Having just completed an extensive UK tour off the back of his acclaimed second full length release Impossible Truth, William Tyler has announced he will be returning to the nation’s capital for a rather special show at St. Pancras Old Church following an appearance at End of The Road. So, if you missed him last time around, now is your chance to catch this charismatic guitar virtuoso.

William Tyler Live Dates:

Sun 1 Sept Dorset End of The Road (Tickets)
Mon 2 Sept London St. Pancras Old Church (Tickets)

Impossible Truth is out now via Merge.

“William is a literary guy, a language guy, and to my thinking he is presenting his music as such. It is as linguistic as it is literary without saying a fucking word. It rewards rereading” Kurt Wagner

Praise for William Tyler:
‘Impossible Truth doesn’t just feel like a really satisfying and beautiful set, but one which also stretches the edges, a little, of the scene to which it notionally belongs’ 9/10 Uncut
‘It’s possessed and peaceful at once, absorbing and wholly gorgeous’ 4/5 Q
‘A magnificently unfurling glide through the scenic states of Americana’ 4/5 Mojo
‘A beautiful continuation of a small but deep musical tradition’ 4/5 The Times
‘He’s a towering talent, not just as a guitarist, but as great American storyteller.’ 8/10 The Line of Best Fit
‘Impossible Truth is among the year’s most vivid and evocative albums so far, revealing new and absorbing details with every listen.’ Music OMH 4.5/5

Following on from a couple of splendid shows at The Great Escape, Nadine Shah announces her new single ‘To Be A Young Man’ released on 8 July. 

Check it out here https://soundcloud.com/nadineshah-1

She will be playing in London on Wednesday 29 May. More lives dates below.

Artist: Nadine Shah
Title: ‘To Be A Young Man’ Single
Label: Apollo
Release Date: 8 July 2013
Formats: 7” & Digital
Cat Number: AMB1313
Web: http://nadineshah.co.uk

 

 

Nadine Shah has announced a new single ‘To Be A Young Man’ from her hotly anticipated debut album Love Your Dum and Mad. Due out 8 Julyvia Apollo, the track’s acoustic guitar hooks and swelling atmospherics seem to offer comfort in borrowed nostalgia whilst displaying the songstress’ versatility as a highly distinctive vocalist and songwriter.

Speaking about ‘To Be A Young A Man’ Nadine explains: “I wrote this after chatting to a guy in a pub. The pub where I wrote most of the songs on this album. He was probably in his late 60s, I never got his name. We were both sat by ourselves at the bar and just started speaking. I remember he said during our conversation “sometimes I forget that i’m not a young man, then I catch my reflection”. I can’t emphasise enough that he was NOT a dirty old man chatting up a young girl. He just told me stories of his glory days, the freedom he felt in youth. After many an anecdote he paused, looked back at me and said “oh, to be a young man again!”

So we invite you to pull up a stool and share in that warm conversation and the redemptive tales of Nadine Shah as they are set to run and run in 2013.

With two critically acclaimed EPs firmly under her belt, Nadine Shah will be releasing Love Your Dum and Mad through R&S/ Apollo Records on 22 July 2013.

Live Dates:
Fri 24 May Manchester Dot To Dot Festival
Sat 25 May Newcastle Evolution Emerging
Sun 26 May Nottingham Dot To Dot Festival
Wed 29 May London The Lexington (supporting Cloud Boat)
Sat 1 June London MacMillan Cancer Research Festival @ Rich Mix
Sat 8 June Reading Oakford Social Club
Tues 11 June Guildford Boileroom
Sat 22 June Newcastle Hoults Yard
Wed 3 July Leeds Nation of Shopkeepers
Sat 20 July Sheffield Cathedral Tramlines Festival
Thurs 25 July St. Albans The Horn
Fri 26 July Aldershot West End Centre

Praise for Aching Bones and Dreary Town:
‘Face to Watch’ Independent on Sunday
‘A Mercury nomination should come a knocking.’ Virgin Media
‘Expect her to be next year’s critics’ darling’ The Independent
‘The emotional and sonic depth she attains on the glowering debut EP ‘Aching Bones’ is the work of a singularly unique artist’ Daily Mirror
‘Her dark tales of lust, loss and vengeance bring to mind Broken English-era Marianne Faithfull and are due belated critical acclaim’ Guardian ‘New Band of the Day’
‘Shah possesses one of those pin-you-to-your-seat voices that will penetrate even the thickest layer of cynicism and jadedness’ Sunday Times
‘An album is due next autumn – and it already looks to be one of 2013′s most promising debuts.’NME
‘An enticing debut’ Mojo
‘Keep your eye on this one, because I can see 2013 being a big year for her’ DiS
‘Shah’s voice marks her out as someone distinctive and to very much keep an eye on.’ CMU
‘If you fancy a cheeky flutter you’ll get a decent price on this girl to win awards next year.’ 8/10 This is Fake DIY
‘That intangible, emotive sense of foreboding leaves you mesmerized, intoxicated and just a tiny, tiny bit in love.’ 8/10 DJ Magazine
‘If all live debuts were as breathtaking as Nadine Shah’s then the walls of the music industry as we know it would crumble to dust, and in their place proud palaces of hope and beauty would spring forth.’ BBC Manchester
‘Like early Bad Seeds, searing, intense, frightening and amazing’ Notion Magazine
‘It can take just 44 seconds to fall in love. That’s the exact time it takes for Nadine Shah’s haunting croon to kick in over an ominous piano refrain on the title track of her debut EP, Aching Bones. Sounding like a young, desolate Polly Harvey, the former jazz singer delivers huge gulps of emotion over the EP’s three Ben Hillier-produced tracks.’ The Line of Best Fit
‘Channels the towering intensity of To Bring You My Love-era PJ Harvey with a hint of Philip Larkin-esque humour and the intoxicating sadness of her father’s Urdu ghazals’ Time Out ‘Ones To Watch for 2013’

As he readies his brand new record ‘Saltwater’ for release via Dead Oceans on 27 May, Brazos man Martin Crane has revealed the brand new video album cut ‘Charm.’ A warm, expansive pop number ‘Charm’ is lead by stuttering guitars and buoyant rhythms while crisp percussion provides a quietly thrilling pace.
Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpbI6QcCOWA

‘Rare and enchanting understatement in a brash and gaudy world’ 8/10 Uncut
‘All taut suspense and skintight guitar lines, this is a work of subtlety, a work which reveals itself over successive listens.”Clash

Artist: Brazos
Title: Saltwater album
Label: Dead Oceans
Release Date: 27 May 2013
Formats: CD / LP / Digital
Cat no: DOC042
Distributor: PIAS
http://www.deadoceans.com
http://www.brazosbrazos.com

Martin Crane, who now records as Brazos, is on track to become a leading musical light, with a burning creative mind and a searching soul. Originally hailing from Austin, Crane currently resides Brooklyn, where he works part time as art handler, “hanging famous paintings in Park Ave apartments.”

Brazos gained recognition in 2009 with Crane’s self-released debut album, Phosphorescent Blues. His musical path was enlightened by the poetry of feminist and radical, Adrienne Rich. The album was hewn around ‘The Observer,’ the 1969 Rich poem Crane put to music. From the bouncy, free-formed vocal phrasing of that adaption, the album grew into a hypnotic tour-de-force that combined raw energy and dance rhythms with the subtle intricacies of jazz and folk. “She was one of my heroes,” Crane says, “and when she gave me permission to use her poem and said that she was excited to hear the record, it was a huge moment for me.”

Brazos, in its original incarnation, went on to open for Grizzly Bear, Shearwater, Vampire Weekend, The National, Iron & Wine, as well as a national tour with old pals, White Denim.

Returning home to Austin after a whirlwind of touring and encountering like-minded musical spirits, there was an inevitable come down. “Most of my good friends had moved away from Austin,” Crane recalls. “I was working at a phone bank and hanging out in bars a lot. I’d lost touch with the meaningful things.” In search of “something new,” he packed everything he owned into a 1990 Honda Civic station wagon that he’d had since he was 15 and moved to New York. Rejuvenated, Crane wrote more than 30 songs across a two year span, and signed to Dead Oceans.

Recorded with new bandmates Spencer Zahn (bass) and Ian Chang (drums), the initial sessions for Brazos’ new album, Saltwater,began with three days of basic tracking where Crane’s acoustic guitar, Zahn’s warm bass lines, and Chang’s frenetic, melodic drumming were all recorded live. Then, over several months, Crane added and refined layers of pianos, synths, guitars and production embellishment. The multi-talented Sandro Perri mixed the final arrangements into a quixotic melange that is both understated and startlingly honest.

Saltwater was gestated in an atmosphere of listening to “transcendent groove music” – Pharaoh Sanders, Can, Harmonia, Fela Kuti, among a cornucopia of others.

“Pharaoh Sanders is looking for selflessness and love and peace, and there is no attempt to dress up what he’s after,” Crane muses. “He is yelling and singing, and it is pure joy. Can is lost in a subconscious world where language interacts with feelings and grooves, kind of like a Cy Twombly painting.”

Brazos’ Saltwater touches upon all these elements, with a light and lilting poise and the unique perspective of Crane, who is doing his utmost to struggle with and make sense of his place in the world.

“I think this record is about learning how to be alone. And I think that’s how it’s spiritual. You can’t actually love anything if you need it. I think this record is an odyssey out into deep solitude in order to really get a grasp of myself.”

But don’t start thinking Saltwater is a doleful album of introspection – it’s just the opposite. Like a stunning spring morning, Saltwater is buoyant, expansive pop, with an astonishingly sure hand of craftsmanship. This is no hazy psych mess, but a spacious, beautifully arranged body of work that is the mark of an important artist.

Brazos is slowing the quickening pulse of pop in wonderfully idiosyncratic style. Charm personified.

Daughn Gibson has revealed a new track ‘You Don’t Fade’, the second to be taken from his forthcoming debut on Sub Pop, ‘Me Moan’, released on 8 July.

Daughn will play a special full band show in London at Birthdays on 28 May, after stopping off at Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

Artist: Daughn Gibson
Title: Me Moan album
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: 8 July 2013
Formats: Vinyl/ Digital / CD
Cat Number: SP1010
Distribution: PIAS
Website: http://www.subpop.com/artists/daughn_gibson

Photo Credit: Jacek Poremba

‘The spectacular Me Moan is a genre-pulverising collection of creepy modern murder ballads and damaged, neon-lit Americana” NME
‘Daughn Gibson is quite unlike anyone you will ever have heard’ The Guardian
‘All Hell throws up no barriers to access – if you have an abiding interest in great stories by a great new storyteller, it’ll welcome you in’ 9/10 SPIN
‘Daughn’s thick baritone breezes confidently over the songs, lassoing hook after hook, redeeming his burnt-out characters through song’ 8.1 Pitchfork

For those new to Daughn Gibson, the first name rhymes with the Vaughn’s Robert and Stevie Ray. He was born in the village of Nazareth, PA, (ironic given the title of his debut album All Hell) and currently resides in the sleepy college town of Carlisle, PA, where he frequents local watering holes like The Cave and Alibis. He’s 6’5”, hovers at 200 pounds and has a head of jet black hair thicker than a porcupine. He played drums in Pearls & Brass for a number of years, touring the US to small but enthusiastic crowds. For some time in between, Daughn was a trucker, but he’s also been packing boxes in an un-airconditioned warehouse, climbing up commercial broadcast towers with untested levels of radiation, working the register at an adult bookstore, doing sound at dive bars and collecting unemployment checks to earn to earn a living. Daughn’s been around.

Daughn Gibson first entered the minds and fantasies of the music loving public in the Spring of last year, care of his critically acclaimed debut album All Hell, released on Matthew K of Pissed Jeans’ label White Denim. At once both foreign and familiar, Daughn’s music is immediately striking, through the use of dusty thrift store records and baptized them as fierce, future Americana. His songs as frequently tender as they are prurient, as hopeful as they are brimming with despair. He treats the past with respectful reverence while still appreciating what is happening at the forefront of electronic production.

The follow up and Sub Pop debut Me Moan has taken All Hell’s wilful lead, grabbed the rule book, laughed in its face and driven it to the tip. The woozy baritone remains intact but what surrounds it is utterly unique. Like Scott Walker’s 1-4 sharing a drink with Waylon Jennings, neon lit and glowing with the hazily blue-ish light of a computer screen. Daughn was also going through a big Fleetwood Mac phase during the album’s gestation, endlessly submerged in Mirage and Tango In The Night, resulting in a record that bubbles with melodic invention, taking in the classics and re-tooling them to create an entirely new musical landscape. He also has a penchant for the likes of Demdike Stare and is smitten with all things hip hop. Like we said, Daughn likes to get around.

Me Moan isn’t just Daughn Gibson’s primal scream, it’s a skirmish through the full spectrum of emotion, unfiltered and impassioned. Like an aural amalgam of Cormac McCarthy and Robert Altman. Daughn is a uniquely American and modern artist who throw’s his romantic soul into his work, free of compromise, possessed by a singular vision. And because of this, it will take a few listens to get on board this particular freight train. But for Me Moan, we can surely all find the time. Better days are not yet done.

Daughn Gibson Dates:
24 May Barcelona Primavera Sound
28 May London Birthdays www.seetickets.com/event/daughn-gibson/birthdays/702373

Waxahatchee will release her first official UK single ‘Coast To Coast’ on 23 June, ahead of the acclaimed new album ‘Cerulean Salt’, due out on 1 July.
Listen to the track here: http://soundcloud.com/wichita-recordings/waxahatchee-coast-to-coast-1

Having sold out her UK live debut headline show at the Shacklewell Arms next month, a second London date has been added the following night at Dalston Roof Gardens on 14 June. Waxahatchee will also be supporting Tegan And Sara on their European tour.

‘Open-hearted, beautifully harrowing… the new album’s searingly honest lyrics mesh dreamily with Katie’s poignant variety of impassioned, scoured grunge pop’ NME
‘Deceptively deep… if at first it seems like Cerulean Salt is a straight forward affair, it’s only because you haven’t taken the time to dive into its carefully constructed dramas and astonishingly stark confessions’ Loud & Quiet
‘Katie Crutchfield has a way of delivering a line so casually that it takes a half-dozen listens to fully realise how devastating it is… the work of a songwriter skilled enough to make introspection seem not self-centered, but generous’ 8.4 Pitchfork

Artist: Waxahatchee
Title:­ ‘Coast To Coast’ single
Label: Wichita
Release Date: 23 June 2013
Formats: Digital Download
Cat Number: WEBB386SDL
Distribution: PIAS
Website: www.facebook.com/waxahatchee
                    www.twitter.com/k_crutchfield

Waxahatchee UK Dates:
Sat 8 June Manchester The Ritz w/ Tegan and Sara
Sun 9 June Glasgow ABC w/ Tegan and Sara
Tue 11 June London The Troxy w/ Tegan and Sara
Wed 12 June Birmingham The Institute w/ Tegan and Sara
Thu 13 June London The Shacklewell Arms (Headline Show) SOLD OUT
Fri 14 June London Dalston Roof Gardens (Headline Show) £8 www.wegottickets.com/event/221665

2013 has already been a whirlwind of a year for the Alabama-born Katie Crutchfield, after the release of her second album under the moniker Waxahatchee last month in the US on venerable punk label Don Giovanni earning ‘Best New Music’ and an 8.4 album score from Pitchfork as well as the ‘SPIN Essentials’ tag and continued support from NPR, among many others. This was followed by a very enthusiastically received string of shows at SXSW where she was singled out as one of the festival’s highlights by both local and international press, resulting in Wichita picking up the record for a worldwide release (excluding North America) this summer.

Katie Crutchfield is a natural at writing confessional pop songs. Since picking up the guitar as a teenager she has spent the better part of her young adult life travelling the country to play basement shows for feminist punks with bands like P.S. Eliot, Bad Banana and The Ackleys, all of which she sang for. Crutchfield and her twin sister Allison were best known as P.S. Eliot, a band that developed a cultish underground following until disbanding in 2011. Deciding to go it alone, Crutchfield became Waxahatchee and released her debut album American Weekend in 2012 and its lo-fi acoustic guitar-pop songs made for one of the year’s best unsung records.

With Cerulean Salt, Crutchfield turns it up a notch and plugs in the guitar as well as adding a few band mates. A more accomplished and polished record, but no less intimate and affecting, the strength of Cerulean Salt  lies in the simplicity and purity of its songs; a quality that ties them to millennial pop-punk, with melodies that immediately penetrate alongside Crutchfield’s frank vocal, delivering devastating, straight-from-the-heart lyrics backed by lacerating guitars and slouchy basslines. Sounding like an instant classic from the get go, its songwriting recalls the rawness of early Cat Power, the introspective lyrics of Rilo Kiley and the indie fuzz of The Breeders.

Waxahatchee will support  Tegan and Sara on their European tour in June, followed by two London shows at the Shacklewell Arms and Dalston Roof Gardens.

Artist: Charlie Jones
Title: Love Form
Label: Stranger Records
Release Date: 12 August 2013
Formats: Vinyl / Digital & CD
Cat Number: STRCD016
Website: charliejones.net 

The drama. The narrative arc. The pay-off. Listening to Love Form, it’s all there. From the opening tantalising tendrils of ‘The Messenger’ to the blaze of distortion, intimately conversational piano and persistent snare keeping things tight that follow, the debut album by the West Country’s Charlie Jones immediately puts you in the mood.

“A piece like that is a kind of selfish gospel music,” says Charlie. “It represents the emotion of undertaking something which is deeply enjoyable, yet you know to be very bad indeed to be indulging in. That very fact feels so good.”

Charlie Jones is what we call a musician’s musician. His bass playing has been called upon by the likes of Robert Plant, Page & Plant, Siouxsie Sioux and, latterly, Goldfrapp. His talents as a composer saw him win a Grammy for co-writing on the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss album Raising Sand.

On Love Form, Charlie finds his own métier, stretching out to two sides of instrumental languor and tension that only a well-seasoned writer and player could conjure. Stylish, intellectual and sensuous noir of this ilk is at best hinted at or sampled these days but here we are blessed with the talents of a composer able to fully immersive himself in the depths of such kaleidoscopic dimensions.

When asked about the influences that inform his sound, Charlie recalls the creaking of the boat swing in the playground next to his Grandmother’s house as keenly as Sundays spent listening to his father’s jazz and classical LPs. When asked whether years touring with Robert Plant have rubbed off, Charlie – who revealingly refers to himself as a ‘blue-collar’ musician – recalls the feedback from his monstrous stack during stadium sound checks. It’s the bits in between that count for Charlie as much as his love for everyone from Messiaen to Miles, from Bernard Hermann to Barry White.

Each successive track on Love Form offers evidence of a muscular and musical brain that crackles with invention. While the iridescent shimmer and Swingle Singer-style vocals of ‘Dove Magic’ might evoke a darkly glittering demi-monde located somewhere between 1965 and 1972, for Charlie this track is a nostalgic paean to childhood.

Conceived as an account of his adventures in rock ‘n’ roll, the squalling drone and driving jazz drums of ‘Big Hair’ channels the Master Musicians of Joujouka and Jack de Johnette jamming in a Moroccan souk, evoking an inner landscape redolent with meaning. Elsewhere, such as on ‘Silver’, the presence of jazz percussion, strings and a soaring soul voice – generated entirely by electronic distortion – momentarily suggest different eras before taking you somewhere else entirely.

The choice of musicians he has assembled says much about the care with which Charlie approached the making of this remarkable album. They include leading harpist Ruth Wall, Portishead and Massive Attack collaborator Johnny Baggot on piano, Alison Goldfrapp on whistling duties and no fewer than four top-tier percussionists in Rob Brian, Chris Hughes, Clive Deamer and Tony Orrell.

The emphasis on live performance, often recorded in one take, is complemented by the absence of samples, loops, synthesizers or digital manipulation of any kind. Electronic sounds are generated using Charlie’s collection of pre-1970s, valve-driven equipment which Charlie maintains are at their best after warming up for at least eight hours. Tellingly, his favourite chunk of vintage machinery is the Rhode & Swartz Resonant Filter Amp, as used by Karlheinz Stockhausen. This wholly tactile approach is carried through to the mixing of the album by veteran producer/engineer Stuart Bruce, resulting in a deeply visceral sound.

Love Form is an album of singular vision, unfettered ambition and an oceanic musicality, the likes of which is currently in scarce supply. Finally stepping out from the shadows, Charlie Jones is going to quietly blow your mind.

Tracklist:
1. The Messenger
2. Big Hair
3. Love Form
4. Dove Magic
5. Phthonos
6. Silver
7. Death Hand
8. Reconstruction

Following the unveiling of ‘Gone Feral’, James Holden unleashes the superb ‘Renata’ from the forthcoming album The Inheritors. All polyrhythms and coiled spring energy, the fluid ebbing synths of ‘Renata’ will be released on 10 June.

Stream it here now: https://soundcloud.com/border-community/holden-renata-43bcd-digital

The single comes with two cracking remixes, first from the venerable Daphni, who lends a typically expansive and aquatic-garage version, with added distorted vocals and echoes of Herbert circa Bodily Functions. Classy as ever. The second comes from American synth maestro and electronic producer Steve Moore from Zombi, whose mix takes things to a more minimal and wondrous place.

All remixes will be available when you download ‘Renata’ as well as special edition marbled grey 10” vinyl.

Artist: James Holden
Title: Renata
Label: Border Community
Release Date: 10 June 2013
Formats: Vinyl/ Digital/ CD
Cat no: TBC
Distributor: PIAS
Website: jamesholden.org

Tracklist
1. Renata
2. Renata [Daphni Mix]
3. Renata [Steve Moore Mix]

‘The Inheritors’ is due out on 17 June via Holden’s own Border Community label.

James Holden has a string of all night sets lined up across Europe this summer.

Wed 15 May Barcelona Moog
Sat 18 May Amsterdam Trouw
Fri 14 June Barcelona Moog
Sat 15 June London Corsica Studios (Album Launch)
Sat 13 July Madrid Mondo
Fri 2 August Zurich Zukunft
Sat 17 August Paris Rex Club

Praise for The Idiots Are Winning:
‘10/10’ Vice
‘A debut album of exquisite techno… The Idiots Are Winning is the most invigoratingly coherent blast of pure electronic sound since Boards of Canada remembered to set their alarm clock’ 4/5 The Observer
‘The Idiots Are Winning is beautifully skewed and steeped in atmosphere – the most astonishing debut in electronic music since Boards of Canada’s Music Has The Right To Children’ 4/5 The Guardian
‘His buccaneering, semi-slap dash approach gives these tracks stacks of personality… Euphoric Grunge; like Mudhoney covering Boards of Canada’ ‘Debut of the Month’ 4/5 Uncut
‘The main event is Holden’s ability to spin coherent and masterful pieces out of the most unlikely ingredients’ 4.5/5 DJ Magazine
‘This debut album is the work of a very special talent… Despite its metallic sheen, this record most definitely beats with a human heart’ 4.5/5 The Sun
‘Holden matters because he’s got a sound that is singular and wired; stripped to the bone and starkly glistening. One nil to the non-idiots’ Fact
‘Holden is operating in a different league’ 4/5 Q
‘A classy debut’ 4/5 Mixmag
‘Like Aphex Twin, Holden favours wonky melodies and pranksterish irreverence’ 4/5 The Times
‘Fans of electronica will froth at the mouth to the unique sounds he chisels from computers… An exciting, uncompromising debut from an undoubted talent’ Clash

DIANA will release their self titled debut on 19 August via Jagjaguwar. Check out the acid-drenched video for their first single ‘Born Again’ here: http://youtu.be/nFNTOVfjvhw

The Toronto band will be in the UK for The Great Escape followed by three London shows later this month, dates and details below.

DIANA UK Dates:
Thu 16 May Brighton The Great Escape, Green Door Store, 9pm
Sat 18 May Brighton The Great Escape, Digital, 7.15pm, w/ CHVRCHES, MØ & Lulu James
Mon 20 May London Cargo w/ ON AND ON, £8.50 www.seetickets.com
Tue 21 May London White Heat, Madame Jojo’s, £6 www.whiteheatmayfair.com
Wed 22 May London Shacklewell Arms FREE ENTRY www.shacklewellarms.com

Artist: DIANA
Title: DIANA
Label: Jagjaguwar
Release Date: 19 August 2013
Formats: CD / Download / LP
Cat Number: TBC
Distribution: PIAS
Website: wwwtouchdiana.tumblr.com  www.twitter.com/DIANAtheband
www.facebook.com/DianaSound

‘The same airbrushed ennui and varnished perfection as Roxy Music’s Avalon’ The Guardian

‘Gauzy, soft pop/disco-lite gem’ Gorilla Vs Bear

‘DIANA traffic in slick sounds and hazy disco beats’ Under The Radar

DIANA will release their anticipated self-titled debut album on 19 August via Jagjaguwar. Their first single, the dreamily anthemic ‘Born Again’ is available to download now, watch the acid-drenched video here: http://youtu.be/nFNTOVfjvhw

DIANA are an enigmatic foursome from Toronto. Surely they must be putting something in the water with the number of great bands hailing from this city. Consisting of Joseph Shabason, Kieran Adams and singer Carmen Elle, with Paul Mathew recently joining the live line up, Shabason and Adams met while studying jazz at music college where they played extensively together. Having lent their skills (saxophone and drums, respectively) to many bands, including Bonjay, The Hidden Cameras and Shabason’s recent contributions to Destroyer‘s excellent Kaputt, it was a leap of faith to make their own full-length. But the time had come.

After a songwriting sabbatical in the Canadian countryside, Shabason and Adams went into the studio with engineer and co-producer Roger Leavens. They asked Toronto musician and vocalist Carmen Elle to sing on a track, as both Kieran and Joseph knew her from her work with other bands such as the much feted but short-lived Spiral Beach, all of whose members have since gone on to play in various successful Canadian bands from Austra to Doldrums. The pair thought her voice might add something special, this turned out to be a huge understatement. Even though Shabason and Adams wrote the songs, the lyrics and melodies belonged to Elle the moment they escaped her mouth, each nuanced phrase and melody deepening the sentiments. With this last dazzling piece of the puzzle in place, DIANA was born.

Right from the first note we’re reeled into DIANA’s intimate world, with the dense, ambient swell that begins album opener ‘Foreign Installation’.  A heady mix of drums, electric guitar and lush production, all sewn together and lifted by Carmen’s soothing vocal, their sound is addictive from the off. The pace is picked up with ‘That Feeling’, the detached refrain “We were blind to all the ways we sat and watched it fade away…” echoing through a mist of synths layered over insistent drums and bass. It is future music with an undeniable pop sensibility, though never overwhelming, the glossy yet sparse production always leaving just enough room for the imagination.

Album highlight ‘Perpetual Surrender’ boasts an impressive travelling bassline, with Carmen’s gorgeous vocal repeating “I need saving from myself” over crashing snares and perhaps the year’s best indie sax solo, all coming together to create well over four minutes of eerie, blissed-out ambience.

Though there are glances to music past and kinship with music present, there is a progressive and contemporary feel to the record. DIANA comparisons traverse eras and genres; from the soft-focus soft rock and pop of Avalon-era Roxy Music to the dreamy production of jj and Chromatics, topped off with the Balearic disco of Studio. While referencing so many, Carmen’s unique vocal brings them their own voice. For DIANA, the point is to push things forward, summed up with the embryonic bliss of instrumental closer ‘Curtains’, a startling piece of atmospheric production that stays with you long after the last sound has echoed into the ether.

Symphonic Pictures have announced the video for ‘Feathers’, the lead track from their forthcoming debut EP released on 6 May. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/c86GVBG-3vM

The Newcastle natives will play The Great Escape this month, followed by a string of UK dates and festivals.

Listen to new track ‘Backwoods’ here: https://soundcloud.com/symphonic-pictures/backwoods-with-verb-track

‘By flirting with the romantic, krauty structures that propelled TOY into the spotlight last year; Symphonic Pictures seem intent on bridging the gap between 70s glam-rock and current reverb-infused psych with a gracefully hypnotic flair. And they’re making a pretty good fist of it so far’ The Line Of Best Fit

Artist: Symphonic Pictures
Title: ‘Symphonic Pictures’ EP
Release Date: 6 May 2013
Label: Cottage Industries
Formats: CD / Download
Website: www.facebook.com/symphonicpictures

Symphonic Pictures UK Shows:
Sat 18 May Brighton The Great Escape, The Haunt
Fri 7 June Hartlepool The Studio w/ Shields
Sun 4 Aug South Shields Bernicia Festival, Customs House

“Hold that thought/ Hold that note/ We all need something beautiful” Symphonic Pictures

Some bands simply sound like they were destined to play together. Newcastle’s Symphonic Pictures is one such band. It’s still early days but 2013 is already shaping up to be a year of timeless releases, and it’s in this vein that their self-titled debut has been shaped. Gloriously assured in its melodicism and structure, they arrive fully formed and punching way above their weight.

What makes this EP even more impressive, is knowing that the band not only wrote, arranged, recorded and produced it by themselves last year, but they did so on a limited budget and cadging a free studio to record basic drum tracks, while finishing the rest in their collective homes. The forthcoming Cottage Industries label EP brings together wildly layered, expansive arrangements and flawless compositions that skilfully mesh guitars, strings, synths, dreamy interconnecting vocals and brass into a comprehensive whole.

Inspired by a Roxy Music show in their home town and brought together through a shared love of Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier and Prefab Sprout’s seminal album Steve McQueen, Symphonic Pictures is the work of college friends Ed Smith (drums), Dale Knight (vocals/keys), Ray Wright (bass) and Johnny Bond (vocals/guitar) and classically trained Parisian saxophonist Nahéma Adèle. Drawing together a wide range of influences from 60s psychedelia-swirl and 70s krautrock to 80s new wave, and topped off with the soaring dynamics of a late 90s Dave Fridmann production. This four-track release ultimately reflects the band’s admiration for the dyed-in-the wool beauty of a well-crafted pop song.

Taken from Bobby Callender‘s Rainbow featured track, the five-piece’s name was designed to reflect their desire to cover more creative ground than just the music they were making, bringing visuals to some of their early shows. Having supported the likes of Toy and Moon Duo recently, Symphonic Pictures will play The Great Escape followed by a string of UK shows and festivals.

 

Artist: Nadine Shah
Title: Love Your Dum and Mad Album
Label: Apollo
Release Date: 22 July 2013
Formats: Vinyl/ Digital/ CD
Cat Number: AMB1313LP/ AMB1313CD/ AMB1313D
Web: http://nadineshah.tumblr.com

With two critically acclaimed EPs firmly under her belt, Nadine Shah has revealed the details of her debut full length album. Recorded with and produced by Ben Hillier, (Blur, Depeche Mode, The Horrors), Love Your Dum and Mad will be released through Apollo Records on 22 July 2013.

Having set the tone and incredible pace over the past 12 months with ‘Dreary Town’ and ‘Aching Bones’, Love Your Dum and Mad not only continues to mark Nadine as an emerging talent but offers a complete, beautifully formed artistic statement. Of Norwegian and Pakistani ancestry and hailing from the north east town of Whitburn, this young London based artist’s compositions lean towards the dramatic, with all eleven tracks finding themselves imbued with an understated unease, a deep personal connection to their author and a real triumphant streak beneath the darker hued material.

The first song Nadine wrote, ‘Dreary Town’, with its plummeting melodies and anguished vocals, is the most personal of all and the track that convinced Ben Hillier to come on board at a very early stage. It soon became apparent that the two understood each other creatively and wanted to produce a record that wasn’t purely about showcasing Nadine’s unique vocals but was also completely immersive sonically. “It was nerve wracking initially, working with someone who had made many of the albums I loved and adored growing up” she admits, “but we got on immediately and began writing together. I consider what we have made together to be a completely collaborative project. I would bring in these shoddy garageband recordings into the studio, just my vocal and a simple piano line and Ben would add touches that gave the songs completely new characters. He really made them come to life.”

They then took the songs and recorded them in her father’s Curtain Superstore in the Blaydon district of Tyne & Wear.

Musically, she is reminiscent of early Bad Seeds material and the bruised honesty of a sheen-less Broken English by Marianne Faithful. Vocally, Nadine counts her inspirations as Nina Simone and Maria Callas by way of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston (but she does confess to learning that a word with two syllables does not need ten, unlike her diva mentors), while lyrically her classic tales of love and loss find their roots in personal experiences, filtered through abstracts of William Hogarth, who “depicted scenes of debauchery and poverty like no other” and “feisty lady” Frida Kahlo. Nadine has taken these influences and has created a work which blends her rich and husky classic jazz streak with fantastical, organic instrumentation and the twisted industrial sounds of modern life.

Along the way we dip into a brave take on adultery in ‘Runaway’ (“I really admire mothers, I think they are strong birds and complex characters. I write from a mother’s perspective a lot. I didn’t want her to sound defeated in this song, so instead she says “run away to your whore, I’ve the right to half this house I’m fine”) and the moral ambiguity of ‘Filthy Game’ which is based on a short story by Italo Calvino called ‘Mr Palomar’. ‘The Devil’, which Nadine rather brilliantly sees as a kind of baton passed on from like-minded artists “a lot of my favourite artists have written songs called “the devil”.. It’d have been rude of me not to!” Elsewhere, album highlight ‘All I Want’ has a simple piano motif that nestles next to the supreme vocals and wonderfully romantic sentiment of lyrics “Darling, I’ll hold your cigarette, whilst you tie your shoes/ Darling, hold my cigarette, whilst I sing the blues/ With you it’s a pleasure to speak and be heard/ But we could just sit in cafes and not say a word”.

Unafraid of roiling in life’s choppier waters, Nadine’s album is word play on “love your mum and dad” and is named after the title of a painting by Nadine’s friend Matthew Stephens-Scott who tragically passed away a few years ago. “It seemed appropriate to call the album this” she explains “as not only are a few of the songs about him, but others also suffering from mental health related issues.” It is in the noticeably sparser, more electronically experimental ‘Floating’ that Nadine says the lyrical theme of the album is best portrayed “I wanted to write something to show the absurdities present in existing social stigmas towards those suffering from mental health related issues. People shouldn’t be embarrassed. It should be something we can talk about as openly as any other health problem. I wanted to write something similar to that of Philip Larkin’s poem “Days”.

Opening track ‘Aching Bones’, with its insistent clanging rhythm and sparse tinkering keys, sets an eerie, slightly menacing tone for the album whilst immediate successor ‘To Be A Young Man’s acoustic guitar hooks seem to offer comfort in borrowed nostalgia. “I wrote this after chatting to a guy in a pub. The pub where I wrote most of the songs on this album. He was probably in his late 60s, I never got his name. We were both sat by ourselves at the bar and just started speaking. I remember he said during our conversation “sometimes I forget that i’m not a young man, then I catch my reflection”. I can’t emphasise enough that he was NOT a dirty old man chatting up a young girl. He just told me stories of his glory days, the freedom he felt in youth. After many an anecdote he paused, looked back at me and said “oh, to be a young man again!”

The last song on the album ‘Winter Reigns’ sees an acceptance come into play when Nadine explains further about said public house “I wanted this to almost be a song of resolution. It’s where I would go to drink and talk about whatever troubles I was going through. What I love about the place is how warm and welcoming everyone was (and still is), their stories and their wisdom.”

So we invite you to pull up a stool and share in that warm conversation and the redemptive tales of Nadine Shah as they are set to run and run in 2013.

“Every boy and girl in this place you trust/ we accept you one of us”

Tracklist:

1. Aching Bones
2. To Be A Young Man
3. Runaway
4. The Devil
5. Floating
6. All I Want
7. Used It All
8. Dreary Town
9. Remember
10. Filthy Game
11. Winter Reigns

Live Dates:

Fri 4 May London Bull & Gate 
Fri 17 May Brighton The Great Escape festival www.seetickets.com
Sat 18 May Brighton The Great Escape festival www.seetickets.com
Tue 21 May Leicester The Musician
Wed 29 May London The Lexington (supporting Cloud Boat)

Praise for Aching Bones and Dreary Town:
‘Face to Watch’ Independent on Sunday
‘A Mercury nomination should come a knocking.’ Virgin Media
‘Expect her to be next year’s critics’ darling’ The Independent
‘The emotional and sonic depth she attains on the glowering debut EP ‘Aching Bones’ is the work of a singularly unique artist’ Daily Mirror
‘Her dark tales of lust, loss and vengeance bring to mind Broken English-era Marianne Faithfull and are due belated critical acclaim’ Guardian ‘New Band of the Day’
‘Shah possesses one of those pin-you-to-your-seat voices that will penetrate even the thickest layer of cynicism and jadedness’ Sunday Times
‘An album is due next autumn – and it already looks to be one of 2013′s most promising debuts.’ NME
‘An enticing debut’ Mojo
‘Keep your eye on this one, because I can see 2013 being a big year for her’ DiS
‘Shah’s voice marks her out as someone distinctive and to very much keep an eye on.’ CMU
‘If you fancy a cheeky flutter you’ll get a decent price on this girl to win awards next year.’ 8/10 This is Fake DIY
‘That intangible, emotive sense of foreboding leaves you mesmerized, intoxicated and just a tiny, tiny bit in love.’ 8/10 DJ Magazine
‘If all live debuts were as breathtaking as Nadine Shah’s then the walls of the music industry as we know it would crumble to dust, and in their place proud palaces of hope and beauty would spring forth.’ BBC Manchester
‘Like early Bad Seeds, searing, intense, frightening and amazing’ Notion Magazine
‘It can take just 44 seconds to fall in love. That’s the exact time it takes for Nadine Shah’s haunting croon to kick in over an ominous piano refrain on the title track of her debut EP, Aching Bones. Sounding like a young, desolate Polly Harvey, the former jazz singer delivers huge gulps of emotion over the EP’s three Ben Hillier-produced tracks.’ The Line of Best Fit
‘Channels the towering intensity of To Bring You My Love-era PJ Harvey with a hint of Philip Larkin-esque humour and the intoxicating sadness of her father’s Urdu ghazals’ Time Out ‘Ones To Watch for 2013’