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Cold Killer. Redlight King
Can hardrock and pop go together? I hope I'm not offending anyone but yes it certainly can. Redlight King is combining the two perfectly. The tough guitar sound sets the tone. Together with the rhythm section it makes sure that the verses have the air to breath, to go for it in the choruses. No matter how cold the title is, the feel of the chorus is simply great. Fans of rock music will recognise elements from Guns 'N' Roses right up to Muse and that's only the start of this song. What I particularly take a liking to, is the little details in the song. The top of a cymbal, the extra, extra harmonies behind the front voice and harmonies. Redlight King knows how to embellish a song in all the right places and ways. As I wrote, pure pop. Be on the lookout for the Canadian-American band's fourth album later this year,'On Our Blood'.
Just because of the video it is good to listen (and look) to Push at least once. A band plays in a small apartment while the singer, in a semi-normal way goes about the apartment, doing things she would ordinarily do and sing as well. She may not be "feeling to hot today", the Last Drinks are. The band is on fire in this alternative rocking song. Musically the band strokes against your hairs half of the time while at the same time building this tension of which you know is in search of a release. When it comes it is still close to the edge of my musical tastes but so full of energy that giving is is an easy thing to do. For me Cash Savage and the Last Drinks is a totally new name and I can't even find out any more how the band got on my radar. It doesn't matter, the steam is getting out of my speakers and ears. Excitement is another good word for what I'm hearing.
With Low Miranda not out for another two weeks, here's a little taster in the form of the album's single, The Seventh Daughter. It is an ideal mix of country, pop and indie rock. You will hear a twangy lead guitar, playing in a song that with only some minor alterations could have been by R.E.M. or my fave country singer Karen Jonas. At the same time Ryan Traster adds this pop element to his song that makes it so easy to listen to. He manages to hover between the light and the shade and makes the light win on points. Listen to what the piano is doing, as accompaniment and solo notes. As a whole the song is extremely well-balanced making the listening experience sheer fun. It took me a while to acknowledge, but his voice sounds a lot like Vancouver's Tim Claridge of Death Goldbloom and Hymalyan. Extra points scored because of it. The Seventh Daughter is a great introduction to Low Mirada which I'll certainly start listening to soon. Out on 30 September.
Duo Hambone Skinny, Skinny Mike on guitar and vocals and Stepth F. on drums (and a shout here and there), present nothing more than what they are, a duo. Skinny Mike plays his one riff over and over on his distorted guitar. One chord seems enough for the verses and chorus. The change comes when he throws in his slide for the solo's. Steph F. pounds away on her drums making sure that every inch of the sound not filled by the amp cranked up to 10.5 is filled by the drums. Behind Skinny Mike's voice, rough from wear and tear, she repeats a word here and there. If Hambone Skinny does one thing right, it is recreating the sound of the southern juke joints on a Saturday night. Gin Joint Jukin' is a s close as you'll get these days.
Dubliner living in Brooklyn releases a single from his upcoming album 'The Slow Death Of The LoveMyth'. It is a song, on the dark side of the song spectre, that is quite heavy to digest. Let me start with the thing that irritates me no little: that long held, high keyboard note that is there for the whole song, hardly ever changing at all. With that out of the way, the rest of the song is fascinating. With singer Juli Dicterow of Oh Halo in a Stevie Nicks kind of role. She leads the way despite being somewhat in the middle of the music going on around her. The music comes across as one huge cloud that envelopes me completely. Yes, there are different instruments. They come across as one big whole. A monolith of sound, led by that one note. Listen more closely and a rich musical tapestry appears. With the many layered vocals of Dicterow and all the other instruments behind her. Double Helix is fascinating music in several ways.
I'll be honest and write that Kevin Stevenson's album 'Reality Alley' is a bit too much for me. This single shows why individually his songs can be fun. They tap into a style of song that went out of fashion about 40 years ago, when bands like The Specials, The Selecter and Madness were, almost, past their short-lived hey day. Stevenson adds some pop to the whole and comes up with a mix of pop and slow ska, horns and all. Enough to bring a smile to someone's face instantly. Live this will undoubtedly go down very well. This music is fun. Nothing more but certainly nothing less.
More from New Zealand. Abstract Oils is the title of the latest single of the band Crush. Title and music faintly reminds me of Japan and the early solo works of David Sylvian. Warpaint is a name of the last 10 years that comes to mind immediately. The dreamy music is mixed with the mystical. At the same time there's a down to earth element in the music with thanks to the drummer and percussionist. Things happen that move towards reggae and dub, while singer and synths warble around as there's only sky and wind to sooth and carry you. Put Abstract oils on and let yourself be carried away. Just drift away, softly but surely into the trance the rhythm and warbling synths can bring you in.
Listening to Brooke Annibale's single I get a feeling that The Cure has lost all its effect pedals somewhere on the road and in sheer desperation recorded Better By Now any way. The result is an alternative pop song that is instantly pleasing yet missing something. When I chuck my The Cure association out of the window, I hear a singer that is pining for something better. She wrote the song in January 2021, with the Christmas tree freshly out of the door and a hope for a new fresh year and on came the storming of the Capitol. (And Covid far from over yet of course.) The song expresses the faded hope for a better year in all the right ways. More bitter than sweet and more sad than happy. Better By Now is a song for those moments, without forgetting the silver lining is there somewhere. Hope does shine through. "How we wanted to believe it, somehow". Keep that thought when in the situation Brooke Annibale was in in January 2021. And listen to what came from it.
London band Black Market Karma releases a single ahead of its album 'Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas' (29 September), it's 10th. On Dead Trajectory singer Stan Belton delivers the right tone for the song. Do not expect a host of emotions on the single. The music is a more intricate affair. You will hear several guitars all playing off and against each other. Rhythms, leads, solo notes, wide chords and strums, it can all be found any moment in the song, without it ever becoming a jumble of noise. In the background the drums and bass keep it all on track and nicely going. Black Market Karma is in line with a band like Teenage Fanclub here without the intricate vocals. At the same time the band that hardly anybody has seen live, is quite present as well. The Velvet Underground is in the music and vocals. The pop and the dark come together in Dead Trajectory in quite a surprising way.
Hoaxed is a duo, Kat Keo and Kim Coffel, that produces a song that sort of is a perfect blend of everything going on in modern rock music. Kat Keo sings like an angel in The Call and would have fitted with any of the dreampop bands of today. Kim Coffel batters her drumkit in such a way that Lars Ulrich could retire from Metallica any moment knowing that the kit would be filled a formidable way. Together they play metal in such a way that The Call is instantly a sing-a-long kind of song. Yes, it's hard and loud, while being pure pop, 24 carat gold. The best songs of Earth & Fire came to mind immediately in the moments the keyboards ring out, think 'Seasons', 'Wild and Exiting' and 'Maybe Tomorrow Maybe Tonight'. Hoaxed is a totally new name for me but instantly liked. The album. 'Two Shadows' is out on 28 October. Let me put the spotlight once again on drummer Kit Coffel. This is really sick stuff.
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