Browsing Tag

Indie Rock

Nav’s Hook paid tribute to the heroes that we are all indebted to in his latest single, L.I.A.H.

Posted on 29 March 2022

It seems a lifetime ago since we were all empathising with the plight and applauding the heroism of frontline health workers; for his latest single, L.I.A.H., Nav’s Hook brought us right back with his fitting tribute to their selfless resolve and resilience.

L.I.A.H. (Lighthouse in a Hurricane) gives Soul Asylum a run for its money in terms of intrinsic emotional gravity; vocally, Nav’s Hook carries the gravitas of Chris Cornell over the delicately strummed acoustic strings, shimmering reverb from electric guitars and efficaciously minimalist percussion.

We’re stoked to hear Nav’s Hook on stellar form once again. His songwriting ability makes this increasingly confusing planet make infinitely more sense. When you pair that with his refreshing introspection, it’s a winning combination.

The official lyric video to L.I.A.H. premiered on March 17th, 2022. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Britpop bites back with snarling teeth in JW Paris’ grungy no-wave single, Electric Candle Light

Posted on 25 March 2022
JW Paris

JW Paris, the UK-based three-piece that is quickly becoming revered for its pornographic guitars and biting Britpop swagger, have unleashed their stickiest alt-90s earworm to date with Electric Candle Light.

The Crampsy garagey prelude paves the way for surf rock meets no-wave indie hooks that won’t fail to reel you into the volatility of the sonic triumph. It easily matches the energy of Blur’s Song 2. Yet, notably, JW Paris is a caustic cut above the rest with their jarringly arrestive synth lines and subversive lyrics that acknowledges the rose-tinted glasses that nostalgia always filters through.

The single was recorded and produced at Buffalo Studios by JB Pilon and mastered by John Davis (Blue, IDLES, Foals, Primal Scream, U2). With that in mind, it never really had a chance of falling flat. Since making their debut, they’ve been a constant feature on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Absolute Radio X, and Radio X. They’ve also shared stages with The Amazons, Skinner Brothers, Yonaka and Avalanche Party.

Electric Candle Light will officially release on March 25th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Keep up to date with new releases and tours via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Following the release of Electric Candle Light, they’re set to hit the road again with Dead Freights.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ryan Hamilton leaves us Free Fallin’ in his Tom Petty cover

Posted on 12 March 2022

Covering iconic singles that have followed us through the eras and become part of the soundtracks to our lives is always a risky move but The Fort Worth, Texas singer-songwriter, Ryan Hamilton’s boldness paid off when he breathed new life into the already upliftingly breezy single, Free Fallin’.

Tom Petty’s original was largely faultless. Yet, as Hamilton has already been branded as the Tom Petty of this generation, hitting play quickly allows interest to evolve into indulging a revitalised classic, which was recorded during a recent trip to London at Abbey Road Studios.

Before establishing himself as a Grammy-worthy singer-songwriter with his original material Hamilton toured across North America and Canada with his former bands, received international airplay and impressed Classic Rock and Kerrang. And perhaps most impressively, he’s written and recorded with the legendary Ginger Wildheart.

We have no doubt the future of his career will be just as luminary. Watch this space.

Check out Ryan Hamilton’s cover of Free Fallin’ via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Revel in the lovesick euphoria in Analog Beach’s synthpop-meets-indie-rock single, See You Tonight

Posted on 12 March 2022

80s synthpop grooves against angular indie-rock in the NJ-based up-and-coming duo, Analog Beach’s latest convergence of the past and future, See You Tonight. The vocal lines in the chorus easily become the sharpest of hooks, and that’s before you even get to the instrumentals that put white-hot guitar solos against colourful retro synths.

Fans of The Midnight, Wolf Club, and FM-84 will easily make a playlist staple out of this sweet affectionate hit, which doesn’t sugar coat affection. Instead, Analog Beach thrives while narrating just how emotionally crippling infatuation can be. Not all artists succeed in combining reality and romanticism, yet notably, Analog beach is anything but your average artist experimenting with tones and coming up with catchy lyrics. There’s substance by the smorgasbord in this euphorically bright hit that is sure to see the duo go far in 2022 and beyond.

The radio edit of See You Tonight is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sever trauma bonds with The Stolen Moans’ indie alt-rock earworm, Falling Into

Posted on 1 March 2022

Plenty of new tracks aired on Valentine’s Day; The Stolen Moans’ indie alt-rock single, Falling Into, which explores the dizzying magnetism of trauma bonds, is the triumphant antithesis of most of them.

The DIY LA-hailing trio’s blend of punk energy and melodic, hooky metal pulls together to offer a volatile and virtuosic extension of the Riot Grrrl movement. They’re not short of raw sonic power, but the true appeal to The Stolen Moans is how artfully they attack the production in their emotionally investable tracks while keeping in line with the 4-chord-rock-and-roll ethos. It isn’t every day that we hear an alt-rock outfit delivering their own definitive sound, but all reminiscences in Falling Into are extremely fleeting.

The official lyric video premiered on February 14th; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Malo Daniels gave indie Americana pop-rock a soul injection with ‘Waiting for Roses’

Posted on 15 February 2022

After the successful launch of his debut single, Down, Out and Up, in 2022, the singer-songwriter, Malo Daniels, proved that he was worthy of a place on listeners’ radars with the launch of his debut album, Waiting for Roses, which fuses pop, soul, rock and Americana – to swoon-worthy effect.

With a team of Nashville musicians behind him and acclaimed producer, Dallas Dudley, polishing the album, Waiting for Roses is a triumph of romanticism, sun-soaked talent and powerfully mature songwriting. The title single is as hooky as Faith by George Michael, as indulgently indie as Kurt Vile and as soulfully compelling as Prince’s sweetest serenades. With the warm over-driven guitars greeting the horn stabs and Daniels’ honeyed vocal timbre, you’d be hard-pressed finding a track that takes you higher than this unadulterated feat of romanticism and longingly panoramic expression.

Waiting for Roses is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Volta Nova – Out Where the West Begins: Meet the Fresh Face of Blues Rock

Posted on 5 February 2022

To follow on from their debut Return to Tomorrow EP, the fresh face of blues-rock, Volta Nova, unleashed their college-rock-reminiscent stormer of an extended single, Out Where the West Begins.

With hints of the 90s Seattle sound, prog-rock proclivities, blues rock attitude, swaggering crunchy guitars and nuances of the Offspring in the early days in their vocals, you couldn’t ask for a more dynamically indulgent alt-rock single to add to your playlists. For five unadulterated minutes, Volta Nova pulls from the puppet strings of a myriad of genres to deliver a sound as distinctive as it is familiar. Words alone could never express the innovation encased in Out Where the West Begins that draws you in with its impassioned gravitas.

Out Where the West Begins is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

It is just a ‘Matter of Faith’ in Gatuzz’ impassioned high-vibe alt-rock triumph

Posted on 20 January 2022

Finding new alt-rock artists with authentic vision and an equally as refreshing sonic palette is no easy feat in 2022, but that just makes Munich’s most prodigal outfit, Gatuzz, even more aurally attractive.

Gatuzz was formed by Efrain Gatuzz before they made made their debut at the Munich Street Live Festival in 2018. Since, they have released two hard-indie-rock albums in the same vein as Alter Bridge, Chevelle, Richie Kotzen and the Winery Dogs.

In their 2021 album, Katharsis, the power trio’s sound becomes defined by the heavy overdriven guitars, the intensity of the percussion and the scuzz in the basslines. The standout single, Matter of Faith, is a high-vibe alt-rock triumph. Atop crashing percussion and buzzsaw riffs, the sweet and instantly endearing slightly poppy vocals drag you into the tumultuous furore while urgently relaying the impassioned lyrics.

Matter of Faith is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Winchester 7 & the Runners shared their world-weary wit in their ukulele-led indie rock album, Catacomb Songs.

Posted on 12 January 2022

Get your nostalgia fix and your catharsis hit in one in the latest album from the internationally scattered outfit, Winchester 7 & The Runners. Catacomb Songs was just one of the lockdown-born albums conceived via Zoom in 2021; notably, few albums advocate for the future of remote collaboration better than this 9-track release.

The hazy, smoky and garagey vibes in the ukulele-led indie rock album are just as sweet as any album from the Zombies, the Beatles and the Stones. There may be nothing like delving into your favourite records from decades past, yet Winchester 7 & the Runners have their relevant and resonant ennui as an upper hand.

The thought of an indie ukulele rock album may send the blood pressure of music snobs through the roof, but if anyone can change the reputation of the electric ukulele, it is Winchester 7 & the Runners. They know just how to pull the rich, warm timbre from the electric uke to compliment the equally as mellifluous vocals.

The album starts with the quasi-morbid single, Dead Celebrities and New Beginnings, which questions why new beginnings seem impossible for ordinary folk while the famous can enjoy posthumous transformations. Once Dead Celebrities and New Beginnings has grabbed your attention, the album kicks things down a notch with the 70s rock reminiscent single, The Song That You Sing, which opens up a new level of lyrical intimacy that continues through the duration of the album that is tinged with satirical wit and the rare sense of compassion that can only be extended from world-weary soul to another.

Here is what Winchester 7 had to say about Catacomb Songs:

“We released our previous EP, Argos Holiday, last year on December 17th to limited fanfare due to the pandemic. In the following months, we made the best use of our time, took to our home studios and worked via Zoom to produce a follow-up. Catacomb Songs is certainly pandemic influenced in places, especially Riding High Again, which was written in memoriam of a good friend that succumbed to alcoholism during it. However, there is also a message of hope and inspired joy that is directly related to the normalcy we found playing together, albeit apart, amidst the lockdowns and travel bans.”

Catacomb Songs was officially released on December 17th. It is now available to stream on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Connect with Winchester 7 & the Runners to stay up to date with the 60s-inspired alchemy yet to come via Instagram and Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Christopher Kremer has released his elegantly poetic allusion to languor ‘Electron’

Posted on 7 January 2022

If you still hold a candle for the melancholia of Elliott Smith, consider the new EP from folk singer-songwriter Christopher Kremer as an unmissable release. Major/Minor carries just enough reminiscences to tease nostalgia as the Chicago-based artist leaves you enamoured by his down-but-not-out authenticity.

The soul-fizzingly sweet lead single, Electron, is equally as instrumentally melodious as the most cathartic singles from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The vocals and lyrics lace the soundscape with an all too relatable languor, but even with the poetic allusions to entropy, the hazy choral textures ensure that Electron resonates as a transcendently uplifting release.

Major/Minor is now available to stream in full via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast