Browsing Tag

Alt Indie

Holy Joe has made an eponymous indie debut and enriched Liverpool’s cultural tapestry once again after his THE DECEMBERISTS legacy.

Posted on 2 June 2023

After taking what was left of the city of Liverpool by storm after the Beatles tore through the cultural fabric of it in the 80s outfit, THE DECEMBERISTS (no, not the American band who coincidently go by the same moniker), the guitarist founded his new project, Holy Joe, to prove he still has what it takes to make an audience shake, rattle, and roll to the sound of his ingenuity.

In the wake of working fret magic in several revered indie bands, the integral part of the UK indie landscape has stepped to the centre of the stage and established himself as a stellar singer-songwriter in his own right with his self-titled single. The rambunctious record has all the making of a perfect indie-pop release and plenty more in its arsenal.

With the quintessentially affable air of Half-Man Half-Biscuit fused with melodies that will grip the nostalgia-loving senses of the La’s and the Seahorses fans, the single is rhythmic raconteurial earworm which leaves enough room in the indie tapestry for a nuanced Americana folk twang.

Stream the self-titled debut single on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Au-Turn unveiled a hypnotic reflection on the naive faith of youth with ‘Water Boatman’

Posted on 30 May 2023

Water Boatman is the quintessentially quaint saturated in delay sophomore single from Dolan Hewison’s solo project, Au-Turn. After working fretboard magic in the legendary outfit, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Hewison has turned his attention to writing, playing, and recording his first solo work in 25 years, inspired by the stagnation of lockdowns and the purchase of a loop pedal and piano.

With angularly clever lead guitar work that effervesces in the same vein as Slowdive, a touch of Half-Man Half-Biscuit playful lyrical obscurity, and an experimental production style that almost resonates as a lo-fi extension of the style popularised by The Flaming Lips, and some spoken word verses to boot, Water Boatman is a vessel you will want to pour yourself into time and time again.

We’re officially stoked for the forthcoming Au-Turn debut LP, No.1, which is set to be unveiled on the 2nd of June.

Water Boatman is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Be a passenger to the alchemic Avant-Garde experimentalism in SEAKIN’s alt-indie single, Men of Heart

Posted on 25 May 2023

Montreal’s most Avant Garde alt-indie outfit, SEAKIN, went into experimental overdrive with their ravishingly alluring amalgam of post-punk, psych and ethereal desert rock, Men of Heart. The angularly funky guitar chops around the diaphanous siren-ESQUE vocal lines provided by the author, composer, and performer Natalie Talbot is a combination that will stir the senses of any innovation seekers out there looking to fill their playlists with originated material.

If you could imagine what Blondie, Jim Morrison, Bowie, Siouxsie and the Banshees would sound like in an aural melting pot, Men of Heart can give you a phantasmally beguiling idea. We can’t wait to hear what SEAKIN put out next after Men of Heart gave us a serious taste for their darkly scintillating spin on post-punk.

Men of Heart will hit the airwaves on May 25. Hear it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The formidable queen of orchestral indie, Tabitha Booth, set a baroque score in her single, Silent Lucidity

Posted on 17 April 2023

Coming to you live from Cocoon Studios, Tabitha Booth set a baroque score in her evocatively artful cover of Queensrÿche’s hit 90s song, Silent Lucidity. The chamber strings carve through the indie artist’s neo-classic class, which effortlessly resonates through her Tori Amos-ESQUE vocal lines and the tension-fraught arrangements that stands as a testament to her ability to weave an intricate and picturesque narrative.

Amanda Palmer may be the ‘Girl Anachronism’, but Tabitha Booth established herself as the formidable queen of orchestral indie after unveiling the disquiet alchemy in Silent Lucidity. We are stoked to see her back on the airwaves after the reprieve that followed her 2020 single, Curiosity. Here’s to hoping that there’s plenty more poignantly pensive alchemy lingering in the pipeline.

The live recording of Silent Lucidity is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Benjamin Dean – Sinking Our Teeth: Forbidden Fruit Has Never Tasted Sweeter

Posted on 11 April 2023

Taken from his debut album, Veda, the up-and-coming alt-indie crooner, Benjamin Dean’s single, Sinking Our Teeth (Into the Fruit Again), is a lesson in hedonistic prolepsis.

After the opulent instrumental aesthetics have constructed a glisteningly atmospheric tone, Benjamin Dean’s soul-deep vocal lines start to wrap around the lyrics that illustrate how sweet forbidden fruit is when you’re anticipating the nectarine bliss.

Contrasting the teasing intensity of the lyricality, the ambience resonates like a Dionysus daydream; as scintillating as a candelabra under the moonlight, Sinking Our Teeth is an arrestive example of how experimentalism and deep concepts don’t always need to be hand in hand with inaccessibility. Slipping into the impassioned style of this celestial soundscape is as easy as breathing.

Sinking Our Teeth (Into the Fruit Again) is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Frances Cleave explored the Pepsi and Coke of suffering with her Southern Gothic single, ‘Freedom vs. Loneliness’.

Posted on 4 April 2023

The sophomore single, Freedom vs Loneliness, from the indie songstress Frances Cleave, is an ethereally arrestive shoegazey Clannad-ESQUE exploration of sufferance. The 21-year-old singer-songwriter takes inspiration from her haunted city of Charleston, SC; it doesn’t get much more Southern Gothic than her latest single, which will drive you to breaking point in the presence of her harbingering vocal lines that effortlessly gel with the phantasmally reverb-soaked pensive synths and evocatively plucked acoustic guitar strings.

The lyrics subtly explore the triadic trauma imparted by religious trauma, sexualisation and objectification but there’s enough ambiguity within the lyricality for the listener to apply their own contexts of freedom and loneliness. It’s a poignant reminder that the grass isn’t always greener, especially when the ground is hallowed whichever way you turn.

We can’t wait to hear what else she has in the melancholic pipeline; her debut LP is due for release late 2023, following her next single, which is primed for release in May.

Freedom v Loneliness debuted on April 1. Stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Testaverde took a jazzy astral trip through psychedelic soul in their standout single, Livre

Posted on 2 April 2023

Away from the fray of music manufactured for mainstream appeal, the music project, Testaverde, led by singer-songwriter Pedro Rafa and producer Ale Siqueira, always follows a mythical path to invite the listener to reflect on life. Ultimately, the soundscapes from Testaverde are the embodiments of our true selves.

The standout single, Livre, which was brought to life with an army of authentic artists, is a far cry from the archetypal indie tonal palette with the ethereally jazzy textures, funk-licked rhythms, and astral layers of psychedelic soul. Livre is definitively a single you will get lost within before you find yourself rejuvenated by artful experimentalism. Great minds don’t think alike; they’re all outside the box like the effortless originators in this accessible Avant Garde orchestration.

Add Livre to your Spotify playlists, or immerse yourself in the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

London Graffiti put the writing on the wall in their art-rock tour de force, These Words

Posted on 2 April 2023

Keeping the soul of grunge but stripping back the sludge, the Oxford, UK-based alt-indie rock outfit London Graffiti unleashed the ultimate aural eye-prickler with their latest single, These Words.

If you melded the pensive folky panache of Frightened Rabbit with the art-rock arrangements of Radiohead and the progressively dark atmosphere of Porcupine Tree, you’d get close to the evocative mark made on the indie rock landscape by the band that has already won the favour of plenty of mainstream radio stations, including BBC Introducing.

It is impossible not to be choked by the emotion-fuelled energy in the single, which also pays tribute to the National, Joy Division, and the Doves. Originality oozes from every effortlessly cool pore of These Words, yet never to the detriment of the projection of frantically inhibited dejection.

These Words was officially released on March 16th; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Welcome Stranger set an intimately artful indie-folk score with ‘You Need Me’

Posted on 31 March 2023
https://soundcloud.com/user-853304457/you-need-me/s-ZPUmj7J2TKU?si=5a1550f8f29f44ce8fffbf3b65c94e6a&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

From chamber strings to honkytonk Americana tones to indie art-rock crescendos, Welcome Stranger rolled with all the evocative punches when instrumentally composing their latest single, You Need Me.

After taking inspiration from the likes of Ben Howard and Justin Vernon, the devilishly talented duo scribed their own eloquently indie folk signature in You Need Me, the lead single from the debut album, Running Out of Miles. The LP title is heartbreak material alone.

With the whisky and melancholy-soaked vocal lines, you will lock into the lyrics from the first hit of this stunningly orchestrated single, which definitively proves that beauty still thrives in the world, regardless of the entropy and disillusion that so easily manifests whenever the full picture is in view. Yet, with this poetically candid single, Welcome Stranger exhibits that intimacy and intricate detail is everything.

You Need Me will officially release on March 31st. You can hear it via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

KLDD is a vision in kaleidoscopic colour in their indie-psych hit, Little Help (Today)

Posted on 24 March 2023

Cruising in like a psychedelic Cadillac, the Dublin-based dreamers, KLDD paid homage to the Manchester indie greats in their latest single, Little Help (Today). The sounds of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays shimmer through the scintillatingly sharp melodies, which leave the low timbres to the basslines and the transcendent euphoria to the colourfully kaleidoscopic guitar lines.

The outfit may have banded together through a love of dirty riffs, but the groove-driven décor of this elevated postcard to the Manchester icons, which pushes beyond a transfixion on the past, soars higher than Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds.

For a sure-fire fix of serotonin, stream Little Help (Today) from March 24th via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast