Single Review: Fickle Friends - 'Play'.

 Back in January, Brighton's Fickle Friends fought away our winter blues and post-Christmas comedowns over at our sister site The Sound of Confusion with the introduction of their warm and infectious debut single, 'Swim'; a track that had the blogosphere gleefully championing Nattassia (Natti) Shiner (vox/synth), Sam Morris (drums), Harry Herrington (bass/backing vox), Chris Hall (guitar) and Jack Wilson (synth/backing vox ) of Fickle Friends as ones to watch for 2014. Since then, we've been eagerly anticipating the band's next move, and let's face it, it had to be a good one to at least compare to, if not surpass, the huge positive reception that 'Swim' received.

 Less than 3 months since 'Swim' , the five-piece have confidently unveiled their follow-up single 'Play' released via Killing Moon Records. With a sound that could be mistaken for a mash up of Two Door Cinema Club, Lucy Rose, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Imogen Heap, 'Play' is a clever, eclectic mix of power pop, indie, and 80's new wave disco. Its catchy hooks, groovy bass lines, and sunny vocals are at once uplifting, engaging and understatedly delicate.

"We chose PLAY as lyrically it's kind of a follow on from SWIM. We also wanted to release something that contrasted with our first single musically" explains lead vocalist Natti Shiner and added "It's a little more fragile in parts, but also a bit more…. playful."

“PLAY is about seeing someone who’s losing their passion. It's a continuation of the characters from SWIM. She’s getting nostalgic as he becomes less interested in everything."


With that in mind, take a listen below:

 

Live dates:

April
09 - The Shacklewell Arms (London) (buy tickets)
19 - Springtide Festival (Gosport)
25 - The Boileroom (Guildford)
26 - Jailhouse (Hereford)

May
01 - Sixty Million Postcards (Bournemouth)
02 - Kazimier, Liverpool Sound City (Liverpool)
03 - Wardrobe, Live at Leeds (Leeds)
04 - City Sound Project (Canterbury)
09 - The Great Escape - The Green Door Store (Brighton)

June
20 - Lainfest (Atherstone)

Buy the single 'Play' on  iTunes
Fickle Friends || Facebook || Twitter

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No Middle Name - Live At The Lexington, London, 14th March 2014

London-based independent label Fierce Panda Records are in the midst of an exciting few months; for they have been putting on an array of shows here, there and everywhere around the great city that is London in celebration of 20 years of success for the label and the musicians they have been collecting along the way. On the 14th of March we made our way down to Islington's The Lexington for Birmingham quartet, The Traps 'My Grip'/'Imposter' single launch show as part of Fierce Panda's 20th Birthday shows. It was the most pleasant of surprises to see that lo-fi/dream pop solo artist   David Bailey; who performs under the moniker of No Middle Name, was the opening act.

And what an opening act it was! David Bailey is a charismatic and likeable performer who is an overflowing faucet of 1 part laid back and 3 parts easy going, who took the time to literally babble on to the crowd in between each track. Perhaps it was nerves from the overtly attentive crowd who eagerly awaited No Middle Name's next move with a silence that made even the sound of the tiniest pin drop akin to a heard of stampeding elephants. Or perhaps it was the fact that David Bailey usually performs with a backing band but was flying solo for the night and was a bit lonely. But if you ask us, David Bailey is just a friendly, open guy who loves a good chat and addressed the crowd as if they were his mates. In fact,witty rambling such as "I'm looking for a drummer. A female drummer. So we can be like Bucks Fizz. If you're a drummer and you think this looks like fun, we can have fun together. Oh. That sounds like a dating website tagline!" had the room laughing and my friend whispering to me "I like him, he's funny. I'd go for a pint with him!".

 

No Middle Name performed 10-tracks, 7 of which were taken from his self-titled debut album, the other 3; currently unreleased. His tracks feature a lot of samples as basis or inspiration for a lot of the songs, a loop, a noise or bit of speech. Not to mention groovy guitar solos, rock and roll riffs and a sound evoking images of old children’s programs from the 70s or 80s where Bailey has created music over the presenters talking. Definitely one of the most underrated, promising talents on our radar at the moment. David Bailey, we dig you, your moves and your colourful beaded necklace. 

Set list:

 Intro (unreleased)

Late Bloomer

Another Season

Two Friends

Dance With Devil And Me (Unreleased) ACOUSTIC "Yeah this is going to happen, I'm going to do an acoustic track. Don't worry, it's only short".

My Friend Jenny (Unreleased) "this one's rock and roll one. Well, hardly"

From The Barrel Of A Loaded Gun "great guitar solo".

Last One To Know It

When Forever Ends - got his groove on.

Buy the album
No Middle Name || Website || Facebook || Twitter

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Video: Talos - 'Tethered Bones'.

Talos is the project of Cork-born artist Eoin French whose electronic/ r&b infused debut single, 'Tethered Bones'  is punctuated with gloopy, clonky percussion, warning beeps and high pitched, textured vocals that strangely wound on an intensely emotional level. Speaking on ‘Tethered Bones’, Talos states:

“It's a love song, about how a relationship can engulf and transform you: what it can and does take away. What you lose and what you gain."

The track is accompanied by a powerful music video, shot and directed by production company Feel Good Lost which shows themes of hunting and captivity and alternates between murky, earthy saturated shots and black and white visuals of a young woman living out a lonely nightmare, with a seemingly unstable man; a man of whom she is not sure whether she should be comforting or killing.

.Brendan Canty of Feel Good Lost has said of the video:

“From the start, Talos and ourselves had a strong idea about a music-meets-cinema collaboration. I loved the challenge of taking what Eoin wrote and re-interpreting it - the lyrics I latched onto were around this idea of someone being so isolated and alone but at the same time being so smothered and attached to someone. It reminded me of stories I had read about Stockholm syndrome - the unusual relationships and bonds victims develop with their kidnappers.”

 

Give it a watch:

 

Talos || Website || Facebook || Twitter 



 

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Single Review: Kimberly Anne - 'Hard As Hello' (Bastille Remix)

 

On March 24th South London singer-songwriter Kimberly Anne is due to release her new EP 'Hard As Hello' on Polydor Records.  'Hard As Hello' features four introductory tracks, produced by Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag N Bone Man), Rich Wilkinson (Lianne Le Havas, Bombay Bicycle Club), and a special track from Bastille, whose remix of the EPs lead title track can be found below.





Bastille have added an outstanding choral backing and a large amount of electronic production to the delectable track in turn transforming the bouncy Caribbean vibe of the original into a hauntingly emotive number. In fact, Dan Smith of Bastille harmonises so well with Kimberly Anne we would love to see them work together in the future. Absolutely spellbinding.



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Tour dates

25th March – The Social, London
1st April – XOYO, London (w/ Bipolar Sunshine)
3rd April – Think Tanks, Newcastle (w/ Bipolar Sunshine)
4th April – King Tuts, Glasgow (w/ Bipolar Sunshine)
5th April – Academy 2, Manchester (w/ Bipolar Sunshine)

 

Pre Order || 'Hard As Hello' EP || iTunes
Kimberly Anne || Website || Facebook || Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Video: Bwani Junction - 'Caveman'.

Last time we heard from the Bwani Junction HQ we were sharing the kooky, cheeky and crazy-mad vid to their killer track 'Borneo'. Since then, the fun-loving foursome have taken a  tour through Asia, released their second full length album 'Tongue of Bombie' and are finally back on our radar with follow up track 'Caveman', the fourth single to be taken from the brand new album.  Caveman' was released  on Jan 27th and for lack of a better description, it pretty much carries the sound of oriental, indie-guitar-pop interjected with peculiar, primal percussion.  Sounds weird, I know, but it's a blinder.   Lead singer Rory Fairweather explains what the track is about below:

"Caveman is about just having the horn for a girl. It’s been a song we've been fiddling with for quite a while, and it never really came together until we were working with Paul (Savage, Producer of the track). It was the John Bonham style drums that really changed the feel of the song and turned it into more of a heavy, hip-thrusting kind of song".

With that in mind, sit back and check out the raunchy, dark fairy tale accompanying video to the track which conveys the song message perfectly well. The video features half of the band sharing a few saucy, sexy moments with a temptress witchy-poo voodoo lady whilst the other half are investigating what clearly turns out to be a bizarre and lethal situation. If there's one thing that can be said about Bwani Junction, (besides their obvious talent and ingenuity) it's that they put the carefree, honest, fun back into indie music, and let me tell you this, these guys have bundles of likeability, which counts for a whole damn lot in this industry. Good luck to 'em we say!

Bwani Junction || Facebook || Twitter

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