In their four years of existence, much has changed for Teesside agitators Benefits. Over lockdown they morphed from spirited guitar-led punks into overwhelmingly brutal harsh noise-wielders, whose furious, eviscerating music garnered them the kind of word of mouth following most artists can only dream of. Frontman Kingsley Hall’s spoken (and screamed) vocals acting as a… Read more »
Newton Faulkner is a man in motion. Across the songwriter’s freewheeling fifteen- year career, the sole constant has been his urge to tear down what came before, shed his creative skin and outrun industry dogma. Already, that rebel spirit has seen Faulkner’s music pinball from the outer-limits acoustic sorcery of 2007’s UK#1 debut, Hand Built… Read more »
Jack Valero straddles continents. Infusing classic, old school British song-writing with a timeless American rock sound creating a transatlantic indie-rock mash-up. With lyrics mixing inward retrospection and confronting the World’s state of affairs, Jack zones in on the gaps between the light and dark, infusing his songs with ‘melodies that hook in your head and… Read more »
Current Joys is the moniker of Nick Rattigan, who is also one of the primary members of Surf Curse. Rattigan is a prolific songwriter, producer and performer and music video director, with multiple credits across every disciple in every year of his adult life. Love & Pop will be Current Joys’ tenth record in as many years…. Read more »
The man in the tree has a guitar, he’s gonna sing. But the sun shining through the branches— are those rays yellow or hazy gray? What day is today? When are you not going to feel this way again?
On the epic centrepiece to English Teacher’s debut album, Lily Fontaine laments that not everybody gets to go to space. “You’re too busy here,” she points out. “How could you fit it in?” The Leeds four-piece certainly have had a hectic couple of years, with a burgeoning fanbase watching and listening to them refine their… Read more »
Katie Malco released her debut album, Failures, via 6131 Records during lockdown in 2020. Failures is a coming-of-age record that, through soul-baring songwriting and gut-punch guitars, documents Malco’s adolescence; vignettes of a troubled teenage life in an abusive household, growing up and battling acute self-doubt.
Babygirl are breathing effervescent life into a new definition of pop music. The Toronto duo–comprised of Kiki Frances and Cameron Bright–is placing a refreshing spin on youth nostalgia with a contemporary edge, thanks to fuzzy guitar riffs and sincere lyrics. Their brand new EP Be Still My Heart has been praised by critics as “a… Read more »
Truly great pop songs do not require a cheery outlook in order to work, nor do they pander to expectations of syrupy sweet easy-listening. Rather, the best pop music is a matter of refinement and pure intention, of dialing groove to melody so that the two might puncture the malaise of everyday living in unison,… Read more »
Rahill Jamalifard is a multidisciplinary artist and musician hailing from Lansing, Michigan and presently based in upstate New York’s idyllic Hudson Valley. As a founding member of Brooklyn garage-rock mainstays, Habibi, Rahill garnered a reputation for alchemizing an eclectic range of influences, distilling them into captivating and heavy pop songs that gestured towards the modes… Read more »