Pink Milk is a dark wave/post-punk band drenched in reverb, making occult music inspired by the 80s. The duo started out releasing music in 2015, quickly growing a reputation for their gloomy glittering sound and enslaving melodies, being praised by DIY, Wonderland, Kerrang! and Virgin Radio amongst others.
Their debut “Purple” was given the highest rating in Swedish music magazine GAFFA who called it “a dazzling display of alternative rock music” while CLASH called it “A remarkable, striking work”. Pink Milk was also nominated for best rock/metal act of the year in the Swedish National Radio Award P3 Gold, Album of the Year, and Breakthrough of the Year in the GAFFA Prize.
Their second album Ultraviolet (released in 2021) displayed the same dark atmospheric reverb-filled sound that Pink Milk have been known for, but with a new side to it in an ever-evolving sound. The Line of Best Fit gave the album 7 out of 10 and stated that “Ultraviolet is a strong record that enshrouds you with its atmospheric goth-rock charm from the very beginning”.
This time we hear a euphoric combination of cathedral-sized soundscapes and dreamy, angelic vocals, embracing a darker doomsday-inspired aesthetic.
“Too loud, to the point of no return, burrowed beneath the sheer incessant noise is an almighty, fucked-up pop song” – DIY
“A devilish congregation of swirling shoegaze guitars, beats that shake the foundation of time” – The Line Of Best Fit
“It sounds absolutely incredible!” – Kerrang! Radio
“If this wasn’t recorded in an aircraft hangar then we’ll be amazed” – Shortlist
“A fluid, loose, almost drunken drawl that you can imagine playing in the background of one of those misty bar scenes in Twin Peaks” – Wonderland
“Their gothic darkness becomes your new guiding light” – GAFFA (4/6)
“Ultra-great and hits right in the heart” – HYMN (8/10)
“Purple is the best album released in many years” – GAFFA (6/6)
Swedish dark-wave, gothic shoegazers Pink Milk make their highly anticipated return sharing their third album Night On Earth which was released on the 15th of March via Black Hair Records. With the announcement of the album, Pink Milk also shared the single “You Will Follow Me To Hell (Night On Earth)” a heavenly introduction to the album that draws you into its euphoric combination of cathedral-sized soundscapes and dreamy, angelic vocals. Speaking on the single, the band say it “serves as the gateway to an exploration of the soul.”
This announcement follows the band’s celebrated single “Andromeda” and their critically acclaimed album Ultraviolet, earning them plaudits from Sweden’s largest music publication GAFFA as well as attention further from home gaining the support of CLASH, DIY, Wonderland and The Line of Best Fit.
Inspired by science fiction and “the end of the world”, Night On Earth marks the start of a new era for Pink Milk, embracing a darker aesthetic. Throughout Night On Earth the band has explored a more electronic sound in the studio, combining ethereal soul-inflected instrumentation, ghostly vocals, blurred chords and heavy rhythms in a cosmic sonic landscape. The band continue the doomsday theme of the album while taking on an phantasmal interpretation of country classic, Skeeter Davis’ “End Of The World”.
“You Will Follow Me To Hell (Night On Earth)” offers a first taste of Pink Milk’s musical evolution. Elsewhere, “Andromeda” is a poetic Swedish language love-song leaning heavily into the eighties arrangement, cautiously mapping out the atmosphere before breaking into euphoric dreampop. While the album closer “Boy Tears” soundtracks an un-answered phone call – a missed connection, an eerie voicemail invitation from an estranged party that is never replied to, a cliff-hanger that leaves you wanting answers for something that will never come.
The band also embarked on two dates across their home country of Sweden to commemorate the release of their Night On Earth.
PAPA JUPE’S T.C. attack toxic alpha-male influencers on new single ‘High Value Male’
Released 22nd March 2024
“I loved everything about this band when I saw this.” – Amy Lamé, BBC Radio 6 Music
“If you wanted to know what it would sound like if The B-52s were to mate with Fat White Family and have children that they just left to play in primeval sludge of illegal substances then that might well be the outcome.” – Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales
“A brilliant song, with an important message, from a very exciting band – really innovative track.” – Charlie Ashcroft, Amazing Radio
“That track… just WOW! That is one of the best; it’s just too good! I think you’re gonna be hearing an awful lot of this band from everyone. Coming out of Wales – Welsh music scene, once again, amazing.” – Mark McNally, Cumbernauld FM
“A band with social conscience.” – Mike James, Rock Rage Radio
“Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon for Papa Jupe’s T.C.” – Bethan Elfyn, BBC Radio Wales
FFO: Fat White Family, Viagra Boys, Warmduscher, Yard Act, Gilla Band, Fat Dog
PAPA JUPE’S T.C. announce the release of their new single “High Value Male” which will be available on all digital streaming platforms on 22nd March 2024. The song is a sleazy disco track that delves into the mind of a man who has fallen down the rabbit hole of of idolising misogynistic online influencers.
Speaking about the track, frontman Harry Willicombe comments: “There’s an epidemic of young impressionable boys being influenced by narcissistic figures on social media. We decided to approach this issue with satire so wrote the song in the first-person, from the perspective of a “High Value Male”. We recite the type of nonsense they often come out with, and then let Gem come in with a rejection before the final chorus.” “We based the takedown on actual quotes by the worst one of the bunch. We don’t want to say his name, but I think we all know who he is”, Nashville-born co-vocalist Gemini Anderson adds. “It felt right using his own words against his cause.”
Bassist Alex Miller wrote, produced and mixed the song in Jupe HQ, the band’s DIY studio. The Cardiff band will be performing the new single at their hometown headline show in Clwb Ifor Bach on 4th April 2024, along with songs from their “Wetmarket EP”, which has amassed over 60,000 streams since it was released with sold-out headline release-party gig at Porter’s, Cardiff in June 2023.
PAPA JUPE’S T.C. were founded in Cardiff in 2017 by frontman and lyricist Harry Willicombe and multi- instrumentalist Sam Butcher. Together, the pair undertake the majority of songwriting duties in a partnership dating back to 2013 with indie-rockers “Mirror Gorillas”. Bassist, Alex Miller, joined the fold shortly after and has since played an important role in the production and mixing of the band’s music, allowing the band to keep all of their production in-house.
Ash Smith’s drumming, Tom Emlyn’s synth work, Lucian Ellicott’s trumpet playing, and Nashville-import Gemini Anderson’s joyous vocals have helped cement PAPA JUPE’S T.C. as a unique voice in the burgeoning Cardiff music scene.
PAPA JUPE’S T.C.’s music combines sleazy surf rock and post-punk influences with disco beats and crescendoing gospel organs. Their dark-humoured and introspective lyricism lampoons masculinity, politics, and power.
This February, the band were recipients of BBC Horizon/Gorwelion’s Launchpad funding and were also supported by the PRS and Arts Council Wales-backed Forté Project. The band have earned a reputation for their wild live performances and theatrical stage presence. They have played sold out headline shows at Cardiff indie staples, Tiny Rebel and Porter’s, and have supported the likes of English Teacher on their UK Tour. In 2023, the band were shortlisted in the Green Man Rising Competition.
‘High Value Male’ was written by Alex Miller, Sam Butcher and Harry Willicombe, produced by Alex Miller & Sam Butcher at Jupe HQ, mixed by Alex Miller, and mastered by Steve Kitch. Harry Willcombe, vocals; Sam Butcher, guitar; Alex Miller, bass; Ash Smith, drums; Tom Emlyn, synth; Lucian Ellicott, trumpet; and Gemini Anderson, vocals.
AIRPLAY: Amy Lamé, BBC Radio 6 Music; Huw Stephens, BBC Radio Wales; Adam Walton, BBC Introducing Wales; Bethan Elfyn, BBC Radio Wales; Playlisting: Amazing Radio; Mark McNally, Cumbernauld FM, Prospect Radio.
Dates 30/03/24 – Birmingham, Sunflower Lounge 04/04/24 – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach 04/05/24 – Glastonbury, All Roads Festival 10/05/24 – Swansea, Elysium 11/05/24 – The Waiting Room, London 25/05/24 – Chepstow, Devauden Festival 26/07/24 – Cardiff, Chapter Arts
For The Lovely Eggs being in a band is a way of life. It’s about art. It’s about creativity and expression. It’s about following your own path and doing things your own way.
Holly and David operate on their terms, spewing out music, records, art and television shows before piling in the van and tearing round the country to perform a load of live sold-out shows.
Earlier this month the band returned with new single ‘My Mood Wave’, their first new music in nearly four years (watch the video HERE). Four long years since the release of their Number 1 Independent Chart topper, ‘I Am Moron’. But it’s not like they’ve been lazy, oh no. They made their own TV series EGGS TV and hosted it on YouTube, they dueted with Iggy Pop, piled into their van and played a load of sold-out gigs and festivals, spent two years fighting to save Lancaster Music Co-Op (a community rehearsal rooms and recording studio where they live), and then they got their heads down and wrote a new album.
‘My Mood Wave’, with its contemporary, yet haunted West Coast retro vibe, was an instant smash across the airwaves of 6 Music, Radio X etc and gave us the first whiff of what to expect from ‘Eggsistentialism’, the brand-new album from The Lovely Eggs, due May 17th via Egg Records.
“The new album is really a reflection on what has been happening to us these last couple of years, stewing up in Eggland in our own juices,” explains Holly. “It’s about loss and strength. On this album you’ll hear us at our lowest and most vulnerable. Daily life is hard. Realising everything you grew up with and loved is never coming back, alongside the responsibilities of caring for others is sometimes hard to take. The album is about life and death. Eggsistentialism. It’s about dragging yourself through all the shit to get to the other side.”
Once again, the album was recorded by the band at home in Lancaster with production work from Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. They flew to America in December 2023 to mix the album in Fridmann’s studio in upstate New York and the results are without doubt the most expansive, mind-melting ten songs the band have delivered yet. From the twisted, sneering punk rock of opening track ‘Death Grip Kids’, to the wistful, stark seven-minute psychedelic beauty of ‘Nothing/Everything’, ‘Eggsistentialism’ sees The Lovely Eggs running the full gauntlet of emotions and sounds.
“It’s a bit of a ‘wilderness years’ album,” continues Holly. “We haven’t released a new record since 2020 and in the meantime, we’ve been here fighting shit and trying to defend a right to a lifestyle that we’ve enjoyed here in this town for the last 30+ years- as working musicians who refuse to get a “normal” job and tow the line. It’s about believing in something and not letting go. But that unwillingness to give in ultimately takes its toll. It does start to destroy you and the album is kind of a documentation of that destruction and collapse as well as the strength we’ve got to get through it all. Ultimately, this is a hopeful record about survival.”
‘Eggsistentialism’ will be released on ltd edition ‘mind green’ green 12” vinyl and CD with more breath taking/ mind boggling artwork by illustrator Casey Raymond. All orders made direct through the band’s website will come with a limited edition signed print of the album artwork, with the first 500 LP copies hand numbered and signed by the band.
There will also be an additional 1,000 LPs pressed on transparent blue vinyl with ‘coffee’ splatter exclusively available in independent record shops.
Operating in a world when true authenticity is hard to find, The Lovely Eggs are one of the most exciting, innovative and genuine bands around. Welcome to their world. Welcome to Eggland.
‘Eggsistentialism’ track-listing:
Death Grip Kids Nothing/Everything Meeting Friends at Night People TV My Mood Wave I Don’t Fucking Know What I’m Gunna Do Memory Man Things Echo You I am Gaia
Written and Recorded by The Lovely Eggs Produced by The Lovely Eggs and Dave Fridmann Mixed by Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios, Cassadaga, N.Y. Assistant Mix Engineer: Mike Fridmann. Artwork by Casey Raymond
Catch The Lovely Eggs live at the following dates in May Tickets available HERE:
Thurs 23 St Lukes, Glasgow Fri 24 La Belle Angele, Edinburgh Sat 25 The Grove, Newcastle Sun 26 The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds SOLD OUT Mon 27 XOYO, Birmingham Tues 28 Thekla, Bristol Weds 29 Chalk, Brighton Thurs 30 Earth, London Fri 31 Rescue Rooms, Nottingham Sat 1 June New Century, Manchester
“They’re still able to channel an almost Dickensian parallel universe of lowlife, crime and violence into something poetic and romantic.”
THE GUARDIAN
The last gang in town The Libertines, who release their hotly anticipated new album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade on March 15th, have announced a UK & Irish tour commencing in Dublin on 23rd September and taking in two shows at The Roundhouse in London and culminating at Manchester’s Albert Hall on 7th November. Head to the official Libertinesstore
https://thelibertines.lnk.to/PreOrder4Presale and pre-order the new album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade to get exclusive ticket pre-sale access at 9am on Wednesday 21st February 2024. Tickets go on general sale Friday 23rd February at 9:00am.
The Libertines’ once-seen-never-forgotten live shows are here to save humanity from holograms, virtual reality and AI auto-tuned bullshit, so switch off your pocket-held marketing machine and come and experience raw analogue euphoria at the hands of these delirious musical chaos-mongers.
The full dates for the All Quiet On The Esplanade Tour are:
SEPTEMBER
23rd MON Dublin 3Olympia Theatre
24th TUE Belfast The Telegraph Building
OCTOBER
3rd THU Birmingham O2 Academy
4th FRI Norwich UEA
5th SAT Cambridge The Corn Exchange
7th MON Cardiff Great Hall
8th TUE Bristol O2 Academy
18th FRI Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom
19th Sat Liverpool Mountford Hall
21st Mon Nottingham Rock City
22nd TUE Leeds O2 Academy
30th WED London Roundhouse
31st THU London Roundhouse
NOVEMBER
4th MON Sheffield The Octagon
5th TUE Newcastle NX
7th THU Manchester Albert Hall
As previously announced The Libertines will headline ‘On The Beach Festival’ in Brighton on Sunday, July 28th.
The Libertines have so far lifted three genius singles from their fabulous new album All Quiet On TheEastern Esplanade:Run, Run, Run VIDEO, Night Of The Hunter VIDEO and ShiverVIDEO Preorder your copy here: TheLibertines.lnk.to/AQOTEEPR
The Libertines are Peter Doherty – vocals/guitar, Carl Barât – vocals/guitar, John Hassall – bass guitar and Gary Powell– drums. The band have released three albums: Up The Bracket (2002); The Libertines (2004); and Anthems For Doomed Youth (2015).
NEW SINGLE ‘WASTED’ OUT NOW and ANNOUNCE SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM OUT MAY 3 VIA FUZZ CLUB: PRE-ORDER HERE:
“All skull-crushing riffs and hallucinogenic effects… Reminiscent of Pigsx7 in places, it carries the swagger of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, but injects some Scouse misdemeanours.” Clash Magazine
“A quick-fire, juddering slice of garage punk that’s a brilliantly delirious assault on the senses… a seriously exhilarating taste of things to come” Louder Than War Liverpool four-piece YOBS are today announcing their self-titled debut album and sharing the lead single ‘Wasted’, following on from last year’s debut double single ‘Fortune Teller b/w Cemetery Man’. The incoming YOBS LP is unleashed May 3rd 2024 via Fuzz Club and latest cut ‘Wasted’ is out everywhere now, with a video streaming HERE:
Taking no prisoners, YOBS deal in hard-edged, primitive garage-punk salvos that race by with a bludgeoning intensity. It’s an abrasive rock’n’roll that will leave your bones rattling as much as your speakers, and ‘Wasted’ is a gloriously scuzzy and hedonistic taste of what’s to come. On the track, front-man Joey Ackland writes:
“I think Wasted came to us in our first session together, it was just dead natural. It was inspired by a heavy weekend at a festival I played, in an old band. We had over-indulged a bit and after crawling to a portaloo, I ended up getting stuck in there for what seemed like a year. Every time I tried to leave I couldn’t find my way out. I ended up sat on the floor, giving myself a bit of a talking to ha! It’s a bit of a stomper, and one that people like to sing along to. Our first ever show was at Mountain Sound Festival in Italy, and when we played it, it just went off. They asked for an encore and we had no other songs… so we played that again, the crowd sang along with the choruses, it was boss. So, we thought this has to be one of the singles.”
Emerging out of the rubble of the now-defunct Liverpool bands Weird Sex (Roadkill Records) and Ohmns, YOBS was kick-started in 2022 and is made up of Joey Ackland (Vocals), Alex Smith (Bass/Vocals), Michael Quinlan (Guitar/Vocals) and George Gebbie (Drums). Their debut full-length, recorded in four days at Hackney Road Studios with “our master and mate” James Aparicio, arrives off the back of a 2023 spent playing rowdy, ear-ringing shows with the likes of A Place To Bury Strangers, Mark Sultan, C.O.F.F.I.N, Alien Nosejob and more.
It’s been four years since the world heard any new music from our heroes in psych-punk-power duo The Lovely Eggs. Four long years since the release of their Number 1 Independent Chart topper, ‘I Am Moron’. But it’s not like they’ve been lazy, oh no. They made their own TV series EGGS TV and hosted it on YouTube, they dueted with Iggy Pop, piled into their van and played a load of sold-out gigs and festivals, spent two years fighting to save Lancaster Music Co-Op (a community rehearsal rooms and recording studio where they live), and then they got their heads down and wrote a new album…
Due in May, the new Lovely Eggs album was recorded by the band at home in Lancaster with production work from Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. They flew to America in December 2023 to mix the album in Fridmann’s studio in upstate New York and we’ll all get the chance to hear the first results of these sessions today, as the band unveil the album’s first single, ‘My Mood Wave’.
“My Mood Wave is kind of an internal thought monologue,” says Eggs singer and guitarist Holly. “It’s a brain on a surfboard, trying to navigate the barrage of daily shit that gets washed up each day. It’s a coping mechanism handbook for people who sometimes find the world too much.”
‘My Mood Wave’ has an uplifting contemporary feel, haunted by a West Coast retro vibe that pulses and shimmers with a gorgeously addictive melody that will float around your head for days. The single is already smashing it hard at radio, with multiple plays on 6 Music, Radio X etc.
Although the single is released digitally today, there will also be a physical 7” with the customary mind-bulging artwork from Casey Raymond, and an exclusive track tantalisingly titled ‘Crab Shell’ on the flipside. The 7” will be released on Aquamarine transparent vinyl and in true Lovely Eggs style, the first 250 copies ordered direct from the band’s website will come with a free Lovely Eggs air freshener, as reflected on the single artwork. Quite what the air freshener will smell of, we don’t know yet, but it might not be that fresh. You can buy the single HERE:
More details on The Lovely Eggs new album to follow, and of course the band will be back out on the road in May, full dates listed below.
“It is going to be frigging joyous to reunite with all our Eggheads across the UK and just have a big party each show,” exclaims Holly. “We’ve missed it! People know by now what to expect from us and we plan to bring it back with full force next May. Expect egg-shaped mayhem.”
Catch The Lovely Eggs live at the following dates in May Tickets available HERE:
Thurs 23 St Lukes, Glasgow Fri 24 La Belle Angele, Edinburgh Sat 25 The Grove, Newcastle Sun 26 The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds SOLD OUT Mon 27 XOYO, Birmingham Tues 28 Thekla, Bristol Weds 29 Chalk, Brighton Thurs 30 Earth, London Fri 31 Rescue Rooms, Nottingham Sat 1 June New Century, Manchester
Angharad releases brand new single ‘Hormone Called Love’ and announces ‘Motherland’, the debut album via LIbertino available to stream and on pink vinyl and CD here https://thisisangharad.bandcamp.com/album/motherland
The latest single to be taken from ANGHARAD’s debut album, ‘Motherland’ (out on March 1st) is the joyous and unstoppable ‘Hormone Called Love’
“If there was ever a song to sum up my recent journey into songwriting and motherhood, it would be this. This is a feel-good song about music and love. It’s about all those gorgeous, juicy hormones we need to bond with one another, make love and… give birth! Oxytocin is often referred to as the love hormone. Along with endorphins and adrenaline, the body creates quite a potent concoction of chemicals during labour.
I practised for birth like I would practise for a gig. In stead of scales and arpeggios, I’d be doing my breathing exercises, my visualisations, my meditations. I took my labour as serious as my music. And it paid off. I had the most wonderful, un-assisted home births – twice – all through the power of hypnobirthing.
I soon realised in the first few days and weeks of my daughter’s life, that the only way to communicate with a newborn baby is to sing to them. Singing became a way not only to soothe and entertain my baby, but myself too. This is one of those songs that popped out postpartum, when reflecting on birth and motherhood.
Without oxytocin, the world would be a love-less place. Cwtsh up to your loved ones, and make music people!” – Angharad
Motherland – Angharad
I am mother . These are the first words we hear after hitting play on Swansea-based [genre: e.g. pop-folk storyteller] Angharad’s debut album Motherland, and this affirmation resounds across the twelve tracks that follow, revealing the gravity of what initially appears to be a simple statement but is in fact an assertion weighted by the story of mothers and motherhood across the ages. I am strong. I am gentle. I am mountainwoman. I am nourisher . I am life-giver . I am all you need right now. I am the moon and the stars. I am everything to you. I am your world.
It’s said that early motherhood is simultaneously the happiest and hardest period of time a mother can experience, and this is reflected by the juxtaposition of the dreamlike spoken-word jazzscape of title track ‘Motherland’ and the bass-driven midnight-feed nightmare of ‘Postpartum’. In ‘Motherland’ we listen as the tidal pull of the moon ushers new life in – “nocturnal and luminous” – while in the album’s first single ‘Postpartum’ both music and mother unravel in an unapologetic cacophony of fatigue and repetition: “I’m exhausted and I’m broken, exhausted and I’m broken, I’m exhausted and I’m broken…get off my tits.”
As the songs that open the album, these two compositions couldn’t be more different, but as Angharad points out “…this is exactly what motherhood is like. It’s the joys and horrors.
Elation and despair . I put those songs next to each other because that’s how it is in real life – you can feel both emotions simultaneously .”
Although Angharad is an experienced musician, perhaps best-known as part of revivalist Welsh folk band Calan, Motherland represents her first foray into songwriting – something which has long been an ambition. “I’ve always felt like I had a lot to say , but I presumed that someone else somewhere would be saying the same things. It took me so long to realise nobody else can tell my story .” However , it was the double isolation of experiencing early motherhood during Covid lockdowns that finally made her pull on this songwriting thread. “I’ve always collaborated with others when it comes to music, but lockdown forced me to work alone. I’ve written melodies in the past, but never lyrics. I began with making up songs to get my daughter Tanwen to sleep, and then I’d find myself fine-tuning them during daily walks with her in the pram, or making up new ones. I’d never sung before but, after becoming a mother , finding my voice was both a necessity and a gift.”
Being out in nature during those spring lockdown walks became a strong influence on the writing of the songs, reflecting how parenthood can promote a realignment with the natural world. But, in ‘Hey , There’s Always the Night’, there is also the acknowledgement that first child can squeeze a creative life – the whirlwind of the day’s activities forcing the artist to snatch inspired moments out of hours. Angharad invites us into this quiet exhale at the end of a day by imagining “when the baby’s asleep, I will write,” but over the course of the song there’s a realisation that mothers never clock off – who else “is keeping us clean and fed and dressed?” – and so the Muse will have to wait her turn.
If nature provided inspiration, then so too did the fact that these songwriting walks were plotted across her hometown Swansea and, when restrictions eased, the wider map of Wales. Angharad’s geographical motherland provides the setting for this album which, even though it covers universal themes, is unashamedly and defiantly Welsh. Angharad admits she has her parents to thank for this desire to tell the stories of ‘here’ rather than ‘there’. Her mother is the Celtic harpist Delyth Jenkins, who Angharad plays violin alongside in folk duo DnA, and her father is the late poet Nigel Jenkins. His long poem ‘Advice to a Young Poet’ is often cited as a ‘go-to’ for writers seeking inspiration and direction – counting last year ’s Forward Prize winner Kim Moore amongst its disciples – and Angharad says it’s a piece she’s revisited a lot while writing the album, having never really put pen to paper before.
In the poem, Nigel writes that “[it] may sometimes be there, but here is rarely too small a place.” Entering parenthood after losing a parent yourself often sees raw grief resurface, and so it was a poignant moment to have early listeners pick out the influence of John Cale and Patti Smith on the sound of Motherland, two big musicians from Angharad’s childhood: “I remember my parents driving us to the leisure centre when we were young and Mum telling Dad to stop playing Patti Smith’s Horses because of the swearing. That cassette was on constant rotation in the car , along with Paris 1919 by John Cale. I wasn’t conscious of their effect on my own music, so it was very moving to have people hear their influence on Motherland. It took me right back to listening to them in the car with my dad.”
Though she has dabbled with her mother ’s instrument the Celtic harp, the violin has always been Angharad’s main love, taking it up alongside the piano when she was a child. In the foot-tapping funk-inspired ‘Hormone Called Love’, she reveals that when she was growing up she wanted to be both a musician and a mother . But with adulthood came the realisation that women have long been told to choose either children or career: “Having children had a huge effect on my mother ’s career as a musician while she raised us. It was only after my sister and I became young adults that she returned to music properly . Even before I was ready to have children, this question was always something that was on my mind: how can you be both a musician and a mother?” This question is explored across the groove riffs of ‘Hormone Called Love’ and, elsewhere on the album, ‘Because I Am a Woman’ (released as a Double A single alongside ‘Postpartum’) attacks deep-rooted misogyny with a disco upbeat. Angharad wants Motherland to change the narrative, proving that you can make music and be a mother at the same time. These things are not mutually exclusive.
With the exception of playing as part of the album’s string quartet, the recording of Motherland saw Angharad put down her instruments and focus solely on singing and composition. All of the songs on the album (as well as a few that didn’t make it) were written during a prolific period of creativity in 2021, and recorded in the autumn of that year in producer friend Aeddan Williams’ attic studio while Angharad was expecting her second child. Surrounded by vintage Welsh tourist board posters, the two friends were joined by musicians from the Royal Welsh College and managed to record the whole album in a weekend. “Albums usually take a lot longer than that to write and record,” says Angharad, “but once I started writing it was like opening a rusty tap and all the songs appeared within six months. Sleep deprivation helped in a way , giving me more hours in the day to write!”
Luckily the recording of Motherland was wrapped up before Angharad’s second child Idris made an appearance in March 2022, but once again maternity leave has been accompanied by a visit from the Muse: “It’s not sustainable to have a baby each time you need to write a new album, but baby number two was quickly followed by album number two – at least in terms of lyrics and melodies. It seems like my creative process is greatly aided by my time being squeezed.”
As an album of songs Motherland takes a trip across many genres, but with a story that unifies its diverse parts. And this is a story only Angharad can tell – from the soaring power of the string-lush anthem ‘Don’t Burn Bridges’ to the gentle, tragic beauty of ‘Little Baby Embryo’. The second Double A single, ‘I Don’t Know How / Time, Time Again’, will pair two of Motherland’s explorations of time passing – something that is always brought into sharp focus when you become a parent, but seemed sharper again when that happened for Angharad during a global pandemic.
‘Time, Time Again’ was born out of existential questions rising to the surface during lockdown, while she calls ‘I Don’t Know How’ her “anti-botox song…because there is so much to love about getting older .” The album intentionally contains multitudes because that is what motherhood is like. It’s a brightly layered celebration of parenthood, but it also includes a seam of grief for an old life that has been lost forever – a discordant phenomenon that many parents will recognise.
The album closes with a trilogy of love songs for Angharad’s daughter Tanwen. The tender and intimate ‘Every Inch of You’, which feels like the outpouring of a full heart, is followed by the quiet lullaby of ‘Hwiangerdd Tanwen’. Although Angharad predominantly works in the Welsh language for her other musical projects, ‘Hwiangerdd Tanwen’ is the first time we hear Cymraeg on her debut album, drawing upon her work with the charity Live Music Now to help new parents write songs for their children. And so it is time to leave Motherland, the final track ‘Babi Ni’ acting as an ear-worm outro to the record – a foot-stomping slice of fireside folk. Eventually the riotous communal singing falls away to reveal only baby Tanwen, her sweet singing voice closing an album where her mother proves that she has very much found her own. As Tanwen finishes singing, Angharad asks “Eto?” – the Welsh for “Again?” Yes, let’s hit that play button once more, and hear Motherland’s resounding affirmation: I am mother .
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard announce new album “Skinwalker” + Share new single @National Rust’
EU headline tour dates announced for April 2024 UK headline tour to begin March
New album out 12th April via Communion Records
Photo Credit: Charlie Harris
Today, Cardiff-based four-piece Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard return with the announcement of their highly anticipated second album “Skinwalker”. Following closely on the heels of their critically acclaimed single “Therapy”, which came out just before the turn of the year, the new album is due for release on 12th April via Communion Records. It will come shortly after the band’s forthcoming UK tour which is set to take place across March 2024.
Following on from their Welsh Music Prize nominated debut album ‘Backhand Deals’ in 2022, the band wrote and recorded the album at frontman and producer Tom Rees’s Rat Trap studio, the room where Rees has previously recorded and produced tracks for emerging talent – Panic Shack, Do Nothing and The Bug Club. The material – as previewed on “Therapy” and their earlier single “Chew” – showcases a heavier and more disquieting sound than anything the band have released to date.
This darker sound and aesthetic take inspiration from found-footage horror and the Navajo concept of the Skinwalker – a legendary malevolent shapeshifter – from which the album takes its name. Thematically, each track on the record is designed to take you through descending floors of Rees’s mind each becoming more horrific than the last with the Skinwalker at the final floor, representing his inner fears, self-sabotage, hatred, and self-doubt. It’s a deeply intimate record of self-analysis and personal growth told through heavy fuzz-drenched guitars, a crushing rhythm section, and fevered vocals.
The band still carry that same the fast-paced energy and subtle trademark ‘70s references from their earlier releases though, and this is particularly evident on the danceable, indie-funk inflected new single “National Rust”, which was premiered last night by Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Speaking on the single Rees says, “‘National Rust’ was my attempt at consolidating my 2020 obsession with Sly and the Family Stone with my 2021 obsession with David Bowie’s album ‘Low’. It was the first song that really paved the way for the new album, it broke a lot of the sonic boundaries that I was writing within when starting the second album, “I AM NOT AFRAID OF PLAYING FUNKY GUITAR!”, I exclaimed, mu-tron in hand.
Lyrically, it made a statement that informed my songwriting moving forward as well, being a flagrant rejection of my previous political song writing, and an admission of alienation amongst a plethora of information. ‘National Rust’ acts as a bridge between my younger, more political perspective, and my more recent, more apathetic one.”
Elsewhere on the record, the harmony-filled “In My Egg” sees Rees sing about the struggles to force yourself out of your comfort zone, whilst “Human Compression” see the band delve into an almost desert-rock sound with hazy, unrelenting guitar work supporting Rees’s lyrics about the pressure he puts on himself. The psychedelic glam-tinged “Night Of The Skinwalker” – a song which centres around his struggles with self-doubt- marks the albums opus, melding a number of styles and genres across almost six minutes.
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – Rees, guitarist Zac White, drummer Ethan Hurst and Rees’ brother and bassist Eddie – have been going from strength-to-strength since releasing their debut EP “The Non-Stop” in 2020. They’ve since made of end-of-year lists with NME, DIY, and Dork; earned plaudits from the likes of the Guardian, The Telegraph, MOJO, Uncut, Record Collector, The Needle Drop, The Independent, CLASH, The Line Of Best Fit, and So Young; and have amassed significant radio support with plays across worldwide radio, and live session appearances across BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, NPR, Radio X, and more.
The band’s frenetic live sets have seen the band make fans in tourmates from The Magic Gang to Miles Kane and were set to support Noel Gallagher – another in a growing list of fans – at the Royal Albert Hall before the coronavirus struck. They’ve also performed widely across the festival circuit appearing at Glastonbury, Eurosonic, Latitude, All Points East, SXSW, and Green Man, and have toured extensively including a packed-out headline date at Scala. The band will go out on tour again next March hitting 16-dates across the UK where the band will continue to debut new material.
MARCH 2024 01 – Oxford, Jericho Tavern 03 – Exeter, The Cavern 04 – Falmouth, Cornish Bank 06 – Norwich, Voodoo Daddy’s 07 – Chelmsford, Hot Box 08 – Ipswich, The Smokehouse 10 – Tunbridge Wells, Forum 12 – Milton Keynes, Craufurd Arms 13 – St Albans, The Horn 14 – Ramsgate, Music Hall 16 – Peterborough, Met Lounge 17 – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds 18 – Hull, Adelphi Club 20 – Stockton, Ku Bar 21 – Sunderland, Independent 22 – Edinburgh, Voodoo Rooms 24 – Grimsby, Docks Academy 25 – York, The Fulford Arms 26 – Clitheroe, The Swan & Royal 27 – Frome, The Tree House APRIL 02 – Rotterdam, Netherlands, V11 03 – Paris, France, L’International 04 – Hasselt, Belgium, Café Café
Tickets are on sale now – buy HERE “Skinwalker” is out 12th April via Communion Records – Pre-order HERE
Boston’s The Promised End (Members of Landmines, Tied To A Bear, The Effort, Choke Up and SkyTigers) Announce Debut Release “For The Buried And The Broken” Out February 2, 2024 (Digital/Vinyl) via Sound Investment Records (North America) and Gunner Records (Europe).
First Single “Smash and Grab” Now Streaming.
The Promised End from Boston, MA might be described as misery soaked melodic hardcore. The music is aggressive with intent and melodic with purpose. It is urgently paced while deliberately shaped, retaining the jagged edges that define the hardcore/punk genre but molded by the hands of an experienced band. The sound is a love letter to the band’s inspirations, an homage to 80’s Thrash, Early American Hardcore and Youth Crew. Expressions of personal grief, political frustration and a search for community in an age of isolation populate the vocals. Lyrical themes including criticisms of a modern disposable culture, our appetite for misinformation and the ignorance fueled fear of others are woven between the personal recountings of estranged relationships and loved ones lost or struggling to survive addiction. At times there is a glimpse of light that breaks through the gloom. The offer of hope through mutual aid, direct action and self improvement through adversity deliver a reprieve from the darker tone to mirror the nuances of our shared reality.
Comprised of members of Landmines (Paper+Plastick/ Gunner Records), The Effort (Words Of War/ Panic Records) and Sky Tigers (Sound Investment Records) The Promised End will be releasing their debut full length album “For The Buried And The Broken” February 2nd 2024 on Sound Investment Records (Boston, MA) and Gunner Records (Germany) with a mainland European tour in September 2024 to support the overseas release. The Promised End Links: https://thepromisedend.bandcamp.com www.instagram.com/the.promised.end
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