Wednesday 24 October 2018

Nadine Khouri: A New Dawn - New EP - Friday 26th October.

Hi all. Just thought I'd share this one with you due to this excellent new EP out on Friday. Nadine is a great talent and right up your street if you're into that 90's shoegaze sound and  chilled blissful singing with soul. And the cover of Spirit Ditch by Sparklehorse is fuckin ace too!!


NADINE KHOURI

NEW EP "A NEW DAWN" OUT 26TH OCTOBER

SHARES "SPIRIT DITCH" SPARKLEHORSE COVER

LISTEN TO "A NEW DAWN" HERE

LISTEN TO "SPIRIT DITCH" HERE


+ UK DATES FOR OCTOBER
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“The tenderness and longing in her songs are inescapable; we should long for more Khouri” - Drowned In Sound
“A thing of dark, possessed beauty… extraordinary voice: a fragile, sensuous instrument” - Mojo ★★★★
Celebrated British-Lebanese songwriter NADINE KHOURI has returned with a brand new 3-track EP ‘A New Dawn’ to be released on October 26th.
Self-produced and recorded in London in between touring commitments, Khouri’s latest offering ‘A New Dawn’ was mixed by Alan Weatherhead (Sparklehorse, Julien Baker) and is a powerful return from her acclaimed debut.  The beautifully arranged EP highlights Khouri’s talent for creating songs that feel both vast and intimate, while her warm, singular vocal takes centre-stage with poetic lyrics set against blissful atmospheric soundscapes.
The title track ‘A New Dawn’, which premiered last month, opens with droning harmonium, cascades of tremolo guitar and mermaid-like backing vocals.  If ‘The Salted Air’ were an allegory for displacement and a journey at sea, in ‘A New Dawn’ Khouri has found the shore and displays a quiet, newfound confidence.
An early devotee of shoegaze and the dreamy melancholia of bands such as Mazzy Star and Low, Khouri began her career as an acoustic singer-songwriter in New York, self-releasing her first EP ‘A Song to the City’.  A mix of folk and atmospheric indie-rock, her material ranged in influence from Leonard Cohen to dream-pop.  Returning to London, she eventually crossed paths with legendary producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, This is the Kit) and began writing songs for what would become her LP, ‘The Salted Air’, released early last year.  The album earned plaudits from the likes of MOJO and Drowned In Sound, was celebrated by Q (Feb 2017 Critics Choice) and selected as one of Rough Trade’s Albums of the Year 2017.  In the past year, Khouri has toured the UK and Europe and has shared the stage with artists such as Low, John Parish, Aldous Harding, Howe Gelb, Adrian Crowley, and many more. 
Khouri has also premiered a touching tribute this weekend to the late, great Mark Linkous (of Sparklehorse) after his death eight years ago.  Recorded on the back of a tour with Irish singer-songwriter Adrian Crowley, Khouri shares her admiration for Linkous’ work:
“I still remember the first time I heard Sparklehorse as a kid.  I was completely arrested by the music and it was unlike any I’d ever heard.  Mark had beautiful songs of course - from the raucous to the most delicate - and yet it always felt like a privilege being allowed into his musical world…. I was touring with my friend Adrian Crowley earlier this year and he had a Mellotron with him on the road.  It came up that we were both huge fans (Linkous played Mellotron on many of his recordings) so we played 'Spirit Ditch’ a few times on tour…  His music had a huge influence on us both. I hope people will continue to discover and honour his work.”
Khouri will be performing songs from ‘A New Dawn’ on her UK dates next month.

Live Dates:
16.10.18 - Cafe 9, Sheffield
17.10.18 - The Hug & Pint, Glasgow
18.10.18 - Smithdown Social Club, Liverpool
19.10.18 - Hoxton Hall, London
20.10.18 - The Louisiana, Bristol

Follow Nadine Khouri

Wednesday 10 October 2018

Deja Vega: Chasing - new single


Watch this! Deja Vega – Chasing – video for new single

The Winsford power trio are back with a cracker of a tune oozing a proper funky beat and their stand out sound that’s gonna get them up there in the very near future.
There’s load of indie bands out there who tread the mill with their middle of the the road indie by numbers tunes with no soul. They peddle their demos proclaiming to be the next big thing on the planet and the cycle goes on and on and on….
When I was a lad it was all demo tapes and bugging venue owners for gigs, playing to play. It was fuckin hard going and was a case of right place right time, and actually being good helped. Deja Vega are somewhat unique. They write tunes that are instant slammers and you know something special is going on. Venues will be bugging them! This new offering Chasing is the follow up in what looks like to be a series of singles in the making. Eyes Of Steel (review here) caught my ear with it’s raucous 3 minutes blast of power. This one goes on a different tangent with it’s funky infectious beat and leaves you wanting more. I’ve not even been approached by anyone to review this. It’s that good a tune in it’s own right.
A video influenced by selective attention and all things weird and wonderful. They thank The Moulton Crows for helping make this video happen.
Chasing was recorded at Edge Recording Studio by Mark Winterburn, and is the second installment in their B&W singles collection, only 250 copies have been pressed.
Check it out!

7in vinyl available here
or on  I-Tunes or Spotify

Monday 8 October 2018

Spiritualized: Fucked Up Inside - 1993 Reissue album review


Spiritualised

Fucked Up Inside

Glass Redux Records.
Black Vinyl Edition released 26th October 2018
Louder Than War Bomb Rating 4
Step back into the early nineties with this hidden gem of an album which was only available on mail order before this t’internet thing we all now take for granted. The sound of Jason Pierce starting his sonic journey which has never ended…. Wayne Carey gets a bit nostalgic.

I’m actually one of the lucky ones who witnessed their first tour in 1990 when they hit The Boardwalk in Manchester. Most of the audience were sat down on the floor if I remember rightly and it was a strange night by all standards. Lazer Guided Melodies was released soon after and this live album was sandwiched between the release of 2nd proper album Pure Phase. I must admit on missing out on this album but remember being blown away by the spectacle of Jason Pierce and band in 1993 at a free festival in Preston. They had come on big time. This album brings back all those memories.
It consists of seven tracks recorded on their first US tour and gives us a glimpse of that early magic that was the blueprint to Ladies & Gentleman We Are Floating In Space. Take Good Care Of It lifted from Pure Phase starts the show and you can feel the build of the songs structure sweeping out to the audience with the shimmering guitar effects, deep bass and drums and those lighting effects which look like they are being directed by the instruments (if you’ve seen em live you’ll know what I mean). I Want You is one of the early numbers which got me in the first place with it’s garage undertones swamped in that old Spacemen 3 psychedelia and goes down well. Medication was always a thing of beauty with it’s toned down blues drone and drug addled lyric content. Angel Sigh is and always will be one of my favourite early tracks starting off in beautiful calming bliss then rattling you awake with that great guitar noise hitting your senses. Walking With Jesus gives you a taste of what Spacemen 3 were really about when Jason and Peter Kember actually got on and still sounds great today.
The album ends with a double whammy of Shine A Light and the brilliant Smiles from the debut album. Shine A Light just builds and builds with a myriad of sound hitting you quadraphonically and just wigs out with trumpets, saxophone, wild keyboards, feedback time 10, get the picture??  Smiles does a similar thing to you but ups the rocking stakes more and just kicks in from start to that crashing finale.
Since those first two albums back in the early nineties Spiritualized have morphed into a more blues, gospel machine and sound miles away from this era, although you can still feel the presence of that Jason Pierce magic from the early days holding all the grandeur of the songs together. This is a great introduction to a great band for a live album and as I’ve mentioned they have to be seen live to witness the true glory of those wigouts. They certainly caught my attention back in the day and this gives you an insight into the growing genius of Jason Pierce in his chrysalis years. Great stuff.

Order the LP here
Spiritualized online