Dan Friel’s second album Life arrives this month

02 October 2015

Dan Friel - Life

Dan Friel has been making music and playing solo for a long time, including years before the experimental rock band Parts & Labor, who he had co-founded, went on a hiatus in 2012. His follow up to 2013’s Total Folklore is arriving soon, and is called Life. There’s several nods to fatherhood in the album, as Friel explained, with him now being a new father.
Friel wrote and recorded Life at his home studio, using a “small arsenal of gear to distort and maneuver his beloved Yamaha Portasound into an expansive sound that is incredibly varied in tone and texture”, describes the album’s blurb. “All throughout Life, Friel exploits his intentionally simple set-up to ever surprising effect, using simple electronics to mirror the sounds of guitars, drums, and harmonicas. It is an irresistible and genre-bending collection of underground anthems”.

Ahead of Life‘s release on October 16th via Thrill Jockey, Friel has already let loose two beautiful and electrifying tracks, ‘Life (Pt. 1)’ and ‘Rattler’. Listen to both below.


In other related news, an in support of the upcoming album, Dan Friel is embarking on a European tour in November, with Lightning Bolt. Check all the dates on his website.

Calico’s self-titled debut EP arrives next month

29 September 2015

Calico - Calico

We’ve been meaning to post some wonderful music from Brighton quintet Calico for a while. Chris Martyr (keyboards and samples), Dan Nixon (guitar), Lewis Husband (trumpet), Vlad Matveikov (bass) and Graham Burgess (drums), who make up the band, create mind-blowing compositions blending each of its five members’ own musical territories, including jazz, electronica, folk, rock and classical.
Comes October 19th, Calico will release their self-titled debut EP via Small Pond. The effort “exhibits the band’s staggering vision, ambition and musicianship with their combined inventiveness and passion across keys and samples, brass and warped guitar sounds creating something that is tantalizingly refreshing”, says the press release.

‘Euphorism’ was the first marvellous single lifted from the upcoming EP and they have recently teased the album further with the glorious ‘Fold A Winning Hand’. Listen to both tracks below.


HeCTA premiere video for ‘Sympathy For The Auto Industry’

28 September 2015

HeCTA - sympathy for the auto industry

Hot on the heels of their recently released debut album The Diet, HeCTA have unveiled a video for the galvanizing and hypnotic ‘Sympathy For The Auto Industry’. Directed by Chris Shepherd, the video portrays the relationship between a father and son. “The son tries to reach out to his dad, but is he cold and remote. It’s not till he thinks he’s lost his son that things change. They are like ships passing in the night. But will they collide?”

Shepherd described further how the video came about:

“I wanted to do something that matched the electronica of the track. It felt like the Human League/Heaven 17 vibe of the track screamed out for something visually similar to the ‘Money for Nothing’ promo by Dire Straits. I also thought it would be cool to collaborate with RTS award nominee and Kingston graduate Jez Pennington, whose graduate film Pigeon Kids is a story of urban alienation in a world of CGI.

Myself and Jez were really into the idea of getting data moshing into the promo. We wanted to get a sense of abstraction, where the music becomes so powerful it breaks the images apart. There’s a great bit in the promo for David Bowie’s ‘Loving the Alien’ where the image breaks apart as the music hits a peak. I love the power of that idea.”

Check out the video for ‘Sympathy for the Auto Industry’ below.

The Diet is out now via City Slang in Europe and via Merge in North America.

The Chap release new single from upcoming album

25 September 2015

The Chap - Guitar Messiah

We had already heard ‘Jammer’, the first single lifted from The Chap‘s forthcoming political rock album The Show Must Go. Ahead of its release on October 23rd via Lo Recordings, the quintet are giving us another taste from the album in the form of ‘Guitar Messiah’. The single, described as “a motorik ode to the power of ye olde rock guitar”, comes backed with ‘Here’s A Guitar’ on the B-side. We’ll have to wait till October 9th to get our hands on it but we can already stream both tracks.

Get The Blessing drop video for new single ‘Phaenomena’

21 September 2015

Get The Blessing - Phaenomena

We’re only two weeks away from the much anticipated release of Get The Blessing‘s fifth album, Astronautilus. The Bristolian quartet had already allured us with the first single, ‘Monkfish‘ and they’re keeping us excited with another incredible cut from the album, ‘Phaenomena’. The track comes with an accompanying video directed by James Hankins. Here it is.

Astronautilus is due out on October 2nd via Naim Jazz Records.

Jono McCleery shares third single from upcoming album Pagodes

16 September 2015
Photo: M Nagel

Photo: M Nagel

With the release of his upcoming third album Pagodes fast approaching, Jono McCleery has shared a third single off it, the marvellous and enveloping ‘This Idea Of Us’. We had already heard and loved two tracks from the album, ‘Age of Self’ and ‘Clarity’. ‘This Idea Of Us’ is another jewel within an album of gems.

And as if we needed more news to rejoice, Jono shared this week a video for the beautiful acoustic version of ‘Age of Self’. Now listen to ‘This Idea Of Us’ and watch the video straight after.


Pagodes is out on October 2nd via If Music.