Latest News
Douga release debut album ‘The Silent Well’!
Douga release their debut LP, The Silent Well via Do Make Merge Records. You can buy it on Bandcamp and Amazon.
Free track 'Blue Is Nothing' premiered exclusively on Gigwise, and can be streamed and downloaded from the ABoF SoundCloud page.
You can also download their first free track, 'Kids Of Tomorrow', from SoundCloud.
Named after a childhood nickname given by his parents to founder, frontman, and former Plank! drummer Johnny Winbolt-Lewis, Douga have grown from wide-eyed, exploratory experimentalists to BBC 6music featured artists appearing on both Gideon Coe and Tom Robinson’s shows, and now they’ve created a record gripped with a gentle but firm sense of cohesion and clarity. With a studio line-up of Winbolt-Lewis (vocals/guitar/drums,) John Waddington (keyboards/bass) and guest violinist/guitarist DBH - plus additional guitar and engineering work from Raul Careno – the group have built The Silent Well on the foundations of Winbolt-Lewis’ love of kosmische music, through rhythmic repetition and psychedelic drones.
Some of the childhood wonder of Johnny’s initial fascination with music is contained in this release; in the past he’s likened the joy derived from creative expression to losing himself in his imagination as a child, while he recalls “playing with pots and pans and hitting my parents’ piano with a recorder and chipping the ivory keys” as a youngster. So it is on The Silent Well that his wide-eyed sense of the simple enjoyment of creating noise pervades, with sweetly-delivered pop hooks and melodies carefully included so as to pull songs away from their more deep-seated, eyebrow-furrowed backdrops.
Apart from the vocals, recorded at 80 Hertz studio with George Atkins, the bulk of the record was recorded at BlueSCI – a service and space set up in Trafford, Manchester, for people who suffer from psychological and emotional distress. Winbolt-Lewis volunteers there and as such many of the sensitivities of those he comes into contact with have indirectly rubbed off on the record’s own reflective, deeply thoughtful resonance.
Citing artists like Broadcast, Yo La Tengo and Grizzly Bear as influences due to their use of more leftfield textures set against orthodox melodies, there is something about Douga’s music that perfects a sound that can only be identified as their own, albeit inspired by disparate influences picked up along their journey.
So consume Douga’s music and make some time for it amongst frenetic reality – it’s the very least it deserves.
The Silent Well is released today via Do Make Merge Records. You can buy it on Bandcamp and Amazon.
Steve Strong releases debut album ‘Three Hands Tall’!
Steve Strong has released his debut album, Three Hands Tall, via Genepool. The album is available digitally and on vinyl.
You can stream and download album track 'Wide Open Spaces' for free on SoundCloud or via the embed below.
You can also download and stream 'Marta' from the ABoF SoundCloud page.
Steve was so dedicated to producing the perfect sound for his release that both the vinyl and MP3 versions of his album were mixed separately to ensure each format sounded the very best it could sound. Very few artists can boast having poured four years of their lives into their debut album, but Steve’s ability to completely immerse himself in the songwriting process has created something that is a reflection of those four years, an organic sonic catalogue of all the trials and tribulations faced by an individual recording his personal masterpiece. Recorded in in Plymouth’s dBs Studios with producer, and close friend, Jay Auborn, Three Hands Tall blends elements of Math-Rock with heavy influences from Four Tet and Squarepusher’s instrumental albums. Strong creates a captivating and genre-defying sound that fills the room, painting the air with sonic pictures.
With a new EP and a selection of live performances scheduled for Summer 2014, Steve Strong’s complex and experimental style is set to hypnotise the UK.
Three Hands Tall is released today via Genepool Records. You can buy it via iTunes and Amazon.
Introducing… Miss Kenichi
Berlin based musician and artist Katrin Hahner is Miss Kenichi. Her latest single, Who Are You, is the first single taken from forthcoming album The Trail. The single is released 30th June 2014 with the album out in October.
You can watch video for the track on Sinnbus' YouTube channel or via the embed below.
Katrin’s first two albums - Collision Time and Fox - were well received in Germany amongst fans and critics alike but The Trail is a huge leap forward for her as a performer, taking the music down a captivating and sometimes darker route, which can be heard on the almost hymnal Who Are You.
Who Are You has already been used in the multiple award winning film Free Fall by Stephan Lacant, which tells the story of a young man, who falls out of his manageable world when his life plan falls apart and then has to find his way through a lot of turbulence. It’s as if "Who Are You" was written especially for the film, as it’s the only song in the movie - being played in its full length during the closing credits - summarising the feel of the movie perfectly. To take the courage not to let yourself be distracted, follow your own truth, to come out. To grow.
Who Are You is released 30th June 2014 via Sinnbus
The/Das return with single ‘My Made Up Spook’!
Berlin based duo The/Das release single My Made Up Spook on 23rd June 2014. The single is taken from their captivating debut album Freezer, released on August 18th 2014 via Sinnbus.
The video for the track premiered yesterday on The Line Of Best Fit, but you can also watch it on Sinnbus' YouTube channel or via the embed below.
The video was filmed spontaneously in Mumbai by Fabian Fenk’s girlfriend - a vivid, dreamlike memory of their time together. There was no real plan, the pair wandered the streets filming the crazy haziness of the city.
My Made Up Spook quietly unravels from electronic beginnings, revealing the duo’s new direction as a band. The track straddles the line between intelligent pop and what they describe as ‘techno tenderness’. Imagine the razor-sharp polished sound Sohn created with his recent album Tremors but with a more organic, wistful edge.
The single is a departure from last year’s Speak Your Mind Speak EP, which gained praise from The 405, Clash, Artrocker, VICE’s Noisey and many more. With their latest album Freezer, The/Das prove they are one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the Berlin scene.
You can also watch the video for free track, 'Parallel Worlds', on Sinnbus' YouTube channel and download it from their SoundCloud page.
They first sprung to life in 2012 with their Fresh Water EP, released on Italy’s cutting edge dance label Life And Death. Collaborating with Life And Death’s Tale Of Us - one of the world’s hottest techno acts - they released two remixes for Me And My Drummer that caught the attention of the press and their peers all over Europe.
Duo Fabian Fenk and Anton K. Feist previously played together with Bodi Bill. As Bodi Bill, the band released four albums together and built a considerable fan base in their native Germany. In the UK, XFM, NME Radio and BBC 6Music picked them up with reviews and features coming from RCRDLBL, Notion, Shortlist Magazine and numerous websites and blogs. As The/Das, however, they've been creating noise online with The 405, Artrocker, Clash, Noisey and Notion praising their last EP Speak Your Mind Speak. They are no strangers to the live circuit either having played Melt, Eurosonic, Iceland Airwaves, Ekko Festival, to name but a few.
My Made Up Spook is only just a taster of what’s to come, out via Sinnbus on 23rd June 2014.
Steve Strong releases free track ‘Wide Open Spaces’!
Plymouth’s one man multi-instrumentalist, Steve Strong, is releasing free track 'Wide Open Spaces', taken from his forthcoming debut album Three Hands Tall. The album will be available on Vinyl and MP3 via Genepool Records on 19th May 2014.
You can stream and download 'Wide Open Spaces' on SoundCloud or via the embed below.
You can also download and stream 'Marta' from the ABoF SoundCloud page.
"When making 'Wide Open Spaces' (and the rest of Three Hands Tall) I wanted to push myself as a musician. Being a self-taught drummer for 11 years, I wanted to apply that same mindset to other instruments and approach them in a very rhythmic way.", said Steve discussing the track and album with Shout4Music. With myriad musical styles present in the song, you really do have to hear it in its entirety to fully appreciate it.
Very few artists can boast having poured four years of their lives into their debut album, but Steve’s dedication and ability to completely immerse himself in the songwriting process has created something that is a reflection of those four years, an organic sonic catalogue of all the trials and tribulations faced by an individual recording his personal masterpiece. Recorded in in Plymouth’s dBs Studios with producer, and close friend, Jay Auborn, Three Hands Tall blends elements of Math-Rock with heavy influences from Four Tet and Squarepusher’s instrumental albums. Strong creates a captivating and genre-defying sound that fills the room, painting the air with sonic pictures.
With a new EP and a selection of live performances scheduled for Summer 2014, Steve Strong’s complex and experimental style is set to hypnotise the UK.
Three Hands Tall is released on 19th May 2014 via Genepool Records.