Future Prawn take out the trash, Royal Canoe make static electricity, Shad gets down to work, La Fleu Fatale step up — and is it just me, or do a lot of the videos in your Midweek Roundup seems a tad, well, peculiar? Judge for yourself:
1 | Future Prawn | Trashman
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Martin Mann aka Future Prawn delivers Trashman, another song from the album A Day At Promenade, which will be released June 25. Originally, the song was named Dog and was dedicated to a special street dog named Laika. Laika evolved into Trashman, a kind of garbage recycler — a creature that pounces on the remnants of civilization and consumes things disgusting to civilized man, thus ultimately becoming more and more human itself. Mann wants to show the absurdity of things, believing that in each of us there is a non-normative side that may question the binding moral principles of our capitalist society.”
2 | Royal Canoe | Scratching Static (ft. Nnamdï)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Royal Canoe are back with Scratching Static (feat. Nnamdï), the second single off their upcoming album Sidelining, out July 9th. The band explain the inspiration behind Scratching Static, and their experience working with one of their favourite collaborators, Chicago vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nnamdï: “The initial idea for the song came from observing the relentless hustle of NYC jazz musicians — especially the drummers who find a way to condense their whole setup into a bag or dolly that they throw into a cab or drag onto the train, so they can hop from gig to gig to gig, night after night. There’s something compelling about this ability to adapt and stay hungry and keep your head above water within this hyper-competitive environment. We mentioned this concept to Nnamdï, and in a couple hours — at our practice space, while he was waiting to go to a soundcheck, and with a mesmerizing display of lyrical ingenuity and vocalist swagger — he was able to write/record these stacks of flamboyant stream-of-consciousness words that somehow managed to seamlessly weave between the lyrics we already had and also provide some connective tissue for the non-linear musical ideas of the song.”
3 | Shad | Work (ft. Skratch Bastid)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After taking people by surprise last month by releasing Out of Touch, his first new song since 2018, Shad is at it again with the surprising punchy track and video Work. Shad tells us: “Work was another song written pre-pandemic that is (sadly) even more timely now. I knew I wanted to write a song specifically about two aspects of work: One, the way so many of our jobs are disconnected from a sense of meaning and purpose, and from the people and places they impact. And two, just the increasing precarity and scarcity of work.” Produced by and featuring Skratch Bastid, this track was built on a blistering sample from art-rockers We Are The City and mixes old and new influences, taking Shad’s flexible flows into exciting new territory.”
4 | La Fleu Fatale | Skydancer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 2011, Swedish psychedelic indie-rock outfit La Fleur Fatale headed to the U.S. for a mini-tour in New York. The tour resulted in the short documentary Share The Love. The band celebrate the 10th anniversary of the event by releasing the video for Skydancer. The single shows a heavier and less polished side of La Fleur Fatale, while still highlighting the band’s cinematic, dreamy and dynamic characteristics.”
5 | Little Jimi | Last Cantos
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French heavy prog-psych trio Little Jimi are back with their new LP The Cantos, to be released Aug. 20. It tells the sonic initiation story of Jimi, a strange kid whose schizophrenic personality is a doorway toward an in-depth introspective and fanciful musical universe. Space rock, trippy doom and a bit of grunge are perfectly mixed here, bearing elements as disparate as hypnotic and mythological riffs in the vein of Mr. Bison or Elephant Tree, and All Them Witches’ creative subtlety. Wrapped in an efficient fuzzy fog and peppered by pounding drums, Last Cantos is a highly psychedelic and mystic song. The topics are directly borrowed from the Greek mythology, and its rise in power is absolutely addictive.”
6 | Hanni Palecter | Creca V
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the universe of Hanni Palecter, shock, impact, freedom, outpouring of energy, irony and aesthetic and sonorous discomfort are a necessary way for unsuspecting people to get out of dichotomies, polarizations, ways of life with confused emotions. In the video for Creca V off the album Creca, the idea was to use images from the database, from B-movies and Japanese series, all with the intention of generating the delight of visual discomfort linked to the sound. Says the mysterious Palecter: “The idea for the video was to unite images that fascinate me in the tokusatsu universe. Horrible monsters and explosions. The music has an influence and some samples from genres like grunge, trap, and grindcore / crust aesthetics.”
7 | Birthday Girl | I’m Not Safe
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Surreal, sinister, and inherently unsettling, I’m Not Safe conjures a spinning carousel of sounds designed to set you off balance; a ride that’s not for the faint-hearted, but one that is guaranteed to have you coming back for more. The latest from the U.K.-via-Stockholm outfit is a sensory dazing smorgasbord of uncompromising genres, high emotions and sonic explorations. Fran Baxter of Birthday Girl says: “With I’m Not Safe, we just tried to throw in all of our combined mental issues and into something that’s a bit unsettling but you can still put on at a party. A guitar banger, which is apparently quite a rare treat these days.”
8 | Leslie Winer | Skin
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “When I Hit You — You’ll Feel It is a 16-track anthology that celebrates the extraordinary work of musician, poet, and author Leslie Winer. Out July 23, it spans Winer’s three-decade-long musical career from her groundbreaking solo work in the early ‘90s to her latest inspired projects. With musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave’s Karl Bonnie,and others, the collection also spotlights Winer’s diverse collaborations and unearths previously unreleased recordings. Today, Winer’s captivating track Skin (off 1993’s Witch) is out, along with its rare video directed by John Maybury.”
9 | Chainreaction | Who Stole My Mojo
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chainerection have been laying down blue-collared, supercharged rock ’n’ roll since 2009. In their highly driven songs you can hear echoes from ’70s Detroit and ’90s Stockholm. Your mind might wander to think about bands like The MC5, Hellacopters, Hurriganes, Gluecifer and Flaming Sideburns. Their upcoming album Alternative High pays tribute to those great pioneers of the past, but with a serious attitude of its own. Its 12 songs are packed with exploding riffs, scorching fuzzed-out solos, thunderous basslines and super-solid drumwork. At times the speed-laden rock assault mellows just a notch to let in some of that sweet groove ’n’ roll.”
10 | Gong Gong Gong 工工工 | Gong Gong Gong Blues 工工工布魯斯 (Howie Lee Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Gong Gong Gong share Beijing electronic musician and producer Howie Lee’s interpretation of Gong Gong Gong Blues 工工工布魯斯, the third and final advance single from their EP Phantom Rhythm Remixed. Lee says: I wanted to make Gong Gong Gong Blues a very “hard rock” kind of remix. I thought, “they don’t like drums, but I do, and I have drums in my studio!” So I was playing along to the track using an electronic drum set and these drum sounds I’d been using recently on a video game soundtrack. Most of the time, I play subtle stuff on drums, but for this song, I was doing really simple, more on the beat stuff. It sounded really trashy, kind of like alt-rock but also like a bad film commercial, really macho and manly … I finished editing the track on a train from Shenzhen to Xiamen while I was on tour.”
11 | Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu | Renegade Breakdown (Jessy Lanza Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu unveil a remix for their signature song Renegade Breakdown, by Canadian hyperdub stalwart Jessy Lanza. Renegade Breakdown is taken from the album of the same name, released in September. Lanzy’s remix sees her pitching Marie’s original vocals up over a sub-heavy beat and skittering percussion. She adds: “I met Marie after sharing a stage with her in Montréal in 2016. Christie Sealey from Orphx introduced us and I’ve felt a kinship with Marie ever since. It’s such a pleasure to have a more intimate view of how she and L’Œil Nu build tracks. Playing with her vocals was such a privilege.”
12 | Dear God | Shut The Fuck Up And Just Die Already
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Experimental hip-hop and hardcore artist Dear-God (Robert Ortiz) releases Shut The Fuck Up and Just Die Already, a bonus track from his debut EP 1-844-4DEAR-GOD. He explains: “I’m getting real sick and tired of dealing with certain kinds of fools and wanted to let out my unfiltered feelings about it.”
13 | JW Paris | Sober
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In JW Paris’s first video with a new-look lineup, Sober officially introduces their latest member Gemma Clarke (Babyshambles / Suffrajets) and offers a first glimpse of the three-piece performing together. Capturing a day in the life of JW Paris as they head to a gig, the Sober video finds them caught between conflicting perspectives of a world observed with rose-tinted glasses, versus that in the cold light of day. As the band explain: “The concept was to be a simple journey of the band making their way to a gig (Rooz Studios, where we rehearse) with flashes of those sobering moments. Visualising an abstract view of people who are only around you for one thing. Those who are only sucked into the idea of personal gain.”
14 | The Effens | Venom Denim
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Effens’ upcoming EP Eventually draws inspiration from ’90s grunge sneer and early-aughts indie-rock cheek. Self-recorded and produced in a basement room-turned-studio, Eventually reveals a keen melodic sensibility and an insatiable urge to distort that sensibility to create something new. Today The Effens share the single Venom Denim, which captures the energy of the band’s live show. The recording process came down to the wire, which ended up giving the band freedom to trust the process. The final product is a raucous, buzzing track about finding your way out of a relationship that feels like quicksand and hoping your partner finds their way out too.”
15 | Sun | Golden
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Franco-German brutal pop artist Sun shares her new single Golden, along with a video, while announcoing her upcoming EP Brutal Pop II is due out in fall. She wrote Golden in her small apartment, feeling lonely and depressed but anchoring herself to a moment that would happen daily: The sun would set and a gorgeous, warm orange light would come through the window and dazzle her. That moment of brightness inspired her to create a dream-like world where she could escape to when the reality of the world gets too harsh. Sun says, “I wrote Golden when my whole life was crumbling apart. The one I wanted to be there most was not on this earth anymore. I missed my dad so much! It felt like a part of myself had disappeared with him and I could never live without him. Golden was inspired by the beautiful evening sky in Paris. Its beautiful sight helped me to escape to a safe, imaginary place, to cope with his loss, with my loneliness, and with life in general.”
16 | Squirrel Flower | Flames And Flat Tires
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ella Williams has shared a third track from her forthcoming Squirrel Flower album Planet (i). Ella says: “I wrote Flames on my second day of quarantine in Bristol, England ahead of recording. It was late August, hot; I was staying in a place that opened onto a party street, and every night I stayed up listening to the sounds of the revellers and the birds squawking and screaming until 6 a.m., then all day watched people hanging laundry in their backyards through my kitchen window.”
