VINDUR BOK

Vindur Bok, roughly translated to mean ‘wind book’, is a Lithuanian artist mixing familiar folk melodies to a darker backdrop. Atmospheric and soothing as well, the music has the effect of putting one at ease. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:

It’s indie folk or dark ambient mostly influenced by Lithuanian nature and visual art. Musical influences could be William Basinski, Panda Bear, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, Balam Acab, Fennesz, Grizzly Bear, Alina Orlova. 

I’ll be sure to check some of those names out as they are new to me (Sigur?). There’s new material in the pipeline which will have post rock and chillwave elements, so look out for that.

Here’s Tyliai Rauda Girios. Enjoy.

 Tyliai Rauda Girios by Vindur bok 

back

Quick message to the fan, I have my laptop back. Don’t worry though I won’t bore you with the grisly details.  But I will bore you with a flurry of content. Podcast soon, some more of those featurettes are in the pipeline as well. Sorry.

I will leave you with another new track and again it comes from an Oxford  band I have written about ceaselessly. Here's Trophy Wife, those great purveyors of “ambitionless commuter music", with the lead single of their new EP, Bruxism. The has been been produced by a whole host of people including Yannis from Foals.

Should be a good ‘un. Here’s Canopy Shade

 Trophy Wife - Canopy Shade (Produced by Plaid and Trophy Wife) by trophywifeband 

Until I get back from End of the Road,

Toby

x

message to fan

My computer has gone and messed itself up good and proper, so no podcast, no blogpost, none of that for the foreseeable future (a week or two).

This is a shame but despite technologies conspiracies against me and the rather more hectic lifestyle I lead these days I endeavour to write and put up podcasts showing new music as much as possible .

I leave you with a case and point of what I just said, a couple of  new tracks from some bands I can’t stop raving about, Jonquil and Solid Gold Dragons. Both tracks are stellar, and make me feel the happiest that music has made me feel in years.





Until soon.
Toby

Jonquil @ Hoxton Square

Walk the streets shouting “I’m easy come, I’m easy come I’m easy go” and people are likely to give you a bit of a wide berth and probably not believe you but this is the effect that Jonquil can have on you as I’ve found out. I’ve already written about how great some of their music is so neither of us will be surprised when I say that it was a really great gig; how great? Really, very.

The vocals have always been good and I’ve always known that but seeing them live really brought home how just how strong and powerful Hugo Manuel’s voice are, to the extent that they sound reinvented live. The new stuff they showcased off their soon to be released LP seemed to show off his voice a little bit more so the new stuff promises to have me singing in the aisles. Can't wait.

Support came from Get People, a band I’d never before but, with their heavily distorted afrobeat sound they made for another pleasing surprise so they are definitely worth checking out.

JONQUIL /// GET UP from B A N K S on Vimeo.

pet project

After fronting the post rock outfit Youthmovies for the best part of a decade Andrew Mears is on to pastures new with his new project, Pet Moon. The music is a little less post rock this time round and a bit more prog rock. It’s different, more dancy for one thing, but he still an artist worth listening to.

Here is some of his new demo stuff. Enjoy. 

 THE FLOOR (demo) by pet moon 

 HOLD THE DIVIDE (demo) by pet moon 

NEVEREST SONGS

Margate is a seaside town on the south coast of Britain. It’s beautiful in its own way, but a site of faded glory. Does that kind of backdrop provide any inspiration for Luke Twyman, known as Neverest Songs, who is from Margate?

Sort of ... it feels a little cut off here and it's difficult not to want to incorporate that feeling into whatever I'm doing, but I can't say I've felt the need to specifically write about the town yet.

Even when the town produces great artist like Neverest Songs it somehow never gets the credit. The inevitable follow up to this is, of course, what do you write about? Luckily I asked this.

I tend to jump between high fantasy and real life. Some songs are introspective, perhaps recounting my own experiences, while others are start-to-finish imagination. But I'd say there are a good number now which sit somewhere in-between, they might start with a memory or a story that I've read about, and then I adapt or expand on it.

It’s a good job we now know because one of the most striking things about Neverest Songs is the storytelling element that you find in all his songs as well as the strong musical composition and vocals.

Luke is playing a precious few dates this year such as Green Man Festival and a support gig for William Tyler in October. Below is Paper Trumpets, his latest release.

 Paper Trumpets by Neverest Songs 

NB Luke did a really awesome photo interview for A Negative Narrative which you can see here 

(more) SIMA

The artwork from the Texture EP is very eyecatching, so much so that I thought I'd share some more of it as well photos which give a bit of insight into the creative process.

 Artwork and photos are courtesy Sima and Matt Millar. Enjoy.

SIMA

Sima’s music can best be described as old world meets new. Old world, that comes in the shape of the classical composers who are clear influence. We’re talking, Part, Prokoviev, Bach. Stockhausen.

And the new comes in the form of the modern production techniques that are layered over the top of the piano foundations. And the end result is something which has the best of both; something which is a little haunting, a little catchy, but ultimately has been put together quite nicely.

The latest EP is called Texture, you  can listen to it below and purchase it from Bandcamp. Why Texture?

Well it’s a private study or experiment about texture in the musical context, and each track has a number of textures. 

THOMAS COLLINS

                                                    A Tom Collins


"Thomas Collins sat down to dip his feet in the pool. His namesake cocktail in one hand and his aviator glasses in another. The sky was too grey to justify actually wearing the glasses. The disappointing weather that the Big Apple had to offer meant he switched off a little. Losing himself in the shallow azure his thoughts turned to Miami – the city that never disappointed. 

Melodic and echoey music swirled around in his head as his internal synth machine starting whirring.  It would be forty five minutes before he would look up from the pool and gaze out at the metropolitan skyline. He was now running very late. Perhaps, he thought to himself, his friends were right and he was a little too relaxed about life.”

Now unfortunately Thomas Collins isn’t a real person: but the music, thankfully, is real and it comes courtesy of Andrew Nichols on vocals and Abe Quezada on production. The debut EP came out last month - and you can listen to it below – it’s slow pop music which has a metropolitan, US of A feel to it that is distinctive to these European ears; the cover of Miami is well worth listening to. 


Thomas Collins will be coming out with more new material in the near future, perhaps at the tail end of an Indian summer, which would be ideal really.

100 days of (gloomy) Summer

If, like me, you agree that the summer so far has been a bit disappointing then this is for you; a little rabble of tracks ideal for when the trip to beach or the grassy knoll has been cancelled.

I’m off to buy a suitably thick jumper. Enjoy.

 100 days of (gloomy) Summer by TobyBakare 

tracklisting

Umber – Tommorow We’ll Throw Out Some Old Shoes

Psychologist – Come In Waves

Simiah - Everlast

Jeniferever – Silesia

Waking Aida - Sundances 


Factual error alert. The Psychologist EP is called Waves of OK, not Comes in Waves. My bad. Sorry.

oscar buzz

Here's the video for the single Propeller, from the aptly named Psychologist. Fantastic performance from the guy and, understandably, it's generating a lot of Oscar buzz.



Propeller EP is out on 15 August on Moshi Moshi.

HALLS

Halls is South Londoner Sam Howard and his music is a bit of treat; I’ve put his self titled EP on here for all to enjoy and got to asking him how he would describe his music. Here is what he said:


I guess I'd describe my sound as atmospheric and moody. The songs from the first two EPs were written as it was becoming winter, so I guess they reflect the sombre feelings people experience as it gets colder and darker. The new music I've been working on has a broader range of influences, such as choral and classical music, as well as different forms of electronic music.

There has to be a certain irony then that his music can produce such a warm feeling of contentment.  

Solace is the other EP from Halls and both of them are available from Bandcamp. In terms of what’s next from Halls, there is new material in the offing which promises to be “ very open and sad”.  I hope I bear up listening to it. 

UMBER

Umber’s music is a coalescence of so much of the music that I love, folk and drone and ambient beat making. The Morning Pass EP is well crafted, with not too much of one or the other.

So, I had to ask, how does one bring it all together?

Morning's Pass EP uses a lot of instruments. Most songs are based around a drone or a loop and then I begin to add other instruments such as a guitar then a banjo or a harmonium. I'll probably then layer up some more drones, add some effects into the mix and then I’ll have a song! Repeat this six times and I’ve got an EP!

And a very good EP at that. It’s available from his Bandcamp for internet prices.I was in the mood to ask questions, so I followed up with this one: do you make any other music?

I have this project where I record a song a week and it's more of a folk outlet for me. I'm using only acoustic instruments and sometimes a field recording of the birds outside my bedroom window. It's a lot of fun doing that because I limit myself to 3-4 hours on a Sunday to write and record a song.

You can follow Alex Steward's journey on his tumblr page. 

LA2019

Here is the video for Arctic Stars Melt The Clouds, the leadoff single from Deco, the debut EP from LA2019. It reminds me of Brighton, and coincidentally, is set in Brighton. I asked LA2019, or Tom Skyrme what was the inspiration behind the video:

Arctic Stars Melt the Clouds was the second track I wrote for the EP so the video was shot a while back when I was living in Brighton. For me, the song really captured the essence of living in Brighton. I wanted to embed that into the video. I wanted to take the solidarity and camaraderie that you have with really close friends and place that into the concept of the EP. The video really reflects the EP concept in a multitude of ways, with its heavy film and nostalgic future influences. 

I like the video itself because Jacob Perraton [Director] slowed it all right down, edited and coloured it in a way I hadn't even imagined and it fit perfectly. I'd have to say what I enjoyed the most was staying up until 4am with Akin, Jake, Sean and Teej drinking, waiting for the perfect blue sky to start shooting.

Staying up late, as usual, has been entirely vindicated. So Deco is out on 15 July and what can we expect? Well, from the horses mouth, I’ve been told to expect synths and drum machines held together by a “1980’s film sound.”   

The release of this is an intriguing one as there are a limited number of individual photos, taken by Tom on holiday, that are available along with a download code. The future is indeed now. 

Hachiko

Hachiko, the debut album from Waking Aida came out on yesterday. The EP has 5 lovely tunes for you to listen to and comes complete with a sample from my favourite Phillip Seymour Hoffman film, sublime artwork courtesy of Asphensia and  a price tag to suit any budget.

Apparently this is one of two out this year. The mouth waters.