Free Download: The Disraeli Gears – “Mother, I”

Set phasers to ‘fuzzy’, Alphabet Band members The Disraeli Gears are back with another slice of deliciously hazy, prog-injected indie rock. Featuring the now trademark guitar jangles and blurred lines, “Mother, I” also comes with additional world-angst and greater urgency than we are used to from the London/Leeds/South African quartet.

Teia Fregona’s vocals float out once more but in a dark, confessional and eerie mood. The track flickers and dances like candlelit shadows on the wall but as it builds so does the tension. On “Back of my Eyes”, the band played with drama that rose and fell like the tide, here it climbs like a tower of blocks just waiting for a toddler to send it crashing to the floor below. Crash it does too; frustration, desperation, anger and the feeling of hitting rock bottom all come wailing out as the song builds to a great Jackson Pollock painting crescendo of sound and emotion.

Read More: ‘D’ is for The Disraeli Gears

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Review: Misty Miller – Next To You EP

At just 19 years old, Misty Miller has already crammed more into her musical career than some artists manage in a lifetime. Her debut album of ukulele-based folkiness, released when she was just 16, had many a muso jumping up and down in delight and comparisons to the likes of Laura Marling soon came flooding in. Since then though a change has occured and Misty is now all about ripped jeans, a fun-filled ‘folk that’ attitude and high octane bluesy rock. It’s quite the musical turnaround but given the quality of her latest EP, Next To You, it is one that was well worth making.

Her voice overflows with depth, passion and maturity. It is a powerful weapon in an extensive armoury and one which belies her youth. Much like her songwriting, which at times echoes the simple emotional resonance of The Airborne Toxic Event’s Mikel Jollett and conveys both youthful exuberance and world worn wisdom. They are damn catchy too.

“Next To You”, complete with its pulsating and grinding surf-guitars, and “Anything For You” are both full on, in your face, jump up and down, break stuff, blues infused pop rock gems. Both too are full of sing a long moments, get under your skin riffs and complete and utter play it loud and again-ability.

It is the softer, more soulful and wistful “Wait” that threatens to steal the show though. It exudes hope and fear, bleak optimism, love and death all delivered in a breathy, heart-wrenching lament. A lament than none-the-less features some “ooo, woo-ooo” moments that will give you a Cheshire cat grin without you even realising. You’ll also find it seeping back into your consciousness a long time after you’ve stopped listening.

That said, the slow and powerful grind of “Tea In China” is pretty special as well.

Miller is quite the talent and Next To You is a brilliant showcase for her. It will make you dance, leap about, sway, smile and maybe even cry. This is her second recent EP and while she has changed musical direction since her debut album, we can only hope she continues to embrace this newer side, as it sure does rock our world.

The ‘Next To You’ EP is out on 2 June on Relentless Records and available to pre-order here.

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Listen: Velvet Two Stripes – “Fire”

Mondays are tough aren’t they? Whether you have had a frenetic 48 hours of hedonistic debauchery, or just tried to relax and unwind over the weekend, when that alarm blares out on a Monday morning, you just want to the world to do one and let you crawl back under the duvet.

Or is that just us?

What you, and we, need is a little something to fire up the adrenaline and get us going once again. Enter stage rock, Swiss trio Velvet Two Stripes with the title track for their debut UK EP, Fire.

It could be the soundtrack to a Jason Statham starring actioner (and you can’t get much more adrenaline fueled than that), all cut scenes and bad-ass walking while the track (and numerous incidental items in the background) explodes around him. “Fire” is a bluesy riff driven slice of ka-boom that will stir heart, mind and anywhere else that could do with some life injecting into it. If you were so inclined, you could say it will ‘fire’ you up, but we’re not so let’s ignore that pun entirely. Full of edgy and visceral energy, it has two words for Monday morning lethargy (the first one rhymes with ‘truck’) so get it on, get it loud and get the week by the balls and say ‘you’re mine’. Monday mornings, you’re done.

The ‘Fire’ EP is due for release on 20 May and you can catch the trio at a handful of UK dates in the next few weeks. Details below.

Catch Velvet Two Stripes in the UK
Thursday 2nd May – Good Sex @ Proud Gallery, London.
Thursday 16th May – The Great Escape Festival. Brighton
Thursday16th May – Avondale House, Southampton
Saturday 18th May – The Great Escape Festival. Brighton
Sunday 25th August – Damn Dead Circus Festival, Essex

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Listen: Misty Miller – “Anything For You”

Kids today eh? What do they know about anything anyway? Ask any blue rinser and you’ll be regaled with tales of disrespectful kids, up to no good hanging out and causing trouble. They fear for the future of this country, they really do. They obviously haven’t been paying attention to the world of music then as the future is very much in good hands as the kids are alright. On Monday we shared a stunningly good session from the crazy talented Oliver Rudge (18), and today it is the turn of the girls as the equally remarkable Misty Miller (also 18) drops her latest, “Anything For You”.

Misty first got under the skin of the music world as a prodigious 16 year old, rocking a ukulele and getting the likes of Paul Lester and Whats The Ruckus all hot under the collar with some remarkably mature folky blues. Likened to Rumer and Laura Marling it looked like she was going to join the softly softly clan and caress the world to sleep. But we all go through phases when we are kids right? And Misty appears to have been no different as her new sound is altogether more rawkus and rocky.

Think Marina and the Diamonds fronting The Airbourne Toxic Event doing a Vaccines cover and you’re on your way. “Anything For You” is a rapid paced blues rock jam full of jump up and down energy and a cracking little shout along section. Inspired by blues and good old rock and roll, it has a remarkable self-awareness and maturity as well as being all fired up and bouncy. It’s scary to think that, at an age when we were fretting about A-levels, university and hoping we were liked; Miller has already released an album, changed musical direction, recently released an EP and is about to release another, Next To You on 12 May. We told you she was prodigious.

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Review: Trixie Whitley – Fourth Corner

Trixie Whitley is a woman of many talents; a drummer, a songwriter, she’s toured with a ballet company in her youth and aged just 11 she DJ’ed at the Belgium Museum of Modern Art, but the thing that strikes you most about Trixie is her voice. She has been blessed with a vast, powerful, soulful voice, the likes of which suggest diva. It’s the kind of diva voice that fills giant concert halls and sells out night after night in a months-long Vegas residency. Yet that is not how she uses it.

On her debut solo album, Fourth Corner, Trixie provides a masterclass in power and control, more often than not opting for the understated as opposed to the grandiose. In doing so, she shows awareness for the beauty of simple, honest emotions and eschews the ovation-baiting throat warbling that so many with similar gifts have revelled in. Hers is an altogether classier approach.

This is her debut but she is no stranger to the world of music, having performed with the band Black Dub before going solo, and she is the daughter of the late American singer Chris Whitley, (she even sang on his records and spent time watching him record in the studio). That education has obviously served her well and Fourth Corner feels like a grounded, very honest album. It takes in a multitude of genres as it skips across its tracks, jazz, blues, R’n’B, indie, pop, electro but all the while it is Trixie’s voice that captivates. Even as she drops into spoken word and the strings slink and slide below with a mystical Eastern flavour in “Silent Rebel Pt. 2” nothing is lost.

Spanning so many genres it is hard to pick standout tracks, which is a good thing as it is a testament not only to their quality but also how its eclectic nature doesn’t prevent Fourth Corner from feeling like a complete whole. There is strength and attitude as well as fragility and vulnerability. There are grinding rock guitars and dark percussions. There are soft piano lines and dramatic arrangements. Yet while the style changes and morphs, there is one singular constant, Trixie’s quite remarkable voice and the magnificent way in which she has chosen to use it.

Fourth Corner is out now and available digitally or physically

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