Alt-rock trio YOSSARIAN brings us ‘Exit Universe,’ this December. Ethereal and futuristic, it is perhaps the perfect detox to Christmas cheer. The trio, Ash Spencer, Joaquin Rodriquez San Pedro, and Sam Wallace, are gearing away from The National infused, indie rock sounds of their two previous albums, Little We Know and Light Up My Head with this latest instalment. ‘Exit Universe’ is both brooding and uplifting, with disillusionment sown into each soaring note. For this third single off their forthcoming album, YOSSARIAN have teamed up with tru-thoughts artist Rhiannon Bouvier, which is perhaps where the trip-hop sensitivities come from, alluding…
Author: Ty Bennett
It’s music that, when played over the speakers, someone always looks up from their vodka soda and says, ‘who’s this?’ It’s music where you find yourself entwined in the tune and entranced by the lyrics. Music that lifts up your mood and fiddles around with it; perfectly at pace with a warehouse rave, a rainy walk, uppers, and downers and hanging arounders. It’s holding up a mirror to the conformity and complexity of youth culture; brazenly toeing the boundary of politically incorrect in an effort to show how the term no longer exists when we judge everything off the tip…
“No one can fully escape tragedy. Not in the dimly lit dance clubs of London, not in the nearly black sex clubs of Berlin; not even at home in Toronto where someone always leaves a light on when you’re going to be late. The economist was wrong. There is no safe place; there is only what’s next. That is where Tom Boy is born” reads the manifesto that accompanies indie duo, Tom Boy’s, new music. Born out of the turbulence that ended the pair’s previous band, CAIRO, Tom Boy is writing indie anthems that serve as a microscope, or a…
Multi-talented musician Zoe Konez is the main songwriter in Cat Bear, in her solo songwriting guise. She is also behind London showcase “Stop Look Listen”, who has put on the likes of Eliza and The Bear, Kimberly Anne and Holly Walker. Neon Music’s Ty Bennett chats to Zoe about her new song ‘The Sweetest Thing’ and the importance of supporting music artists at grass-roots level. What was your process for writing this song? The process was quite long but really enjoyable and I learned a lot from it. It started with a piano part which just happened under my fingers…
“Writing a song is like wiping a steamy window. You’ve got this mess in your head, and then you put it in a song and it’s not at the forefront of your mind anymore. You can see through it,” indie duo HUX tells me over half a pint in Bristol on Friday. “I thought I had more to drink, that’s the problem with half a pint” member, Patrick says a few moments later, before conceding and getting another drink. In the oak-panelled pub, rain beating the pavement outside, Friday evening workers finishing off their third gin and tonic and shouting…
There is a complicated dynamic going on in Zoe Konez’s single, ‘Love Is The Sweetest Thing.’ Whilst the premise of the tune is undeniably cliché, the outstanding musical technique and traversing influences elevate its complexity, making it disarmingly indescribable. Producing ineffable, soulful music isn’t all Zoe Konez has to her name, however. The songwriter from Cat Bear Trees has travelled the globe, exploring different musical expressions and learning the musicianship of various cultures, which manifests itself in her impressive technique – especially in her advanced guitar playing – even if it isn’t omnipresent in her sound. It’s interesting that, with…
You’re in a low-lit basement bar, reclining against a bare brick wall in a corner. Figures shrouded in darkness and red and blue hues are locked together, entwined in the tune, hips moving, shoulders back. They’re clutching martini’s, served in low ball glasses, lost in soulful, sensual R&B. This is the atmosphere of ONUR’s second single ‘Stunnah’ and it is delicious. First and foremost, the 22-year-old Londoner needs to be applauded for making R&B that is not only in the contemporary Brit genre but also doesn’t try too hard to be – not an easy feat in that landscape at…
‘It’s Alright’ by Australian/British folk duo HUX starts you off sitting on the side of your bed, tapping your fingers against your knee, absently noticing the tan line on your thumb where you lost a ring last summer. When the smouldering vocals pour into the air moments later, you stop gazing at your hands and start nodding your head in time to the steady, easy beat. Using just two acoustics, two vocals and a stomp box, which is diversified instrumentally in production, HUX members George and Patrick create a bewitchingly uneven folk track that shifts and switches between choruses, so that your…
If Tim Atlas’s new single ‘Sidestep’ were a t-shirt, it would have a retro, reclaimed vintage look. The material would be soft to touch but filled with holes that could use some stitching up. It would be an accessible grey, with a hopeful blue-sky tinge. The graphics on the item would be imaginative, but also overwhelming and tangled, concealing an important message about social anxiety that gets lost in the detail. The fit would look good on paper, but in reality, is slightly off-kilter. ‘Sidestep’ is the first single off Atlas’s forthcoming EP ‘All Talk,’ due for release early next…
At a pivotal point in ‘Out of Love’ – the show-stopping single off Canadian retro-electro band, PLUM’s new EP – non-stop electric strings give way to quiet static and the echoing vocals of Rachel Kross. In this pinnacle moment, the sensuality of the song becomes apparent and it is transformed from synth 80s pop number to brooding summer time ballad. ‘Out of Love’ is the third track off PLUM’s recently released EP ‘D.R.I.P’ which is an instrumentally buoyant but lyrically dark series of tunes. ‘Scorpion Moon’ epitomises this feeling with gloriously layered instrumentals that would feel at home on an early Hippo Campus album, matched with…