JDO

Single (Memorials of Distinction, 29th April 2019)  American-born, English-based artist Will Fortna hasn’t released new music under the Tree House moniker since 2017’s slinky, minimalist 5-track EP ‘ Into The Ocean ’. On ‘ Head Up High ’ though he’s lifted his gaze above the parapet, allowing new confidence into his DIY reimagining of West Africa’s synthetic disco and highlife breakthroughs. Less self-serious than those previous efforts this single reveals the work that’s been done to taka the Tree House from a space for the bedroom producer to open mic his ideas to an arboreal chamber; rounding out crystalline post-punk edges with natural instrumentation. For a solo artist to let understated, sighing vocals shine for such a small part of the track is a power move; at its best recalling the sweet, simple melodies of Francis Bebey ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m56H4E5bZLk )  or Steve Monite ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-2CyO8pc0E ) . Silences in the...

Double a-side single w/ ‘Crow’s Perch’ (Rough Trade Records, May 17th 2019) Black Midi are a frenetic, enigmatic four-piece from South London whose path to the top of the scene (recently signed for Rough Trade after a trans-Atlantic bidding war and months of speculating) has blossomed in the dark of the venues they’ve blessed and shunned the glare of online over-exposure. Stirring up more pre-debut buzz than contemporaries like Shame , Temples and HMLTD , their relative absence from the saturated hype machines and social spheres has only made those lucky enough to be obliterated by their live shows hearts’ grow fonder and hungrier. Scattered interviews, glimmering live performances (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMn1UuEIVvA ) and mind-bending demos ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fBopo31vQ&t=772s ) are being gleefully deciphered and expanded into album rumours and lyrical concepts by the malnourished but growing fanbase as I write. Their second major single fi...

16 th April 2019 From upcoming album ‘Seeing Other People ’ (Jagjaguwar, 26 th April) There’s an oddly gen-x nostalgia at work in the third cut from Foxygen’s upcoming album 'Seeing Other People'. The song begins with a kind of canned 'Cecilia', machines whirring into being and then cycling through an early MTV-era soundboard of claps and false starts. It might have something to do with Sam France’s memoir drawing to a conclusion in step with the release of this fifth studio album. An open letter to fans claims that Seeing Other People “is the adult way of saying ‘let’s end shit’” and that Rado and France are done with the rock and roll clich é . If ‘Work’ is anything to go by they’re saying farewell by reliving rock and roll through the eyes of your dad on cocaine. After the stomping clunk of the first phrases, and with a collective sigh of relief from the baroque and glam sections of Foxygen’s fan base, boisterous piano comes in as if Billy Joel hims...

15 th April 2019 2 nd single (Independent) 0171 are a duo from Hackney who recently snuck up on streamers with a gorgeous, metronomic debut single that seemed to pull from a significantly more varied range of influences than the ubiquitous electronic R&B/soul acts of today. At once theatrical and digital, hesitant and intimate, the track garnered a murmur of recognition across the net and the pair’s development in new track “SMTHN RL” will only amplify that. These are hypnagogic bedroom grooves augmented by a soulful grip on melody and an undeniably post-millennium veneration of sound that can be heard still from Ariana Grande to Rina Sawayama ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKLxvdFtlZE ). The distinct production of each ticking and swooning element creates a swirling cavern for Joe Bedel-Brill and Georgie Hoare to whisper like Justin or wail like Britney, both work. These mingled, organic vocal performances weren’t so evident on debut ‘1000 Words’ ( https:/...

19 th April 2019 3 rd single from album ‘Serf’s Up! (Domino, 19 th April 2019) Although the droning bass throb of their early work survives on their latest record ‘Serf’s Up’, Fat White Family’s new bag is the soaring, melodic guitars and the curtain of heaving instrumentation they strike out from. And this is nowhere better evinced than on third single ‘When I Leave’. The band that previously shouted ‘Shipman!’ and ‘Goebbels!’ turn capably to kind of baroque, sighing Americana that soundtracked a generation’s impression of manifest destiny. Giants like Ennio Morricone and The Shadows mined that stolen mystic America which still runs through channels of inspiration under the dustbowls and asphalt suburbs. Last month’s Pony by Orville Peck and the untouchable work of Angel Olson among others tap into the brash, melancholic vein that Fat White Family have discovered.  Like the first single ‘Feet’, a blistering return from a band who recently faltered, ‘When I Leav...

15 th April 2019 from upcoming album ‘Hyperspace’ (Capitol, TBA 2019)                         Beck has voyaged from sound to sound, progressing from lo-fi anti-folk to lurid funk rock and sun-kissed balladry. His 2017 record ‘Colours’ had a notably synthetic bombast as well as the typical fun and freak factor and this latest single from the upcoming album is in a similar vein.             Of course popping off in the cacophony there are more obnoxious vocalisations; wooping like ad-libs you'd hear from outside the silent disco tent rather than valued parts of the mix but, for the most part, the seasoned arranger in Beck shines through in the variety and layering of the instrumentation.             Saw Lightning blends Beck’s slack, bluesy musicality with...