Tag Archives: music profile

Lizabett Russo | Music Profile

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MUSIC-lizabett-russo-xponorth-2016For today’s music profile we have a Scotland-based singer-songwriter of Romanian heritage, Lizabett Russo. Well-travelled, Lizabett has a beautiful voice and an original take on an eclectic range of music. From traditional acoustic ballads to up-tempo jazz – and just about everything else in between.

Now a mainstay on the live circuit in Scotland, she honed her craft in her native Transylvania, as well as taking a year to live in London and learn the ropes in a new country. Renowned for her intricate songwriting, vocal range and cross-genre appeal, she has impressed audiences wherever she has landed.  In 2013, she released her acclaimed EP entitled The Traveller’s Song, which found favour with online publications from across Europe, the US and Canada. Her stock across Europe is high, having played shows in Amsterdam, Zurich, Barcelona and Bucharest while her presence in Aberdeen has led to venues including The Lemon Tree and Woodend Barn. In 2015 she toured Japan and Seoul promoting her new album ‘Running with the Wolves’. On a different note, she makes soap and knitted bow ties to sell as merchandise.

Have a listen and become a fan just like we did at Frost.

 

Adam Stafford, Taser Revelations | Music Profile

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Adam Stafford Taser Revelations Adam Stafford returns with his first album in nearly three years following the widely acclaimed Imaginary Walls Collapse in 2013. 

Format: 12″ vinyl (with download), CD and digital
Lead Tracks: Atheist Money, Phantom Billions
Label/cat number: Song, by Toad Records SbTR-A-049

Taser Revelations was recorded at The Happiness Hotel, Song by Toad’s newly aquired warehouse recording space. Utilising the warehouse’s natural room reverb to great effect, the album features producer and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lesiuk performing a variety of instruments including steel drums, organ and piano. Greggor Douglas plays the Roland Juno/omnichord and ex-Maple Leaves Anna Miles provides harmony vocals.

Continuing Stafford’s trajectory into electrified alternative pop, Taser Revelations begins with some of the most melodically catchy songs he has ever written, before taking a swerve down a dark alley midway through the album, venturing into industrial syncopation, samurai-guitar attacks and some unsettling, vivid imagery.

Praise for ‘Imaginary Walls Collapse’
Nominated for a Scottish Album of the Year Award in May 2014
Albums of The Year in Goldflakepaint
Featured in Frightened Rabbit’s Albums of The Year in Drowned in Sound
#1 Album of The Year in Jockrock
#1 Album of The Year in Glasgow Podcart
#1 Album of The Year in Manic Pop Thrills and #1 in MPT’s Poll of Polls
#3 Album of The Year from Last Year’s Girl
#3 Album of The Year from Scottish Fiction
#4 Scottish Albums of The Year in The Herald on Sunday
#4 Albums of The Year in When You Motor Away
#5 Album of The Year in Is This Music?
#33 Albums of The Year in The Skinny
Vic Galloway’s Albums of The Year
Albums of The Year in Sonic Reverie
#20 Albums of The Year in The Tidal Wave of Indifference

Tracklisting:
All songs PRS registered, written by Adam Stafford.

Side A
1. Let a Little Love Inside
2. Phantom Billions
3. Atheist Money
4. Black Lung Applications

5. Unknown Swimmers
Side B
1. Railway Trespassers
2. Taser Revelations
3. Bracelet Dream of the Shadow
4. The Penumbr

APE|MEN – Zero | Music Profile

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ape men zero music news profileBand/Artist: Ape Men (stylized APE|MEN)
Location: Industrialized world, South Eastern Fringe of the European Union
Styles: Indie, Indietronica, Alternative, Indie Pop
Similar to/RIYL: Kasabian, Nine Inch Nails, AWOLNATION, Beck, Panda Bear
CD: APE|MEN – ZERO (2015, debut EP)

Accolades: This outfit hasn’t gigged outside clubs, but is a trio formed from indie band Gravity co. which has over 18 top musical achievement awards in South Eastern Europe, has opened for the Prodigy, Fun Loving Criminals, Stereo MCs, Kosheen, and others and has played festivals at EXIT (Serbia), Sziget (Hungary), Eurosonic (Holland), Bestfest (Romania), Spirit of Burgas (Bulgaria), and others.

Members/Instruments: Bobby, Ivo, and Petar
Bobby Cheshirkov – Vocals, guitar
Ivo Chalakov – Guitar, vocals
Petar Samanliev – Computers & gadgets
Production:
Composed by Ivo Chalakov
Lyrics by Bobby Cheshirkov
Co-produced by Ivo Chalakov & Petar Samnaliev
Arranged by APE|MEN
Mixed by Petar Samanliev & Ivo Chalakov
Mastered by Plamen Yotov

Tracklisting:
1. Pictionary
2. Bye-Bye Devil
3. Up Is the New
4. Cash
5. Zero Pictionary

Bio:
Ape Men (APE|MEN) are an edgy indietronica trio from the post Iron Curtain fringes of the European Union formed in 2013. The band paint an urban soundscape with gritty scuzz guitars and moody lyrics over saturated synthesizers and thumping electo beats.

The band’s debut EP “ZERO” was released independently on Feb 19th, 2015. The EP is accompanied by a single and music video release for “CASH”. The video was directed by Ruscen Vidinliev.

 

 

Elstow | Music Profile

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elstowIn July 2012 Jared Shaw and Chel Browne sent a couple of low-fi demos to Peats Ridge Festival on a whim. Having played only one live show together, their obsession with music was very much a private affair up until then, and neither expected the illustrious Sydney music festival to respond at all. But respond they did, and just a few months later the duo stood together on stage in the eastern-psychedelic-themed ‘Chai Tent’ and warmed an unsuspecting audience with hazy sixties-inspired songs about love, loss and death, blending delicate vocal harmonies with somber misty tones.


 
Borrowing the name of the building they lived in, and guided by a deep appreciation for the folk and psychedelic pop of the sixties and seventies, the duo quickly expanded to five members as they explored their wider musical tastes. Drawing on the psychedelic sounds of bands like Jefferson Airplane, Jimmie Spheeris, and early Pink Floyd, coupled with an infatuation with nineties alt-psych idols Brian Jonestown Massacre and Mazzy Star, Elstow started work on their debut EP in 2013. Released the following year, AS  THE SUN FALLS was five tracks of dreamy psychedelic landscapes fused with a moody folk sensibility. Both personal and surreal, bloggers described it as “music to lose yourself to,” and “a psychedelic romance.”
 
Harnessing an atmospheric and increasingly dynamic live set, the band spent 2014 playing all over their hometown of Sydney, winning over unsuspecting hearts one mind-bending show at a time. Their sound, which has been described as ‘neo-psychedelic-dream-folk,’ has been evolving slowly and surely, refusing to remain static.

In the late months of 2014, Elstow went back into the studio to record their new single, ‘Evil Dreams.’ Despite the sinister sounding name, and promises of a “very weird” video to accompany it, the new song is described by Shaw as “a little more upbeat than the EP,” and combines Elstow’s dreamlike psychedelic overtones with a breezy sunshine-laden chorus. ‘Evil Dreams’ swings between verses of doubtful self-reflection and a chorus of daydream surrender. Carefully woven vocal harmonies float amidst an abundance of tremolo guitars, delay, and crisp tambourines; ‘Evil Dreams’ is as ambitious as it is timeless.

 

 

Los Trasgos Muertos | Music Profile

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Los Trasgos Muertos
Eponymous EP 
2 February 2015

From Manchester, Los Trasgos Muertos are Captain Reed (Bass/Vox/Organ), Von Beek (Guitar/Vox) and Il Fleishe(Drums).
Prior to forming the band, all three members spent time honing their musicianship and songwriting skills with other bands on the vibrant Manchester music scene.  As a result they have known each other for years, sharing similar passions and frustrations, influences and experiences.  Writing came easily and before the trio knew it, they had an album’s worth of material ready to record at Eve Studios in Bredbury, one of Manchester’s best kept secrets.

Los Trasgos Muertos are influenced by a range of musicians from Billy Childish and Deep Purple to Ty Segall, The Beatles and Prince.  This eclecticism inspired them to find their own sense of individuality; they strive to produce records with a strong melody and hook, substance over style, but it’s important to them that each track captures their sense of fun too.

Gareth (Bass/Vox/Organ) describes their sound as ” Loud music for bodies in small hot sweaty rooms, this is physical music.”


The Band in Their Own Words…

Slumbering over decades, awoken by the call of screaming hordes, ‘Los Trasgos Muertos’ were born in blood. The blood running through 5th chords, trashy cymbal crashes and broken amps.

Captain Reed, the endless traveller, has known many names. His rage built over millennia broken and fragmented, unknowingly cradled and forged into a mirror focused on the world. Von Beek has been with us all, the knotted charm we prayed to when all else was hopeless, a blank vision when our eyes were blackened by doubt. Il Fleishe is the collector, master of possession. Within his realm, time was twisted and shaped into endless caverns where souls were left to rot over millennia.

And so the three of us found ourselves in the storm, and lo! ‘Los Trasgos Muertos’ became flesh. Taking Garage/Psyche Rock and twisting it to our own devices with our fleshless skeletal fingers, we traverse the wilderness, a trinity, savaging audiences and all in our path.  Join us!

 

 

Leonino Naked Tunes | Music Profile

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Leonino "Naked Tunes" (Album) (Hueso Records)Band/Artist: Leonino (aka Jorge González)
Location: Berlin, Germany / Santiago, Chile
Styles: Pop
Similar to/RIYL: Scott Walker, Kate Bush, Dolly Parton, The Blue Nile, Serge Gainsbourg
CD: Naked Tunes
Release date: September 15, 2014

Accolades:
– Amnesty tour 1988 with Sting , Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman,
Bruce Springteen.
– Bogotá en Armonia festival 1988 with Jose Feliciano, Miguel
Mateos, Toreros Muertos .
– Estadio Nacional de Chile 2003 , 2 nights 80.000 people each one
as the only act. Estadio el Campin de Bogotá 2003 2 shows 70.000
people each night with no support. Same thing in Medellin,
Bucaramanga and Cali.
– Shows in 10 towns in Colombia, 11 in Peru, 4 in Bolivia, 10 in the
USA including a festival on Staples Center in L.A., 7 towns in
Ecuador and more than 30 in Chile.
-Albums: Records sold with Los Prisioneros and solo efforts,
around 2 million units sold.
– The Chilean society of songwriting rights , SCD gave to Jorge
Gonzalez in 1997 an award as the best pop songwriter of the
decade.
– Chile: winner “best song, best album, best act ” both in 1986 and
1990.

Production:
All songs are produced by Leonino at Krossener Studios, Berlin, mixed and mastered by Tobias Freund (except There Is a Light, mixed by Matthew Styles-Harris).

Bio:
As leader/vocalist of Los Prisioneros–the most iconic Chilean rock band ever and front-runners of a new musical resistance to Pinochet’s dictatorship that burst through in the mid 80’s – Jorge González became idol and voice for an entire generation of oppressed youth, reaching the pinnacle of fame not only in Chile but throughout Latin America. Never afraid of stating his opinions with sarcastic humor and raw talent, he guided the trio through a series of best-selling albums full of bile and discordance. It was a journey that began with the disenchantment of straight-forward punk-a-billy and meandered through different song structures, including an occasional excursion into ballads and other cross-genres, and the use of samples, keyboards and electronic sounds.

After the first four albums – and with them having conquered a transversal fan base–González ventured into a prolific and eclectic solo career, which once again consecrated him as an innovator and a genius composer, raising his signature tell-it-like-it-is lyrics and his particular crooning style to new levels of adoration. With an incipient electronic scene rapidly developing in Santiago in the early 90’s, he was involved in several releases progressively exploring into dance music (Gonzalo Martínez y Sus Congas Pensantes, Los Updates, Los Sampler…) and eventually moved to Germany in the 00’s, where he has continued working in close circle with a group of notorious musicians from Chile and abroad.

Jorge González is now back again as Leonino, with an intimate set of new songs accompanied guitar (in English) featuring collaborations by brothers Pier and Juan Pablo Bucci, Mariano Scopel, Argenis Brito, Martin Schopf, Tobias Freund and Miguel Toro. All songs are produced by Leonino at Krossener Studios, Berlin, mixed and mastered by Tobias Freund (except There Is a Light, mixed by Matthew Styles-Harris). This album is for Gia. Published by HR in an edition of 500 copies.

 

 

The Hertz Complex – No Control

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Following brilliant reviews and international airplay for ‘Maybe I Know’ and ‘Bassy’, from their forthcoming EP ‘A New Habit’, we’re highlighting another track from the EP that shows a very different side to the band.  

The Hertz Complex - No Control

No Control is stripped back to focus on Neil O’Keeffe’s vocals, a simple yet utterly beautiful song that contrasts perfectly with the lo-fi fuzz guitar and shimmering Post-Punk creations the band are known for.


Neil O’Keeffe (lead vocals, guitar) and Paul Keane (guitar) have a songwriting partnership that transgresses borders.  Hailing originally from Cork, Ireland, they have set up camp in the emerging artists’ haven that is Deptford, London. 

Here they draw on a mix of influences from their Irish roots to bands such as The Chameleons, Joy Division, Whipping Boy and Howling Wolf, resulting in their own eclectic version of post punk.  Joining Neil and Paul are Benjamin Balan (drums) and Chris Keelan (bass). Originally from Canada, they form a solid, driving rhythm section that provides the foundation to The Hertz Complex’s dynamic interlacing guitar work.
 
The four-piece aim to bring a forgotten passion back into music and this musical salvation has certainly been delivered – an ever-growing army of fans, festival appearances and a headline slot at LA’s legendary Whisky A Go Go are testament to that fact.  The Hertz Complex’s highly anticipated debut EP comes on the back of news that one of their songs will be featured in a movie soundtrack, another sure sign that this band are making music that is essential listening.

 

 

The Sunday Reeds | Music Profile

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The Jesus and Mary Chain Meets Marianne Faithful: It’s Australia’s The Sunday Reeds.

Their new EP ‘Amour Tragique’ on Heartgun Records

 

Release Date: 1st August 2014

Format: Digital Download 

 TheSundayReedsPic1

L-R: Jeremy Russell, Romana Ashton and Drew Jones.  Photo by Rex Francis

 

 

 

The Sunday Reeds, named after Melbourne’s celebrated patron of the arts Sunday Reed, are Romana Ashton and Drew Jones.  Though forming in 2009 as a duo, they soon started playing live as a three-piece and are regularly joined on stage by drummer Jeremy Russell.


 

Their first release ‘Drowning in History’ (2009) caught the attention of UK indie label Squirrel Records leading to extensive touring across Australia, the UK and Europe, during which bridges were burned, relationships ended and nervous breakdowns became commonplace.  At one point the founding duo spent three days in Paris where the most romantic city in the world became an ironic backdrop for a particularly bitter relationship break up, one that culminated in their latest EP ‘Amour Tragique’ (Tragic Love).

 

A collection of five songs that detail doomed romances and love lost, ‘Amour Tragique’ combines the grittiness and angst of ‘90s grunge with the pop sensibilities of ‘60s pop, rock ‘n’ roll, a good measure of old fashioned blues and ‘80s new wave/post punk.

 

With contralto female vocals likened to Marianne Faithfull and Shirley Manson, and a rock ‘n’ roll swagger reminiscent of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and Nirvana, The Sunday Reeds skillfully combine the most exciting elements of rock ‘n’ roll to create lyrically rich, infectiously melodic songs with a sound distinctly their own.

 

‘Amour Tragique’ will be launched at The Old Bar, Melbourne on Saturday July 5th.

 

Videos for the singles taken from the EP ‘Jean-Luc’ (a song about the tumultuous relationship between Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina) and ‘Something About You’ (a dark pop song about love and loss) will be released later in 2014.

 

Discography

 

Amour Tragique (EP 2014 – Heartgun Records)

Drowning in History (LP Vinyl Re-Release) (2013 – Heartgun Records)

Kill This Party/Fall from Grace (Single – 2012 – Heartgun Records)

Dark Rainbows (EP – 2011 – Squirrel Records UK)

Drowning in History (LP – 2009-Squirrel Records UK)