Thanks to the inexplicable popularity of my Submit Music page, I always have a digital backlog of albums, EPs, singles and videos awaiting my perusal. Here are the latest submissions that caught my ears and eyes. As usual, it’s a pretty eclectic lineup. Something they have in common: Any one could easily be your new favourite artist. To that end, I’ve included Bandcamp links wherever possible so you can buy the music straight from the source. Tell ’em I sent ya. And if you’ve got something I need to hear, send it my way. If I think you’re half as good as you think you are, I just might include you next time.
Phillip Bracken
Wolf Ahead Tiger Behind
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Wolf Ahead Tiger Behind is the genre-crossing debut album from Australian musician Phillip Bracken. Recorded independently in Warsaw, Poland, the album features guests such as prominent Polish guitarist/songwriter/producer Robert Cichy, and free jazz icon Jacek Mielcarek. Wolf Ahead Tiger Behind promises to allure many a listener. Bracken’s voice is absorbingly soulful, wrapping around his colourfully woven lyrics. Backed by the masterful trio of Mateusz Szemraj, Denis Dubiella and Wojciech Lubertowicz (all previously of indie band Hanimal), Wolf Ahead Tiger Behind takes a sonic voyage through funk (Push Me), ambient-folk (New Black), alt-country (The Prophet), indie-folk/rock (Take My Hand) and noir where delicate harmonies and ethereal banjos are pitted against punchy guitar lines and swirling organs. This artist is not one to be pigeon-holed. Commenting on the title, Bracken explained it’s inspired by a Chinese proverb. “It’s a reminder not to fear everything around us lest we achieve nothing.” It’s an adage seemingly echoed through the album’s themes and varying sounds and, while not a concept album, perhaps pertinent to the times.”
Fatwires
The Wicked Path
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In ever-new combinations of organic beatscapes with live and raw bass guitar playing, John Eckhardt explores the possibilities of his instrument in sound system culture to arrive at his own personal brand of stone age futurism. Fatwires’ The Wicked Path is like a book of dubwise meditations about patterns in bass, time and space that owes as much to Aston Barrett or Digital Mystikz as to Ash Ra Temple and György Ligeti. The vibration of bass strings and the swing and poetry of the live musician shaped the roots of dub and soul. Here it gives rise to rich bottom end and spectral soundscapes, embedded in deep and rugged percussion that won’t settle for a single style. Hands on his instrument, John Eckhardt spreads out in time and frequency while keeping the funk alive. In addition, he is now working on a complementing series of special music video clips. Over two decades and four solo releases, John Eckhardt has unfolded an unusual cosmos of bass music. In a large variety of collaborations and a number of different solo projects from hyper-acoustic double bass to bottom-heavy sound system music, installations and even photography, he keeps on reiterating the overarching theme: bass, space and time. The vital diversity of his approaches draws the listener into the ongoing underlying quest. Like a hunter gatherer, John Eckhardt navigates in his work a wondrous, branching bass forest that is always and never the same, until he ends up facing actual wilderness: archaic patterns slowly emerge in hypnotic detail, and begin to lead a life of their own.”
Lucia Lip
God
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Berlin’s true underground electronic music scene, Lucia Lip continues her electronic pop extravaganza explorations with her EP God. Combining catchy, danceable electronic music with her uncompromising and uniquely sensual voice, Lucia’s diligently composed melodies juxtapose her raw vulnerability with a sense of urgency that demands your attention. God is a vigorous yet sensitive work of passion supported by beautifully patterned soundscapes, synth-beats and fairytale sounds. Her rebellious attitude guides us through the confessions of a self determined woman living in a magic world of pure femininity. With themes both universal and deeply personal, God is a compact and compelling addition to her previous work, fervently showcasing an artist that is clearly in motion. The powerful and majestic music weaves its way through the deception — you can certainly feel the urgency of this journey.”
Lore City
Alchemical Task
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Over there, plans were made to come here, knowing it’s an erasure. A divvying up. Alone and together. In the playing of the game, tied up in knots of forgetting. Yet the wheel always turns back ‘round, opening a remembrance. Archetypal processes maneuvering through infinite combinations, falling into lockstep. A transmutation of energy. The sounds of memory, the colors shimmering, the symbols appearing. Experiencing subjectivity through the daily dulling, we are the universal to-do list. The only way is through.”
Babe, Terror
Horizogon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Babe, Terror’s new album is an apocalypse opus and a tribute to his quarantined town. An artist-created orchestral lo-fi album for a besieged nocturnal São Paulo in 2019, before quarantine or COVID19. Horizogon marks the return of the artist admired by names like Ride, Four Tet, Prins Thomas and Daniel Avery. In Babe, Terror’s words: “The album is a return to vocals, with a piano that made me very happy, with the other syncopated instruments that gradually integrate.”
In Earnest
In Earnest
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In Earnest are fuelled by the dual songwriting of front-couple Sarah and Thomas in a bid to encourage open and honest conversation around mental health. Their sad indie noise is a dialogue from two perspectives: a call from one who feels too much and a response from the other who must plead for them to stay alive. Hailing from Southend on Sea, U.K., In Earnest are made a trio by the inclusion of instrumentalist Toby. With influences ranging from alternative rock to folk, the band propel forward with their own brand of emotional, genre bending indie music. Their self-titled six-track EP explores themes of hope vs hopelessness, desperation, loneliness and identity in their rawest form.”
