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Life In The Jangle Is Hard…

An almost overwhelming amount of new music has appeared seemingly all at once. Here are some of the many highlights…

Shopfires – s/t

Cascading arpeggios and gently enveloping keys lie at the heart of Leicester based artist Neil Hill’s stirring DIY jangle project Shopfires. Out now via Subjangle, Shopfires’ self-titled debut album is a warmly comforting collection of beautifully crafted bedroom pop infused with the spirit of C86 and early Flying Nun. Softly sung melodies and searching lyrics are frequently given flight by Hill’s expansive arrangements, gifting the project scope far beyond its lo-fi origins.

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Goodbye Wudaokou – Ultraviolet Kiss

Uninhibited emotion, soaring indie-rock and intimate electronic flourishes collide on Ultraviolet Kiss, the latest single from Manchester based home recording project Goodbye Wudaokou. Brought to fruition by the boundlessly creative mind of Mathew Mills, debut album Mirror Skies will follow later this year.

Vanishing Muffins – Central

Jakarta based noise-pop collective Vanishing Muffins follow up last years warmly received debut single Taste Of Cherry with new EP Central, released via Brighton based label Shore Dive Records. Now expanded to a fourpiece, the group continue to channel the spirit of My Bloody Valentine and Jesus And Mary Chain into their vital, vibrant creations. Murmured melodies lurk beneath layers of searing guitars and fractured feedback, painting vivid pictures of lost love and the struggles of living paycheck to paycheck.

Amateur Cult – Eyes

Relentless rhythms and pummelling sax drive this storming new single by Amateur Cult fearlessly forward. Recording with a full band for the first time, Edinburgh based artist Alastair Chivers has concocted a heady Krautrock inspired brew that is both dangerously intoxicating and highly addictive. Building on the success of last years debut album The Mirrored Pattern, Chivers’ expanded Amateur Cult are a propulsive, powerful ensemble that demand your immediate attention.

Ship Full Of Bombs ep.10

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Playlist: Monday 26th February

1) Dancer – Change

https://meritoriorec.bandcamp.com/album/10-songs-i-hate-about-you

2) R.E. Seraphin – Bound

https://safesuburbanhomerecords.bandcamp.com/album/fools-mate

3) Outer World – The Drum The Beat

https://hhbtm.bandcamp.com/album/who-does-the-music-love

4) Flowertown – The Ring

https://paisleyshirtrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tourist-language

5) Torrey – Bounce

https://torreymusic.bandcamp.com/album/torrey

6) Ryann Gonsalves – Feeder Fish

https://dandyboyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ouch

7) Red Pants – Heartshade (In The Afternoon)

https://redred.bandcamp.com/album/distortion-and-snow

8) Dragged Up – Missing Person

https://draggedup.bandcamp.com/album/missing-person

9) Amateur Cult – Eyes

https://amateurcult.bandcamp.com/track/eyes

10) Shopfires – In A Place

https://shopfires.bandcamp.com/album/shopfires

11) Goodbye Wudaokou – Ultraviolet Kiss

https://goodbyewudaokou.bandcamp.com/track/ultraviolet-kiss

12) Orchard – Burning People To Keep Castles Warm

https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/til-you-fall-down

13) Violent Change – McCartney The Fox

https://slothmate.bandcamp.com/album/starcastle

14) Now – Loose Strand

https://slothmate.bandcamp.com/album/and-blue-space-is-burning-noon

15) The Tumbledryer Babies – Battered Destinies

https://thetumbledryerbabies.com/album/sad-act

16) Masal – Dokuz

https://masalbanduk.bandcamp.com/album/the-galloping-cat

17) Can – One More Night

18) Neu! – Neuschnee

19) forceghost – birdies

https://forceghost.bandcamp.com/album/unknowing-the-known

20) Section 25 – Inspiration

21) April Magazine – Brighter

https://digitalregress.bandcamp.com/album/wesleys-convertible-tape-for-the-south

22) Cindy – Thin As Flags

https://emotional-response-recs.bandcamp.com/track/thin-as-flags

23) Avi C. Engel – Ladybird, What’s Wrong?

https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/too-many-souls

24) Arthur Russell – This Is How We Walk On The Moon

25) Riad Awwad – Intifada

https://majazzproject.bandcamp.com/album/the-intifada-1987-2

R.E. Seraphin – Bound

Bay Area musician R.E. Seraphin returns with new single Bound, the first to be taken from his forthcoming second album Fool’s Mate. Both anthemic and intimate, it captures the essence of an artist in fullest flight and is a wonderful entry point for the uninitiated.

Created in collaboration with Seraphin’s long-standing live band, Bound fizzes with a unique energy that is intrinsically linked to the supporting musicians’ intuitive creative alchemy. Seraphin’s softly delivered but fiercely defiant croon cuts through triumphantly, softening the power-pop edges with pure melody and huge heart.

Recorded at the Crockett, CA home studio of Papercuts’ Jason Quever, Fool’s Mate is released 22nd March via Safe Suburban Home (UK/EU) and Take A Turn (US). Pre-orders are available now.

forceghost – unknowing the known

Startling electro-psych jams and experimental trips into the cosmos lie at the heart of this deeply intoxicating new project out of Augusta, Georgia.

forceghost combines the talents of long time friends and collaborators Eric Kinlaw and Marcus Barfield and sees the pair shaping their vast musical experience into what is very much a year zero endeavour.

Debut EP unknowing the known channels a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of ideas into a highly focussed statement of intent. Vocals, guitars and waves of synths intertwine seamlessly, propelled by vital rhythms that drive their beatific melodies ever forward.

Check out the videos for high score!, birdies and triangles below, and pre-order unknowing the known here. (Releases 1st March via Gift Fig Records.)

forceghost – high score!

forceghost – birdies

forceghost – triangles

Avi C. Engel – Too Many Souls

Toronto based non-binary musician Avi C. Engel creates otherworldly after-hours folk dreamscapes, combining unfamiliar instrumentation with their indelibly rich vocals to spellbinding effect. Latest album Too Many Souls arrives in both tape (Cruel Nature Records) and CD (Somnimage) formats, and is a continuation of the artist’s truly unique vision.

Across the albums seven tracks, the eerie strains of the gudok and reverberating layers of wooden percussion offer an experimental counterpoint to beautifully rendered melodies and deftly picked acoustic guitars. Songs blend effortlessly, collapsing into one another and creating stark, defiant worlds of sound as they go.

Invitingly tuneful yet sonically adventurous, there is a cyclical dynamic at play that rewards repeated listening. Avi C. Engel operates at the edge of darkness, the underlying warmth of their creations radiating light and hope from within. Too Many Souls serves as a wonderful introduction to this rarest of talents.

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Lyndhurst – Caves

UK instrumental act Lyndhurst (Dan Carney and Oscar Ball) return with second EP Caves, following on swiftly from last Summers excellently received debut Platforms. Moving forward with ever greater depth and clarity, the London/Warwickshire based duo have unleashed a winning collection of deftly melodic and delightfully off-kilter soundscapes.

Starting out in unsettled, fragmentary form with the suitably titled Distraction Loop, the EP soon settles into its groove via lead single Holiday Inn’s gently rolling rhythms and glistening staccato loops. As this early highlight gives way to the eerie piano breaks and Trans-Europe shuffle of Vitamins, it’s clear that Lyndhurst are fearless creators, conjuring conflicting tones and textures that somehow always connect.

Clay Tablet’s reverberating percussion clicks and heavy, brooding synths make for a hypnotic centrepiece, paving the way perfectly for International Headmaster’s epic post-rock kosmische march. The EP concludes with the sunset evoking Virtual Boy, its Balearic keys and beautiful sax/clarinet coda echoing the restrained tension and release of all that has gone before.

Full hearted and loaded with feeling, Lyndhurst’s unique take on Electronica is a breath of fresh air. Their unlaboured, enlightening compositions carry with them all the hopes and fears that each new day can bring, setting dreams in motion with a sweeping kinetic kiss.

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Flowertown – The Ring

When Karina Gill and Michael Ramos collaborate they conjure a particular kind of magic that few can touch. Forever finding the exceptional amongst the everyday, the duo create whole worlds around seemingly simple narratives, leaving scope for endless interpretation and suggestion.

Reuniting from their respective Bay Area projects Cindy and Tony Jay, the lo-fi dreampop pair have announced the arrival of new Flowertown mini album Tourist Language. This latest collection will be released via esteemed local DIY label Paisley Shirt Records on February 29th, incorporating both vinyl and digital editions.

With chiming guitars and yearning melodies floating seamlessly atop stark yet propulsive rhythms, lead single The Ring encapsulates everything that sets the duos music apart. Ramos and Gill’s whispered revelations of stolen moments in time are at once comforting and confounding, frequently falling into focus but always tantalisingly out of reach.

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Mythical Motors – Court Of The Beekeeper

Prolific Tennessee based DIY recording artist Matt Addison’s Mythical Motors create glistening psychedelic power-pop in which every melody hits like a hook. New single Court Of The Beekeeper is a breathless rush of contemporary energy bathed in a golden glow of heady nostalgia, comforting in its familiarity, startling in its giddy execution.

With a back catalogue that frequently draws comparison to the likes of Guided By Voices, Wire and the pummelling power chords of Pete Townshend, it’s clear that Mythical Motors wear their influences with pride. The wonder lies in their ability to transcend said influences with a dizzying lo-fi melodic flair, conjuring a new kind of magic.

Álvaro Lissón’s crisp mastering draws out every sonic detail, placing Court Of The Beekeeper’s abstract charm firmly in the now, and leaving absolutely no doubt that forthcoming album Upside Down World is destined to be another top tier addition to what is a truly wonderful body of work.

Upside Down World arrives 12th April via Repeating Cloud, pre-order here.

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Dragged Up – Missing Person

Building off of the success of 2020s lo-fi garage-psych mini-album D/U and last years darkly captivating follow up Hex Domestic EP, Glasgow five-piece Dragged Up return in devastating form with new single Missing Person, released via Northwich based indie label Rare Vitamin Records.

Built around the kind of groove the band have previously only hinted at, Missing Person inhabits a barren dub-funk post-punk wasteland and unleashes a searing aural assault on a severed connection seemingly beyond saving, lamenting the blank space where a person used to be.

B’side Machine Person reassembles the above into a lo-fi post-dub orgy of battering ram percussion and ground shaking bass, a flashing echo of barely contained metronomic chaos that is both filthily addictive and highly danceable. CD’s and Cassingles are available now, do not sleep.

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Ship Full Of Bombs ep.9

My latest radio show is now available for streaming/download via Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Mixcloud, Google Podcasts, Deezer and other leading podcast apps.

Alternatively, you can visit http://www.sfob.co.uk and scroll down to the widget at the bottom of the page.

Playlist: Monday 29th January

1) William Doyle – Now In Motion

https://williamdoyle.bandcamp.com/album/springs-eternal

2) The Umbrellas – Gone

https://theumbrellasca.bandcamp.com/album/fairweather-friend

3) Dancer – Passionate Sunday

https://meritoriorec.bandcamp.com/album/10-songs-i-hate-about-you

4) Torrey – No Matter How

https://torreymusic.bandcamp.com/album/torrey

5) Astrel K – Darkness At Noon

https://astrelk.bandcamp.com/album/the-foreign-department