Free download from Newcastle upon Tyne's Beth Jeans Houghton 'Dodecahedron'

It's taken a while hasn't it? We are champing at the bit to hear Beth Jeans Houghton's debut album. It seems an age since we wrapped our ears around EP Hot Toast and the Golden single. There she was looking fabulous and sounding great in 2009... and then ... nothing. Lucky for us we've just had an email with this free download attached and details of her album which will be out in Autumn on Mute. Complete with her trilling vocals and deep-voiced fellas on backing vocals it's pure BJH and we can't wait to hear more. We're also trying not to freak out that she's *only* 21. Sheesh.

She's live here:

14th May - Short Circuit Presents Mute, London Roundhouse.

Bath rocking duo Hysterical Injury cover KD Lang's Constant Craving = marriage made in heaven...

 

We love Hysterical Injury at TOW Towers, just the right mix of shy retiring drummer Lee, (who drums like a mo'fo') and awesome feisty frontwoman Annie on bass guitar. They're from Bath and make such a LOT of noise for just the two of them. Annie sent this round the other day and we just had to share. If we were the production on Later... with Jools we would have booked them on to perform just after the legend herself the other week - we can only dream!

Emily and the Woods to support Madam - 30 April

The Other Woman is thrilled to announce that Emily and the Woods will be supporting Madam this Saturday at The Horatia... (30 April).

What a night! Madam (Sukie Smith with full band) performing her 4* reviewed new album Gone Before Morning... and some stripped down tunes from Emily and the Woods beforehand. Probably onstage around 8:30. 

Emily plays guitar and sings, supported by 'The Woods' - ie her Dad, who has been a musician full time for 30 years, and her brother. Emily started playing and writing in her late teens, inspired by a solid roster of folk talent: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Simon & Garfunkel. A recent Philosophy and Theology graduate from Exeter University, you can hear the influence of her studies in her lyrics... this tune she wrote for a friend who passed away and it gives us goosebumps everytime we hear it.

Come on down!

The Other Woman meets London trio Rayographs ahead of the launch of their debut album at Camp Basement

Rayographs are serving up their debut album, Rayographs (Desire), to the public this week, there's a God Don't Like It launch event at Camp Basement on Thursday too (28 April). We've had a sneak preview and love where these three have taken their sound... lots of fantastic melodies, thought-provoking lyrics and an originality which almost made us weep. Hurrah for the Rayographs! TOW met up with Astrud, Amy and Jess in The Horatia pub in north London to have a chat over a pint or two...
   

TOW on 6 Music: The Just Joans and Anguish Sandwich

Every week TOW plays two songs for the brilliant Tom Robinson on his BBC 6 Music Introducing show... here are our picks from this week's show:  

The Just Joans - Your Pain Is A Joke Next To Mines

Major props to the brilliant Leg Guitar blog, the source of this pick for Tom's show. TOW has signed up to the mailing list and are thoroughly enjoying their mail outs. Check out the latest one about band's covering Madonna's True Blue... fabulous. Anywho, The Just Joans are based in Glasgow, originally from North Lanarkshire and have been around for ages! Plenty of back catalogue loveliness to get busy with then. They're signed to WeePop! Records and released their mini-album Your Pain Is A Joke Next To Mines recently. The name is in tribute to Scottish Daily Record's agony aunt of the same name... and their songs sort of have that bent to them - tortured love, wry but not too clever-and-smug songwriting and to top it all off a sensitive and beautiful approach to songwriting. Sit back... and enjoy.

Anguish Sandwich - Leave My Brain Alone Catherine, John and Chris make up this 3 pieces from Northampton. It's so lo-fi it's practically off the meter... so lo-fi can sometimes be off-putting, you need catchy melodies too and Anguish Sandwich have them in spades. The EP No More Cows is available for free a their bandcamp page and you MUST download it immediately. With songs like Leave My Brain Alone which we played for Tom and the one accompanying this video (one of our best of 2011) it's such fun and has such 'tude! We love it. Also check out Chris East's blog, he's the brains behind the band and it's quite read.

Mishaped Pearls new video: Simon Simon

Mishaped Pearls - Simon Simon from Pete Roach on Vimeo.

Directed by Pete Roach.

We here at TOW towers have long been fans of Mishaped Pearls. Ged Flood and Manuella Schuette are the musical couple at it's core flanked by, frankly, a mind blowing line up of carefully chosen folk musicians. 

It's the considered blend of folk, classical and pop with Manu's beautiful classically trained vocals that reels you in and won't let you go. We'd like to see this band on a BIG stage at the festival's this summer - some homegrown talent for WOMAD maybe? Latitude? Come on... 

Manu gets her inspiration for lyrics from poetry, folk lore and a 'hidden gem of a novel' in the case of this new track Simon Simon:

"The song takes its lyrics from a hidden gem of a novel, written by a German woman about 4 generations ago, Annette von Droste Huelshoff. A most mysterious story which is based on the records of a court case she came across, and giving an amazing insight into the influences of parents & upbringing on the development of the human psyche 100 yrs before Freud... Woven into this there are two murders that occur, but despite a multiplicity of clues the ending of the novel still leaves us guessing and experiencing strange cool shivers at the same time..."

You can hear Manuella talking more about Mishaped Pearls in The Other Woman podcast here.

TOW on 6 Music - Emily and the Woods and The Werewanda's

Every week TOW plays two songs for the brilliant Tom Robinson on his BBC 6 Music Introducing show... here are our picks from this week's show:  

 
Emily and the Woods - I Can't

First off TOW just has to say how excited we are that Emily and the Woods has agreed to support Madam at The Horatia on 30 April, we CANNOT wait to see her live! Emily plays guitar and sings, supported by 'The Woods' - ie her Dad, who has been a musician full time for 30 years, and her brother. Emily started playing and writing in her late teens, inspired by a solid roster of folk talent: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Simon & Garfunkel. A recent Philosophy and Theology graduate from Exeter University, you can hear the influence of her studies in her lyrics... this tune she wrote for a friend who passed away and it gives us goosebumps everytime we hear it.

The Werewanda's - My Little Sister

The Werewandas have a fantastic sense of fun and it comes across in the tight little 60's-infused rock numbers they knock out. Also, TOW is biased as one of our favourite people is in the band - Delia Sparrow from The Lexington, well, you could argue she IS The Lexington and often our Girl About Town on the podcast... she's on guitar and you can hear her doing a fine job backing up 'Heavy Metal Lucy' on vocals...

You can download the debut release from this utterly rocking quintet for free at Where It's At Is Where You Are.

The Other Woman interviews east London hipster duo Visions of Trees aka Joni and Sarah - talking synths, remixes and R&B

Joni and Sara are London duo Visions of Trees, labeled the 'new kings of UK miserablism' by RCRDLBL.com. They are doing an excellent job of making some distorted, synth-heavy, dreamy electro-pop which they assure TOW is heading is far more upbeat, R&B direction...

The power of the blogging fraternity is highlighted once again, as the duo only met a year ago but the buzz has been steadily increasing to what is now a frenetic roar - regarding their debut EP Sometimes It Kills, which is out on Moshi Moshi.

We met over a drink in east London, and one false start outta the way, we chuntered on about how they met, remixing Ashanti and how it would be nice if someone actually PAID them to do what they do!

You can catch them live at Camden Crawl, Great Escape and Glastonbury this year... as well as a show at Koko on April 24th.

TOW presents Madam @The Horatia

What: Madam, with support from Emily and the Woods

When: Saturday 30 April

Where: The Horatia, 98-102 Holloway Road London, N7 8JE

How much: £5 from 9pm

The Other Woman is delighted to present Madam, playing the first in a series of intimate shows to celebrate their second album. 

Out May 9th on Shilling Boy Records, Q Magazine describe Gone Before Morning as 'compellingly gritty and haunting, 4/5'.

Fresh from a sell-out spectacular at Kings Place (in collaboration with lighting installation artists BlipCreative), The ever-fabulous Sukie Smith brings her nocturnal dreamscapes and moody rioting to The Horatia for the first time, with her full band. This six-piece are a perfect fit for the darkly glamorous late night bar. 

 

Gone Before Morning has evolved over 2 years. Madam recorded most of the tracks at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studio in 2009. He hand picked the band to be part of a 12 album project, genre ambiguous artists, who each produced an original album for speaker giant Bowers and Wilkins. They funded a week long stay at the residential studio and released the results through their Society of Sound Club. All rights of the recordings were retained by the band so they raised money through Pledge Music and took the tracks to a London studio. They added instruments/backing vocals and in some cases, completely remixed tracks. Resulting in a rich and dark sounding album in contrast to the ethereal spookiness of their debut In Case of Emergency... released on 9th May 2011 through their own label Shilling Boy Records (distributed by Cargo).

Welcome Peaknuckle Publicity!

Sometimes you come up against so many numpties and naysayers in this industry that you almost give up. Well, Alan Pedder aka Mr Wears The Trousers aka Mr Peaknuckle Publicity is someone that gives us here at TOW towers HOPE.

Not only does Alan run one of the UK's best online resources for women in music, but now he's started up a PR agency. Who is his first client? It's only one of our favourite folk artists ever, the supremely talented Marissa Nadler.

Head along to Peaknuckle's website to see behind the scenes snaps of Marissa's latest video shoot, pre-order her new album and check out tour dates.

To get you in the mood, here's her latest single for free download - Baby, I Will Leave You In The Morning:

   Marissa Nadler - Baby I Will Leave You in the Morning by brooklynvegan

Rachael Dadd & Friends: Japan fundraiser

Friday, 15 April - 8:00pm  

Hall Two at King's Place, London

£9.50 - much cheaper if you buy in advance!

 

Rachael Dadd is a musician who has been on TOW's radar for a number of years, since first discovering her as one half of Whalebone Polly. The WP discovery not only meant we discovered the beautiful voice and gently melodic banjo stylings of Rachael, but also the equally fabulous and jaw-droppingly talented Kate Stables - or, This Is The Kit. Imagine our delight then when we found out that these two Bristolians are holding a fundraiser for the Japan disaster on Friday at King's Place...

 

More details on where the money is going here.

 

Who's on the bill?

This Is The Kit (One of TOW's favourite video's of last year:)

 

Also:

Ichi

Wig Smith (The Hand)
Carrie Hitchcock

Rozi Plain

 

Also - featuring animation from Betsy Dadd:

Rachael Dadd: Table from Brilliantly Different on Vimeo.
 

 

And artist Louise Phillips, making ‘live’, instinctual drawings in response to the evening’s performances.  

New video: The Lone Taxidermist

Natalie Sharp aka The Lone Taxidermist has just sent TOW her video for Bijoux Boy which we played for Tom Robinson on 6 Music last year as one of our Girl Music Guru picks.

This video has been something of a labour of love... and torment... for Natalie who spoke to us about it over a cup of coffee at Cafe Oto in Dalston.

She says: "The Lone Taxidermist presents a world manifested from surreal imagery and a dazzling Boy she has dreamed up. His beauty is transient, like that of Dorian Gray. He is nothing more than her own glittering fantasy. As the music groans and bellows the Lone Taxidermist rises and falls over the glittering jewel, wooing him, her medusa like movements are erratic yet enticing. Ultimately her dreams escape her as she ends up crushing her own fantasy."

This is the first feature music video for The Lone Taxidermist's debut album, which she hopes to follow up with a sequel:

Bijoux Boy from Lone Taxidermist on Vimeo.



Director - Natalie Sharp, co-director - Umut Gunduz, associate producer - Christopher Kelly, cinematographer - Laura Bellingham, editor - Tom Werber, inspirational model - Leo Cohen.

The Other Woman's Ruth Barnes presents 6 Mix on BBC 6 Music: 10 & 16 April

As part of 6 Music's 'Sunday Girl' day, 6 Music Introducing's Girl Music Guru Ruth Barnes looks at the best in new music from leftfield female electro artists in a special 6 Mix. From Miss Kitten's role in the electroclash scene to current dubstep pioneer Ikonika, female producers are often at the heart of the most innovative and progressive electronic movements of recent years. Ruth talks blogosphere favourite Glasser about her influences and there are also mini mixes from Berlin based producers and label bosses Anja Schneider and Ellen Allien, who have been at the forefront of the Berlin techno and electro scene for the last two decades. 

Broadcast:

10 April 2000-2200

16 April 2200-0000

Click here for playlist and to listen again!

TOW on 6 Music - Seaming and Ana Silvera

Every week TOW plays two songs for the brilliant Tom Robinson on his BBC 6 Music Introducing show... here are our picks from this week's show:  

Seaming - Dreaming

Seaming's debut solo album is out soon on Honalee Records and we await it's arrival with baited breath! You'll know this songstress' voice as she's been a staple vocalist for Ninja Tune's Homelife these passed few years, including being the stunning and, what we love about her the most, slightly weird voice on Mr Scruff's, Beyond. This track, Dreaming, is gorgeous... at once softly dark and mysterious and then operatic in it's scope.

Ana Silvera - Salome
TOW had the absolute pleasure of sharing a bottle of red wine with London born singer-songwriter Ana Silvera after Alice Gun's album launch a few week's ago. After giggling hysterically about dog's with underbites we discovered that Ana is a singer... well, she wasn't exactly forthcoming but our mutual friend Stuart wouldn't let us go home without yelling 'Ana Silvera! Salome!' at us several times. Ana is operatically trained and her songs are rooted in a classical sensibility and lyrics which seem better suited to a book of Rennaissance poems than 'modern' song lyrics. In Salome she breathe's new life into the figure from the New Testament... something about John the Baptist's head... Bible geeks will know what she's on about...