- Beck – ‘Wow’
Released a few days ago, ‘Wow’ is Beck’s first single since ‘Dreams’ in 2015. The song is funky, sweet, vibrant and wild with a distinctive four-note motif that is repeated till the end— and a lot of percussion. This is a happy man, appreciating life in all its glory, telling you it’s about time you seized the day.
Debbie Maliotaki
- BRANDENBURG – ‘Mist’
There are several good post-punk/new wave bands from Russia recently that worth a listen if you have patience and time to spend around the vk platform, due to the main use of their native language.
One of the forerunners and internationally recognised act along with Motorama, is BRANDENBURG, an English-singing, indie guitar, post-punk four-piece band from Moscow. With already four singles and an excellent 2013 debut album ‘Empires Will Fall‘ behind them and after a period of readjustments, they’ve finally broken the silence with a new single and an April appearance at Berlin Dark Spring Festival.
‘Mist‘ is a real gem built around a charming Johnny Marr-alike guitar arpeggio, a romantic gloomy voice and, the icing on the cake, a 80s-like delicious sax interlude.
“The freedom is lost / It is gone …There’s no love in our hearts / Cos wisdom is on the other side“
Their sophomore album is on the way and if this is the appetizer a close watch on this fantastic band is imperative!
Fabrizio Lusso
- Pale Thorns – ‘A Downward Spiral’
Pale Thorns is the brand new solo project of Magnus Lindh. Some of our readers may already be familiar with his exquisite work in Skin Area, in which he is partners in crime with the always eccentric Martin Bladh (Skin Area & IRM). Magnus Lindh delivers us ‘Somberland‘, a glowing experimental/alternative/ambient project which is just as likely to drag us to the stormy shores of Norrköping as it is to deliver a distortion laden post-rock anthem. The first track off ‘Somberland‘, ‘A Downward Spiral‘, exhibits a fine portion of both.
Michael Barnett
- Marshall Applewhite – ‘Stay’
This is coming from one of my favorite labels based in Detroit. Yes, it’s Detroit Underground.
I have said many times why I appreciate WARP; it gave a new style to electronic music, inspiring many fans/artists/labels, and made it extremely popular.
So, this post-WARP track, Milt, from the cassette ‘We All Die’ by Marshall Applewhite, may be the best proof.
John Pallas
- Noir For Rachel – ‘Natalyn’
A young talented musician from a little town in West Siberia. He doesn’t need a real label and he’s not interested in playing live. He sells his music on bandcamp only in order to self-finance his releases.
He writes everything using a MacBook-Pro, a guitar with only 4 ADGB strings left unmarked and the plug-ins for sound processing.
Once he had a co-author for the lyrics, but now he’s producing instrumentals only (you can propose yours anyway). The early 80s DIY philosophy transposed in the internet era.
The result is stunning and speaks for itself: a precious and exciting blend of experimental shoegaze /post-punk and post-rock, all the best bits of the 80s-early 90s, The Cure, The Durutti Column, Factory Records, Slowdive, MBV, a dreamy trip in an intense and evocative dark and intriguing atmosphere of reverbed guitar effects, drum-machine and synth waves.
Music for the soul to get lost in…
Fabrizio Lusso
Compiled by Debbie Maliotaki, Fabrizio Lusso, John Pallas & Michael Barnett