend Warren Ellis
signed for one of the best LPs of 2021 with their astonishing Carnage opus.
And they’re not done yet. The duo releases the soundtrack they wrote for the French nature documentary Panthère Des Neiges (The Snow Leopard)on 17 December.
Here’s the magnificent taster We Are Not Alone.
A characteristic Cave humdinger. Tender and gripping.
Watch the magic, hear the magic…
See/hear you next month with the best 20 knockouts of 2021…
At the start of this year, the South London gunslingers
released their second top album called Drink Tank Pink.
On this brand new single it’s guitars all over the place again.
Not their best effort, but a hefty hammer nonetheless.
“The whole song came together on the day we recorded it at the studio.
It’s also the first live recording we’ve ever done, we didn’t want it to sound
overworked. It’s a pure banger, listen with a piña colada in your left hand.”
The two-man drill machine out of Kalamazoo, MI nails it again.
This rumbling rollercoaster bulldozes its way in slow motion,
forth and back, while producing an ominous vocal brouhaha
that causes a creepy nightmare experience. Whatever the song’s
protagonist’s ilk is, it doesn’t sound like you want to be friends
This striking stroke is part of the soundtrack for Mark, Mary & Some Other People, a new indie rom-com
about a young married couple trying out an open relationship.
Billie Joe Armstrong and his buddies do what they did throughout
their whole career, rockin’ and rollin’ without thinking too much.
Who: An act that started as a modern extension of traditional dream pop, indie
and post-punk. The group has since developed a unique voice through several years of steadfast experimentation, making records, and filing through the ranks of the Brooklyn DIY scene. Analog synths, treated samples, and other varied electronic elements add an atmospheric richness. The orchestral flourishes and texturally nuanced sonics oft times broaden the scope unto cinematic heights or tighten the focus down to minimal depths. The lyrics and imagery often explore liminal spaces of abstraction and surreality, channeling subconscious impulses reacting to the present moment.
Members: Jim Stark (vox, guitar, production) and Maria Joanna Bohemia (synths/ keys)
Turn Up The Volume: Veda Rays started their musical Odyssey, back in 2014. This new longplayer ‘Crucial Fictions’ is their third full-length work and it feels like the band has reached a significant stopover on their sonic quest. It feels like they finally arrived where they wanted to be, so far. Obviously inspired by the British synth-pop of the late 70s/early 80s and afterward, the movement of New Romantics who brought the hedonistic way of life of glam and glitter stars Bowie, Marc Bolan, Roxy Music, and like-minded spirits back into the night-clubs.
Expect echoes of early Soft Cell (Rose Like Leather / Dissonance / Strange Anniversary),
of The Human League’s second life era of Dare (Coursing Through Veins, Days Bleed / Past Gone), of dark-electro-wave titans Depeche Mode (Dissonance / Gold Wave / Fall In Fall
In (All Down The Well), and also the shadowy world of Bauhaus (Teeth Showing / Effigies).
Past, present, future, this music genre is about translating all sorts of human afflictions, real and fictional, into heartrending and impassioned tunes that connect, that comfort and that soothe as it also happens right here with Veda Rays‘ new chapter. Don’t put on the lights to dance, it’s more thrilling to move around in the dark.
Singles/clips: Rose Likes Leather / Dissonance / Fall In Fall In (All Down The Well)
New longplayers that will have an impact on your ears and your speakers…
1/ ‘The Room In The Wood’ by THE ROOM IN THE WOOD (Liverpool, UK) The Room in the Wood is a collaborative project featuring Paul Cavanagh and Dave Jackson. The first since their band ‘The Room‘ split in 1985. The duo designed a wondrous record that sounds intriguing and pure, that feels soulful and heartwarming and reminds me, now and then, of gloomy Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen moments. Compelling songwriting.
2/ ‘You Can Run… You Can’t Hide’ by ACESKULLY (Fort Lauderdale, FL, US) Aceskully is musical tandem Ulysses Perez and Kayce Armstrong. Their new LP is just amazing. Adventurous trips with influences by experimental legends David Bowie,
PJ Harvey and Depeche Mode among others. Stellar mix of gripping electronics, stirring
pop dynamics and remarkable male/female singing. Tour de force in sound and vision!
3/ ‘Room With A View’ by ECHO COURTS (North Carolina, US)
Modern-day pop balladry influenced by exquisite Americana singer/songwriters of the past. Like a 21st Century Gram Parsons with glimmering guitars, punchy melodies, striking vocals. Emotional reveries for the twilight hours. Touching, comforting and melancholic.
4/ ‘For The Rest To Rest’ by VEDA RAYS (Brooklyn, NY, US)
Ardent contemplations drenched in passionate and sparkling orchestrations. Both darksome and elevating. An amplified blend of electrifying sentiments with sonic echoes
of 80s British New Romanticism. From dreamy ballads to glowing flares. Starry-eyed!
5/ ‘I, Kaleidoscope’ by BROKEN BELLOWS (USA)
The combination of colorful tunes, atmospheric synth layers,
rich arrangements and Beach Boys harmonies turns this debut
full length into an impressive and punchy pop performance. Top!
Sonically VEDA RAYS is a band you’ll find at the crossroad where post-punk, darkwave, synth-pop, shoegaze and 80s new romanticism meet. The Brooklyn based collective just shared an enigmatic video clip for THE UPSIDEDOWN TREE. A track from their 2017 EP.
Frontman and clip director Jim Stark says: “The concepts which inform the song and video
are somewhat abstract but relate to the idea of inverting the accepted symbol sets in order to ‘divine’ the ‘truth’ i.e. see a clearer vision of reality, which is seldom black or white. In simpler terms, it’s about trying to peer through the heavy veil that is the seemingly hopeless madness
of the times we are living in.”
‘The Upsidedown Tree‘ is a spine-tingling and haunting sonic whirlwind energized with scintillating guitar waves, pushing drums and flashy synths with Stark‘s stirring vox all
over it. The song’s swirling pace will stimulate your adrenalin’s stream from the very start. Here’s the mysterious, serpentine clip…
