Hurray for the Riff Raff are the sound of New Orleans' 'new buskers' ie. the young generation of musicians who've come to the city and absorbed the age old musical traditions and added their own modern twist. If you read up about HFTRR online there are stories of frontwoman Alynda Lee Segarra leaving New York at the tender age of 17 and 'hopping freight trains'... not believing Wikipedia on this one we put it to her and fiddle player and drummer Josi and lo and behold - that's exactly what they did. Only in America, hey? Listen in for track snippets from the album and what life could be like in New Orleans... trust us, it sounds dreamy.
The Horn The Hunt are a Leeds based pop duo, comprising of Clare Carter and Joseph Osborne. NOTWhite Label Musicowners Ann Shenton and Marc Hunter, both of whom have NOT also appeared in the Human League. When TOW did our regular spot for Tom Robinson on his 6 Music show from In The City in Manchester last year... we may have been a little frazzled and said such things... all is forgiven. Phew!
We've since had the pleasure of having two tracks from the new album recorded exclusively for The Other Woman Podcast (with Piney Gir) with the fabulous Ann Shenton (from Add N to Xfame) joining us for a chat. So, back to THTH... Depressur Jolie is released through White Label Musicthis week...
Clare explains the landscape of this record brilliantly: "It would be colourful and bouncy with lots of different forms and textures, but have this dark underbelly throughout. We wanted to make a big pop album – our ideal pop album – full of bold, aggressive songs that have no loyalty to any particular sound or style..”
Having written much of their material in Norway (via Greenland) and now based in Leeds, there's a certain Nordic darkness that runs through the music, which merges fantastically with whatever it is Leeds would bring to the table... they're also out on tour, check out where you can see them livehere.
Listen to The Valley recorded exclusively for The Other Woman Podcast with an introduction from Clare:
Alicia Jo Rabins is one half of Girls In Trouble and makes upbeat, catchy indie-pop of a Biblical nature... seriously. And we love it - admittedly not a theme that would ordinarily hook us in, but Alica's joyous instrumentations (involving upright bass, drums, accordion and electric guitars) and sideways look at the life and times of the women of the Old Testament makes excellent listening.
Alicia is a Brooklyn based poet and multi-instrumentalist who is schooled in the ancient languages, texts and stories of the Torah and Kabbalah. The stories of the Biblical women rang most true to Alicia and so she found the subject of her music, and blended with a folk sensibility, you have Girls In Trouble (with bassist Aaron Hartman).
Lancaster two piece The Lovely Eggsare one of TOW's all time favourite bands. They're funny, charming and write wickedly funny and catchy tunes. Husband and wife duo Holly and David seem to have reached a peak with their latest offering... especially lead single Fuck It, which is obviously going to be problematic for radio play but do they care? Heck, no! They're urging radio stations to play the B Side, the equally good Watermelons. It's all released on Monday 30 May on Cherryade Records - go and buy it!
They challenge you to watch this video all the way through - it's tricky, see if you can do it!
They're on tour - dates below, please please please go and see them live, a better, funnier and more heart warming night you will not experience.
Always a fan ofThe Hysterical Injury we were thrilled to see Annie Gardiner from the Bath duo post this little ditty... an 'electro-experiemental side-project' written by Ms Gardiner for Issue 14 of Wes White's brilliant zine ATTACK!!!! magazine. The mag 'is a series of themed collections of original writing, artwork and music'... look out for issue 15!
The Other Woman meets Asthmatic Kitty signee Julianna Barwick as she tours the UK in support of her new album The Magic Place. We meet in Rough Trade East on Brick Lane in London's east end and talk choirs, being a techie geek and how her esoteric looped vocal is definitely pop music.
It's not often that TOW gets a missive from a Swiss pop band - thank goodness then that we've come across Filewile. Joy Frempong is the vocalist - she calls herself OY and has released her own very impressive debut material too. Joy is originally from Ghana but now lives in Switzerland where she met her Filewile bandmates - producers Dustbowl (Andreas Ryser), Dejot (Daniel Jakob) and bassist Mago Flueck. They've been around for ages with two other critically acclaimed albums under their belt - 2007's Nassau Massage and 2009's Blueskywell... always with a litany of excellent female vocalists. You Say I is a schizophrenic track - leaping from folk to funk in a matter of bars, it's massively catchy!
Here's a taster of Joy's solo album, First Box Then Walk, which is out now onCreaked Records - and is 27 tracks long:
Dark Dark Darkare a phenomenal band from Minneapolis. Nona Marie Invie is the voice you'll hear on the songs and the interview is with her and songwriting partner Marshall LaCount. They've just released Wild Go on Melodic Records, the follow up to last year's much-blogged about EP Bright Bright Bright. Spell-binding and awe inspiring are the words that come to mind... We met at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill - and then the whiskey started flowing and Marshall showed us his 'coyote playing cats cradle' tattoo... a night out doesn't get better than that!
We LOVE this band... that refrain about the 'keeeeeys' will get stuck in your head whether you like it or not. Then again how could you NOT like the almost perfect slice of indie-pop that this three piece dish up. They call themselves 'experimental shoegaze' and they're based in London. Lisa and Marina have known each other for years and have done some uber-cool projects with the likes of Italian film icon Franco Battiato (film nerds will be suitably impressed, philistines like us will have to click here). Lilies on Mars welcomed drummer Matthew last year and produced their second album Wish You Were A Pony... which is out on Monday, Aquarium's Key is the joyous first single - out now. Roxy Rawson - Fingers
Roxy Rawson's debut album is called Quenching the Kill, which she's self-releasing on her own label Polk Funk Records, try saying that quickly... Her biog is an impressive read Parisian conservatoires, classical piano training, African choirs and a passion for percussion - then there's what she's capable of on the violin too. All sickeningly brilliant. But vocally is where Roxy really does it for us, that voice - grabs you and commands attention. Check her out live if you can, you've never seen someone treat a violin like she does - it's beaten, rapped, plucked and allsorts.
Annabel Alpers aka Bachelorette first came to our attention a year or so ago, when a friend who works at Radio New Zealand pinged some MP3's over our way. Since then we've embarrassed ourselves by approaching Annabel after a gig at Dalston's Cafe Oto, complete with red-wine-teeth, to babble on about how much we like her music and that we played Donkey on the radio once. Live, she's surrounded by CRT monitors which create a visual treat of waveforms as Annabel plays along on various instruments.
Now, and with a PR company behind her self-titled new album, the New Zealander finds herself living on the east coast of the US and facing a mini blog storm of reaction to the record. It's everything we love about Bachelorette - whirling, whizzing, thumping synthesisers and Annabel's quirky vocals lilting over the pounding soundscapes she single-handedly comes up with on every track. With a post-graduate in computer-based composition at the Universities of Canterbury and Auckland behind her... rest assured she does this all VERY well.
Stand outs include the ethereal loveliness of Blanket (above) and round the camp fire sing-a-long The Light Seekers, the wah-wah's and shoe-shoe's of The Last Boat Is Leaving and the casual whistling on Tui Tui. Souterrain Transmissionsreleases the album on Monday 16 May. Go and purchase!
UK TOUR DATES
MAY23/05/11 York (UK), The Duchess w/ The Phoenix Foundation
24/05/11 Newcastle (UK), The Cluny w/ The Phoenix Foundation
25/05/11 Edinburgh (UK), Cabaret Voltaire w/ The Phoenix Foundation
26/05/11 Glasgow (UK), Glasgow School of Art w/ The Phoenix Foundation
So it seems EVERYONE else was at the EMA gig this week in London - whilst we were laid up with a snotty nose... sheesh. Here's the rather marvellous new video from Erika M Anderson's rather marvellous new album Past Life Martyred Saints which is out now on Souterrain Transmissions.
Ah we love this band, Boat Beam are signed to Spanish indie Origami Recordsand make sweet sweet indie pop... this is their new single Sirens. The label is also home to hugely talented Maika Makovski.
Thanks to band member Max Jung for posting this on our Facebook wall... we've been keeping a beady eye on this band's progress for a few years now - and LOVE this brand spanking new video.
Guaranteed to get stuck in your head. After all the 'Lily Allen is a fan' fuss died down it seems that this Southampton trio have REALLY found their voice. A lovely lead vocal line from Megan Thomas supported by a neat guitar hook - what more can you ask for? Their new album Mad Moonlight is out on June 12th.
Flipping heck. First of all it's not often you hear someone 'spittin' rhymes' about Icarus... but Kate Tempest does and it's bloody brilliant. Kate's the fast rapping frontwoman of this band, signed to Sunday Best (Rob da Bank knows a good thing when he sees one) their debut album Balance is a wholly excellent listen. There's a white vinyl edition too - how cool is that? Oh and we've not even begun to namecheck all the DUDES who think Kate rocks:Roots Manuva: 'her works are truly of upliftment and betterment' and Scroobius Pip: 'It astounds me. Her writing is epic, her delivery piercing, and with the addition of her band her potential is realised. Inspirational'...
We here at TOW towers are absolutely mind-blown by Barbara Panther's self-titled debut album, which is out on May 16th onCity Slang. Barbara was born in Rwanda and grew up in Brussels, Belgium, before making her home in Berlin five years ago - did we hear a German inflection in her voice? Thought so! Oh, and she's worked with Matthew Herbert on this record too. Turn your headphones up and feast on this, the new single Moonlight People...
A special edition of The Other Woman recorded especially for Brighton Festival Radio will be running throughout the festival, if you catch it - here's the playlist!
We're also on the airwaves between 10-2pm on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 May with guests including festival Chair Polly Toynbee and author Derek Landy.
There's not enough dance-mime action in music videos these days. Thank goodness, then, for Mechanical Bride who has released the video for Colour of Fireout on Transgressive Records. It's just as quietly beautiful, and slightly chilly, as the song. "Are you a believer?" 25 year old self-taught musician Lauren Doss asks... yes... yes we are! Recognise the set? No, we're not going to pretend we did either. Film geeks will know it as the building Roman Polanski used for The Pianist - it's in Berlin, obviously. The track is the first from Mechanical Bride's debut album 'Living With Ants' which is out in June. Gimme.
Admittedly these two are the kind of beautiful kids that, if witnessed by TOW hanging around outside Dalston Superstore on a Saturday night, would make us roll our eyes and snottily say: 'The bloody trendies are taking over!'... That's because at the ripe old age of 32 we've realised we're over the hill and would rather go to the movies or stay in watching Game of Thrones or whatever new drama we're devouring on the weekend. Sheesh! Actually, Aluna Francis and George Reid make just the kind of music the Shoreditch set should be shakin' their booties too. They've only been together a year and have already garnered all the right praise from all the right corners... it's fresh, simple, with pretty vocals and damn funky. The single Analyser / We Are Chosen single is out now viaSweet Recordings.
We here at TOW towers are absolutely mind-blown by Barbara Panther's self-titled debut album, which is out on May 16th onCity Slang. Barbara was born in Rwanda and grew up in Brussels, Belgium, before making her home in Berlin five years ago - did we hear a German inflection in her voice? Thought so! Oh, and she's worked with Matthew Herbert on this record too. Turn your headphones up and feast on this, the new single Moonlight People:
TOW has received a missive from the gals behind the brilliant collectiveWomen In Electronic Musicand Concrete Cut recordings in Warsaw, Poland.Shoju's Dana Dramowicz has kicked off a podcast at HerBeats.com... the first one comes courtesy of Rachel Evans aka Motion Sickness of Time Travel. Two hours and 27 artists (female solo acts or bands with at least one female member) of music crossing the electronic spectrum from electro-pop to ambient music. Wrap your ears around this!
PS We're aware that there are many links in this posting - take twenty minutes and explore them all, it's well worth it...
Kool Thing were formed in Paris last year - they are Berlin based and consist of an Irish lass and an Australian gal, truly global, non?! Jon Dark is a classically trained musician and provides the at once soothing and harmonious, then pounding synthesised loveliness underpinning Julie Chance's gorgeous vocals. There's a darkness and moodiness which runs throughout their sound reminiscent of some of the great Skando-dance we've heard these passed years from the likes of The Knife and Fever Ray.
Jude Cowan works in a dungeon. Well, sort of. She's based in the basement of the ITN building on Gray's Inn Road in London and her job is to archive all the reems of Reuters news footage sent in daily from around the world. As you can imagine, that's a mighty undertaking and not just a bit depressing to boot. Conflict, disaster, starvation - you name it. Jude has turned this into poetry and music. She's somehow managed to find some beauty in all the carnage, and her music pays homage to those who suffer. Impressive. (And Jon Snow thinks she's cool)
