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New release radar - February 2024

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Taking a look at some of the best new tracks released in February 2024:  Rasmus Fynbo - A Summer Day In April This was released at the tail end of January 2024, but I missed it then so am including it as part of my February releases because it absolutely deserves some attention. Rasmus is a Danish artist with an extensive repertoire of beautiful, varied, melodically rich indie-pop that blends in influences from Balkan folk, cabaret, country and western into extremely rewarding, easy listens. The latest single here is a light, breezy piece of perfect pop with luscious vocals, soft blowing harmonies and acoustic instrumentation that skips gently like a skimming stones across a lake on a warm summer day. Once you dip your toe into this track, I thoroughly urge you to take a deep dive into his back catalogue which is a treasure trove of delights that you will return to time and again.   True Foxes - Pleasure Has A Sting In It's Tail (Solaar remix) / Higher Cornwall's True Fox...
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EP review - Half As Much - Zoe Fegan

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It's a very British thing to feel a bit apprehensive about endlessly sharing our music with our "fans" when we're just starting out on our musical journeys. Often those "fans" are largely comprised of friends and family and we don't like to keep bugging them asking them to like this, share this or pre save that or other. We don't like to keep asking and instead much prefer to just put our music somewhere accessible and let those who want to engage do so in their own time and manner. It feels impolite and self-absorbed to keep harping on and on - our friends and family are already plenty aware that we make our own music so how much of a difference does it make?  It actually works and it's the squeakiest, noisiest, pushiest wheels that get the grease. I discovered Zoe Fegan last week, because I used to work with her older sister Claire in a previous job. Claire shared her Facebook post, I saw it, listened to about 30 seconds and decided it was obvi...
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Album review - Return to Dust - Mild Horses

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Mild Horses is the project of Matthew Leuw who was previously a member of Norwich based noise pop band Crest, Brighton based art-punks Coin-op and was one-half of a Lo-fi electro pop duo 2 Hot 2 Sweat. Based on that CV, it's easy to see that Matthew doesn't like to stay still, get stale or fall into any genre box traps. There really is a little bit of a hell-of-a-lot on this second album - Return To Dust.  The album is an eclectic and leftfield mix of genres with opening track showcasing the brighter, poppier electro side of the artist with a driving military beat and hypnotic vocal mantra. There is strong psychedelic flavour across all the tracks but each is infused with it's own tone, dynamic and none of them stay on the same idea for long.   Return To Dust by Mild Horses The most recent single from this album - Summerland - goes to emphasise how Matthew does things his own way - at over six minutes it's definitely not the obvious single - it meanders, lacks hooks, is...
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New release radar - Best of January 2024

January is the Monday morning of each new year bringing a sense of doom and foreboding about the long, grinding slog ahead of us in doing whatever it is we do for a seeming infinity. Special thanks has to go to those artists who decide that this is the month they want to pitch their new music to a tired world who might simply be devoid of any enthusiasm until the caffeine and sugar kick of Pancake day arrives to really get the new year rolling.  Below is my selection of highlights from those brave artists souls with January releases, who hopefully can transcend everyone's innate desire to press snooze on music and have another couple of weeks in our warm beds.   I'm Just Being Honest - Jack Kane First up is London actor/singer Jack Kane with a follow-up track to the very popular Swimming Pool, and this is another hook-laden slice of unapologetic feel-good, indie-style pop music.     Veronicavon - Party Party is a classic "soundtrack to an indie film" vibes ...
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Featured: Babe Lewis authenticity that cuts through the bullshit

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I stumbled across Babe Lewis whilst mining Submit Hub for some free premium credits using their Hot or Not feature. Hot or Not works by asking it's most wallet shy artist users to instil a Zen-like calm whilst they give "feedback" (of 10 words or more) to a succession of the most bland, insipid, cookie-cutter turds-rolled-in-glitter possible, without threatening, abusing, ridiculing them or offering any remotely useful advice. Sometimes, there isn't even any glitter. For this "service" (Yes, Submithub actually charges premium credits for this as well!) you are rewarded with a single premium credit per 20 tracks to use for submitting your music to be sneered at by curators. (Yes, this is the depressing reality for indie musicians).  Once in a while, you can also be rewarded with an actual music discovery. Ironically, in this case it was perhaps the least technical and worst produced track of that session that stood out an absolute mile over all the glossier, ...
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Single review: The Artist Ren - The Circus

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The Artist Ren is the musical alter-ego of supremely talented 18-year old California songwriter Lauren V. Her latest track, which is a corker, is called The Circus and was released on December 14th, 2023 and comes from her album Under The Bleachers, which itself saw an extended version released in December 2023 featuring some remixed versions of 4 of the original tracks by St3r10, Malte Schalke and Jack Knox. The Circus has dreamy acoustic pop vibes that evoke memories of 90s hipsters Zero Seven, with a Phoebe Bridger style vocal and a song-writing maturity that belies her tender age as she weaves a heavenly melody against lush acoustic strumming and expertly evolving reverbs that elevate a very simple production into a song with genuine hit potential.   Under the Bleachers (Expanded Edition) by The Artist Ren
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Featured: Bitmap's Four Year 48-Track Odyssey Reaches Brilliant Conclusion

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Bitmap, aka Luke Barwell to those in the know, has been peeling something of a musical orange in his pocket - writing, producing and releasing a new track every single month for the past four years straight - and has left a 48-track skin of unfurled musical brilliance, spanning folk to indietronica, in his wake with breaking the peel even once.  Safety in Numbers by Bitmap The latest and final release of this sequence - Safety in Numbers - was released on December 31st, 2023 and brings to a conclusion an epic feat of creativity, variety, consistency and perseverance that started back in January 2020 with the release of "Everything Lost Will Be Found".  Everything Lost Will Be Found by Bitmap Bitmap completed his 48-track sequence without missing a single beat and managed to maintain an astounding level of quality in both song-writing and production throughout. You can find all 48 tracks available on Bandcamp with a pay-what-you-like purchase price.  Barwell is from the U...
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Location: Lisbon, Portugal
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