If you’ve heard of Frances Forever, or read Why We Love: Frances Forever, you may already be familiar with chloe moriondo (stylised in lower case). The reason being, Frances Forever re-released ‘Space Girl’ to feature chloe moriondo. The change in lyrics in the verse that chloe sings adds an extra dimension to the catchiness that was already there.
In essence, chloe moriondo is an 18 year old singer-songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. I discovered her a couple years ago, back when ‘Lemon Boy’ by cavetown was big in my world. He helped produce her debut album that she released at 16. I envisage them to have quite a fraternal relationship, with older brother Robbie seeing success blooming in chloe and striving to help her achieve it. Back then, she was a shy closeted ukulele girl on YouTube. Famous for her red cheeks, button nose, round glasses and yellow walls, she was the embodiment of cute and sweet. Her voice seemed effortless and accompanied her shyness like sugar in a cup of tea.
Since then, she seems to have developed her musical style. What started off as covers became original content, which continues to mature. She has briefly spoken about her issues when it comes to the duality and dichotomy of being famous whilst still in full-time education. However, I would argue that this has improved the strength and honesty of her music. Nowadays, her innocence has been replaced with outward subtle neediness. She screams to be seen, heard and understood. Teenage angst bleeds out of her single ‘Girl on TV’. The music video depicts the insecurity exaggerated by social media and her wish to be what she sees everyone else be.
There’s undoubtedly a certain nostalgia listening to music written by a teenager. Her content is relatable in a far-off sense for most, but remains convincing. This includes her latest song ‘I Eat Boys’, released today, which will be played on Annie Mac’s Future Sounds at 6p.m. Yet another angsty bop filled with feminist hope mixed with lesbian sympathy. It has potential to become one of those songs that you play on repeat until you are sick of them. Personally, I will definitely be listening to it until I know all the lyrics.
Martin Rodrigues (left), 20, Dylan Wiggins, 23, and Jaden Wiggins, 20, of the punk band Hello Yellow, pose for a portrait in West Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Very recently I was shown a live video session of Hello Yello and immediately I was hooked. If you ask me what music I’ve been addicted to this month it’s just been Hello Yello. Well, them and Harry Styles’ solo albums but that’s a story for another time. Now I’ll be honest right off the bat, I barely know anything about this band, and I’ve been looking online to find out more about them but as of right now I’m at a loss, so I’m going to let the music speak for itself here, and start you off with the track that got me addicted.
Like wow? Like not just really good songwriting, but a completely rounded and well-polished live performance. That was Sins off their 2019 EP Love Wins which is just banger after banger. It’s also a very refreshing sound because you can hear just how much inspiration has gone into making their identity, to the point where it’s not entirely obvious what Hello Yello’s favourite bands are, which again today is a real rarity. Sure you can guess and hear some genre-specific influences, but it’s still all left ambiguous, with a driving force that teases you to listen to more and more.
So attempting to box up their sound somehow, whether you’re a fan of Lil Peep, Steve Lacy, Weston Estate or any of the emo bands you loved back in the ’00s, Hello Yello is an identity that should just automatically be familiar with you. The way they combine evocative vocals, glistening guitar parts, these thicc bass lines and warm drums, it’s almost like each band member wants the music to do different things, and the way it ties together creates this wonderous sound that’s genuinely fresh like I cannot stress how new this sound feels for some reason. It’s really throwing old school rock with modern-day indie to the forefront in the best way possible.
The same year Hello Yello dropped My Life As A Teenage Robot, a double single that just delivers more of what they set out to offer with their first EP. There’s some real talent here, you could pair these tunes with anything from artists such as The Garden or Blac Rabbit and they’d fit in snug.
There’s a toxic trait rock music advocates have these days which can be summed up by, none o’ yall know what you want. It either sounds too much like one band or doesn’t sound enough like the greats of the past (it’s deeper than that but that’s me simplifying it drastically). The idea to save rock music is this backwards idea that started because rock music suddenly left the mainstream. But that has never meant that rock music was dead? (cough Adam Levine cough) Artists now more than ever are fusing the quintessential sounds of rock music with other genres they’ve been brought up on, or that they’re surrounded and inspired by, and Hello Yello is one band that is completely renovating the very DNA of rock music for the 21st century. It’s a genuine blend.
Rock/Indie lovers, eat your hearts out because Hello Yello are here to play loud and proud, and you’re going to absolutely love it.
Irish singer-songwriter Orla Gartland gained traction through her YouTube channel and supporting Dodie on tour. Alongside relatable lyrical content, her songs emphasise her passion for music production and perfecting her style.
Orla Gartland’s YouTube channel has content dating back to 8 years ago although she has been active since 2007. Starting out with covers, she has worked her way up to original content. Although her folk roots have been her primary influence, we have seen a shift towards indie-pop. There has been a transition from more acoustically based songs to synthesised instrumentation. Songs like ‘Why Am I Like This?’ and ‘Overthinking’ explore her struggles with mental health and are compellingly honest and raw. Other themes in her music include falling out of love, which is what her latest EP, Freckle Seasons is centred around, and struggling to come to terms with sexuality which can be heard in her song ‘oh God’.
Most intriguing, Orla Gartland is an entirely independent artist using her Patreon to fund her musical developments. This Patreon gives fans extra demos, updates on what is going on in her life and when to expect new releases and competitions. It creates a basis for fans to be able to interact and make friends. It is also a platform for them to share their own experiences with music amongst themselves and with Orla Gartland directly. Patreon, being one of her favourite parts of the internet, has become somewhere she can openly share the progression of her songs and thoughts and ideas. It is fascinating to see lyrics from drafts falling into new songs that become released for everyone to hear. In her latest song ‘Pretending’, the lyrics “I learnt it from a woman on the internet” have been recycled from one of the demos she released on her Patreon.
During lockdown, musicians took to performing on live streaming platforms to replicate the community feeling of going to concerts. Orla Gartland hosted what she called “covers-a-thon” raising £3454 for NHS charities helping frontline workers with hot meals, transport, accommodation and counselling. There is no divide between herself and her music; she uses it to express herself, for escapism and to help people.
It isn’t always easy to come across with such authenticity in the music industry. Still, the transparency between Orla Gartland and her fans makes it easy to believe that it is possible.
Three years ago today, the London-based band Insecure Men released their eponymous debut album.
After releasing two albums (Insecure Men and Karaoke for One) back to back in 2018 and wading through the subsequent touring, Insecure Men have maintained radio silence. However, rumors that the much-beloved band are due to surface in one form or another continue to buzz round the niches of the internet.
Formed in 2015, Insecure Men is composed chiefly of Saul Adamczewski (Fat White Family, Warmduscher) and Ben Romans-Hopcraft (Childhood, Warmduscher) with sax player Alex White and a rotating array of keyboardists, percussionists, back-up singers and lyricists.
In certain circles, Insecure Men are seen as veritable gods of the London alt scene—or maybe something better than gods, as the fruits of their labor are generally to be had more directly (and can be replayed until the groove wears out on the vinyl, or your Airpods die.) Their music is both soothing and thought-provoking: it makes you pay attention. It wakes you up.
Their Bandcamp bio attempts to explain their complex, layered sound: “Insecure Men…blend together exotica, easy listening, lounge and timeless pop music…”
Karaoke for One (which features a photo of Rasputin on the cover) is a record entirely composed of covers. Peter Andre’s Mysterious Girl makes an unforgettably bizarre and touching appearance, in which Adamczewski’s vocals somehow manage to turn the pop ditty into something deeper, a sincere paean to a cold, unreachable lover-–up until the last five seconds, in which he spits out an exasperated, “Fuck!” followed by a hack of phlegm. That’s Insecure Men for ya, keepin’ it real.
Their debut album, Insecure Men, was produced by Sean Lennon, and features original compositions running the gamut between effervescent pop (Subaru Nights and I Don’tWanna Dance with My Baby) lilting, pseudo-Hawaiian melodies (Heathrow and Ulster) and songs to make the skin crawl (Mekong Glitter and Whitney Houston and I.)
There are many crossovers from Romans-Hopcraft’s highly acclaimed band Childhood in the instrumentation and vocals, and traces of the Fat White Family in the lyrics (often insidious subject matter delivered in dulcet tones that make you forget exactly what story you’re being told.)
During the touring efforts for the album, Insecure Men were quite vocal about their intentions to continue on as a band, going so far as to announce in an interview that they’d already written a third album. Whether or not it will be come to fruition remains to be seen, but we can certainly hope that a release date hovers on the horizon.
Insecure Men have a knack for making the roughest bits of life bearable—or at least, they succeed in provoking us to have a laugh at ourselves, to let go of seriousness and embrace the escapist pleasures of “exotica pop,” with every fibre of our beings.
And God knows, we could all use a bit of escapism right now.
You can find Insecure Men on Bandcamp and Spotify.
If you’re looking for a cinematic journey to detach yourself from the current mundane routine of the world’s lockdown (who isn’t?!), look no further than the smooth, moody, unfiltered odyssey of King Hannah. The Liverpool based duo have had an anything but conventional start to their musical journey together. Developing from Craig’s admiration of Hannah’s solo performances, to working as colleagues in a bar, to finally writing together to produce a sound rich in realism and tailored back production.
Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle released their first single ‘Crème Brûlée’ back in September 2020 and since then released their first EP in November 2020 titled ‘Tell Me Your Mind and I’ll Tell You Mine’. The EP is centred around the details of the everyday, with quite a descriptive nature to Hannah and Craigs lyrics. Starting with an almost ominous prelude (‘And Then out of Nowhere, it Rained.’), it’s like entering into a new and uncharted world. Followed by a more humorous take with ‘Meal Deal’, taking us through the normality of a property viewing, while contemplating whether to make a housemate out of the arachnid inhabitant. Towards the end of the song, Hannah’s vocals are like flickers of light through an immersive jungle canopy of atmospheric sound and smoky instrumentals.
This is then followed by a song, which really epitomises the times we live in. Named after Mindhunter’s ‘Bill Tench’, the song carries some added energy creating a more relaxed and lo-fi feel. This really emphasises the depth to King Hannah’s production, intensifying the feeling of being taken on a journey through this EP. The emphatic ballad of the duo’s first single then follows, becoming much more expressive with drawn-out lyrics and a jaw-dropping guitar solo that you never want to end.
We are led out by a more reflective and vibrant track, ‘The Sea Has Stretch Marks’, brought to a close by an outro called ‘Reprise (Moving Day)’, combining some of the EP highlights with a muffled radio vibe.
If there is a more emblematic band for the times we live in I am yet to find them. King Hannah’s music has been a refreshing reminder that we can escape the madness and once again be enveloped by creative production techniques and bold sound. The duo has already made an impact on the stage, and now following their formal release this past November, I for one am really looking forward to seeing them back in front of the lights and creating more insightful explorations.
When being initiated into the solemn cult of PREGOBLIN devotees, there are a few house rules to memorize: the first is, PREGOBLIN must be written in all caps. If you’re any good at voice inflection, then speak it in all caps, too: it’s not that hard, and PREGOBLIN are a band that deserve special emphasis.
Waiting for a new PREGOBLIN single is like waiting for Christmas, or summer holidays—when it finally arrives it brings hours, if not days, of pure unadulterated sonic bliss. I played their 2019 single Combustion sixty-five times in the space of a week once, and nary a complaint did my family voice. You know it’s a good song when you actually want it to be stuck in your head, and you know it’s a brilliant song when both your grandmother and your coolest friend request that it make frequent appearances on playlists.
2020 saw the release of two original PREGOBLIN compositions, Gangsters and Snakes and Oranges. Both singles were accompanied with highly imaginative videos that bear watching repeatedly for full understanding, but then you’ll want to watch them more than once anyway: they’re compellingly weird, unique amongst the deluge of over-edited pap usually served up. They’re original, well-crafted and tinged with a sly humor.
PREGOBLIN are a duo composed of Alex Sebley and Jessica Winter. Sebley’s blonde, mild-mannered demeanor is the perfect foil for Winter’s dark glamour. Like chocolate and salt, they’re an unlikely yet ultimately delightful match. In a recent interview with Short Waves Radio, Sebley and Winter discussed the massive backlog of songs they’ve written together, which have yet to be recorded but will, hopefully in the near future, present themselves for our listening pleasure.
Fat White Family have dubbed them, “…the most under-appreciated songwriting partnership of our era…” I defy anyone to dispute this statement; it’s obvious judging solely from Combustion or Gangsters that PREGOBLIN deserve a couple of Grammys, several gold records and a few houses sprinkled among the world’s more desirable post codes.
You can find them on Instagram at @pregoblintv, on Spotify under PREGOBLIN (all caps, there, too, huns) and on Bandcamp.
Black Country, New Road’s debut album For the First Time has been named Rough Trade’s album of the month for February. It’s a tremendous honor for a first album, and it’s well-deserved. The young band have already achieved more in their debut than most groups do over the course of their entire existence. The seven members have forged a sound that defies categorization. There is no genre that fits Black Country, New Road, a lucky thing indeed, because it has forced them to create their own.
For the First Time is a music nerd’s delight, a veritable 7th heaven of listening pleasures. It’s the kind of album that you listen to ten times all the way through on the first day of having it in your possession. You’ll want to unpack the dense, layered sounds, to figure out exactly what’s being said in each lyric, to identify every instrument and every influence.
Each one of the six tracks on the album is stellar, but Sunglasses is my favorite, segueing between mellow rhythms and full-out punk screaming, then (somehow) sliding smoothly into emotional descriptions of the irritations and fetters of relationships and life within a family, and through it all the meditation, gripped like a life-line: “I am invincible in these sunglasses…” It inspires an odd mixture of elation and chills, and the need to share it with someone else immediately. In other words, it’s on its way to being a classic.
Black Country, New Road are an orchestra for the future, “the new classic”(al) for spaceships. On more than one level, it’s something we all need to listen to; it’s something we all need to hear.
You can find Black Country, New Road on Instagram @blackcountrynewroad, on Spotify and on Bandcamp.
Yeah okay, I did plan on just doing a review of Haggis’ latest solo album Brightly Coloured Creatures but truth is, I couldn’t with a healthy conscience ignore the other work that he’s strived to make. Now I’ve written a review of his solo album Circadian Circus which if you missed you should definitely check that out, but I think (especially right now) with the state of the world and how disproportionately it’s affected the livelihoods of musicians, I think it’s only right to share with you even more of Haggis’ work, give him the rightly deserved streams he deserves. So to focus on Sunship Balloon’s Everywhen (his 2020 album with Tord Øverland Knudsen) and of course his very recent follow up to his 2017 solo album, here’s why we love Dan Haggis.
Obviously, anyone who’s anyone has heard of The Wombats, and if you’re someone with taste you’ll know the absolute passion that goes into making those albums and how brilliant they are, but when it comes to making music outside of that well-established name, Dan gets even more of a chance to show off his skills. Whether you’re falling in love with his solo work for something painfully relatable to, or getting an escape through the space journey of Sunship Balloon, there is absolutely everything to fall in love with.
With 2020’s Everywhen, Haggis and Knudsen created an album full of futuristic sounds coincided with analogue 80s synths, all which whisk you away into an alternate reality to ponder life’s most curious questions. When I first listened to Everywhen I immediately felt some sort of instrumental connection to like likes of The 1975, but even more so to the legendary Brian Eno, the ambient instrumental tracks especially that just change your perspective of the world, sounding like they could have been taken straight off one of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy records or an album like Eno and Robert Fripp’s No Pussyfooting. It just makes for such a surreal listening experience (a crime that it’s not available on vinyl really) and you can just really hear the fun that went into making this record.
The entire album is perfect, there are so many amazing tracks to choose, from the electronic rock blaster that is Interstellar Ride, 1224 Fantasia which just desires to be played on a show like Top Of The Pops back in 1985, to the more experimental Eno inspired tracks such as title track Everywhen and the albums closer Flat Earther’s that really does sound like it belongs with the likes of Neuköln on Bowie’s Heroes. The energetic anthem A4 Life is superb though, it’s here where you can really hear some of those familiar Wombats and even some of Knudsen’s other band Imitating Aeroplanes vibes (I mean why wouldn’t you), but all the same completely turned on their heads to create a sound that’s so presently fresh but heartwarmingly nostalgic.
Glossing over Sunship Balloon and now moving to Brightly Coloured Creatures, after working on Everywhen, Dan The Man’s third solo outing definitely takes some of those 80’s sounds and finds a wonderful home within his new music. Circadian Circus was a brilliant album, but Brightly Coloured Creatures is completely its successor. Everything that was brilliant about the 2017 venture has been put on steroids and increased tenfold. The songwriting, melodies and production have all stepped up and each track is uniquely warm. Thematically it does continue a lot of similar themes that of Circadian Circus, but perhaps a little more universal than the depth into Haggis’ soul that we were exposed to with the last album.
Muscle Memory kicks off the album in such a flawless way, being ever so reminiscent of his previous release, but with bigger everything. Genuinely feels like it’s the opening track to a film, it gives meaning to whatever you could be doing when listening to it, making a cuppa? That cuppa’s DEEP now. Young Lovers the albums second track and first single is where you can really hear how much musical progression Haggis has developed since 2017, sounding more like the kind of track you’d hear off Everywhen but because of that oh so personal touch Haggis effortlessly shines over his lyrics, you know exactly where this track truly belongs.
This album, like its brother, is absolutely perfect and every track is a real gem. From blissful melancholy meanders like Obsolete and Earthmover, which are such beautifully constructed tracks, and the line “Can we just go back and reset it all, Now we’re obsolete” is just *chef kiss*, who hasn’t felt like that at some point? And especially after the year we’ve just been through (yeah happy anniversary to that by the way) it’s such a poignant practice that Haggis just nails every time. It sounds like something you’d find on a Beach House record and is absolutely gorgeous, not to mention the breakdown in Obsolete, which is fantastic. Shaping this woeful helplessness into offset anger mixed with motivation, drenching the line “Swallow the pill” in reverb the way some use medication to put a damper on depression, man Haggis you absolute genius.
See You In Hell is such a tasty track, coming out of nowhere as this almost doo-wop inspired song, albeit with a lot of other influences clearly thrown in the mix, it’s a faster, more energetic and textured sound, evoking vibes of Richard Hawley‘s work and Arctic Monkey’s Suck It And See album. Just magnificent.
Another one of my personal favourites, Unravelling combines so much sonic identity it’s hard to pin it down, but I mean it sounds like Dan The Man so what more could you want? The combined acoustic and spacey lead guitar, and as always Haggis’ vocals are simply a delight here. Lyrically the tracks about DNA, which with the “unravelling” hook makes a lot of sense, but I think the substance behind that goes way beyond where your mind initially registers with it. I think there have been times where we’ve all felt like our very being is “unravelling”, stuck in the fragmentation of crisis and rebirth, along with the prospect of the unknown, and I think this song defines those feelings. I mean it’s either that or it’s a song about DNA but take your pick.
Brightly Coloured Creatures is already one of my favourite records of the year, and we’re only in February. That’s not me being ignorant in the face of what an entire year’s worth of music might bring to my attention, but a statement that Dan Haggis is one of the brightest musicians of our time and I think that goes without saying. Tracks like Memory Lane, Let Me Down and Obsolete are just streamlined perfection and you absolutely must go and listen to the whole album as soon as you can.
I’ll leave you with PeterPan, a track off Dan’s first solo album which is equally brilliant as both the albums we’ve been over today. Enjoy its festive vibe and take aboard the backlog of music you’ve now got to bathe in. For fan’s of Dan The Man, the music’s going nowhere, and there’s plenty to go around.
Teleman is one of the coolest bands I’ve discovered in a very long time, there’s something just so intrinsically interesting about them. Formed back in 2011 after the disbanding of the band Pete and the Pirates, where bandmates Thomas and Johnny Sanders, Peter Cattermoul and new drummer Hiro Amamiya combined forces to become one of the most innovative artists of our time.
There’s a quality to Teleman that’s so ’70s and so modern at the same time that’s just irresistible, that being said if you’re a fan of bands such as Arcade Fire, Metronomy and New Order then Teleman should be the next band on your list of artists who’ll rearrange your perspective on music. Upon releasing 2014’s Breakfast, the band have toured with the likes of Suede, Kaiser Chiefs as well as Belle and Sebastian just to name a few.
With Cristina, the band’s debut single, you get a vibe for who Teleman are. That mix of synth and indie guitar carrying this hefty song through your ears, tied together by the diverse and tender sounding vocals of Thomas Sanders. Indie pop is such a broad genre that normally gets buttered up, but with Teleman there’s a mix of rawer energy within their music that enforces such a focused identity that’s so particularly them.
Meanwhile, they’ve certainly figured out who they are and where to go next, take their latest album Family Of Aliens, and according to the band was a more involved writing process between them, which clearly worked for the best because Family Of Aliens is a brilliant album and one of my highlights of 2018, with some of their strongest work to date. The track Cactus brings that characteristic charm Teleman, edging on the airwaves of alluring yet hypnotic. It’s a development of sound that’s clear when you hear their albums back to back, but it’s superbly familiar.
Going back one album to Brilliant Sanity, the opening track Düsseldorf with its slick performance races to pump adrenaline throughout your body. There’s a time and a place for “ah just play harder, turn the amps up” for showing the power of a performance, but Teleman manages to know exactly how to level their sound. The guitars aren’t in your face, they’re not Boss Metal Zone’d, instead they’re driven just enough to add the right amount of bite and attitude, and what this means is the song hypes you up and you feel the weight of it hit you, despite it being a calmer soundscape. It’s a power that’s truly unique and not many artists quite figure it out so it makes for such an impactful listening experience.
Skeleton Dance from the band’s debut album starts with such an exhilarating intro, those loose and jangly guitars that almost spit out at you, the saturation of that riff on the threshold against the velvety vocals that carry the song is just so tranquillizing. And then with the combination of thick synths, drum machines and a live kit, just swirls around your brain in such a manner you do disconnect from the world for three and a half minutes.
Between The Rain is one of the more ’70s sounding tracks, but mastered to your modern-day specs. The piano-centric song complimented by the twangy driven guitar solo emoting the sounds you’d hear on an early Bowie record like Hunky Dory. It’s also got one of my favourite lines being;
“Good times always end if you sing too soon Oh, how I love the silence when I’m with you”
Something about that simplicity and realism along with the bouncy vibe of the track just matches so well.
So with all that in mind… What are you still doing here? You’ve heard what Teleman can do, and you’ve barely scratched the surface. Revitalise that pure indie-pop sensation of the early 2010s and process the power that lies ahead with whatever Teleman dare to bring out next.
In just 6 months, Eavie (better known as) Eaves Wilder has managed to produce frantic fairytale sounds to fill your very best indie playlists. Being a Gen Z artist, the way our generation has grown up with music is so chaotically different from the likes of our inspiration. We genre mix and we dabble between artists and sounds which makes for such a clash of sounds that’s really paving the way for the next wave of music, and Wilder is absolutely no exception.
So how would I describe her music? Imagine putting the DNA of George Harrison, Kate Bush, Beabadoobee and Blur into a blender, then serving that milkshake up along with a sprinkle of toppings to coat all that with even more, and if you’re a fan of the darker sounds of pre-The 1975’s ‘Drive Like I Do’, then Eaves Wilder is someone for you. But being so young and having experienced so much, Eavie brings a flair of unique excellence that just melts your ears. Her debut single Won’t You Be Happy written in the height of the first lockdown, and was an immediate hit, the emotional range and relatability here was off the scale and was the right step to make Eaves Wilder soon to be a household name.
Later still she dropped the single In And Out (And Out Again), a beautiful piano-led ballad that envelops more of that shoegaze vibe that was so present within Won’t You Be Happy. One thing to note is her talent as a pianist, being able to sing and perform precise twinkling key rhythms is not something you see often (see the live piano performance below), especially among young songwriters nowadays. Eavie manages to be a breath of fresh air and a staple to the term ‘Artist’. You get a real feel for Wilder’s passion for her music and it’s wonderful to see out in the Eaves Wild…
But there’s no slowing down for Eavie, she’s on an upward spiral and we’ve all got golden tickets to join the ride. Just last month we heard another single Man, We Was Lonely (a little ode to everyone’s favourite Beatles bassist), with perhaps the charm of Arcade Fire’s Funeral as inspiration, particularly vibing with the vocal tones of Régine Chassagne. Three songs into Eavie’s career and already she’s making a name for herself, making dreamy songs to soundtrack your teens and my god does it make you crave to hear these tracks in a live venue.
Eaves Wilder is making her way to the top, so what better a time to grab her hand and follow her to the summit of her musical venture. 6 months since her debut and only 3 songs in, but already she is one of my favourite rising stars that you must keep up with.
So don’t forget to keep a keen eye on her socials and follow Eaves Wilder on Spotify.
