14795691_10154652389039710_546198188_o

  1. Silence In The Snow – ‘Lost Gems

Earlier in 2016 Silence In The Snow released their first ‘Break In The Skin‘ LP, and we also held an interview with them. On February 10 they let out their new video for ‘Lost Gems‘ entirely shot and edited by them. Emerging from Oakland, CA, they offer the listener post-punk dreams in a dark and more ethereal direction than the usual, comprising their story-telling with the unique vocals of Cyn M. ‘Lost Gems‘ is a down tempo, ethereal tune, and the reason I put it in this week’s mixtape is simply the fact that it’s stuck on repeat! So, here it is for you people, enjoy!

Mike Dimitriou

  1. Singapore Sling – ‘Fuck Everything

Few are the bands that by getting older, like the very good wine does, constantly improve and don’t go sour.

One of the finest example is the Reykjavik’s psych fuck rock’n’roll six-piece Singapore Sling born out of the visionary and boundless creativity of Henrik Bjornsson back in 2000.

The stunning new album, titled with their usual sharp nasty humour ‘Kill Kill Kill (Songs About Nothing), is amazingly the fresh and still vibrant 9th chapter of their sonic journey that never ceases to surprise, possibly their most experimental and erratic beast to date, melting a unique blend of minimal cold acoustic suggestions, reverb-drenched bass lines, bullets and screams of fuzzed-out scratchy guitar electricity and pulsating beats, interspersed and relieved by an off-key organ and a piano notes and dissonant brass-like sounds.

Fuck Everything’ is an essential piece of this mind-blowing puzzle, a spectral acoustic psych hypnotic runaway, built up on haunting drowned voices, sluggish percussion and “desertic” twangy guitar layers, that slowly grows into the final agonizing bluesy guitar-lead groan just to fade away at the last station, the station of nowhere…

When everything around seem collapsed and fucked up , a laugh will ‘kill kill kill’ and buried you all.

 Enjoy the video by Paula Michelle Hamilton below.

Fabrizio Lusso

  1. A’nu – ‘Awakening Fog

South African ambient project A’nu releases their latest album, ‘Breathe‘. On ‘Breathe‘, A’nu delivers subdued soundscapes, flavoured with field recordings, drones, and a number of other interesting sounds, presumably collected from their far southern region of the African continent. ‘Awakening Fog‘ is a peaceful and thought provoking track with ritual elements. The ten minute track features slowly expanding drones, which open the listeners mind to a chilly fog-covered morning where only nature and the listener are present. Grab a hot cup of tea and a decent set of headphones to engulf yourself in the aural bliss of A’nu.

Michael Barnett

  1. Vagina Lips – ‘Teenage Galaxies (1993 Revisited)

Less than six months have passed since we praised the gorgeous and infectious debut album by Thessaloniki’s finest Jimmy Polioudis under the moniker of Vagina Lips, but his remarkable prolific talent to craft compelling pop songs with clever lyrics seems to know no limits as confirmed by the upcoming release of his ‘not to miss’ second full-length ‘Elixir’ out next March.

I’m going for ‘Teenage Galaxies (1993 Revisited)’, but the quality level is so high that could be many other ones, a song that skilfully channels elements of shoegaze, post punk, new wave, and this time power pop too, to hit the mark again : reverb-soaked guitar chords, snappy bassline and irresistible melodic hooks that make you hit ‘repeat’ again and again.

With a pile of second-hand overrated Anglo-saxon outfits around, it would be a shame not to support and love such an impressive home-grown talent as he deserves.

Fabrizio Lusso

  1. Wozniak – ‘Perihelion’

A debut single, from a debut album by a band hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland. The influences? “It is a tribute of sorts to David Bowie. Recorded soon after the iconic artist’s death in January 2016, the lyrics were inspired by both Space Oddity and its source material, 2001: A Space Odyssey.Heavy on reverbthis 8-minute slow-burner named after an astronomical term (‘Perihelion‘) is a fine example of creativity through experimentation, progress through respect. A seemingly harmless trip with a time capsule between stratosphere and mesosphere. There is a female voice too. An ethereal one. The “spaceship” is called Wozniak, and we better embark the sooner…

Christos Doukakis

Follow the link to listen.

Compiled by Mike Dimitriou, Fabrizio Lusso, Michael Barnett & Christos Doukakis