Indie folk music's favourite lyrically outrageous beauty is back with four brand new and brilliant tracks for your undoubtedly grateful consumption. Since seeing Emmy for the first time at Norwich Arts Centre earlier this year on the very same day her debut album 'First Love' was released, I just haven't been able to get enough of her haunting folk-inspired melodies. 'Edward' only strengthens these feelings. From the soulful and delicate opening of 'Edward Is Deadward', this is an EP that is both instantly captivating and extremely inspiring to its listener; 'Two Steps Forward' and 'A Bowl [...]
Utterly brilliant indie folksters Fanfarlo have a new music video on YouTube, viewable here . Look out for a review of their fantastic album ' Reservoir ' here on TBW very soon! -Lauren Razavi
Following my review of the Stars of Sunday League EP Launch at the beginning of this month, you may remember a casual promise to keep you up to date with what Euan's folky friends are up to. Well, what follows are updates about a couple of London's finest folksters, who I'm very much liking at the moment. Before that, though, I'd like to point you towards an article I wrote recently about a change in the way a lot of London folk gigs are operating these days - notably Laura Marling & Friends at [...]
Unique alternative folksters Peggy Sue will be heading out to support two wonderful headline acts this autumn – The Maccabees and Joan As Policewoman! Peggy Sue will be playing with the bands on their tour dates as follows: Joan As A Policewoman 27th September: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 28th September: Glee Club, Birmingham 30th September: St Georges, Bristol 1st October: Deaf Institute, Manchester 4th October: Union Chapel, London 5th October: St Georges, Brighton The Maccabees 3rd October: Academy Brixton, London 6th October: [...]
The Grammy-nominated, eclectic and godly Imogen Heap is back and brighter than ever this month with a new album called 'Ellipse' to be released on August 24th. We're looking forward to hearing it here at The Blue Walrus, and will be reviewing it for your reading pleasure very soon. Until then, here are some free Imogen Heap goodies, just for you... Album Player: Listen to the whole of the new album here . New Video For 'Canvas': Watch the new video [...]
Magic Wands are a firm favourite here at Walrus Towers, and as we are loving their EP so much the fine folk over at YALC are offering one of you lucky readers to win a copy of it on limited edition 123 vinyl. Oooh how pretty. To get your hands on this I'm afraid you'll have to be UK based (sorry but vinyl costs a fortune to post overseas) and send an email to competitions@thebluewalrus.com with an answer to the following question: What website brought [...]
Magic Wands , who have been featured on both the summer and last electro mix tapes here on TBW released an EP last month on Young & Lost Club ( BUY ) that deserves a little write up on these pages ( and we have a competition to win it on vinyl as well ). The dream pop wonder of Teenage Love and eminently danceable favourite (and heavily remixed) Black Magic are both included on the EP after being given a little spruce by producer John Hill. They are both [...]
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool may have a French-lesson inspired name but are 3 Londoners with synth based tunes and a sound somewhere around a more forceful and danceable Passion Pit. They have a 73 of "Dance the way I feel" coming out on Young & Lost Club in a few weeks ( pre-order here ). It sounds like that period of the night in a club when you close your eyes and the people and walls melt away with the world gradually slowing around you. A sense of introverted enchantment. We've got a stream [...]
I am fall-off-my-chair-excited to hear that Mumford & Sons will be releasing their debut album 'Sigh No More' through Gentlemen Of The Road/Island Records on the 5th October. 'Little Lion Man' will be released as the first single from the album on 28th September, a song that Zane Lowe has featured as 'The Hottest Record In The World' on BBC Radio 1. Alongside this exciting news, Mumford & Sons will also be playing a special one-off intimate show at London's Borderline on August 24th, where their music video for the new single will be premiered. The [...]
It's finally here. a full six months since the last one here is a few more electro wonders to throw at everyone. Good Luck at the Gunfight have been one of my favourite finds of the last couple of months, with a distinctly summery Daft Punk-esque sound going on in their debut (and free) EP. Filthy Dukes have produced some more eminently danceable synthpop from there wonderful Nonsense in the Dark James Rutledge does the remix job on Fever Ray [...]
Last year saw the emergence of a group of South London folkies, interconnected and explicitly good, and they created, defined and redefined the conceptions of 'folk' music for a new audience. Pioneers like Noah And The Whale, Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn are all still going strong, and we still really like them (in case you haven't noticed), but their genre redefinition is complete for the moment, and I've found myself wondering where folk might go next. But if 2008 and the beginning of 2009 was a period of these indie folksters, let me be the first one [...]
The astoundingly talented and utterly addictive Frank Turner has just announced a UK headline tour to begin this October. The folk-punk pioneer will be touring to promote his new album 'Poetry Of The Deed', out on September 7th through Xtra Mile Recordings / Epitaph. The first single from the new album, 'The Road', can be heard through a very sketchy YouTube video, viewable here . The tour dates are as follows: OCTOBER 13 Dublin, Academy 2 14 Belfast Stiff Kitten Club 15 Glasgow QMU 16 Manchester Academy 2 SOLD [...]
My how many bands are there with Wolf in their name at the moment? Nevermind the naming competition though, because the best one of the lot has turned up in the form of Wolf Gang a.k.a Max McElligot, the part German, part Irish song craftsman. I have to thank Angus over at State Management for the heads up about him a good few months ago, but shamefully that was during my law exam writing hiatus so I never got a chance to write him up at the time, with his only feature on here in my summer [...]
Firm favourites Meursault have released their most recent EP on Song, by Toad Records . This has been available at shows for a good few months now (and I've been lazily sitting on it for a while - shame on me), but it finally got released last week making now a good time to finally review it. Meursault's debut album was a great if slightly chaotic at times mixture of electronic folk, whilst this EP falls back to a more traditional and acoustic folk sound. It is an stunningly beautiful 5 track collection of fokl [...]
Some more great music from Noah and the Whale ( MySpace ) here. We've got two remixes of the Blue Skies, first single to come from their fantastic new album The First Days of Spring . The first remix is by TBW favourites YACHT , who have added their characteristic slight jerky electric sound to the song, keeping the hopeful feeling of the original. The second remix by Death to the Throne transforms the song into the territory of darker skitterish electronica that would have been out of place on [...]
With the cold spell and the rain coming back to our shores, now seems a perfect time to showcase a few of the artists that showcase the other, slower, deeper and darker side of electronic music. Pegase starts of the mix with a track that has soundtracked some of my more personal and introspective moments over the last few months after Bec over at Electrorash picked him up. Slow epic and atmospheric electronic movements demonstrating his skill makes Pegase one of the most [...]
This has been a long time coming, but today I've got 2 CDs worth of amazing summer music. The first disc is more folk based in keeping with last summer's mix , with the second less folky but just as perfect for the summer afternoons in the sunshine. We have a few of the bands that were on the last mix popping up again, but most on here have not been featured on TBW before. As I've been out of the game for a while, some of these have been around for a few months, and then [...]
Mew - Jonas Bjerre (singer) - Obelisk Arena - Demark 1. Who are you most looking forward to seeing at this year's Latitude festival across the Arenas (Obelisk, Uncut, Comedy, Theatre, Literary and Poetry, Film & Music) and why? I hope to get to see Bat For Lashes among others. There's a bunch of bands playing that I am not familiar with, so I hope there's time to walk around and take the music in. 2. What aspect of Latitude Festival interests you the most [...]
June has proven to be an extremely fruitful month for finding new artists here at The Blue Walrus. Among the many demos that have landed on my desk, a few have stood out as pioneers of the music of our 2009 British summertime. Here's a quick introduction to my three favourites... Gold Teeth can only be described as naughty-good fun. I first saw them supporting Athlete at the Norwich Waterfront a couple of weeks ago, and was thoroughly impressed by their down-to-earth and audience-involving antics. The music is energetic [...]
One of the leaders in the resurgence of folk that has occured over the past 18 months or so are Noah and the Whale, and I was delighted to find this title track off their new album entitled "entitled The First Days of Spring" pop up in my inbox this morning. This new track seems to mark a bit of a change in direction for the band, moving a little away from their happy clappy folk roots of their debut , to a more reflective and grand sound which reminds me [...]
The Blue Walrus
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Mr Fogg - Eleven
Crocodiles - Endless Flowers
