Round-Up
Another Wave - Drifting
For the most part Drifting plays the role of catchy indie guitar number. Plays it very handsomely, in fact, centering around a repeated four-chord motif with spacey decoration. And then, almost magically, a brass freakout wanders in off the street and takes the song to an entirely new level.
https://twitter.com/anotherwaveband
https://www.facebook.com/AnotherWaveBand
https://www.anotherwaveband.com/
Auditorium - My Grandfather Could Make The World Dance
Continuing my recent trend of leaking irrelevant personal details over my round-ups, now seems like as pointlessly diversionary a time as any to mention how part of my education was spent in a choir school. One thing I learned there is that well-trained voices often struggle to loosen their hold enough to give the kind of natural vocal performance that things that aren’t called Ave Maria etc sometimes demand. On My Grandfather Could Make The World Dance, former child performer and ex-Metropolitan Opera Singer Spencer Berger show my old school chums how it should be done: momentary displays of strength leave you in no doubt of his skill, but at the same time blend naturally into their largely acoustic surroundings.
https://www.facebook.com/auditoriummusic
https://auditorium.bandcamp.com/
Martha Bean - Song of the Sea
After a year touring in support of the likes of Marika Hackman, multi-instrumentalist, arranger of strings, vocalist and song-writer Martha Bean is set to add recording artist to her long list of credits when her debut album When Shadows Return To The Sea is released on 6th April. Song of the Sea is an intriguing taster for the album, its gently rolling acoustic rhythms and Bean’s pure and beautiful vocals accompanied by a beautifully judged string arrangement.
https://twitter.com/marthabean
https://www.facebook.com/marthabeanmusic
Cry Monster Cry - Postcards
Postcards is the first single from Cry Monster Cry’s forthcoming debut album. Cry Monster Cry comprises Dublin brothers Richie and Jamie Martin, whose debut EP, The Fallen was well received on its released back in 2012. Postcards deftly avoids the kind of folksy hollering that doesn’t tend to trouble the scorers here at RRP. Instead, mandolin (yay!) meets inviting harmonies; together they head off into the sunset to the sound of a call and response brass outro to live happily ever after somewhere way down yonder in a minor key.
https://www.facebook.com/crymonstercry
https://twitter.com/CRYMONSTERCRY
evitceles - watchingyouunconsciously
Gloomy and mysterious, watchingyouunconsciously is the work of Bulgarian experimentalist, drone and downtempo artist evitceles. Like the soundtrack to a yet-to-be-fully-realised hallucinogenic nightmare it is dark and foreboding: tread carefully, and remember to leave a breadcrumb trail for the way back.
https://www.facebook.com/evitceles
https://evitceles.bandcamp.com/
The Virgance - Hiko Shrine
Out today, and available on a name your price basis from Bandcamp is this album of swirly shoegazing post-rock from Nathan Smith, aka The Virgance. Hiko Shrine contains nine faraway soundscapes sculpted into fantastical reverb-washed shapes.