Gazelle Twin #2 - I Am Shell I Am Bone

http://www.gazelletwin.com/ // Facebook

For the quick pace of the Internet, blogs have been ridiculously slow on giving Brighton's Elizabeth Walling aka Gazelle Twin the attention her work deserves.
I first gave a rave review of her debut single, "Changelings" last November, now we have the follow up "I Am Shell I Am Bone" I'm sure the handful of blog coverage will soon become a snowball of posts...

"I Am Shell I Am Bone" (released as a free download in April via Anti-Ghost Moon Ray Records, a Brighton collective of which Gazelle Twin is involved) continues with the black textured yet immersive and creepy eeriness of "Changelings", with a base of dramatic brooding synths and undulating rhythms layered around the ghostly whisper of Elizabeth's vocal creating hauntingly atmospheric, surreal dreamscapes.

An entire demo album, 'The Entire City' can be streamed via Elizabeth's website, go and listen because it gives the perfect summation of the Gazelle Twin project. Highlights include the chilling foreboding atmosphere on "This Entire City", the choral and Dirty Projector-esque harmonised wailings at the start of "Concrete Mother". "Building The Obelisk's" continual melancholic yet overwhelmingly beautiful vocals and some primitive, incessant drumming on "When I Was Otherwise". You get the idea, this is simply divine and disturbing, the songs take you to a fantastical, otherworldly universe creating an ambience of equal parts beauty and dread.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. This is going to be incredible live, conjuring the same dark magic that has made Karen Dreijer Andersson, Anja Plaschg and Nika Roza Danilova all firm-favourites of the gothic electro world, this incredibly well-constructed, innovative project is going to explode.

Listen to the single below:


The previous single "Changelings"
Gazelle Twin - Changelings by Cannonball_PR

A teaser for what promises to be a visually stunning video for "I Am Shell I Am Bone"

I Am Shell I Am Bone Trailer from Gazelle Twin on Vimeo.

The Joy Formidable #12 - Whirring Release + Levi's Acoustic Gig

Whirring gets its release as the second single from The Big Roar on April 4th (full details TBC), today the video was released. See below for that. I'm pretty sure this will be the single for The Joy Formidable, it's too good not to get the massive success the band deserve.

If you are in London on Friday (11th March) then you should try and come to a rather special and intimate gig that TJF will be doing at Levi's Regent Street store. The gigs will be a stripped down and acoustic set to an audience of about 100 people, followed by a Q&As with the audience. It's free to attend, all you need to do is register at the Levi’s Facebook and hope you get picked - go here.

The album is released in the States next week (15th) and the band are on tour for six weeks starting at SXSW - dates here - The return to the UK is already planned, Tuesday 10th May at Koko followed by a gig as part of The Great Escape on the 12th before a few support slots for the Manics. I'll bring a couple more recordings from the Euro tour soon.

Here's the video:

exlovers - New Single Blowing Kisses

http://exlovers.co.uk/

Because I'm slow on the uptake sometimes the many mails I get don't receive the attention they should until a lot later in the day, therefore I've missed out on exlovers until now. The London based quintet with Boy/girl vocals and shimmering guitars epitomise the perfect mould for a sugar sweet indie-pop band, a match made in heaven for any Teenage Fanclub / Pains of Being Pure at Heart fan.

Combining gorgeous melodies, jangly guitar work and  perfect harmonies the glorious "Blowing Kisses" is the groups fourth single and was released at the end of last month,  I'd give a buy link for the physical 7" but it's sold out, download from iTunes.

See "You Forget So Easily" for another perfect gem and get a free download of Chris Izaak's Wicked Game below, rather lovely it is too.

Blowing Kisses by exlovers

Wicked Game - Exlovers


exlovers - Blowing Kisses from exlovers on Vimeo.


You Forget So Easily from exlovers on Vimeo.

Fever Ray #2 - The Wolf Cometh

One thing guaranteed to send blogosphere into an overdrive is a new track by Karin Dreijer Andersson, under her Fever Ray moniker, Karin has contributed a track to Catherine Hardwicke’s (Twilight) new film Red Riding Hood, as much as it pains me to say it with the Fever Ray / Gary Oldman presence the film looks horrendous...

"The Wolf" however is anything but horrendous, it's a sinister and frankly insane track. I'm sure it fit's in well on the dark adaptation of the classic Grimm fairy tale, if this doesn't make you want to run naked through a wood then nothing will, be a bit chilly though...

Stream:
Fever Ray - The Wolf by AndrewDiego

Oupa - The Artist Formally Known as Yu(c)k

http://oupamusic.com/

Oupa is the new name of Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg's solo venture previously entitled Yu(c)k, I'm guessing the name change is to formally separate the confusion from the grungey BBC Sound of 2011 listed (if not quite to my taste) Yuck who have been getting universal praise for their debut album . Now as a previous Cajun Dance Party fan, the more austere by design and serenely beautiful Oupa tracks fit far more into my palette.

"Daughter" and "Automatic" have the same equally haunting and heartfelt similarities of the superb Perfume Genius LP of last year, ghostly backing vocals and minimalist arrangements, whilst new track "Forget" with sparse lo-fi piano arrangements wholly saturated in melancholy will only strengthen those claims.

I have a feeling some new Yuck fans will be confused by this side-project. Just where are the fuzzy guitars eh?! Me? I think it's perfect, very much looking forward to the debut 7-track EP, 'Forget' which is set for release in June. Steam below, the whole Weakend EP can be found on the Oupa soundcloud.

Forget by oupa

Oupa - Daughter by morrisday

Computer Magic - New Music "Introducing"

http://thecomputermagic.com/

Computer Magic is the solo project of 21-year-old Danielle Johnson (she goes by Danz) who makes some sweet bedroom produced lo-fi electro-pop, a low-budget Goldfrapp and Little Boots springs to mind.

Throughout the electro disco gems soaring melodies and spacey atmospheres are a plenty, unlike so many of my posts their is nothing dark and sinister here. Recalling the same vibe of some 80's/90's video game classics, you can imagine Sierra would have loved "In So Many Ways" on their 'Space Quest' series.
Stand-out "About You" has a doo-wop girl group feeling throughout its whimsical, playful vibe.

Three free EP's are available to download from Danz's website - that's a lot of tunes, so enjoy - her first vinyl release, a 12” contains four songs and is out in limited edition white vinyl on March 15th through White Iris. The lead, a reworked, mixed version of the delightful "Found Out" is below:

Computer Magic - Found Out

About You by Computer Magic

In So Many Ways by Computer Magic