News

EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: Dry Cleaning - 'New Long Leg'

12/4/2021

South London quartet Dry Cleaning have released their debut album, New Long Leg. Born from the combined creative talents of Nick Buxton, Tom Dowse, Lewis Maynard and Florence Shaw, it was produced by John Parish at Rockfield Studios. Following the universally acclaimed 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, the group’s first full-length album is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. Shaw extracts the most immense meaning from the most trivial things; she peppers the songs with a thousand tiny details, little witty asides about supermarkets, cupboards, beauty products and body parts add up to sonic landscapes that teem with the strange magic of ordinary life.

Of latest single Unsmart Lady, lyricist Shaw says, “’Fat podgy, no make-up’ – I was thinking about these things that are supposed to be a source of shame about your appearance and wanting to use them in a powerful way. Just trying to survive when you feel knackered and put-upon and shit about yourself, but you say, ‘I don’t care what I’m supposed to be.’”

Release: April 9, 2021, 4AD/Remote Control
Words: 4AD

EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: serpentwithfeet - 'DEACON'

5/4/2021

On DEACON, serpentwithfeet not only imagines, but explores a world wherein Black love is paramount. serpent describes the album as “a study rather than a story,” delving into Black, gay love and the tenderness present in the best companionships, romantic or otherwise.

Fully self-actualized and more devoted than ever to personal fulfilment, DEACON highlights serpent’s growth as a songwriter, embracing straightforward approaches to expression. The album came together after serpent relocated to Los Angeles, a city that provided a sense of tranquility, an aspect he pushed to capture in his new music. While crafting the album, serpent made the deliberate decision to exclude songs about heartbreak. This was a bold act for R&B, a genre quite literally shaped by the harsh realities the blues provide. Spending time with pop songwriters and observing how they traverse language encouraged serpent to take more risks lyrically, resulting in more purity. “I originally approached this project wanting to make something that felt very sensuous. Something a lot softer, a lot more gentle than my previous work.”

serpent proudly follows in the tradition of R&B artists whose gifts were helmed in the Black church. Born to religious parents, serpentwithfeet has detailed his experiences growing up in church and leaning into the sensibilities of gospel music. He approached DEACON with an undeniable passion and reverence for the genre. The album’s title takes its name from the Christian office, a figure who helps maintain order within the church and himself. While DEACON is not quite about being in that role, “I wanted to create something that felt calm and restrained. This was my way of tapping into the energy many deacons possess,” adds serpent.

The project overall only hosts three features, Sampha, Lil Silva, and Nao, reminding listeners that serpentwithfeet is an artist who can, and will, stand alone when it is called for. He has become wholly confident in his gift and messaging, which is to be expected when one gives vent to maturity. In his love for love though, he doesn’t lean into common tropes. Instead they work in tandem, providing his audience with a look into the soul of a man who articulates his passion in a warmer, gentler way.

Release: March 26, 2021, Secretly Canadian/Inertia
Words: Secretly Canadian

EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: Full Power Happy Hour - 'Full Power Happy Hour'

29/3/2021

Meanjin-Brisbane alt-country/indie-folk five-piece Full Power Happy Hour have joined forced with independent label Coolin' By Sound (Dumb Things, Tape/Off, Spiral Stairs) to release their eponymous debut album.

Full Power Happy Hour formed in late-2018 having met in and around the fertile Brisbane punk scene. The band was designed to give voice to singer-songwriter Alex Campbell's growing arsenal of tunes, inspired by the ‘60s folk singers with whom she’d been infatuated for years, such as Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, beautiful tracks requiring more space and restraint than vigour and volume.

The five-piece band that eventually coalesced - with Campbell (vocals/guitar) joined by Grace (guitar/vocals), Caroline (bass/vocals), Finn (tambourine/vocals) and Joe (drums) - organically helped to develop the thrilling and sparse new aesthetic, whereby Campbell’s compelling lyrics and beautiful vocal range was now backed by an outfit fusing the ramshackle gang bonhomie of The Pogues with the more modern indie rock sensibilities of The Clean, with results that are 100% Full Power Happy Hour!

Full Power Happy Hour have built a strong and loyal following with their buoyant and joyful live shows, and their debut release The Fun EP (2019) having already topped the 4ZZZ Top 20 chart.

Release: March 19th, 2021, Coolin' By Sound/Redeye
Words: Coolin' By Sound

EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: Jesswar - 'Tropixx' EP

22/3/2021

Jesswar, a proud Fijian rapper who currently creates on yugambeh/kombumerri land, has released her debut EP TROPIXX on Inertia Music / [PIAS] Recordings. Of the EP, Jesswar says, “I made something that was for myself and the phenomenal Black, Brown and Indigenous women in my life. They constantly teach me to stand tall and be as loud as I want and I look up to them.”

From fracturing traditional notions of power with Venom to a communal call-to-arms in Medusa, the TROPIXX EP is a true encapsulation of everything that Jesswar stands for. “Making this project wasn't pretty and perfect, it was dark, relentless and ambitious. Waking up every day watching how women of colour are constantly overlooked in the music industry really pissed me off.”

Jesswar goes on to say, “That is why it’s important for me to work with my community because I realised what I’m doing is bigger than just myself. There needs to be room for all of us and If I can share the wins maybe we won't be overlooked.”

Release: March 5, 2021, Inertia Music/[PIAS] Recordings
Words: Inertia

EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: Julian Teakle - 'New Hobart'

15/3/2021

After something resembling a 27 year ‘music career’, playing in such outfits as The Frustrations, Bad Luck Charms, Hobart Improv Collective and currently the Native Cats, Julian Teakle has finally gotten around to doing a solo album. New Hobart is a collection of 9 songs released digitally and on a limited run of cassettes by nipaluna/Hobart’s Rough Skies Records.

New Hobart was pieced together from various ideas in various houses around greater nipaluna/Hobart over a five year period. Songs that reflect a long love of the ideal of the Australian ‘striped sunlight sound’ with the effervescent sparkle of Flying Nun, or the UK’s C86 scene. Music about hating some aspects of the town you live in, while loving others. Punk inspired outpourings that hopefully piss off your neighbours (and some of your friends).

JT played or programmed everything with a little help from Lisa Rime (Bad Luck Charms, Philomath) who sang on some of the tunes. The songs were mixed and mastered by Sir Mikey Young, with album art by Brendan Boucher. The album is out on Rough Skies Records, the label JT started in 2009, and now runs with Claire Johnston (Slag Queens). Maybe there’s something inspiring that could be inserted here about 'coming full circle' or ‘journey’? Essentially, however, the label continues its remit to document Tasmanian music on its 27th release, even if it’s JT pushing his own flippin’ barrow.

December 2020 saw the first gig where these songs were performed live by JT and the Mean Thoughts, featuring Robert Fisher and Jordan Marson. A second album is being worked on. Keep On Keeping On.

Release: March 4, 2021, Rough Skies Records
Words: Rough Skies Records

EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: Mere Women - 'Romantic Notions'

8/3/2021

Enthralling Sydney post-punk four-piece Mere Women have unveiled their highly anticipated fourth album, Romantic Notions.

Pensive, profound and at once ostensibly urgent and unnerving, Romantic Notions captures the overwhelming intensity of obsessive love and control while sharing often-uncomfortable truths relating to women’s lived experiences; a ubiquitous theme throughout the Mere Women catalogue.

The album was written and rehearsed in a riverside cottage in Sydney and later recorded with Tim G Carr at One Flight Up studios in March, on the cusp of lockdown. The foreboding threat of lockdown left a peculiar feeling throughout the recording process, filling the air with a tremendous sense of uncertainty and giving the overall process an unusual edge.

Release: March 5th, 2021, Poison City Records
Words: Poison City

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