Seablite – Hit The Wall

Let me start by saying right off the bat that I’m not sure there’s a band out there right now as cool as San Francisco indie four-piece Seablite. It’s incredibly exciting when the songs, sound, vision and style all come together as they have in the lead up to new album Lemon Lights.

After the Chameleons UK-esque Darkwave strut of previous cut Pot Of Boiling Water, latest single Hit The Wall takes us firmly and fluidly back to the indie dancefloor. To my mind at least, there’s always been a connect between the hypnotic atmospherics of shoegaze and the rhythmic pulse of dance music, and Seablite ride that wave perfectly here.

Built around the kind of groove that would have been twisted into all kinds of shapes and possibilities by the hippest remixers of a different era, Hit The Wall is a giddy, breathless rush of energy from a group steeped in togetherness and working in perfect harmony.

Order Lemon Lights (Mt.St.Mtn) here.

video directed by Jenn Heard.

Apostille – Prisoners Of Love And Hate

An outlier with a deep knowledge of pop in all its forms and the unrivalled power it holds, Glasgow based Michael Kasparis’ Apostille project is back with third album Prisoners Of Love And Hate, and it’s his most deeply focussed and affecting effort to date.

From the opening Whigfield (!) inspired house pulse of Saturday Night, Still Breathing, through to the epic power and vulnerability of closer Feel Good (You Can Make Me) the album is a celebration of connection, wide open to the moment and all of the ecstasy and heartache each moment can bring.

There are a wild variety of styles at play across the record, all held together by Kasparis’ boundless energy and spirit, and when that energy and spirit combines with everybody’s favourite drum loop (don’t @ me) on the evocative small town self-reflection of People Make This City, its both cathartic and quite moving. A true highlight of a wonderful album.

Channelling the best of 70s power pop, 80s synth pop and blissed out 90s house/techno, Prisoners Of Love And Hate wears its influences with pride, but adorns them with a unique fire and passion that is truly Apostille’s alone.

Listen/Buy/Share via Night School Records here.

Tony Jay – Perfect Worlds

Resembling either a night that ended far too late or a morning that began far too early, the music of San Francisco’s mysterious lo-fi pop project Tony Jay exists in a unique space, a space where the band are free to dream boldly in the half-light, and coax real wonder from layers of tape hiss and fog obscured jangle.

Emerging from that half-light just about ready to face the day, latest album Perfect World’s soundscapes dwell beautifully in those lost, in-between moments when everything is simultaneously bearing down but nowhere to be found, punctuating the uncertainty with gentle melody and the purest of heart.

Distant but yet inviting, moments like the post-VU strum of Isolated Visions or the stark power of Talking In My Sleep offer instant rewards, whilst the hypnotic guitar lines and chimes that weave in and out of tracks like Just My Charm reveal themselves slowly with repeated plays.

Connections are formed and frayed, fragile beauty found in faraway solitude, channeling the strange magic that can make life so bearable and unbearable all in the same breath. This music somehow manages to give shape and structure to emotions that many of us would otherwise struggle to rationalise, and for that we owe Tony Jay endless thanks.

Order via Slumberland Records here.

Ship Full Of Bombs ep.4

My fourth radio show is now available for streaming/download: https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-5e496-14a2d42

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

Lastly, you can find the show by searching for Ship Full Of Bombs at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Deezer, Mixcloud and all other leading podcast apps.

Playlist: Monday 11th September 

1) Red Pants – Witching Hour

https://redred.bandcamp.com/album/not-quite-there-yet

2) Lightheaded – Mercury Girl

https://areyoufeelinglightheaded.bandcamp.com/album/good-good-great

3) Seablite – Pot Of Boiling Water 

https://mtstmtn.bandcamp.com/album/lemon-lights

4) Smile Too Much – You Can’t Help Me

https://dandyboyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ep-2

5) The 1981 – I Love You (But I Hate You)

https://the1981band.bandcamp.com/album/move-on

6) Melodiegroup – The World Because It’s Strange

https://melodiegroup.bandcamp.com/album/being-nothingness

7) Plantman – High Hopes

https://plantman1.bandcamp.com/album/days-of-the-rocks

Amy Glover live in session 

https://yes-today.bandcamp.com/album/2022-demos

8) Hydroplane – The Love You Bring

https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/selected-songs-1997-2003

9) Blue Ocean – Fertile State

https://blueoceanmusic.bandcamp.com/album/fertile-state

10) Now – Roses After H.D.

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

11) Tony Jay – Isolated Visions

https://tonyjay.bandcamp.com/album/perfect-worlds

12) Helpful People – Backwards Mirror

https://fwymusic.bandcamp.com/album/brokenblossom-threats

13) Empty Country – Erlking

https://emptycountry.bandcamp.com/album/empty-country-ii-2

14) Rat Columns – Cerulean Blue

https://ratcolumnsband.bandcamp.com/album/babydoll

15) My Bloody Valentine – Off Your Face

16) The Gabys – I Don’t Mind

https://fruitsandflowers.bandcamp.com/album/the-gabys

17) Whitney’s Playland – Backwards Forever

https://paisleyshirtrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-sea-breeze

18) Cindy – Playboy

https://cindytheband.bandcamp.com/album/why-not-now

19) Cymbals – Decay 

https://cymbalsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/light-in-your-mind

20) Apostille – People Make This City

https://apostille.bandcamp.com/album/prisoners-of-love-and-hate

21) Mountain Movers – Angels Don’t Worry 

https://themountainmovers.bandcamp.com/album/mountain-movers-2017

22) Primal Scream – May The Sun Shine Bright For You

23) Bill Evans Trio – Jade Visions

Huge thanks to Al Johnson for producing the live session.

Seablite – Pot Of Boiling Water

In the bubble of underground indieland it feels as if San Francisco four piece Seablite are everywhere at the moment. Their hypnotic blend of shoegaze cool and indiepop vibrance has been capturing hearts and minds since new album Lemon Lights was announced, and I’m the latest person rendered powerless to resist.

On latest cut Pot of Boiling Water, Seablite pull off that rarest of tricks of taking a sound that mattered so much then and making it matter now. Elements of the very best of nineties UK indie shot through with vital 2023 California cool, creating the kind of glorious wash of sound that could lead my weary shuffle to the nearest sticky floored, dimly lit dance floor in a heartbeat.

It isn’t any particular element that jumps out here, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Seablite operate as one propulsive whole formed by four creative minds working in total unity, and it’s that unique alchemy that serves as the bands biggest strength. Pot Of Boiling Water is the latest timely reminder of just how important this wonderful music continues to be.

Pre order Lemon Lights via Mt.St.Mtn here.

Lightheaded – Mercury Girl

The Slumberland Records hot streak continues unabated with the release of Mercury Girl, the debut offering from New Jersey trio Lightheaded.

Combining the talents of Cynthia Rittenbach (Glycerine Queens), Stephen Stec (Paper Streets) and Sara Abdelbarry (Teen Idle), the band release their first EP Good Good Great! on 13th October with both Cassette and Digital editions available for pre order.

Stephen offered the following words regarding the EPs lead track:

“A noir ode to the troubles that Martin Newell knows all too well. Mercury Girl is a very early lightheaded song about being floored by a person who I could never quite pin down as a consistent presence. Specifically, meeting at a New Jersey basement show and following them floating in and out of my life for a year or so. Every time I saw them felt like it might be the last, until it was.

You can also play catch the Bunnymen reference in the lyrics and see if you win.”

There is an inherent richness to Lightheaded’s music that evokes the classic janglepop of The Feelies, C86 and that first Primal Scream album, whilst Rittenbach’s vocals provide all the warmth we could possibly need as the final days of Summer gently give way. Those elements combined conjure a gentle sigh of sound that could carry the weight of the heaviest heart.

With its endless hooks and subtle melodic shifts, Mercury Girl is a beautifully intriguing introduction to a band destined for the brightest of futures. You can check out the video below and pre order the EP here.

Empty Country – Erlking

‘The end times end, we all sing along, one short verse thirteen bars, the force of fifty collapsing stars…’

I have to be honest. It’s been a fair while since I last heard a chorus that instantaneously made me want to set stuff on fire. Welcome back then Empty Country, whose new cut Erlking has been burning up the outer edges of the airwaves over recent weeks.

Returning three and a half years after their self-titled debut, the project led by Connecticut based artist and former Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D’Agostino have announced a new album, Empty Country II, split between Get Better Records (US) and Tough Love Records (UK.)

Tying in with the overarching theme of Empty Country II, Erlking sees D’Agostino’s stunningly emotive vocal rally against the political corruption and gun violence running riot at present across the US, doing so amid a backdrop of soaring, searching guitars and a rhythm section that operates with devastating passion and precision.

For all the crushing weight of its far reaching narrative, Erlking stands tall as a truly great song, and serves as a perfect introduction to D’Agostino’s unique musical landscape. Empty Country II arrives November 3rd.

Pre order now via Tough Love Records (UK) and Get Better Records (US)

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Rat Columns – Cerulean Blue

David West’s Jolly In The Bush seemed to largely slip through the cracks after its release early last year, which was a real shame as it’s gloriously off-kilter electronic pop was amongst the finest and deepest of the year.

In addition to various other fingers in various other pies, West also fronts Perth based collective Rat Columns, who’s new single Cerulean Blue hints at a darker, heavier switch in style and sound. Sign of the times I guess.

Slowing down the pace from the punchily romantic power-pop of 2021’s Pacific Kiss, Cerulean Blue sees the band turning inward, treading wearily between two huge chords as a glacial lead riff does the heavy lifting in and around West’s softly authoritative vocal.

How bands can still make this kind of thing sound so new this far into the game is completely wild to me, but long may it continue. Music to soundtrack all the many ‘how’s?’ and ‘why’s?’ that we all seem to be drowning in right now, new album Babydoll arrives 20th October.

Pre order now via Tough Love Records

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Helpful People – Brokenblossom Threats

Times are weird. You know it, I know it, Helpful People know it. The majority of us are facing struggle of one kind or another. Kindness and truth crushed beneath power grabs and petty politics, art continuously devalued and discarded. Bay Area creatives have consistently been a shining light in the fight back against such overwhelming grimness, and this project features two of the very best.

For those not already aware, Helpful People combines the talents of Glenn Donaldson (The Reds, Pinks & Purples) and Carly Putnam (The Oilies), and on debut album Brokenblossom Threats they have tapped into what it is to be an artist, what it is to be human, in these strangest of days.

Whilst chiming lead single Bugs From Below proved that Donaldson’s fuzz-infused janglepop brew is as potent as ever, it is Putnam’s presence here that brings new energy and a different kind of magic. Her vocals are delivered plainly and without affectation, ensuring each abstract truth cuts through with a pure, raw power, like jagged fragments of some distant dream.

As the album progresses, subtly different grooves and ideas rise to the surface. Your Movie contains an insidious guitar riff that offsets the jangle operating at its core, whilst Backwards Mirror is driven by fiercely melodic acoustic guitars that become increasingly buried by swathes of ocean deep feedback, as the song and all of its pent-up emotion threaten to spiral out of control.

Across Brokenblossom Threats’ twelve tracks, Helpful People have taken a familiar formula and injected it with new life. A collaboration between two such creative souls was always likely to yield special results, and with this album Putnam and Donaldson have created a work of great depth and a very real beauty.

Available now via Tall Texan (Vinyl) or Burundi Cloud Music (Digital)

Vinyl available in the UK here.

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Yes Today – 2022 Demos

After capturing audiences across this year with their unique nocturnal psychfolk wanderings, Southend based collective Yes Today have now given a full release to their first recorded works, 2022 Demos.

Recorded prior to Roy Thirlwall (Melodiegroup/The Windmills) joining the group on bass, these six beautifully sparse arrangements feature the core trio of Amy Glover, Amy McKenny and Claire Keech, with drums courtesy of Totnes based Toby French and production and some additional instrumentation from James Hoare, formerly of UK indie heavyweights Veronica Falls (Slumberland Records) and Ultimate Painting (Trouble In Mind Records.)

Delivered with an ethereal beauty, it is the lyrics and vocals of Glover that provide the projects heart and soul. Her acoustic based songs of loss and regret are brought to life however by the vital, contrasting contributions of her bandmates. McKenny’s violin is sorrowful and deep, whilst Keech provides some distant light with her weaving, intricate clarinet lines.

Be it the gentle folk of Moon, the vocal push-pull of Too Far From, or the mantra like If Only, none of these songs offer any of the comfort or illusion of resolution. Questions and emotions are left hanging deliberately and delicately in the air, stating with devastating clarity that some things just are, and will likely always remain that way.

Yes Today’s enchanting, difficult truths offer new perspective and new ways of facing up to age-old problems. Serving as a fitting entry point into their world whilst they complete work on their debut album, these recordings point the way to a bright future for this most special of bands.

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