It has been nine years since David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels released the debut EP, Paint the Town, so there’s no better time than now to release a debut album. A Gateway to a Lifetime of Disappointment is Newton’s debut solo album and a modern contemporary take on the melodic uplifting side of the 80’s post-punk sound. He continues the earlier sounds from his band, The Mighty Lemon Drops, where he wrote songs and played guitar. After the release of Paint the Town, Newton focused on producing and engineering for other artists at his Los Angeles recording studio.
A Gateway to a Lifetime of Disappointment is written, performed, recorded and mixed by David Newton. The first single, “The Songs That Changed Our Lives”, features lead vocals by Eddie Argos from Art Brut. It lists Argos and Newton’s favorite tracks growing up that had an impact on them, accompanied by a video of well-worn 7” singles. With a mix of new and old songs from the previous EP, they flow together and represent the vision Newton had been chasing. “In Love and War” starts off on the right foot, an upbeat pop track to tease the rest of the album. The introduction of “The Kids Are Not Alright” draws you in and repeats through the background of the track. The themes of the tracks chronicle the joys and disappointments of what life can throw at us. “Avoid It” warns to stay clear of anything that will make you crash and burn. The track is somehow similar to the sound of Pink Floyd, but more upbeat.
The album is a prime example of the variety in Newton repertoire, mixing genres and stepping outside of the box with lyrics. “My First Band” and “Paint the Town” fit between the styles of indie-rock and pop. Although Newton took on most of the work on this record, he did have help from other musicians. “Bittersweet” features Sarah Negahdari on vocals and Nick Amoroso on drums, adding some flair to the track. The shortest and sweetest track, “This Time”, is all about happiness and love. Listening to it you can feel the emotion behind his voice, making it the most sincere on the album. Similarly, “Connect With You” has an almost giddy feeling to it, connecting you to Newton. A Gateway to a Lifetime of Disappointment is the return from David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels the world needed.
Singer-songwriter Kandle (Kandle Osborne) found herself recording her latest release Stick Around and Find Out during lockdown. But you know what they say; extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary music. Okay maybe that isn’t what they say, but in this case, it is true. The Canadian artist was focused on her vision for Stick Around and Find Out and the result is a great addition to her work. The varying sounds through the tracks fit together just right for a solid EP.
Osborne went through a journey to get where she is today, all while reclaiming her sound. According to her recent Instagram post, each song was recorded in a different city by a different producer and each was written in one day. On “Spell”, there is a story behind the catchy lyrics. It is about falling for someone and giving them all the power, like there is a spell controlling and pulling her back in. Continuing on this journey, Osborne finds herself helpless on “How Can You Hurt Me”. Not only are the lyrics relatable, but the music behind the lyrics can pull you in all by itself. The smooth production behind the tracks puts the songs on another level that will have you dancing along in your room. “Just To Bring You Back” is one of the more upbeat tracks in the collection. It sounds funky and somehow spooky, feeling like it would be the perfect music for a Halloween party on a show like Euphoria.
“Better Man” finds Osborne in control of her music after being tangled in recording contracts. Produced by Ben Simonetti (Zac Brown Band) and Liam O’Neill (Kings of Leon) in Nashville, the track is probably the most personal and freeing track after being stuck in such a difficult situation. Osborne said on the track, “I signed away my freedom. I wasn’t allowed to perform or release music or do anything, consequently, my career was put on hold for years. I was taken in the prime of my career and was stopped — my music was lost. Four years later, I started my battle for freedom.” Now that she can create songs like “Little Bad Things” and “Cemetery”, where her smokey vocals flow freely through her creative lyrics, she is thriving. Even with her final track, “Happy Pills”, she continues with clever lyrics and unique sound. The lyrics, “One to keep me calm / two to stop the pain / three to right my wrongs / and four…”, echo around the mind long after listening to the track.
After all that Osborne has been through, she is now at the top of her game. Her songs are cathartic, but at the same time seem to focus on empowerment and looking towards the future. This EP is only the beginning of her talents and she is bound to take off and become a big name in the industry. The charm shines through the music and her talent is undeniable, as she writes her own personal experiences instead of aiming for cookie-cutter radio tracks. Stream Stick Around and Find Out now.
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids reach their peak powers with their latest album Shaman!. The jazz collective created a stellar album that just adds to their impressive discography. The album was produced by Malcolm Catto at his analogue HQ, Quatermass Studio in London and the cover artwork features an exclusive painting by Japanese artist Tokio Aoyama. The album includes expansive tracks that touch on all different subjects, but blend together like they were meant to be. Ackamoor explains, “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience. The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”
The expansive nine tracks tackle spiritual jazz with introspective themes, a different journey than their last release. Through different moods and emotions, Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids take you on a wild journey. Starting with the 12 minute title track, “Shaman!”, they dive straight into soul-searching and dealing with masucline vulnerability. The variety spreads through the song, showing the lengths they can go to with their talents. However that variety is not limited to this track, it shows through others like “Dogon Mysteries” and “Eternity”. Now more relevant than ever before, “When Will I See You Again” mourns the sudden loss of loved ones. This track could resonate most with people because of the crisis we are fighting everyday.
“Theme for Cecil” is Ackamoor’s tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor, whom he studied piano with in the early 1970s. The tributes don’t stop here, they continue with “Salvation” and “The Last Slave Ship”. These tracks are paying homage to their ancestors and referencing the Clotilda, which was the last ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States. And finally, the best for last, “Virgin”. It is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing, and the collective’s best track on the album. It encompasses everything they were trying to capture and ties the album together.
Although the band was formed in the early 1970s, time has done nothing but helped to season these professionals and it shows. It would feel like an injustice to not name those involved on the project, because of the talent and work put into this project. This fresh line-up includes original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute, Bobby Cobb on guitar, long-term associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. Shaman! shows that they are not playing around and that they are here to make the best music they can.
Aime Simone is no stranger to misery. He fell victim to intense bullying as a child, the trauma of which led to early symptoms of PTSD and anorexia as a teenager. There were attempts to heal at clinics where he spent his time writing poetry, but there also was a tragic sucide attempt. During a stay at a clinic in 2012, Aime got permission to attend a Pete Doherty show since he was such a big fan of his and an avid songwriter. He took his poetry filled journal along, hoping to give it to Pete. Halfway through the show he still had no idea how he was going to get the journal to Pete, so he resorted to throwing it onstage, and accidentally hit Pete in the face. Pete began to read excerpts to the sold out crowd, and when Aime screamed for Pete’s guitar in exchange, he instead was pulled onstage and given the guitar to play. What resulted was Aime’s first-ever performance in front of a crowd, and after it ended in applause, Aime was invited to go backstage and began working with the Libertines frontman in intense songwriting sessions.
Today, Simone is a Berlin-based, Parisian singer and producer who is still mentored by Doherty. He produces alt-pop music that pulls from post-punk, hip-hop, soul, and 60s pop. The culmination of Simone’s incredible backstory and all his hard work with Doherty comes in the form of his debut album Say Yes, Say No, which was released on July 31st. The album was entirely self-written, produced, and mixed by Simone himself, and plays like his open journal, as earnest and honest as the one that he hurled on stage back in 2012. It’s inspired by Berlin’s iconic techno scene as well as his past life in other European cities.
The music of Say Yes, Say No is somewhat sparse and intimate, made up primarily of vocals, guitar, and a beat. The vocals are blurred by reverb, yet clear enough to hear every word. Its simplicity allows for sentimentality to be the focal point of the work. Although each song deals with emotions, the album doesn’t have a one-track mind. You find moving melancholy in “Don’t Be Sad”, danceable beats in the lead single “What’s Up With The World?”, and even tender love in “Shining Light.” With Say Yes, Say No, you find uplifting movements interwoven through the melancholia, an approach influenced by Simone’s unusual and complex being.
The first three tracks embody this brooding, yet moving trait well. To start us off, “Everything’s Changing” deals with his own mortality and the fear of death and the unknown, but he faces these inevitabilities with acceptance rather than letting them overwhelm him. It was inspired by the thoughts that occupied Simone’s mind when he became a young father. The intimate acoustic guitar, soft, yet emotive vocals, and chill beat behind the soaring line “I’ve got to let go of what I’ve always known,” amplifies the embrace of his feelings, especially in the bridge where Simone and the guitar become more spritely and when harmonies join the vocals in the chorus. “In This Dark Time” was recorded in reaction to the effects of the pandemic. It’s got a bit of a groove, but is pensive in tone, asking “could you take my pain?” a line that recurs throughout, right up to the very last line where the music drops out from behind it, the words stark against the silence. “Don’t Be Sad” progresses the album into a spooky realm, with its slow pace, ghostly harmonies, and morose guitar.
By the time we get to “Strange Inside” we’re enveloped by this eerie aura. The bassline, and minor 2nd interval that the guitar strums alternate between giving the track an ominous sound. The guitar is left bouncing at the end, finishing off the track without a resolution. “Strange Inside” was also influenced by the pandemic, specifically about how it can make one feel blocked, removed from human connection in the face of quarantine and isolation. The video features a performance filmed during lockdown in Berlin, providing a visual representation of the mental and physical barriers that the pandemic has created for many people. “Imaginary Lovers” is tenser, more anguished, with the lines “tell me what to do” and “barely holding on for tomorrow” showing a desperation that we haven’t seen on the record so far. But this desperation with the phantom-like background vocals whispering “imaginary lovers” in your ears throughout the track and the unrelenting off-beat attacks become somewhat unsettling, continuing the subtly haunted sound in “Don’t Be Sad” and “Strange Inside.”
With “Vienna”, the unearthly nature of the last three tracks transforms from eerie to dreamy. The guitar exists both as evanescent chords floating in the background and a solo part that seems to have a mind of its own. Simone sings “I need you baby,” letting some love trickle into Say Yes, Say No, a sentiment that is reinforced in “Hold Me Alive” with lines like “You hold me close, you hold me alive.” This track uses electronic chords that phase in and out to paint an emotional background for Simone’s delicate falsetto. When the guitar joins the chords at the end, it makes for a warm ending that embraces you with love. Even more, “Shining Light” marks the peak of adoration, put into words when Simone sings “All I need is the way that you love me.” A hint of groove comes from the muted guitar riff and calmly snapped beat, and the chord progression is the perfect complement to the tender words.
While Say Yes, Say No as a whole is touched with sorrow, it humbly offers some inspiring words to start to resolve that sorrow. “What’s Up With The World” and “Humankind” are the best examples of this encouragement. “What’s Up With The World”, beyond its rather pertinent title, is a message of hope: “I can defy my fate, I choose love, I will not give up.” The rhythms of this track give the listener a chance to clear their head and dance, comforted and invigorated by the lyrics. “Humankind” brings things down again, but it’s the perfect ending to this album because it’s about Simone’s restored faith in humanity– and himself. It shows just how far this sensitive, inventive artist has come, making it the most uplifting track of all. Say Yes, Say No is a brave and beautiful story of struggle and perseverance. Don’t miss your chance to experience it for yourself.
Sophia Nadia’s admired reputation as an “unapologetic do-er” comes from her remarkable dedication to her career. Her unceasing penchant for touring beginning at only 16 years old and her courage to move to Chicago not long after shows that her commitment to her work knows no bounds. In the moments of time when she’s not touring, Sophia is fervently writing and recording her next release, each one furthering her excellent orchestration skills and exploring pop and rock genres. Her Chicago-based project Cold Beaches dropped their new album Drifter today, a work of art that is as limitless as it is intimate. With a newly founded voice of empowerment for Nadia that makes its appearance in the album, Drifter is a vivacious, live recorded movement away from the band’s earlier lo-fi bedroom pop sound towards psychedelic rock ‘n roll. Some influences to keep an ear out for for are the plain-spoken lyrical integrity of 90’s Pavement, the hard garage rock sound of Ty Segal, and the hypnotic indie surf pop of La Femme. While Drifter deals with a variety of feelings, from the losses of relationships to the optimism of independence from depression and anxiety, it’s also an emotional blank page that any listener can fill with their own feelings and find comfort in whatever way they may need it. Nadia hopes that people find solace in her musical offering, especially those who are marginalized in the music industry.
Drifter must get its name from its transient tracks that freely move between grungy rock and dreamy psychedelic pop. Certain tracks drift closer to one side or the other, however. “Ride”, “Somebody”, “Band Boy”, “Boy, You’re Evil”, and “Grief Stricken Blues” all stay more or less tethered to the earth with their grounding drums and substantial guitar riffs.
“Ride” is twangy western guitar meets energetic girl-power pop, with its uncomplicated lyrics and matter-of-fact vocals. The song follows a narrative about stealing a “villain’s motorcycle.” Though it’s unclear whether it’s showing Nadia’s heartbreak or her ruthless besmirch of this man, this track is a poetic metaphor for giving deserving “villains” in the scene what’s coming to them. The chromatic descending power chords and her repeated vocals create revving instrumentals that show off Nadia’s orchestration skills, setting a tone for the album that says it’s going to be just as much about the instruments as the vocals. “Somebody” reveals a similarly manic and merciless side of Nadia. In the music video, her motel stay is interrupted by a troubling phone call and her night turns into a nightmare filled with paranoia as she barricades her motel door; protecting herself from an evil man trying to steal her heart. It’s brief, suspenseful, and incredibly fast-moving with fuzzy guitar riffs and straightforward drums and bass that are a manifestation of the true terror and disgust Nadia has towards anyone who may try to take advantage of her. The creepiness that pervades this track is enhanced by the whispered vocals– even more so with headphones.
“Band Boy” does feel a lot like psychedelic pop, but the strength of the beat and chromatic guitar overpowers Nadia’s muted vocals and the jazzy chords. The chorus is the epitome of pop, from its bouncy beat to the high vocal line, and even the word “bubblegum” finds its way into the lyrics. “Boy You’re Evil” also has dampened vocals and a full-bodied chorus, but the rock-centered drums and the brightly toned guitar are there to keep the track from drifting too far. “Grief Stricken Blues” uses major 7th chords halfway through the first verse, but they’re bright and thick in texture. The opening guitar riff is concrete, and once the bass and drums come in it gains that bit of grit that comes with blues-rock, but it somehow feels soothing rather than edgy. As tangible as the verses are, however, the chorus can’t help but detach with dreamy guitars that bring an element of sonic euphoria. The opening guitar riff persists into the next verse and the outro, and by the end of the song it’s comforting nature makes sense as the familiarity of its obstinacy feels like an old friend.
While the pleasant haze that falls on “Grief Stricken Blues” can feel quite salient at times, “Problems & Heartache (I Got Them)”, “Love Me”, and “Go Easy On Me” take it to a new level. These kaleidoscopic tracks are otherworldly in their instrumentation, once again showing Nadia’s aptitude for composition. The dream-pop synth chords, reverberating guitars and gentle, crooning vocals in “Problems & Heartache (I Got Them)” seem to bleed into each other, creating an otherworldly experience. The lyrics are vulnerable, transporting the listener to a place where the music– and Nadia’s feelings– are intricate, yet succinct. Touches of dissonant chords and notes add that bit of pain that is an inevitable part of opening up. When you listen to this one, close your eyes and let it envelop you. Feel the celestial surprises crash into one another. “Love Me” definitely leans towards soft rock with the prominence of the bass and drums, but after the initial pining solo bassline, a wave of illusory musical nostalgia crashes into you. Nadia’s misty, honest vocals sing “Love Me” on top of jazzy chords, the flavour of which is continued by an apt sax solo that floats in after the chorus. The ending track “Go Easy On Me” begins with a distorted organ-like part that creates a feeling of melancholia as Nadia sings “go easy on me” on a melody that embodies poignancy, again using discordant notes. Her singing is kept in place by the drums, but it’s on the verge of floating away, like a helium-filled balloon loosely fixed in a child’s grasp. The woodwinds in the instrumental interlude have the beauty of a whole orchestra and are followed by a sharp guitar solo that tries to cut through the magic but can’t quite. Sure enough, by the end of the track, all the music has floated away.
All the songs so far have explored the line that separates garage rock from psychedelic pop, and have dabbled on either side, but Nadia also offers two tracks that represent the poles of illusion and reality. The muted vocals and folksy, slightly out of tune acoustic guitar makes “SGIT” sound removed, like a dream or a passing thought. The lyrics are sad, “I hate myself and everybody else,” but perhaps hopeful as well, “I should stick around.” “I Miss You So So Much, I Really Do” isn’t concrete in terms of its music, the piano background is as tender and gentle as it is passionate and vastly resonant. Instead of a vocal line, however, there is a voice recording that sounds like it could be taken from a voicemail. It’s hard to make out much of what the voice is saying, most of the words are lost in the waves of ambient piano, but what does come through is the line “I really really really do miss you, I really do. I really really miss you… a lot.” It’s the intimacy and the honesty that pours out of this recording that makes this one-minute track the most tangible of all.
There is a lot going on in Drifter, but there are certain qualities that make it stand out as an exceptional piece of work. Its transitional nature that comes from Cold Beaches’ development into a more polished sound calls to mind ideas of rebirth and reinvention, something that is not only attractive for the album but builds intrigue for the band’s future. Each song has oodles of quirks to listen for, allowing you to listen to them on repeat without fear of them growing tired. Despite the fact that Drifter’s tracks are incredibly varied in sound, they have this unifying tone that to them that sounds like 9 pm in the middle of summer: warm, light, and seemingly too good to be true. Most of all, however, Drifter is dripping with potential, and I for one am excited to see what new heights Cold Beaches will undoubtedly reach in the future.
R&B/Soul singer Gaidaa releases her debut eight-song EP, Overture. Gaidaa’s cover of a Kehlani song caught the attention of Dutch producer and artist Full Crate, which helped to rocket her career. The EP is a breath of fresh air that we all needed, a new sound that demands to be heard. For the release of Overture, Gaidaa says:
To me ‘Overture’ is not only my introduction to the world, but essentially my reintroduction to myself, my rediscovery and re-creation of Gaidaa. It’s about realizing that we are far more complex and hold more depth than we think. ‘Overture’ is the foundation to something more substantial; the beginning of everything that is yet to come and yet to be learned. Gaidaa meeting Gaidaa.
If you had to describe the album in three words it would be vulnerable, soulful and groovy. The first track,“I Like Trouble” is about breaking from the rules and finding your own path. Her voice makes the songs so easy to listen to, not needing to go to extremes to show her talents. “Ride My Way” has a chill vibe and is Gaidaa being completely open, ready to start something new. The instrumental just carries her style further, especially with “Falling Higher”. The song is destined to be a hit, with a falsetto-driven hook accompanied by a steady drum beat. The Netherlands-based Sudanese artist, takes you through a journey that you’ll find yourself relating to.
Gaidaa had no trouble getting artists on for her debut, including tracks with artists such as Jarreau Vandal, Saba and Joshua J. “Say Yes (Turquoise)” (feat. Joshua J), is one of the best off the EP. Not only do their voices compliment each other, but her voice stands out here. The third verse showcases her talents and is a different take then you typically hear her sing in. “Morning Blue”, her debut solo single, references the campaign #BlueForSudan, which encouraged social media users to make their profile pictures blue in honor of a protesting victim. The song is simple, but has powerful and relevant lyrics, including, “It’s all in, we rise / It’s been a hard, hard time / For the ones who fight / In the land of the Nile”.
The 20-year-old’s debut is no rookie move, it is an example of this craft at its finest. https://orcd.co/overture
