Threatmantics
1) Threatmantics - 'Shadow on Your Heart'
Channelling the theatricality of Bryan Ferry's 'The In Crowd', Welsh art rock quartet Threatmantics released a diverse and wide-ranging LP in Shadow on Your Heart, brooding and with crunching guitars driving the energetic rhythm of its title-track, it exemplifies the fun and often dramatic nature of the album as a whole.
2) AllegrA - 'Spoon or Fork'
AllegrA is a four-piece indie rock band fronted by 24-year-old Philadelphia native Allegra Eidinger. With many shifting members over the years, Allegra has found a home back in Philly after starting the band in Pittsburgh in 2016. Allegra’s songwriting contains catchy melodic guitars, poppy rhythms, and groovy bass lines all resting below their low, raspy and whispery vocals. One of Allegra's goals for their music is to bring you with them into their bedroom studio while they sit and write in the quiet of their mind alone. A little twinkly, a little emo, a little queer band from Philadelphia.
Taken from AllegrA's latest EP, yet, not enough, released on Citrus City Records, 'Spoon or Fork' is a fiery jaunt that flits between lo-fi DIY slacker-rock and coarse heavier rock moments, a seemingly uneventful 'day in the life' theme fits the care-free humour of the lyrics well, and thrashing break at 2:10 is very invigorating.
AllegrA - Photo: CJ Simavi
3) Guide Dog - 'Generation Y'
Guide Dog are probably our most featured Welsh band on REMY over the years, and it's because we love their sound, but with 'Generation Y' I think they've created our favourite track to date. A frustrated protest song reflecting on the dismissiveness of politicians when it comes to youth protest, specifically regarding climate change, and also POTUS' ego-driven wall building exercise. It's a really effervescent and bone-crunching pop-rock blow out from Guide Dog that succeeds in its musical aim of arousing ire in the listener.
4) Typical Sisters - 'To The Landing'
Hungry Ghost, the title of Typical Sisters’ new album from Outside in Music, refers to the Chinese Buddhist idea of a being whose appetites cannot be sated. In 2019, when smartphones are essentially a human appendage, governments are corporatized and the media cycle never rests, it’s a concept that all but defines our reality.
L.A. trio Typical Sisters released their latest album Hungry Ghost on the 15th of March, a sprawling instrumental affair steeped in jazz movements. Led by guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, who long-term readers of the blog may remember from our previous reviews of his other band Fell Runner, the mood is relaxing, ambient and warm, the perfect antidote to chaotic global uncertainty.
5) Fold feat. Potent Whisper - 'We're The Ones'
Leeds hip-hop and experimental trio Fold combine with MC Potent Whisper on the title-track to their forthcoming sophomore album. Funky jazz hooks, a golden brass milieu and spoken-word rhymes from Potent Whisper, give the track a nice throw-back feel to mid-90's rn'b and hip-hop.
Blurred Out
6) Blurred Out - 'Evergreen'
Oakland, California indie-rock four-piece Blurred Out share latest single 'Evergreen', a jolly and jangling guitar jaunt with uptempo percussion, it immediately recalls one of my favourite albums Pinkerton via Weezer. The out-of-control guitar riffs swarm erratically in the best of ways around the incessant drumming, a fun and nostalgic sound that's very easy on the ear.
7) Imbibe - 'Touchdown (Two Worlds Collide)'
Australian brothers Tennyson and Holden Nobel who are now Berlin-based, released latest single 'Touchdown (Two Worlds Collide)' a few weeks ago. Strong pop overtones and subtle psych patterns create an extremely colourful sonic landscape that is most smile-inducing. FFO Tame Impala, Gotye and MGMT.
8) Jacob Faurholt - 'Halloween Pumpkin'
To the backdrop of a whirling old projector, Danish experimental folk artists Jacob Faurholt release the emotive and contemplative 'Halloween Pumpkin' from his latest EP, appropriately titled Sad People which released last week. A true wordsmith who always conjures up the most vivid and enchanting visuals with his lyrics, Faurholt's relentless output still manages to surprise with twists and turns on every new record.
To listen to our previous independent International Playlist go here https://thebestofmusicandfilm.blogspot.com/2019/03/international-playlist-rozi-plain-saxsyndrum-jylda-greta-stanley.html
