I’ve been sitting on this release for quite some time, a time during which I’ve had to resist, almost to the point of it being painful, telling everyone I know about it and sharing the private preview. So it comes as something of a relief that I am finally able to tell you about it.

‘Play Thing’ is LUKA’s debut release on Monomyth Records – and I know I seem to review releases from Monomyth a lot but the thing is that the label has some quite incredible bands and artists, several of which sit in my favourites list, so blame them not me.

Tempted as I am to just tell you in a stream of almost inarticulate text quite how beautiful this song is, how it connects with something deep inside you on an emotionally and how perfectly the words and music work together – all of which is true; I’m going to try and do something more coherent.

The song explores themes of manipulation and control, something that resonates deeply with me. This theme seems to be something that a number of artists have chosen to explore in their songs recently. Luka says about the song ‘ it turned into a song about allowing somebody to have too much control over you and your emotions, and deciding it needs to change. This is a theme that I can relate to. Too often we are unkind to ourselves, allowing people to treat us badly in what we like to call love. I hope hearing these lyrics may feel familiar, something I think lots of other people will be able to relate to as well. Knowing we deserve better, and having a little dance to celebrate’.

Luka sings the words – words that are deeply emotional and sound incredibly personal – in a quiet and intimate voice over ethereal layers of synths, sparse layers, sounds come at you delicately and unexpectedly – but nothing is jarring, those sounds complement and enhance. Musically it has the form of a lullaby with a sound that is at once electronica, celtic folk and something almost classical. It has the feel of a sound piece rather than a conventional song structure. The arrangement and production of this track is beautiful – as I said the words, vocals and music work together perfectly.

As I said this song resonates with me on a very personal and deep level. It connects at a level that many other songs that explore the theme of manipulation and control don’t. Listening to it is a very emotional experience for me, I’m not afraid to say that at times I am moved to tears. Part of this is the words, and part of it is the way words are sung and the way the music works. But you don’t need that personal connection to appreciate the song at all. You can appreciate its emotional beauty and the experiences it explores because it communicates those on a level that we can all understand.

This song is an incredibly impressive debut release. It has an emotional beauty that very few songs have. It’s words, voice and music in perfect harmony – musical and emotional harmony.

The info

Luka says; ‘I woke up with the lyrics and melody for the first two lines in my head and wrote them in the notes on my phone. I spent the next day working out the chords and writing the rest of the song on my dadʼs, very out of tune, piano. I worked on Play Thing on Garageband, figuring out the structure and instrumentation. I wanted the vocals to be the focus of the song, beginning by layering lots of harmonies over the melody line, keeping it acapella in the beginning’.

Luka is Luka Huidobro-Howe

https://www.facebook.com/lukahowemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/lukaalala/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgmyLYwPtgSNYtmwTAPvkww?fbclid=IwAR3QOw6Bpg81h4L_XznTMClFSEorpjanXs9cfL_sHKqXebZ6X–20dTFGPA

Cats That Bark’s debut single is a tribute to one of their hometown’s much loved venues (For those of you who may not know, this means the band are from Hull – Ed).

‘O’Rileys’ is a raucous punky thing with hints of metal, a big hint of metal – loose let it all hang out vocals, guitars that are positively dangerous, drums clatter – played at breakneck speed. This thing is a blast of outrageously glorious noise. It even comes with intro and outro ‘venue’ sounds.

People this track is fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It celebrates one of our beloved grassroots venues – and this is something we all ought to be doing.

Play fucking loud, as loud as you dare and then some, and rock out.

The info

The band are

Dan – Vocals and Guitar
Gasmask Grimshaw – Guitar
Lukasz – Drums
Vel Cro – Bass

https://www.facebook.com/Catsthatbark/

This is one of those ‘I positively adore this but for the life of me can’t say why’ songs. I realise this isn’t that useful for you – it’s me ‘saying I like this because I do, and you should too’. So this review is going to be something of a thinking aloud thing, please bear with me.

I could say it’s because it’s sweet and gentle, which it is, but sweet is something of a double edged sword; and I’m not sure it’s an approved ‘music reviewer’ word. Not that this worries me, I’m not entirely sure most of my reviews fit that ‘approved music review’ thing. So let’s start with sweet and gentle.

The thing that initially hooked me in was Georgi’s voice – it has this lovely hint, and sometimes more, of South Yorkshire. It’s a voice that has more range than you might think. As you listen to this track more and more, you hear more versatility – her voice goes from a folky lilt to a pure poppy thing, from something simple to something richer. And those harmonies are joyful.

And with her voice so upfront, the words better be good, and they are. Describing them is something I struggled with, but my oh-so helpful friend summed it up perfectly – ‘simple but profound’. The song focuses on ‘keeping your chin up’ and getting through the complexities of life as a young person.

Musically the song goes from deceptively simple guitar, to adding small touches of sound. But it’s the layers of vocals that charm and beguile. And this song is so catchy, that tune is delightful. It also features that seldom used musical element – the whistle. Somehow there’s something rather timeless about this song.

This song is charming and compelling. There’s a simple beauty in the words, and in the deceptively simple delivery and music. This is a song that connects on so many levels – even though I’m far from being a young person I get it, it rings true with me; it’s something we can all relate to.

So there you go, that’s why I adore this song. And it’s still the case that I love this because I do, and you should too.

The info

Originally from Rotherham, Georgi now resides in Barnsley and attends Leeds College of Music. Hailing from the north, Georgi acts as a ‘jack of all trades’ writing, recording and mixing all her tracks from the four walls of her bedroom. This intimate way of creating music allows her to connect with her listeners on a deeper level than a lot of artists as they witness her go through every step of creating music and thus feel more connected to her because of this.

The single ‘lovely little phrase’ encapsulates Georgi’s youthful approach to love and hopefulness. The dreamy and rich vocal harmonies surround the nostalgic lyrics focussing on young love and teenage insecurity that her listeners connect to, the song focuses on ‘keeping your chin up’ and getting through the complexities of life as a young person.

I loved The Ocean Beneath’s debut EP with its carefully crafted 80s’ influenced electronica, so I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to review this release. What I heard as I clicked play was at once surprising and then again not so surprising.

So let’s get one thing out of the way first – this is a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song. A song written about the Vietnam War from the angle of the privileged rich directing a war and others having to fight them. Although the words are not explicit about that message, you can interpret them as a general call out of the privileged classes exploiting the rest of us. Something that, of course, has a resonance today, it’s still valid as a protest now. And being honest it took me a while before I thought ‘hold on I’ve heard those words before’ and then ‘bloody hell, it’s that song’.

The thing about The Ocean Beneath’s approach to ‘Fortunate Son’ is that while it has those elements of 80s’ sound in there that we might expect from them, these are used in something that is akin to huge synth based – and I’ll whisper this – prog. On one level it reminds me of those keyboard based later Pink Floyd songs. What I mean by this is that the sound is crafted, rich, majestic and frankly huge and glorious. It even features a rather wonderful tasteful guitar solo. But on another level there’s this hint of electronica pop. It’s closer in some ways to Cat Power’s cover of the song than the original – and I mean ‘in some ways’.

I said that I found it surprising and then again not, what I found surprising was that The Ocean Beneath would choose to cover this song. And then again not musically, their EP was equally as huge and majestic, just not taken this way, this direction.

I love a cover that makes me reassess the original, this is so different it brings a whole new take on the words into your head. It sounds like a new song, a brilliant new song, with words that relate to now, rather than a cover. And that’s a clever thing.

‘Recurrence’ is equally as good, and different. It’s electronica dance music – very 80s’, natch. Pounding beats, odd strange noises, layers of carefully crafted synth lines. Dropouts that build to pulsing heavy basslines. And oh I forgot to say, it’s an instrumental.

The Ocean Beneath make clever, wonderfully produced music that contrary to the idea of electronica being soulless, has soul, it has an emotional level. Watch this band, start watching them now, what they’re doing is incredible.

Yum, this is just so good. A yummy 3 minutes of acid drenched psychedelic loud rock. Guitars roar, guitars make beautiful noise, fx’ed vocals come at you. It swirls, it whirls, it builds into wonderful noise, wonderful noise that takes over your brain, your soul.

Sorry I got carried away. But this song does that, it carries you away on the beautiful beautiful noise. But it does more than that, it does that Wuzi thing. It does all that dense sound but it does a tune as well. There are moments, more than moments, when there is a tune you can hum along to. Times when that noise melts into something almost too smooth, before it builds back into that sonic attack.

Sorry, I got carried away again. I’m sorry but not sorry. I just adore Wuzi you see. What they do feeds my need for acid drenched psychedelic noise but I also get that what they do is alternative rock taken to the edge, taken over the edge. There is a remnant of that quiet/loud thing going on – honest there is.

But the moments I live for, the moments I wait for, is when Wuzi just let go and let it all hang out. And when they do that, it’s a beautiful thing.

The first time I heard this, I thought ‘That is just so sweet, so yummmmmy, it’s music that I could almost live on’. Slightly over the top I know, but surely you know what I mean. Sometimes there is a joy and a beauty in the noise, this track is one of those times.

I’ve been, and it’s not something I broadcast from the rooftops, carrying a torch for Twist Helix for some time now. Their synth based, full of many influences, music is always impressive. But this, this is something else.

My helpful friend describes this track as ‘simply insane but hugely compelling and incredible’ I’m not sure I’d go along with the ‘simply insane’ – I think I’d describe it as extremely eccentric – but I’m with her on the ‘hugely compelling and incredible’.

Musically this thing has sounds of Aqua, dare I mention it Toyah, weird synth based art-rock. Synths swirl and whirl, I found myself wanting to go bat-shit crazy dancing. And then it goes all 80s’ electronica, sounding of all things like a mad OMD, and sometimes New Wave.

And over this Bea sings and kind of raps in both English and Spanish. Perhaps I am getting closer to describing this as simply insane. But hey people this song is actually about something, if you listen to the words you’ll start to get it but perhaps, unless you know about her, not get the Frida Kahlo reference. The band explain:

‘Frida Kahlo’ is a song about identity. How in an online world we self fashion an image
of ourselves by referencing popular culture and art, telling people what we like, who we
follow, what we wish to be, in a manner akin to the tradition of self-portraits. Named for
the Mexican visual artist Frida Kahlo (an artist renowned for her challenging self-portraits), the track is not so much about Frida herself but how the mass consumption of images deviates from a true understanding of the self in favour of the popular, current, now’

Now go back and listen to it again and actually listen to the words. Are you getting it now?

‘Frida Kahlo’ is therefore a track that works on two levels. One a track that you go crazy to, a mad blast of many influenced music that’s incredibly catchy and danceable. And two, a song about something, a song that takes on a subject and lyrically has a take on it that comes from left-field.

So it’s strange, yes, but it’s hugely compelling. My torch is burning extra bright right now. This is joy.

The info

Newcastle’s Twist Helix have been flexing their studio muscles as of late, as they pave the way for their upcoming 2020 album, ‘Machinery’.

They kickstarted their 2020 by introducing their next LP with the single ‘Louder,’ an atmospheric synth-pop triumph that laid down the tone for the rest of the record.

Since bursting onto the scene 4 years ago, Bea Garcia (Synth, vocals), James Walker (Drums) And Matthew Barron (Bass) are renowned for their idiosyncratic mix of electronica and Indie which blends dramatic synths with uplifting pop hooks and a soft Iberian lilt.

https://www.facebook.com/twisthelix/
https://twitter.com/twisthelixband
https://www.instagram.com/twisthelixband/
https://twisthelix.com/