Photo: Derek Jay
Info: It's taken me a while to get back into the swing of things with regards to the wonderful music being made by independent artists outside of Ireland, the flip-side being that this Playlist is chockablock with some seriously high quality tunes from releases over the last 4-5 weeks. It really is, and always has been, an essential part of what I enjoy doing in terms of sharing great music that I think others may love too.
First up is the mellow mellow lo-fi sound of Matthew Hershoff, aka MONS VI, from New York, and his new single, 'Away', which was recently released as part of a double A-Side, the twin track being 'Tangerine (Eternity Redux)', loving both quite a lot. Next comes the latest single from one of our absolute favourites, Copenhagen's Rainbrother, with 'Blue', someone please get this man and his band to Dublin yesterday, this new one is my favourite release to date from an artist I've followed since 2011 in his previous guise as The Migrant.
From Austin, Texas we have the deliciously chilled shoegaze incarnate of 'Tether' courtesy of Blushing, even the track title suggests disappearance into their sound, two pairs of husbands and wives, have created a piece of dream pop which turns hard rock glory, musically I'm putty in their hands, talk about knowing how to nail a shoegasm.
Blushing
Another band who have been reviewed on these pages previously and seem to be effortlessly writing beautiful singles are Wrexham's Kidsmoke, the Welsh band released their latest single 'Waves' last month and it's a spot on piece of indie-rock, if it's too early to call the early noughties 'classic indie', so be it, but these guys are all over it and then some. Dana & The Wolf bring their customary dark, luscious and raucous alternative pop sound with added hammer blow on their most recent single 'Another Friend' which was just released this week, customary heavy piano keys and searing guitar solo, as well as a wild vocal expanse make it another highly enjoyable single from the duo.
Sacramento, California act Doombird mix it up with dark 80's pop and contemporary electronic indie on 'Overflowing', a band that include in their members Tycho touring musician Joseph Davancens, their new album, Past Lives, was recently released on the 30th December just gone. I'll let Nova Scotia, Canada's Jenn Grant's video for single 'Galaxies' from her forthcoming album Paradise speak for itself, Irish music fans should note that the artist play Whelan's in Dublin on the 24th of May as part of her European Tour.
Jenn Grant - Galaxies
At this point of the playlist you'll drop into the majorly chilled out slipstream of L.A.'s Todavia, and her track 'Fix Myself', the dream-pop project of Rhyan Riesgo, as per her Bandcamp page, all music was written and produced in a little room outside of Los Angeles, musical romance and escapism abounds. Pure dream-pop is executed on Brooklyn solo act Jenna Kyle's new single 'Dust', plonky, wonky beats and unabashed electronic sounds chatter around her vocals, a hypnotic and indulgent trip. Finally, Toronto's Altar Eagles brings us his single, 'Skeletal', a chunky indie-pop track with a distinctly British flavour, it's rhythmic nuance trundles persistently from the get-go, uplifting and gratifying to say the least.
If you like what you heard here, follow me on Spotify here for the latest independent music https://open.spotify.com/user/11155734402
If you like what you heard here, follow me on Spotify here for the latest independent music https://open.spotify.com/user/11155734402
