Review: “Stella Splendens” by Bishopskin
“Stella Splendens” is a perfect marriage of inspiration, musical talent, and people having a good time.
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“Stella Splendens” is a perfect marriage of inspiration, musical talent, and people having a good time.
It’s fitting that the final performance of Saul Adamczewski’s latest album, Adventures in Limbo, was staged in a gothic church in south London. Seated on a worn wooden chair on a dais banked with overblown white roses and candle-light, directly above a 300-year-old-crypt, in a church named for the patron saint of the disabled, he leant forward into the mike and intoned: “Dearly beloved…we are gathered here today…to celebrate…me.”
“Donne Moi Ta Chose,” is the third single from Maggie the Cat’s, forthcoming album on Trashmouth Records (the title of which remains shrouded in delicious anticipation.) Expect kitsch, campy, glamour with avant-garde pop leanings and generous lashings of the old Madonnatron witches brew that we know and love.
Juno Valentine, the group’s front man and chief lyricist, spoke about the song’s meaning in-detail: “The song is a short story I created about a juvenile opiate dealer who suffers from a sleep walking disorder…”
Wow, I cannot believe Sigrid invented music. That’s how I felt after hearing the latest LP from singer/songwriter/superstar Sigrid. First of all, I’d like to point out that 2022 has gotten off to a fantastic start for the release of new music. Hell, this month alone has already made me nervous about just how this year’s wrap-up of our favourite albums will go down. But between you and I, I think I’ve found my winner. Upon the release of “Mirror” last year, I was ecstatic about the potential of Sigrid’s next musical outing. Sucker Punch was already one of my
Has it really been five years since Everything Now, perhaps one of Arcade Fire’s most polarising albums? And my my, what a road we’ve been on since then. So, it begs the question: Arcade Fire, where are we at? After the release of “The Lightning” I and II, we see that Win Butler and friends have taken a more traditional approach to their songwriting; not too dissimilar to sounds you’d find off any of their albums from Funeral to the Suburbs, but obviously with a much tighter approach to production. To me, WE sounds like the bridge between The Suburbs
The Children of the Pope—judging from the band’s name alone, you know you’re in for something good. Signed by Isolar Records in early 2022, the band’s rise since their formation in 2018 (in the “grimiest parts of South London,”) has been meticulously documented by Lou Smith, and they’ve shared stages alongside the likes of Insecure Men, Brian Destiny, and Honkies.
I’ll never forget when I began listening to Scottish band Glasvegas. In seventh grade, I started branching out from the music I heard in the car or on the radio and almost accidentally started listening to them. My dad had received their 2008 self-titled debut album from my uncle, and because of that I began listening to it. I immediately fell in love with the atmospheric, dense sonic world that Glasvegas created on the album. Songs such as “Geraldine,” “Go Square Go,” “Daddy’s Gone,” and “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” tackled emotional themes while enveloping the listener in swirling guitars, rumbling bass, and simplistic yet effective drums. Although singer James Allen’s vocals were obscured by such a thick Scottish accent that I often had to look up the lyrics to understand what was being said, I still adored the album and still do to this day.
Brian Destiny (aka Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family) has been gigging around London as a solo act since 2019. His debut EP, Brian’s Got Talent, was released on February 4th; expect introspective, up-tempo songs from the melodic mastermind behind Fat White Family’s hits such as “Feet,” and “Tastes Good with the Money.” Featured on the EP alongside Brian Destiny are brothers Dante and Gamaliel Traynor, who produced, recorded and co-wrote much of the material.
Buerak is a Russian post punk band that deserves far more attention than they get
The album’s first single, ‘Is it Gonna Be Love?’ neatly sums up the differences between the Fat Whites’ and Brian Destiny’s musical missions. “It’s my basic philosophy, isn’t it? Love. I know it’s a loaded term, but if you can’t find something to do that you love doing, then it’s kind of like…pointless, isn’t it? Whatever it is, you’ve got to be doing something with love. That’s it. That’s the solution.”
“Girl Power”: The immortal slogan of the Spice Girls and title of the 1996 album by Shampoo. However, its origin supposedly comes from a zine published by the US punk chicks of Bikini Kill in 1991. In The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, it is written that ‘they articulated an agenda for young women in and outside of music.’ 30 years later, and we are presented with Prioritise Pleasure, the highly-anticipated new album from Self Esteem. It is a manifesto for the modern girl, a cornucopia of style punctuated by battle cries, all while celebrating strength and vulnerability.
Tim Mohr’s Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall is an essential history that reveals punk’s wrath and how it contributed to the downfall of the East German dictatorship. Throughout history, reigns of terror crushed hopes, ideas, behaviours; we’ve seen it all – intimidation and manipulation, violence. We’ve seen walls. Tall, made of concrete and strengthened with steel, with a strip of land guarded by merciless apostles of havoc by whose hands hundreds died. You would think nothing can break through it, but soundwaves don’t stop at borders. Soundwaves travel. Mohr’s book is
Have you ever attended a concert and decided to skip the support acts? After all, they’re not who you’re there to see and one more drink in the bar is so tempting! If you have, I must say I think you missed out on some possibly brilliant music. I used to think that the support acts were just an unnecessary warm up to the main event, however, I have come to realize the error of my ways, and have since discovered some impeccable artists supporting others. This month’s Indie Idol is evidence of that. In 2019, I attended a Barns
The local music scene is an ever changing landscape no matter where you come from. When I started making music with my band Friday Life back in 2017, there were around five bands that comprised the music scene, maybe a few more. However, four years on, Friday Life is the only band left standing, and that’s remarkable even to me. Local bands breaking up happens for a multitude of reasons: people begin going to college, members move out of state, scandals radically shift the prospects bands once had, the list goes on. It is as common as it is unfortunate.
Written with a cutting perceptiveness akin to Hunter S. Thompson, and with Anthony Bourdain’s ability to nose out juicy metaphors and similes, Woo! is a satisfying read. Like that venerable punk bible, Please Kill Me, or Henry Rollins’ hallowed tome, Get in the Van, Woo! is equal parts how-to DIY guide and spiritual helpmeet for the souls of the moshers, the music-addled and the amp-deafened.
2021 is the 10th anniversary of Trashmouth Records, and as Charlie Steen of Shame says: “Trashmouth fear no fever, no nausea or fatigue, no symptom can scare them; they are the antidote.” In light of that statement, I think we should place all our trust and possibly also all of our money into Trashmouth, as an antidote is exactly what we need right now, in so many ways.
Instead of having a quiet cry whilst reading ‘Glastonbury According to AA Gill,’ we can experience festivals in person again—at least to a certain extent.
I remember my friend John “Guppy” Guptill first mentioning the idea of Cabin Boy to me last July. What immediately stood out to me about the band was that each member was from a different area of the world. He then played me a demo they were working on, and I was even more intrigued. In recent years, I personally feel that the emo/math rock genre has become somewhat tired. While there are many bands who pull off the style well, there are several more that don’t do anything new with the sound, leading to some aspects of the genre
Billie Marten has returned with her third album, Flora Fauna. Back in January when its release date was announced, I immediately called dibs on writing about this record. After stumbling upon Billie’s music through the wonders of Spotify around this time last year, I have been fully captivated by her ever since. Euphoric and otherworldly, her music is the embodiment of stepping into a stray patch of light where the sun managed to peek through. With a two-year gap between Flora Fauna and its predecessor, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, I fully believe that it was well worth the wait. Each
Aptly named, SOUR reflects the post-break-up resentment and bitterness and the melodramas of teenagehood. The first track of the album is ‘brutal’, a heavy riffed self-deprecating song that feels reminiscent of punk rock. It reminds me of songs off Kate Nash’s album Girl Talk, which also acts as a representation of a modern angry skeptical female perspective.
Black Flag vocalist and renaissance man Henry Rollins practices something he calls Protein/Carbohydrate listening. It’s a system in which he organizes his sonic consumption into two categories. New music—stuff he’s never heard before—is classified as protein, while old favorites are classified as carbs. He tracks his daily intake of ‘protein’ and ‘carbs’ in the obsessive manner of any fitness fanatic or health freak. So far this month, my carb consumption has been way up, and my protein consumption has been way down, nonexistent but for the excellent, Austin, Texas-based band BLACK BOOKS, whose recent single Goodbye Cool (released in early 2020) is eerily
God, I can’t believe I’m writing this but, a whole ass DECADE has passed to the day since Matthew Murphy (Love Fame Tragedy), Dan Haggis (Dan The Man), and Tord Øverland Knudsen, better known together as the iconic indie band The Wombats released their second full-length LP; This Modern Glitch. To this day one of the most interesting drops of an indie band who rose to fame in the late 00’s because of the left turn it took. Now I’m not saying it’s as sharp a turn as something like Radiohead’s Kid A was to OK Computer, but This Modern
Trashmouth Records, an independent label run by brothers Liam and Luke May, is the New Malden equivalent of Muscle Shoals’ Fame Studios. The Mays recorded, engineered and produced the debut albums of bands such as Madonnatron, Warmduscher and the Fat White Family. “Trashmouth produced and released records by bands that no one else would touch with a 10-foot pole and not only lived to tell the tale but proved to have been visionary in their blind faith.” As scouts of raw talent and miners of sonic gold Trashmouth Records are unequalled by any in their contribution to recording some of
Released in 2007, Made of Bricks by Kate Nash holds a space in my memories like no other album. Unknowingly I have known this album since it came out. Bit by bit and song by song, I have been rediscovering it since starting university. This album was a commercial success. I still remember watching the ‘Pumpkin Soup’ music video on MTV when I was 7. Transfixed, I would sit on the carpet waiting for it to come on every day. Although at the time it was my personal favourite, it was actually ‘Foundations’ off Made of Bricks that made it
It’s been a whirlwind month for the poor suckers out on of the frontlines of the music industry, myself included. Like everybody else, I have been glued to my laptop for livestreams, during which I have broken two Bose speakers and possibly also ruptured my roommate’s left eardrum, but I’m chalking that up to her allergies and not to the volume at which I was blasting MISTY MILLER’s livestream with Easycome Acoustic Club. Speaking of recent noteworthy streams, Glasgow’s own indie goth-pop darlings, THE NINTH WAVE (rock n’ roll social workers if ever any did exist) played a livestream show
As the sun leans in closer for a warm embrace and Mother Earth takes her first steps towards revitalization, the time has come to celebrate spring’s long-awaited arrival. So, what better way to welcome it than with a brand new release that is so beautiful, it’d make even the most gifted of songbirds envious? Chase Cohl’s EP Dear Dear: Volume I is absolute euphoria. Consisting of four tracks, it embodies a similar feeling to surrendering your skin to the divinity of sunshine; it is nothing short of pure comfort and invigoration. This was my first proper introduction to the enormously
Hayley Williams has delivered us her lockdown baby FLOWERS for VASES / descansos only 9 months after Petals For Armor. Having had her tours cancelled, it was a relief for fans to hear there was a new album coming out instead. Like a lot of artists, Hayley Williams has taken advantage of the time off touring to be able to sit down and write music. She sees her second album as a prequel to her first, a more simplistic laidback affair. Having come out more than a month ago now, it has taken me a while to get into. Unlike
10 years ago, Alex Turner’s ‘Submarine’ EP released, featuring songs written for the film of the same name. If you’ve seen Richard Ayoade’s Submarine, then you’ll know how perfect a match Turner’s songwriting was for that film, the jaded atmosphere of Oliver Tate’s empty and almost stunted world, as he goes through the struggles of his parents dwindling marriage and his own love spell with a girl at school. The matched reverb riddled and stripped-back approach to Turner’s songwriting makes for such an interesting experience with the context of the Arctic Monkeys’ albums that sandwich the EP. Relinquished from the
Wolf Alice return with their highly anticipated single ‘The Last Man on Earth’ The tune sets the pace for what seems to be a turn towards the band’s roots, with the recent single giving off a similar vibe to some of their earlier songs Silk and Blush. Although die-hard fans of the band will know a Wolf Alice album can go from breaking your heart to pure punk rock. One thing’s for sure, Wolf Alice have done it again and never cease to amaze. They really are one of those bands who just can’t write a bad song if they
A lot has happened in the time since Pale Waves released their first album. Despite the various trials and tribulations, one of which including a tour bus crash, the Manchester indie-rockers have proven that nothing can get in the way of creating absolute magic. Consisting of 11 tracks, Who Am I? taps into the beloved, nostalgic sounds of the 2000s, and going through each song helped me feel more like the ideal, cool older sister trope commonly found in movies of that era (Kat Stratford, anybody?). In comparison to 2018’s My Mind Makes Noises, their sophomore album presents a newfound
OK Human, the brand new album by LA rockers Weezer, has shaken up everything the band has put out in the last half-decade alone. Jumping ship from genre to genre, Weezer are no strangers to releasing heaps of fresh music year after year, perhaps the sad reality of how hard it is to make a living being a musician, or perhaps because they’re just that inspired, which after being a band for almost 3 decades now (God really? Time flies huh) is pretty impressive, like all the material they’ve put out or not, it can’t be easy, but that being
If you haven’t already been introduced to the playful, 80s-inspired music of French duo VIDEOCLUB, let this be your guide. Adèle Castillon and Matthieu Reynaud are undeniably one of the coolest power couples out there, and after officially releasing music since 2018, their highly-anticipated debut album Euphories was gifted to the world on 29 January. Featuring pre-released tracks from over the past few years along with plenty of brand new additions, Euphories serves as the perfect introduction to the young musicians. Throughout the album, you’ll discover wondrous, lively energy that invites you to set your responsibilities aside, just for a
The long-awaited debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams by the indie icon Arlo Parks has finally arrived! And it’s definitely a contender for album of the year already. As a black bisexual woman in an already oversaturated music industry, it is so refreshing and rewarding to see the success that Arlo Parks has gained since her music debut in 2018, becoming a contemporary to the likes of Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, but a superstar in her own right. The album kicks off with an arpeggiated acoustic guitar and lofi ambient sounds underneath a poem by Parks, setting up the journey that
Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, and the monumental bang it punches has certainly stood the test of time. It’s undeniable that this is one of their most defining records, and even the album art alone has become an icon in the UK music scene. Being that I was just six years old when the album released (I know, I know….), I was a few years late to the party. I first found Arctic Monkeys when I was about eleven after randomly seeing their video for “Fluorescent Adolescent” pop
Fall Out Boy’s seventh studio album MANIA dropped 3 years ago today! That’s crazy how the last few years have completely flown past. So as an album I really loved but was somewhat polarising to an already divided fanbase, I thought on its birthday it’d be a good idea to look back on the 2018 effort from the Chicago heartthrobs. One of the leading names in the pop-punk scene of the early 2000s, Fall Out Boy have been through numerous sounds and sonic shake-ups. After their four year hiatus, their comeback album Save Rock and Roll was received tremendously well,
Well somehow we’re at the end of 2020 (yeah happy new year by the way) and what a rollercoaster it has been. Nobody’s year went to plan, and we’ve all been desperate for a better 2021. But looking back on the year, we were treated to a lot of pretty awesome music. So to recap on our favourites, the TWM team have come together to give you our collective record collection, of our favourite albums that 2020 had to offer us. SONGS FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC BY THE LEMON TWIGS Kylie: Let’s dive into my favourite record of the year,
Slacker rock superstar Oscar Lang is back with a brand new track that really nails in the new psychedelic gritty rock combo we were gifted with in Hand Over You Head in September. The cosmic hobo soundscape here completely lifts you out of your shoes, a wall of noise to rock your body till the cows come home. Lang announcing a brand new EP (with ‘Antidote..’ being the title track), was exactly what I needed to hear amongst the misery of the UK’s second lockdown. The track definitely lives up to its name, after listening to it, I was the
If there was ever a perfect time for a virtual band to drop an album, of course it’d be in 2020. Thankfully despite the hard times thousands of musicians have had to face this year, we’ve had plenty of new music to consume and I’m sure we’ll have much more to come thanks to the isolation and ‘free’ time this year has given us. I’ve always been a passive fan of Gorillaz, and a deep admirer of Damon Albarn. I grew up in a very Oasis household with much of Blur’s deeper cuts never getting a mention in my childhood
If there were ever such a thing as a mic drop in the form of a musical expression, Nothing But Thieves’ third studio album Moral Panic would be it. Completely outdoing themselves, the band’s modern social commentary manages to absolutely blow your socks off, make you question the morality and purpose of the socks you had, and think about how to go about choosing socks for the future. Confused? You should be, this album has so much going on so bare with me whilst I attempt to process and take in all it has to offer because man does this
Fake It Flowers the debut album by the ever so popular Gen Z icon Beabadoobee has finally dropped and it’s everything we could have wanted and then some. Bea’s transformation from indie bedroom pop artist to full on emotional grunge rocker is complete, if you’ve been watching Bea for a while now it’ll feel as if she’s finally turned super saiyan, I mean she has the blonde hair now so maybe. But I’m getting ahead of myself, this isn’t someone who’s changed randomly, the natural progression of Beabadoobee’s musical career is just her finding her true self sonically, she’s perfected
It’s a real surprise that after the release of two impressive EPs and supporting several big-name bands from IDLES to Future Islands that Dublin based Pillow Queens haven’t had people shouting about them left, right and centre. Nevertheless, their experience with fellow artists fronting the current rock movement and a knack for turning out sonically rich songs in their own right has proven that they’re an indie force to be reckoned with. All things combined they’ve just delivered a record you didn’t realise you’d been ‘In waiting’ for but after a listen won’t be the same without. The album encapsulates
Brighton rock duo Royal Blood have released their latest single ‘Trouble’s Coming’ and it’s a blood pumping power anthem to get you in the mood for whatever may head your way during the day. The track is taken from their upcoming third album due out in the spring of next year, with singer and bassist Mike Kerr saying it was a real turning point for the album. ‘Trouble’s Coming’ sets off with a provocative punch, that really gets straight to the point and sets the tone straight away. This is an evolved sound but not lacking the fantastic flairs we’ve
Direct, divisive and darkly humorous, if you’re looking for an album that packs all of these qualities as well as a major punch then look no further than Ultra Mono, the third studio album from Bristol rockers IDLES. Since receiving critical acclaim upon the release of their aptly named debut album ‘Brutalism’ in 2017 the band have consistently stayed true to themselves in speaking the truth- no matter how harsh. Frontman Joe Talbot refuses to be defined by genre and continually denies claims that they fit under the ‘punk’ umbrella despite comparisons to likes of Shame and even Fontaines D.C.
Angel Olsen is certainly proficient in her ability to create brilliantly addictive tunes, her albums MY WOMAN and All Mirrors are, in my opinion, possibly two of the best albums of the last decade. Two months ago, American film director Miranda July released the trailer for her forthcoming film KAJILLIONAIRE, a comedy starring Evan Rachel Wood and Richard Jenkins. In the trailer, we first heard Olsen’s eerie new cover of the 1962 classic by Bobby Vinton – Mr. Lonely. The track, created especially for the film by Olsen and the film’s composer Emile Mosseri, is a chilling new rendition of
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of Patrick Stump’s first solo album ‘Soul Punk’, released during Fall Out Boy’s hiatus, this record is a favourite of mine and at the time, really showed off Stump’s talent in a way that no one had ever seen before. People knew he was a phenomenal singer, but this album showed off his skills in so many ways. Stump made a soulful, RnB, pop album, and played every instrument, wrote every song and produced every track. After being known as the singer from Fall Out Boy, here we got to see just how much
New Order in more recent years are a bit like Marmite. You either love them or you can’t stand them. Once the pioneers of ’80s dance and club music, now seen more an icon in British music as to what was. But despite members leaving and 2 breakups, the band are still making music, playing to audiences and showing continued success. After 2015’s ‘Music Complete’ with the odd live album released here and there, fans were wondering whether breakup number 3 could be on the way, curious as to whether the ’80s electronica power group would have any sort of
Who the f*ck is Oscar Lang? Well someone you’re bound to wanna know by the end of this. The twenty year old Londoner has been making music since he was eleven, but properly started writing under the alias ‘Pig’ in 2016, and since then has been making quality compositions that you may already know of. Lang met fellow artist Beabadoobee through a mutual friend and started working on tracks together, so far as producing her work up until her second EP, all whilst recording and producing his own work, so rest assured, the guy seems to know what he’s doing,
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