Gates of Light – Advance
An incessant drum beat underlining Louise Quinn’s shimmering vocal gives way to an intense throbbing electro baseline (that somehow gives me 1980s TV show Miami Vice vibes) which gets under the skin as Louise’s breathy dreamlike, almost otherworldly, vocal begins to take hold and give you a woozy spaced out feeling that entrances you and you can’t help but let yourself be taken under its spell.
Sweet Unrest – How Are You Feeling?
The energy ramps up several notches when Sweet Unrest pick up the baton and runs with it, pounding staccato drums set the furious pace picked up by frenetic guitar bursts, everything coming together like an inescapable burning fireball hurtling towards earth.
The Nightmares – Hell is Gonna Happen
With a bass line that channels the spirit of new Order and The Cure, The Nightmares warn us that Hell is Gonna Happen, but in such a positive and upbeat manner that you listen and think “bring it on”, the melody and spirited delivery giving you the feeling that you can take on anything that the world throws at you.
The Gentle Spring – Looking Back at the World
Looking Back at the World is the title track from the new album from The Gentle Spring, the latest band to feature the talents of Michael Hiscock of Sarah Records stalwarts, The Field Mice. Looking Back at the World is an alluring slice of classic indie pop with a lyric that has Hiscock in reflective mode.
Chris Reeve – Eliza Gray
Eliza Gray is the second single to be released from the debut album, Gift of Sorts, from Chris Reeve, formerly of The Eastern Swell. The album is due to be released on Stereogram Recordings on the 11th of April and if this song and its predecessor Death Made a Star are anything to go by, the album will be a treat for the ears. Eliza Gray is a wistful and whimsical song as Chris ruminates on the tale of the protagonist to a soundtrack of jangly guitars and dreamy harmonies.
Ron Briskin – Nemesis
Ron Briskin first appeared on these pages with his single Reach Out. With his latest offering he has surpassed himself, the personally relatable Nemesis is a song about mental health and the fact that sometimes your own brain is your worst enemy, intent on fucking everything up for you and no matter how hard you try to escape it, that little fucking voice is still there niggling away at you telling you you’re not good enough…”I’m not safe from myself” is the repeated refrain throughout the song, as Briskin has a lyrical battle with his own psyche. A brilliant song about a difficult subject to broach with people.
Kirsten Adamson – Paint With the Colours
Anyone who attended the Voodoo Rooms in December for the Palestinian Children’s charity night will know just how much Kirsten Adamson can toy with your emotions, she only needed two songs, her own song My Fathers Songs, and one of her fathers songs, In a Big Country, to melt everyone’s hearts and have even the most stalwart an emotional wreck. Paint With the Colours, the title track of her most recent 4 track EP, is a case in point, a poignantly fragile gentle country ballad with lyrics inspired by folk poetry, a story of lovers, one a musician, one an artist.
Miki Berenyi Trio – 8th Deadly Sin
8th Deadly Sin is the latest offering from the Lush/Piroshka frontwoman, whose autobiography Finger Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success is incidentally one of the most engaging music biographies I’ve read in recent years. There’s nothing sinful about this heavenly track, with dreamy electronic beats underlining Berenyi’s instantly recognisable mellow burr, with a thrum of vibrating guitars bringing another texture to this smoothly purring single.