Irish duo Ghosts have been making dark, haunting waves over the last few months. Paudie Bob and Kevin Gleeson who make up the Dublin-based team hint at influences as diverse as UK garage and electronica, but it is the soft ambient beats and sampled vocal grooves that skip through your consciousness. They're releasing an EP entitled WLVS on Belfast's Champion Sound Music in late February, but as a little taster for that we've got an exclusive track for you lovely people. Ghosts - I [...]
The fine folks over at Alcopop have always been fine innovators, whether that is with the bands on their roster, the packaging of their releases, or now with just getting word out. Not only did we receive the fantastic new track from Stagecoach , which is everything we love from the band - rough and under-produced indie pop, but we also found ourselves on the receiving end of a personalised mixtape with tracks from other Walrus favourites from the Alcopop stable. So that's The Social Club, Oh No! Yoko, bear Cavalry, and My First Tooth [...]
There is a side to some pop music, a side of subtlety, shimmering beauty, and playful amour. French electronic superstar Alan Braxe , the man who made his name teaming up with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter on Sounds Better With You, has perfected that on his latest track with Parisian band The Spimes. Starting with smooth, softened vocals and breaking into a dramatic electronic ballad that would be a perfect soundtrack for a slow motion reunited lovers scene from the cinema. Oh and did I mention the whole EP is available as a free download [...]
Walrus favourites MS MR have given us a taste of their upcoming album in the form of Fantasy. It's more of the cinematic pop that we have come to expect and love from the New York duo. It dances with tribal rhythms and rich vocals, and means that I'm even more excited about their debut LP. MS MR - Fantasy was originally published on The Blue Walrus .
It takes just one play of Brighton outfit Gaps ’ debut drop, “Belong”, to understand why the almost permanently divided British blogosphere has been unanimous in its approval of the previously unheard of bedroom recording project. Created using a delicate mix of laptops, guitar and red wine, “Belong” is rare gem, an intoxicatingly heady instalment of deeply moving pop music. Heartbeat piano plinks and shimmering cymbals glint in the otherwise impermeable darkness but it’s the ghostly recitation of “ where I go I will belong/where I go I will belong to you ” that [...]
If the cold frost that has spread across over our fair isle is bringing you down or has snowed you in! Then fear not as Delaware duo Mean Lady ( Twitter / Facebook ) aka Sam Nobles and Katie Dill bring some much needed burst sunshine in the form of their tropical pop. Ok so it might be to ruddy freezing to imagine warmer climates but they are also provide the perfect soundtrack to watch snowflakes fall to. I first heard Mean Lady blissful melodies in May last year after stumbling across their Bandcamp and Facebook pages. [...]
We've been big supporters of Disclosure for a couple of years now, but with their latest release with woman of the hour AlunaGeorge they may finally be about to break into the mainstream. White Noise will likely be the soundtrack to numerous clubs all over the country in the coming weeks, as the infectious groove weaves its way into the dark souls of DJs and ramps up the pressure. It bounces along with the starry-eyed euphoria of acid rave, and AlunaGeorge's vocals seamlessly drop in the pop sweetness. It's exciting, breathless, glorious dance music. [...]
We are finally back to regular programming here on the 'ole Walrus, and as the snow continues to tumble outside my window, I've got Fyfe (or is that "f y f e") keeping me from losing myself into the white bliss below. Fyfe is a 23 year old from this very city of London, and his debut track Solace is the elegant pop that has found its soul, that sounds as if had been carefully sculpted for years before Fyfe finally introduced it to this world. And I for one and very pleased it's found its [...]
I can imagine it must be pretty tough being friends with Roo Panes. Nothing against the guy, I'm sure he's perfectly nice. It's just he's one of those guys, you know the ones, the kind of guy who seems to have discovered the secret that the rest of us aren't privy to and is happy to use it to make the rest of us look inadequate Having moved to London and begun making waves with his own brand of subtle, spacious folk, Roo did what any self respecting troubadour would do: he got on the bell to Burberry [...]
For my final, and actually the final pick for 2013 on the blog (yes I know I'm over a week late), I'm going with Arthur Beatrice . I've written about them quite a few times here on TBW and for good reason - they are brimming with pop hooks and catchy rhythms. It also helps that they have been perfecting their live show with the Open Assembly nights at The Lexington on a semi-regular basis, and they have just finished recording their debut album - so 2013 looks [...]
It seems over the course of the past year the distorted drone and layered grouch of a hefty guitar rift of the patented sound of 60-psychedelia has influenced or at least heavily imprinted itself onto the creative music sphere. While bands like Tame Impala, Moon Duo and Crystal Antlers have been offering up of a healthy dose of spaced out psychedelically across the pond, the radio waves here have been rather silent. Well that’s all about to change thanks to jangly vintage romp of the neo psychedelic kickback of the British invasion of Kettering’s Temples . Their [...]
I have always wondered why list season starts at the beginning of December if not earlier these days. Is it because people are too busy getting drunk with the start of Christmas festivities? Is it to give the readers a few options to think about when buying presents for their loved ones? Whatever the reason, it misses out on a full twelfth of the year, and being as I only came across Pretty Heart late in December thanks to a post by Josh on Crack in the Road , I would have missed Pretty Heart . [...]
It's been a triumphant 2012 for South Shields girl Lulu James ; she’s performed at festivals up and down the country, been singled out with glowing praise by Annie Mac and found time to release an absolute peach of a single in the shape of “Be Safe”, released on the fantastic indie Black Butter Records. Lulu’s unique brand of clandestine electronic dub has been shaped in part by producer, multi-instrumentalist and tutor Domzilla, who she met on a music course last year. The polymath’s love of Mount Kimbie and Fly Lo have certainly rubbed off on the soulful songstress; [...]
A nice little nudge of a recommendation after giving the Dignan Porch debut album a spin this summer. I saw these guys perform live at what I like to call a surf meat party last summer although it is officially known as The Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen Alldayer and BBQ. A day and night filled with awesome garage surf rock bands and tasty meat cooking in the beer garden of Brixton’s Windmill pub. This year has been particularly good for the band securing a tour with buddies Dignan Porch, the releases of their first EP “First Cassette” and a [...]
We don’t think London via the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain is a route often travelled by indie bands; in fact we’d go as far as to say Flamingods are the very first. Temperatures on the tiny island can reach up to fifty degrees Celsius in the summer and those sweat soaked days spent honing their musicianship look to be paying off. Flamingods were born after lead singer Kamal, Sam, Craig and Charles landed in London to study, meeting fifth man Karthik along the way. Their music is completely devoid of boundaries with multiple drum sections [...]
It’s getting to the point where I may have to sit down and seriously consider how healthy my feelings towards My Grey Horse actually are. I mean I'm not quite at the sticking pictures of their faces over my family photos stage but I’d be lying if I said I’d never considered it. It’s rare to find a band that acts as though each step it takes is as important as its destination. Where plenty of bands will treat their first couple of releases as at best promotion and at worst a practice run before that proper “debut” materialises but [...]
Sometimes it is the very first time you hear a track from a new artists and you know that they have something special. There is always something familiar, but it is the unexpected twists and turns, and the bands and artists that stand out with their own style and sounds that are truly striking. And so it was for Laura Mvula. I was in love with her jazz-infused cinematic voice and subtle but awkward melodies when I wrote about her back in May before her debut EP release. She is not just a downtempo artists, however, [...]
Dream pop doesn't come any dreamier then the mind altering shoe gaze styling’s of Los Angles based duo Tashaki Miyaki . The bands formation is a timely story of spontaneity after singer Lucy and drummer Rocky came together after an impromptu late night jam session in a friends studio just over two years ago. Their sound encapsulates the idle and leisurely summertime feel of the endless hours of wasting time in the sun. Long siesta, bike rides, carless fun and forgotten summer romances. Lucy has the look and charm of the girl next door and the alluring ethereal vocals [...]
When it comes to electro pop; Merok Records have a rather special knack for sorting the wheat from the chaff. The label who helped to nurture Klaxons, Crystal Castles and Salem from embryonic indie acts to global critical acclaim look to have picked out another star of the future in Peckham’s slightly misleadingly monikered Deptford Goth . The man behind those fidgety electronic stabs and floaty dreamlike intonations is one Daniel Woolhouse; who although operating under the alias for some time has yet to produce a full length release. All that is set to change in the [...]
Laura Welsh has popped up on this very site a couple of times now and is probably one the artists I've been listening to the most over the last few months, no mean feat considering that she currently has only 2 songs on her Soundcloud and has been pretty silent since releasing them both in September. But it just goes to show that that’s all it takes, she could well have just put up the stunningly beautiful Call to Arms and I would still have put her on this list. It’s difficult for me to fully put into [...]
The Blue Walrus
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