Each week Little Indie sits one person in the guest reviewer's chair with a pair of headphones and five new tracks to swirl through their ears to give their opinion on each.
In the chair this week, Ellie Ward.
Job: Assistant editor at Little Indie.
Musical hates: Jazzy things. Pretentious artists who are all about image rather than content.
Musical loves: Finding a new artist who are so good they make your ears melt.
On my personal player:
Slow Hollows - You Are Now On Fire (the LA genre-benders really nail it with this alt-pop gem, helmed by
Austin Anderson's liquid vocal)
GHUM - Saturn (loving everything these do, and this is a particular favourite that crosses post-punk/dark pop/grunge)
IVORY CAVES - SOMETIMES
Released last week, the new single from the alt-rock five-piece (recently upgraded from a quartet) from Dunfermline, Fife. Following their debut single ‘Fixing Me, Breaking You’ early last year, and the recent 'When You Awake', the band have honed their melodic indie sound to now incorporate a keyboard component. Catch live on August 10 for hometown show at PJ Molloys.
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this, but surprisingly, I lasted til the end without suffering at all! It's quite a rousing little tune from the wee Scots' laddies. I don't know who produced this, but I think it lacks a little by not having the vocals higher in the mix, and some more weight on the bass would be nice. Sounds like it'd be fun live, though, and has a nice radio-friendly glow to it.
Star rating: ★★★☆☆
TROPICAL FUCK STORM - WHO'S MY EUGENE?
Third single from the second album 'Braindrops' out on Joyful Noise Recordings Worldwide / Flightless Records Australia/NZ on August 23, by Australia's off-kilter, avant-psych 'weirdos'. "I had a dream that I was served Brian Wilson’s face at a restaurant and it tasted good and I woke thinking that I had to write about the doomed facade of the American dream cos the famous beach boy couldn’t swim and Dennis drowned but that idea has been so over cooked by acid casualty hippies that I decided to write about my fear of falling in love with anybody because of the anxiety that they could either help me express myself or keep me locked in psychological torment a la Eugene Landry and Brian," says guitarist Erica Dunn.
The inspiration for this is as crazy as the band themselves! Delightfully wonky, bonkers and captivating.
Star rating: ★★★☆☆
FROG - IT'S SOMETHING I DO
Taken from Danny Bateman's - one half of the Queens, New York two-piece, with Tom White - self-produced 'Count Bateman' album, out on August 16. The fourth release from Frog, the cult Wyrd-Americana indies, this lo-fi love song tells it straight: “That’s right I’m fucked up and it can’t get any better / There’s something in the rough cuts and it makes you can’t forget her.”
How can you not fall in love with Dan's mellow flow, and heartwarming falsetto. This really does get better each hearing. I'll be Miss Piggy to his Kermit any day!
Star rating: ★★★★☆
GARDEN CENTRE - WIDE SEA
First single from the Brighton-based quintet's forthcoming album, 'A Moon For Digging', out November 1 via Specialist Subject Records (UK) / Kanine Records (US). Max Levy's first effort recorded with a full band, they mix elements of punk, indie, and minimal folk. “‘Wide Sea’," says Levy, "is a song about devoting your life to worry and fear for somebody you love. It is also about how easy it is to forget how beautiful and complex that person and the entire world is, and how when you come through on the other side of a period of fear the horizon itself can overwhelm you with an accepting vastness."
Really interesting track, because it crosses genres in such a way that you are left puzzling where it's at. It's also so catchy, I know I am going to be earworming that chorus!
Star rating: ★★★★☆
CROSS WIRES - PARADISE CLUB 1953
Produced by Rory Attwell at Kluster Rooms in Limehouse, East London, and taken from the debut album 'A Life Extinct', out in October. The first new material from the London psych-punk-rock outfit in over two years. Catch live at The Engine Rooms in Bow, East London on August 17.
Now this, this... love the way Jonathan Chapman's vocal has been mixed - goosebumps! It has Cross Wires' own stamp on it, veering rather weirdly from one thing to another, and then goes mental towards the end!
Star rating: ★★★★★
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