Brooklyn based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amy Bezunartea is set to release her first album in five years. Titled New Villain, it serves as a reminder of the intellectual talent musically and lyrically she possesses but is also an indication of just how hard it for that talent cut through, not only in the sense of how much is around but just how difficult is to live and produce art. If you missed 2010’s Restaurants And Bars, you wouldn’t be alone as this writer did too. That title is telling as it chronicles her life spent in America’s precarious service industry and serves as a reminder that only a lucky few can make their living off their art without having to work at shitty jobs to get by. New Villain has been two years in the making and Bezunartea has been honing the ten spartan tracks with co-producer Tom Beaujour, a guitar, piano, harmonica and the occasional dose of percussion. It serves to leave her delicate yet forthright voice and telling lyrics front and centre. The title track reflects that in spades as Bezunartea rails casually yet defiantly and ascerbically against constructed social barriers and individual self-denial. New Villain is out September 25 on Kiam Records.
Tracklist
1. Call On Me
2. Oh The Things A Girl Must Do
3. Nothing Goes Away
4. New Villain
5. Wild Thing
6. It’s Disgusting
7. Something To Show You
8. Those People
9. Friends Again
10. Wreckage
New Villain
Amy Bezunartea (USA)
From the forthcoming album, 'New Villain', Kiam Records. Out Sept 25.
Sydney quartet Day Ravies recently dropped their second LP, the rollicking ride that is Liminal Zones. Chock full of killer hooks, winding bass lines and wry lyrics delivered with casual panache. It builds nicely on their debut record of 2013, Tussle. Abounding with all sorts of twists and turns, for all its inventiveness, never once does Liminal Zones overreach as the band maintain their lo-fi stylings preferring subtlety over bombast. That is essence is what makes its so good. Stream first single and album opener, ‘Fake Beach’ below and grab and copy of the record here.
Tracklist
1. Fake Beach
2. Coupla Days
3. This Side Of The Fence
4. Nettle
5. Immaculate Escape
6. Skewed
7. Enter The Bee
8. Hickford Whizz
9. Halfway Up A Hill
10. Steamed
11. Pulse Check
12. March Comes Around
13. Binkies
Fake Beach
Day Ravies (AUS)
From the album, 'Liminal Zones', Sonic Masala/Strange Pursuits.
It’s taken us a while to actually register that there is a new Ought album to drop in September, Sun Coming Down. But its never too late to share good news, especially when the first track to drop is as good as the ecstatically hypnotic beast that is 'Beautiful Blue Sky', a rather defiant take on the mundaneness of modern life where development for development's sake and rampant impulsive consumerism is all the rage. There’s more than a nod to Talking Heads, Television and even Women here but the powerful delivery by guitarist/vocalist Tim Darcy and disciplined metronomic rhythm see Ought well and truly own their mantra. You can find the lyrics here. I was lucky enough to see them at ATP Iceland, where the new song went down a fuckin’ treat. Sun Coming Down sees release on September 18 on Constellation.
Tracklist
1. Men For Miles
2. Passionate Turn
3. The Combo
4. Sun’s Coming Down
5. Beautiful Blue Sky
6. Celebration
7. On The Line
8. Never Better
Beautiful Blue Sky
Ought (USA/CAN)
From the forthcoming album, 'Sun Coming Down', Constellation. Out Sept. 18.
After an immense few weeks which has seen the chart virtually turned upside down, this week settles things down with just Homeshake's 'Heat' (25) and Pr0files with 'I Know You Still Care' (29) debuting. Both tracks have been featured in the last two posts.
Puro Instinct shoot into the Top 10 with the infectious 'W.Y.L.' (9) while Julia Holter rises to 14 with 'Feel You. The Radio Dept. remain at number one with 'Occupied' and indeed, the top four spots stay in position.
All chart details here while all tracks are streaming in the Top 30 player as always.
L.A. electronic pop duo Pr0files have always had a penchant for the nocturnal, their two previously released singles and the excellent Luxury EP veering towards the reflective early hours of the morning. Their new track, rather than sound like the time at the club is over, is spent definitively at the club. While there has always been a wistful element present, ‘I Know You Still Care’ is more definite and indeed defiant as it pivots confidently lyrically and saunters along in up tempo and rather flashy style musically. And the night is still very much front and centre. ‘I Know You Still Care’ will appear on their forthcoming debut full length, Jurassic Technologie, which will drop in October.
I Know You Still Care
Pr0files (USA)
From the forthcoming album, 'Jurassic Techonologie', Straight A Records. Out in October
After releasing his guitar oriented debut album last year, Montreal artist Peter Sagar’s Homeshake project has gone a little electronic for the follow up. The Mac Demarco touring guitarist is set to release his new long player, Midnight Snack on Sinderlyn on September 18. The all electronic gorgeously reflective first single ‘Heat’ can be streamed below along with its follow up single, the even more delicate, languid and guitar driven ‘Give It To Me’ complete with its video.
Tracklist
1. What’d He Look Like
2. Heat
3. He’s Heating Up!
4. I Dont’s Wanna
5. Faded
6. Love Is Only A Feeling
7. Under The Sheets
8. Real Love
9. Move This Body
10. Give It To Me
11. Midnight Snack
12. Goodnight
Heat
Homeshake (CAN)
From the forthcoming album, 'Midnight Snack', Sinderlyn. Out Sept. 18.
The chart this week again sees a large volume of turnover with six new entries. While The Radio Dept. remain at 1 with ‘Occupied’ there were big moves from Lena Fayre ‘Colors Of Leaving (6 to 3), Snowy Nasdaq & Snowy Life, ‘Ironic Life’ (13 to 8) and Flesh World, ‘The Wild Animals In My Life’ (14 to 9).
Los Angeles artist Julia Holter debuts at 21 with the celestial like ‘Feel You’, a breathtaking ride that straddles 80s pomposity with its huge off beat and crashing wave like synths with 60s and 70s pop sensibility. And, oh, those strings! You can access the surreal self-doubt laden lyrics here. ‘Feel You’ comes off her forthcoming fourth album, Have You In My Wilderness and is out September 25.
Two spots behind at 23 is Ilyas, whom we featured yesterday with the measuredly dreamy, ’Sensual People’ as well as Flatliner, with the mesmerising yet ghoulishly dark ‘Blasted Highway’ at 24.
Berlin based dream pop quartet Fenster enter the chart at 25 with the positively gorgeous ‘Memories’, a track with inventive bass lines driving its elastic yet soothing rhythm, meticulously crafted lead guitar flourishes and sax work that will restore faith in the instrument even for the most skeptical outside its recent Balearic pop home.
East London post punk trio Shopping enter at 27 with, ‘Why Wait?’ a simple, familiar and brief ode about the futility of modern consumerism featuring spindly spiky guitar, fat dirty bass and busy drums. The oodles of space and juxtaposition in sound between guitar and bass make the track.
We’ve been sitting on the new track from Transistor Ray, the psychedelic cum beatnik project of Giovanni Saldarragia, for about a month now and can do so no longer. The winding, lyrically wry, almost Doorsesque keys wise only upbeat and interesting with its relentless rhythm, ‘In Love Again (Nothing Will Be Alright) debuts at 29.
Finally, Basque country synth pop veterans Delorean are back with new material that will eventually morph into a new record early in 2016. We prefer the B side, ‘Bena’ off the new single, Crystal and that’s in at number 30.
Five of the seven new entries not previously featured on Indie30 can be streamed below complete with the film clips for Julia Holter’s ‘Feel You’ and Fenster's, 'Memories'. All track details HERE and all are streaming in the Top 30 player.
21. Feel You
Julia Holter (USA)
From the forthcoming album, 'Have You In My Wilderness', Domino. Out Sept. 25.
Nashville collective Iylas have released a new single, ’Sensual People’ last week. It will feature on their second album later in the year called Warm Harm, the first since 2006’s Lessons For Lovers. The coterie of players, nine of them to be exact, are centred around the songwriting and musings of Kyle Hamlett who uses the Lylas project to drive his ambient tendencies. It gathers up members of Lambchop (Ryan Norris & Scott Martin), Stone Jack Jones, Coupler, Natural Child and The Features. ‘Sensual People’ is an understated and hypnotic track ushered along by a disciplined beat, two simple repeating chords and interchanging vocals shared between Hamlett, Kelli Shay Hix and Amy Blackburn-Simon. Check it out below.
Austin electronic synthwave duo Flatliner are set to drop their debut EP Black Medicine, a triumph of the coming together of the futuristic and the retrospective aspects of electronic music, both in a sonic and equipment sense. Jesse Strait and Adam Fangsrud are tragics when it comes to their painstaking experimentation with and utilisation of a multitude of electronic hardware, from different models of synthesisers of the digital and analog variety to sequencers, effects processors and drum machines to transmit their formidable musical chops into works of dark electronic art. While its taken five long years for the Flatliner project to come to full fruition, largely due to the duo refusing to accept mediocrity, being unwilling to compromise on their hard wired principles and an ear for miniscule detail, the fully rounded results are clear to see. If the immediacy, tension and sense of foreboding that is ‘Blasted Highway’, the prophetic thumper that opens the EP isn’t enough to get you excited, then you’re not a fan of electronic music. Stream it below. The other three tracks are just as impressive, the languid 'PC Corporation' saunters along exuding celestial like qualities, 'City Lights Receding' sports warm synth washes, primitive like interludes and stunning use of arpeggio and 'Scrap Heap' conjures up the urban night in all its seedy glory. Black Medicine is out through the ever growing, ever impressive Holodeck Records on July 28. Pre order it on vinyl here. Limited to 300.
Blasted Highway
Flatliner (USA)
From the forthcoming EP, 'Black Medicine', Holodeck. Out July 28.
Clocking in at just under 11 minutes, UK born and US based Devonté Hynes’s new Blood Orange track, 'Do You See My Skin Through The Flames' is a many and varied affair in a musical sense, but more importantly has a great deal to say in a personal sense about his past, present and future against the backdrop that is the state of being of African heritage in the world today. It's largely inspired by recent events in the US, with its institutional white supremacist racist overtones, gun toting culture, penchant for mass murder followed by empty words and the inability of a superficial throwaway culture driven by artificially constructed fear that is unable to deal with truth in any meaningful sense. Moments of horror come and go like a fad and on to the next it goes. Hynes’s spoken words lament the difficulty of being an individual of an oppressed minority in the face of white controlled institutions that continue to dehumanise, humiliate and wantonly kill African Americans. That's not to say its isolated to the US and the episode in Paris that is related in the song points to that. But at the same time is defiant about reclaiming and deconstructing his African heritage and Irish surname in the face of the long oppressive history on and of both. A very important personal take on one of the most important issues of our times. We stand at the crossroads where a soul destroying corporate culture that elevates rich white interests above all others in all things and a largely unacknowledged towering history of injustice that is ongoing, stands firmly in the way of an culturally inclusive future and the possibility of a healthy future of opportunity for Africans and others of African descent and indeed all oppressed racial groups all over the world. Tellingly, Hynes has made it very clear that this will not appear on his forthcoming record, despite the album being heavily based on race and identity, taking inspiration from novelist James Baldwin. Take it then, as a snapshot of the deep thought process behind what's coming.
Do You See My Skin Through The Flames
Blood Orange (ENG/USA)
From the single, 'Do You See My Skin Through The Flames', Self Released.
If you like what you hear please like us and share on the above formats.
ARTIST OR LABEL?
If you are an independent artist or record label or a promotional or management company that represents an independent artist please feel free to send us updates about forthcoming news, releases, events. Digital audio samples of single tracks or albums are welcome and there is no need to fear any negative press about what you send. Quite simply, if we like what we hear we will feature it, if we don't we won't.
DISCLAIMER
All media on Indie30 is for sampling purposes only. If you like what you hear we implore you to purchase the said album and support the artist concerned. If you are an artist or label who wants something removed please contact us asap and we will remove it.
