Moonchild Sanelly interview

Moonchild Sanelly has picked the perfect moment to grace the world with her good vibes. With external misery continuing to closeaa in, her debut international offering, the ‘Nüdes’ EP (released last month via Transgressive), offers the perfect escape – its jubilant ac brimming with body positivity, sex positivity and a determination to let nothing stand in the way of a good time.

The Johannesburg-based singer and rapper established herself on home turf some time ago, where she’s been hailed as the ‘Queen of Gqom’ – the style of minimal house that arose in South Africa during the 2010s. After immersing herself in the Durban poetry scene of the late 2000s (“Give me a word and I can tell you a story,” she says), Sanelly branched off into making her own music because she “wanted something more exciting, something that wasn’t already being done”.

Continue reading at DIY.

On The Rise: Sinead O’Brien

From studying fashion design and working for John Galliano in Paris, to having her original poetry published in the esteemed London Magazine, her creative instincts translate far beyond the confines of any one medium. However, it is her debut EP Drowning in Blessings that presents the most impactful realisation of Sinead O’Brien‘s work so far.

Over fiery post-punk backing, O’Brien’s spoke-sung vocals and densely evocative lyrical imagery across the EP’s four tracks single her out as one of the most direct and thoughtful emerging musical artists of the moment; O’Brien has, in other words, found her calling.

Continue reading at The Line of Best Fit.

How Whole New Mess, lockdown and the U.S. election helped Angel Olsen reflect on herself

Last October, Angel Olsen released her most orchestrated and highly produced album to date, All Mirrors. Only upon repeated listens did the album’s inner truths seep out. Beneath the seeming detachment of Olsen’s archly chilly vocals and luscious string arrangements lay hidden tales borne from the turmoil of a difficult breakup. Indeed, the contradiction between a set of lyrics detailing achingly real sentiments and the icy sheen of the record’s aesthetic was paramount to the album’s mysterious spell.

That central riddle has to some extent been answered with the release of her new record, Whole New Mess. It is comprised of nine of the songs from All Mirrors plus two that did not make the cut, but this time in the form that Olsen first recorded them nearly two years ago, during the period when their emotional pain was very much a live presence in her consciousness. Olsen’s voice croaks with anguish and her guitar is presented raw and unadorned. In many cases, the very sentiment of the songs seems diametrically opposed to that of their All Mirrors counterparts. Olsen spent an intense ten days secluded in a remote studio in Anacortes, Washington, with her friend and producer Michael Harris, capturing the innate pain that first brought the songs into existence.

Continue reading at Loud & Quiet.

Yard Act: Brutally hilarious No Wave-tinged bangers embracing political divides

You definitely know somebody like Graeme, the smug, never-been-wrong, university-of-life type that is the lead character of ‘Fixer Upper’, the breakout single from Leeds band Yard Act. Graeme lives in a world of “Prosecco O’Clock posters”, boasts of being a “two home owner” and thinks that “pointless media degrees” are where the new generation went wrong. Yeah, that guy.

He is a composite character from the streets of Yard Act singer James Smith’s council estate childhood in Leeds, albeit infused with the nuance-free certitude that has done so much damage to modern political discourse.

Continue reading at NME.

Billy Nomates: “In a world of Yes Men, I’ll be a No Woman, thanks”

It was during the summer of 2019 that Tor Maries had her revelation that would later become the manifesto of her debut single as Billy Nomates, and it can be summarised in two short letters: No.

“‘No’ was a word that I didn’t learn to use until a year ago. By not using it, I didn’t really have a lifestyle that I liked,” she tells NME over Zoom. “From the minute I started saying ‘no’ to stuff, doors started opening. It sounds really negative, but to me it was a really positive find. ‘No, I don’t want to do that’: there’s a power to it. If you learn to say ‘no’, it gets somebody’s attention. In a world of yes men, I’ll be a no woman, thanks.”

Continue reading at NME.

Richard Dawson’s new state-of-the-nation album refuses to sugar-coat a broken society

Richard Dawson believes in the power of song. “The song is magical,” he says. “I mean real magic. It can affect things, at its best. That’s what a song is capable of.” The words come softly from his mouth, gently spoken, humble and understated. Dawson is all of these things, although if it were up to him, you would never know that he himself is one of the most empathetic and incisive songwriters of his generation.

“I don’t mean to suggest that any of these songs necessarily do that,” he continues, referring to the ten tracks that make up his astonishing new album, 2020. “Although it’s got to be the aim. I feel like maybe the aim with a lot of songs you hear is not to change things, but to sell things.”

Continue reading at Loud & Quiet.

Do Nothing – The results are in, and it looks like everyone gets a big old slice of nothing

Chris Bailey has figured out how to be himself. The frontman of Nottingham band Do Nothing, who are set to release their debut EP early in 2020, might have taken the long route to arrive at this point, but the British guitar music firmament had better steel itself for his impact.

“In the past I’ve tried to be something else, I’ve always tried to emulate something that I like,” he tells me. “But there came a certain point when I just started doing exactly what is me. We used to play quite complex music, but I just wanted to do something a bit more minimalist, that just had the ingredients that it needed and left a bit of space. And then later on you can add some fucking bells and flowers and shit when you’ve run out of simple things to do.”

Continue reading at Loud & Quiet.

Up N Down: Talking Pop’s Future And Indie Softboys With Izzy Camina

The early weeks of 2020 have been highlighted by a brace of light-hearted, club-ready DIY singles from a relatively unknown Los Angeles-based singer and producer.

Izzy Camina, a New Jersey native, is set to include the infectious, slinky ‘Up N Down’ and ‘Kill Your Local Indie Softboy’ on her forthcoming debut EP ‘Nihilist In The Club’, released on March 27th. It gives us our first real glimpse of Camina’s homespun beats and ear for a four-to-the-floor banger, which combine naturally with her innate instinct for the subversive and unexpected.

Ahead of its release, we spoke with Izzy about her background, what she learned from living in London and exactly what an indie softboy really is.

Continue reading at Clash Music.

Maxine Peake – A long talk with the British actor about becoming Nico

The seventh edition of the biennial Manchester International Festival begins on 4 July and runs for eighteen days, taking in newly commissioned work from artists ranging from Yoko Ono to David Lynch, Philip Glass to Skepta. One of the most eye-catching new pieces is ‘The Nico Project’; a theatrical re-telling of Nico’s 1968 masterpiece The Marble Index, written by playwright EV Crowe, directed by former Royal Exchange artistic director Sarah Frankcom and starring Maxine Peake; just three members of an all-female creative team. It marks the latest in a series of collaborations between Peake and the MIF and I took the opportunity to speak to her about the project’s inception and how Nico’s story tells us something about what it means to be a female artist.

Continue reading at Loud & Quiet.

 

In Conversation: BC Camplight

Brian Christinzio, the man behind BC Camplight, could be forgiven for thinking that he is living under a curse. This March, with the release of his new album ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ just weeks away, the song that had been chosen as the album’s second single, ‘Cemetery Lifestyle’, suddenly found its subject matter uncomfortably close to home for a world coming to terms with the reality of Covid-19.

It was pulled from radio playlists, promotional work was dialled back, a carefully strategized album roll-out now thrown into disarray. Unfortunate but not uncommon, you might think, given the lengths to which so many artists have had to reorder their lives in recent weeks, but for Christinzio it’s becoming a familiar tale: Shortly After Takeoff is now his third straight album to see its release significantly undermined by circumstances beyond his control.

Continue reading at Clash Music.