After questioning his purpose lately on the multi-lingual gem for us to savour for its frankness, Salvarez thinks profoundly about the next step of his life with the superbly detailed new single called 30.
Salvarez is a San Francisco Bay Area-based indie trap artist who swerves through the doubters and takes us for a ride to remember on each track.
With his new EP Otra Vez on the way, Salvarez hungrily extinguishes all haters with a comprehensive rap display. This is the kind of track to play loud when extra motivation is needed, to move on from a stagnate state of affairs.
30from San Francisco Bay Area-based indie trap artist Salvarez is a lyrically astute single which will wake up anyone from a sleepy slumber. Drenched with a true insight into a relatable feeling which can consume many for too long, we find a hungry artist who is ready for anything.
Listen up to this new single on Spotify. View more on the IG.
Already an eclectic musician, Lil Yachty takes things in a new direction with his fifth album Let’s Start Here.
Putting all semblances of rap to the left, the album is heavily influenced by the sounds of artists like Tame Impala. “My new album is a non-rap album,” Yachty said in an early 2022 interview. “It’s alternative, it’s sick… It’s like a psychedelic alternative project. It’s different. It’s all live instrumentation.”
A 14-track offering, the album also contains features from Teezo Touchdown, Justine Skye, Daniel Caesar, and Fousheé. Also, “drive ME crazy!” should be a whole single, in my opinion; that song is a banger.
Stream Let’s Start Here. below.
Lil Yachty Releases Psychedelic Rock Album, ‘Let’s Start Here.’ was last modified: January 27th, 2023 by Meka
Last week, I had the enormous pleasure of catching up with the legendary Radiohead drummer Philip Selway. Beyond the percussive talents that brought him to prominence in the 1990s, Selway has long taken an interest in songwriting. Though many of us are used to seeing him perched behind the toms, Selway likes to use the guitar as his primary songwriting conduit.
In 2016, Radiohead released their exquisite ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool, which signified the band’s leap from ‘great’ to ‘legendary’. When inducting Radiohead into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, David Byrne, the former frontman of Talking Heads, described the album as “cinematic, sort of like a movie in your head, in my head anyway”.
Sadly, A Moon Shaped Pool was the last album we heard from the Oxford-born group, and after the 2018 touring campaign came to its conclusion, Radiohead began an indefinite hiatus. The members have since dispersed to work on respective solo endeavours, with Jonny Greenwood continuing to assert a cinematic presence with his breathtaking film scores. In 2020, he reunited with Thom Yorke to establish The Smile, a side project featuring Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.
In recent weeks, Selway has dropped mild hints at a potential Radiohead reunion. “We’re going to get together at the start of [2023],” he told Spin. “And I’m sure we’re going to start looking at other ideas for what comes next.” However, beyond this “get-together”, all is conjecture. Radiohead fans could simply be given a Hail To The Thief 20th-anniversary reissue and told to wait a couple more years.
Fortunately, if that were the case, we have The Smile’s astonishing debut album of last year to tide us over, and if you’ve already worn that record out, Selway has a little gift for us too. In October last year, the drummer released ‘Check For Signs of Life’, the first single to preview his forthcoming album, Strange Dance. This was followed up by a second single, ‘Picking Up Pieces’, just after New Year celebrations tapered off in January.
The full album arrives on February 24th via Bella Union, and if the singles are anything to go by, it’s going to be a cracker. Instead of twiddling our thumbs for a month in anticipation, we thought it was high time we became better acquainted with Selway.
As our video call began, Selway mentioned that he had been busy all morning rehearsing with his band for the upcoming tour of the UK and Europe in support of Strange Dance. Having agreed that the weather this winter has been utterly abysmal, even by British standards, we got down to the nitty-gritty, namely, discussing the forthcoming album and, of course, a few questions concerning Radiohead.
Philip Selway discusses Radiohead and new music:
Far Out: What made you want to start playing the drums?
Selway: “Going back a long time, when I was about two or three, my godmother bought me a little toy drum for Christmas, unbeknownst to my parents – they put it in with Santas goods, of course. And I found it at about two or three o’clock in the morning, and I woke up the house banging this drum. I very much shied or, you know, shuffled away from drums after that, but it stuck with me.”
But several years later, you would return to drumming with a real kit…
“I was a bit geeky about it; I would get all the drum manufacturer catalogues and that kind of thing and just sit there looking at drums all the time. When I really started getting into music, which would have been when I was about 12 – I guess that’s when I started buying records – the thing that really caught me was songwriting at that point. And so I started to try and learn the guitar and started trying to write stuff at the same time as drumming. So the package came all at the same time for me.”
Did you have any drumming icons in your youth?
“I guess the first one would have been Stewart Copeland of The Police. I’m still dazzled by what he’s done over the years. He just had that kind of complexity in there and this drive, a real energy to what he was doing. I got into music around that new-wave era, so just after punk. So it was very much drummers from that period, people like Dave Ruffy from The Ruts, Stephen Morris from Joy Division and New Order. That’s really what influenced me at the time.
“Clive Deamer in Radiohead! I’ve long loved his drumming. When we were looking to expand the drumming arsenal in the live stuff for Radiohead, we approached him and asked him if he would and [I remember] being completely made up when he agreed to do it.
“Glen Kochi from Wilco and Valentina Magaletti, who’s just done all the drumming for me on Strange Dance. I’m very lucky with the drummers I’ve got to work with!”
Can you pick out a particular song that influenced your early passion for the drums?
“Killing Joke, a song of theirs called ‘Follow the Leaders’ and the drumming on that – shamefully, I don’t know the name of the drummer in Killing Joke [Paul Ferguson] – but that was a big inspiration too, that song made me want to play the drums actually.”
What’s your favourite song to drum to from the Radiohead oeuvre?
“I love ‘Bodysnatchers’ [from In Rainbows]; that’s always an absolute joy to play because you can really let loose on that. ’15 Step’! That’s a good one to play [too].
“A song that we didn’t play for an absolute age was off of OK Computer, and it’s the song ‘Let Down’; I love playing that one. Whenever I hear that track, it’s kind of like a time tunnel for me; it takes me right back into actually recording it, and I can see it quite vividly when I hear that track, and I can feel what I was feeling at the time. And actually, when we play that live, that all comes back out again.”
(Credit: Press)
What songs from the new album, Strange Dance, are you most excited for your fans to hear?
“The two tracks that have gone out already, so ‘Check For Signs of Life’ and ‘Picking Up Pieces’, I was keen to share those. I think the title track itself as well, ‘Strange Dance’. That song has actually been around for me in one form or another for quite a while. It was written on guitar originally, and so the chords have been there for ten or about 15 years, but I just never knew what to do with it.
“You have all these disparate elements, you have orchestral elements in there, and you have incredible stuff on guitar from [Portishead’s] Adrian Utley, and I had Hannah Peel in there. They’re each very distinctive in their own right, but when they all knit together as well, it feels as though that one’s got a real life of its own. I love that one. It’s also probably the lowest register I’ve ever sung; maybe that was a Tom Waits thing as well, I don’t know.”
What artists influenced your work on Strange Dance?
“So I was really lucky with this one. The artists who influenced me, the musical voices that I wanted, were the musicians I wanted to work with as well. That’s why I approached them, so it’s Quinta, Adrian Utley, Hannah Peel, and then Laura Moody, who does all the string arrangements. They were all the elements I saw in the bigger soundscape of the music. So yeah, that doesn’t happen very often. Rarely, you have your dream team wish list, and they all say, ‘Yes.’”
What late legend would you work with if you could?
“I would love to have done some kind of drumming along with Charlie Watts, another one of my idols.
“I was very lucky to get to drum for Ringo Starr at one point as well, which was because I’d been doing an interview with him in New York, and he was doing a show that evening. He very kindly invited me to go along and drum for him on a couple of songs. That was just mind-blowing, sitting down behind Ringo’s kit and him out front doing his thing.
“It was one of those bizarre and wonderful twists and turns that life can take sometimes.”
Were you ever considered for the drumming role in The Smile?
“Not that I knew of. I think for all of us when we do stuff outside of Radiohead, we try and bring in those different voices because I think it brings up different elements of what you do as a musician. So I completely get why they wanted to work with Tom Skinner on this one; he is an amazing drummer. There’s a lovely dynamic between that trio, and so that was a really, really good call on their part.”
With regard to recent Radiohead reunion rumours, what would you like to put on the table at the meeting this year?
“Going into a Radiohead meeting, it’s probably best to go in with an open mind – that’s how I go in there with them. I would love for us to – if it works for everybody and we’re doing it for the right reasons – make music together again in one form or another. Beyond that, I can’t really say at the moment, but it’s a very important musical relationship to me and to all of us. I think, also, it’s been good taking some time for other projects as well.”
During the Kid A sessions, the emergence of drum machines posed an ostensible threat to the human drummer role. Did you manage to get involved creatively beyond your role as a drummer?
“It was interesting doing the Kid A – Amnesiac reissue [Kid A Mnesia, 2021] because we went back through the vaults again, listening to rehearsal recordings, and there’s so much stuff that you forget. But no, within Radiohead, my role is very much within the drumming, percussive side of things, which is a wonderful position to occupy. In terms of the overall take on stuff, we will all sit down and discuss it together, and we’ll pitch in with our ideas or comments on what’s happening.”
As a Radiohead fan, it seems that Thom Yorke writes all of the music before bringing it to the rest of the band, but in reality, is the writing often more of a collaborative effort?
“I think your perception of Thom as the principal songwriter… Yeah, that’s been at the heart of what we’ve done. Sometimes, what he does may not have changed a huge amount when it’s a finished product. But I think the character of the band is how the five of us fit, that interplay between us. I mean, we’ve all learned to play our instruments together, basically. So when it’s working at its best, it’s a very unified way of working. I think you’ve got distinctive voices in there, but each one just influences the other so much.”
Watch Philip Selway drum for Ringo Starr at New York City’s Beacon Theatre in 2017, and hear the latest single from Strange Dance, below.
Northampton-based UK indie band Sarpa Salpa have a massive new single called “She Never Lies”.
The super-catchy tune will surely get you on your feet; it’s pure bliss. I love how the chorus bursts with energy, synths and melodies.
Sarap Salpa comments: “‘She Never Lies’ was one of the first songs we wrote together as a band! We wrote it a long time ago back when we still rehearsed at Marcus (vocals) parents house! It’s become somewhat of a live fan favourite and it felt like the perfect time to revisit it in a studio setting. We’re so proud of how it turned and think it’s some of our best work to date!”.
I’ve selfishly been playing this song on repeat, so much so that this review is arriving late. Sorry, my bad!
By the way, you can get to connect with Sarpa Salpa on Instagram.
With frenetic synth sequencing that made us nostalgic for the soundscapes from Alan Vega, the pop singer-songwriter, Lindsey Sampson’s latest single, Sand, is an elemental triumph.
Oceanic momentum flows through progressive rising tides in the un-archetypally structured single that harnesses deep reverence for natural phenomena and articulately observes how nature often works to reflect introspective sensations.
Lindsey Sampson, who spends her time between Nashville and New England, marries the soul of country with a contemporary indie folk pop edge that is definitively hers. We can fully attest to her ability to appeal to the spirituality that lies within us all – regardless of whether we nurture that relationship or not.
Since her humble beginnings, the singer-songwriter has been nominated for the award of Best Female Performer at the New England Music Awards and received many other accolades along the way while performing solo and as part of her folk-rock band, Visiting Wine.
Sand will officially release on January 27th. Dig your toes in on SoundCloud.
The debut album from the Jamla/Roc Nation signee, Reuben Vincent has released Love Is War.
An 11-song offering, production is handled by 9th Wonder, Young Guru, The Soul Council, and Vincent himself. The project also features guest appearances from Rapsody, Reason, Domani, and Stacey Barthe.
“I worked on Love Is War for two years. Conceptually, Love Is War is an acknowledgment that as young black men, I feel like we aren’t taught, and given the tools of how to love properly. We don’t know how to love our people, our women, our brothers; and most importantly ourselves,” Reuben says. “When you don’t know how to love yourself you can’t love others the right way, Love Is War addresses that. These last two years I’ve learned a lot about myself, but I still have much to learn. My goal is to love myself properly, and that comes with exploration (internally and externally). That is why I titled the album, Love Is War, because it is a constant battle to get to that center in your life. We all battle ourselves to get to a place where we can both love and be loved.”
Stream Love & War below.
Roc Nation’s Reuben Vincent Releases Debut LP, ‘Love Is War’ was last modified: January 27th, 2023 by Meka
The Winnipeg New Music Festival takes flight Thursday evening, and this year some performances during the festival will be held in a new and unconventional place.
For more than 30 years the event, which invites Winnipeggers to re-imagine their perception of classical music, has been set in the Centennial Concert Hall. This year, two of the festival’s five concerts will be held at the recently opened new home of the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
“I happened to be driving past in the cab from the airport on my way into Winnipeg a couple of years ago,” said Haralabos (Harry) Stafylakis, the co-curator of the New Music Festival and composer-in-residence for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, which presents the event.
“I thought what a perfect opportunity to marry the arts and sciences and to celebrate human ingenuity from all the aspects in which we tackle it as a species.
“So we thought, why not?”
Two of the New Music Festival’s concerts will take place at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. ‘We’re creating a kind of concert hall within the space, so it’s going to be an intimate experience more than you would think,’ said festival co-curator Haralabos (Harry) Stafylakis. (Gary Solilak/CBC)
The aviation museum is not your typical concert hall. It is a large open space, cascaded with glass windows and filled with an archive of different planes.
Festival organizers had to find ways to address the issue of how sound will travel in the building by ensuring the acoustics are controlled, said Stafylakis.
“We’re creating a kind of concert hall within the space, so it’s going to be an intimate experience more than you would think,” he told host Marcy Markusa in a Thursday interview on CBC’s Information Radio.
Many people think of long-gone musicians when they think of classical music, but the New Music Festival is “not our grandma’s classical music,” Stafylakis said.
It attempts to challenge the audience’s understanding of the genre by adding contemporary sounds to the mix, he said.
That means that many of the musicians will be blending sounds from around the world, experimenting with style and even engaging with audio technology.
The festival, which began in 1992, launches this year’s edition on Thursday night at the Centennial Concert Hall with a free show aptly named Launchpad, which will give the audience a taste of what contemporary classical music sounds like, Stafylakis said.
The concert will feature the work of nine emerging Canadian composers and four different conductors.
Work from an array of musicians from around the world will also be spotlighted during the festival, which runs until Feb. 3.
On Saturday, a concert titled Ancestral Tales will feature music from composers exploring their cultural heritage, including Stafylakis, whose piece Piano Concerto No. 1: Mythos draws on the traditions of storytelling and myth-making from his own Greek culture.
The idea of the past informing the present and future is a major theme for the festival this year, he explained, with “the sense of looking forward to the future, of course, but also looking retrospectively at the past and connecting to our roots in a variety of ways.”
In keeping with this theme, the festival’s founder Bramwell Tovey — a former Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra music director who died last year — will also be honoured.
The focus on new sounds, and the experimental nature of the festival, may not be everyone’s cup of tea, Stafylakis acknowledges — but that’s OK.
It’s meant to be a space where people can feel free to explore and question their relationship with sound, he said.
“When you go to a contemporary art gallery, the expectation is not that every piece is going to be something that you view as a masterpiece, that you totally emote with,” he said.
“Everything is valid: curiosity, awe, discomfort, confusion. All of these are cool and part of the human experience with the arts that we really encourage on the new music side of things.”
New Zealand pop duo Foley (Ash Wallace and Gabriel Everett) shared a new single named “Nothing” last Friday. We added the song to our weekly playlist, New Release Friday.
“Nothing” is a bouncy yet emotional track. Significantly, it marks the first time Gabriel lays lead vocals on a Foley song.
The band says, “This song is really vulnerable and full of heart-speaking on a relationship that is one sided, which you can’t fight for any more alone. This story felt like the perfect moment for Gabe to debut his vocals and tell his story first hand.“
Follow Foley on Instagram so as receive to future updates regarding their upcoming debut album.
The title single from Skitz Wizards’ 2023 EP, Anger as a Weapon, is a vitriolic hardcore punk cut above the rest. There’s enough cathartic venom to make the reprehensible actions of our disaster capitalist overlords momentarily bearable.
With ample distortion in their arsenal, the Nottingham-based outfit, which says true to the virtue of early anarcho-punk, is abrasive enough to put Napalm Death in the same league as Ed Sheeran.
Founded in 2021, the duo set out to extend sonic escapism to the downtrodden. Given the socio-politically agitated environment we are all suffocating in as poverty becomes more prolific, it should come as no surprise that plenty of the increasingly disenfranchised populous is tuning into the raw distorted bass and breakdowns that can effortlessly match our own mental turmoil.
Anger as a Weapon is now available to stream on Spotify.
Previously linking with Jay Rock on “Pressure,” Phoenix-reared rapper Richie Evans teams with Rick Ross on his single “Can’t Knock The Hustle.”
The track is taken from his recent release, Highly Favored. “I’m excited for this first release under my own imprint The Evans Administration,” says Evans. “I’ve learned so much working closely with entrepreneurs like The Game and Rick Ross. One of the most meaningful songs on the project is ‘Can’t Knock The Hustle.’ While recording that song I felt a connection to Jay-Z back when he was hustling and building his own brand and legacy by any means necessary. I want that American Dream and am inspired by the hard work ethic, strong character and hustlers mentality.”
Rick Ross Joins Richie Evans On “Can’t Knock The Hustle” Single was last modified: January 24th, 2023 by Meka
