Katmaz ever shifting deeply cut and groovy affair "On To The Next"

On To The Next by Brookly based artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Katmaz is an ever shifting, deeply cut and groovy affair anchored with proggy avant garde bass and drums and a bouncy jazz(ish) / meets chamber pop vocal performance all the while having an art rock edge. I mean when Katmaz builds in these transient Fender Rhodes-esque keys that sustain in such an artful way I even though of a more hipsterish Radiohead at those moments. I like the pause and sound around the open space. There is some very classic pop eruptions too in that kind of 70's chamber pop way and this musical stew just works. The beat jams and the rest is sweet and charming. It makes me want to move but then I can't dance worth a shit. 

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Robb Donker





PRESS STUFF

Katmaz is a Brooklyn based artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, and has worked with Grammy noms, SZA and Ro James. He is currently working with up and comer Moxie Raia. His brand of music is cinematic, art pop with a serious edge, and he’s ready to release several singles culminating in an EP by the end of the year.

Laveda's eerily beautiful track "Better Now" is spacey indeed

Fall into the heavenly muse of Laveda by way of the eerily beautiful track Better Now and you might feel like you are sleep walking. The bent sounds feel trance like bathed in a reverb wash that feels at once psychedelic and psychic. Post punk with touches of industrial sci-fi rock. Spacey indeed. 

Laveda has grown out of the bedroom project of Ali Genevich and Jake Brooks based out of Albany, New York. 

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Robb Donker






THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Dream Pop force Laveda awaken nostalgic moods in their sound, drawing heavily from 90s Shoegaze and Experimental Rock. Formed in the summer of 2017, the bedroom recording project between Ali Genevich and Jake Brooks has rapidly developed from simplistic Singer-Songwriter styles into full-fledged listening experience. Laveda's first release "Dream. Sleep." recorded out of Brooklyn and Albany has grabbed the attention of notable national and international blogs and press including Pitchfork Radio who premiered the track at their Mid-Winter Festival in February 2019. "Dream. Sleep." captures a high energy intensity that stirs feelings of excitement and anxiousness describing an alternate unknown reality.

"Gravel To Gold" by singer songwriter Ian McFarland moves at an out of breath pace

Ian McFarland is a singer songwriter currently based in Los Angeles (via New Hampshire) and his track Gravel To Gold moves at an out of breath pace, churning guitar around a restless beat that provides the wanderlust framework for McFarland's pop inspired vox. The lyrics wrap around it all stopping only a few times to breath. The track feels inspired and running up a hill to something or someone.

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Robb Donker





THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Ian McFarland is a singer-songwriter original from Portsmouth, New Hampshire but has been on an artistic journey that has taken him around the globe playing shows as far as Barcelona, Spain to where he currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Ian McFarland is known to perform the bulk of instruments on his releases as well as recording the sounds himself wherever he happens to be. Drawing inspiration from a wide variety of music influences the young Berklee College of Music graduate has stood weathered the trials and tribulations of being a musician in a capitalist environment with poise. Having been in and out of a handful of bands starting in high school and extending through college, McFarland, decided to go solo in an effort to have an end of the line on creative decisions surrounding his composition. In his spare time Ian McFarland enjoys travel, the outdoors, writing music reviews for his own company Its Not Records, and watching sports. Currently in the studio creating two songs released as singles a month he is planning a move to NYC in 2019 to expand his network of artists and entrepreneurs.

"The Many Moons of Love" feels sun drenched and bathed in good vibes by The Babe Rainbow

The Many Moons of Love is a tasty piece of slightly psychedelic folk pop with a strong 60's / 70's hippie drenched garden rockish vibe and, of course, this bit of loveliness is from an Aussie band  / outfit called The Babe Rainbow. The song shares the same kind of 60's / 70's tones as The Searchers, Donovan or The Turtles. It is a time / genre of music that feels like a nice hug on high.

The Babe Rainbow's upcoming LP "Today" drops August 30th on 30th Century Records.

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Robb Donker 

Seven Foot Frank is from Sweden but reimagines 1920's Americana. Hear "One of These Days (I'm Gonna Drink Myself to Death)"

Seven Foot Frank hails from Sweden but create original music from another era (or maybe parallel universe) that reimagines American music from the 1920's. The stately Seven Foot Frank is the moniker of Jonas Frank Jirhamn and his musical cohort is Lukas Lindberg as Cousin Luke and when you listen to the track One of These Days (I'm Gonna Drink Myself to Death) it sounds so purely authentic (minus the fuzzy scratched sound of wax acetates) that you believe it is nearly 100 years old. 

Press notes reveal that:

"This song is really inspired by the Jugbands of the 1920's and a long history of alcohol abuse in the family. It's a groovy number that tries to capture the groove of a jugband, but instead using a tuba"

I love it. 
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Robb Donker

Like garden rock on high, "Wicked" by Perfect Blue exists in within a beautiful dense drone of sounds

From the onset, the track Wicked by Perfect Blue, a six piece band based out of Chicago, Illinois feels incredibly beautiful. The droning bending sounds washed out but moving forward with a formidable steady beat and bass feels like garden rock on high. Elaine Davis' vocal performance and sort of hippie rock aesthetic anchors it emotionally in some sort of organic sweep as if the song could exist in some acoustic realm despite the obvious need for electricity. Amid the synthesizers and electric guitars, there is a lot going on here (deceptively so) that create this dense fog including acoustc and electric pianos, organ, trombone, synth bass, backing vox, slide guitar, percussion and saxophones. 

I couldn't help but think of Mazzy Star the first time I heard it but Perfect Blue's sound is more noise rockish (without the noise and rock) in the sense that the overall sound is one, with the vocals buried / blended into the mix. I would like them more upfront but I get what is happening here and it is trippy and beautiful.

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Robb Donker

The track "1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson" by Drew Danburry has a sweet embrace

The track 1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson (yes that is really the name) by singer-songwriter Drew Danburry is so stuffed with lovely sing-songy earworm melodies, embracing production touches and Danburry's friend folkish vocal performance. The rhythms, which at first feel saturated in guitar sounds, is also propelled by, not only the bass and drums, but cool and lush Fender Rhode-esque piano (really love it). Dig this song so much. 

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Robb Donker







THE FACTS AW WE KNOW THEM- PRESS NOTES:

Drew Danburry has toured and released records independently since 2003. He's released over 20 albums and 13 EPs (400+ songs people). From the year 2005 to 2010, he toured endlessly playing over 750 shows worldwide until he disintegrated inside of the tiniest of shells and almost lost himself forever.

He received attention from NPR, Stereogum, Daytrotter, Magnet Magazine, Said the Gramophone, Large Hearted Boy, Orange Alert, Heave Media, Pete Nema, The 405, Apes on Tape, The Music Ninja, TRT! (The Round Table) The Bomber Jacket, and even Design Mom.

He toured and played with many different bands such as Deer Tick, Neon Trees, Joshua James, Say Anything, Jake Bellows (of Neva Dinova), Bishop Allen, An Horse, Lenka, Math the Band, Miniature Tigers, Pomegranates, Wye Oak, Paleo, Harry and the Potters, Mount Eerie, The Robot Ate Me (Ryland Bouchard), Emperor X, Headlights, Desert Noises, LiluDallas, Jacob Smigel, Iji, Adam and Darcie, and TaughtMe as well as many others.

Sore Thumb's delicious indie rock blend of "Lemurians" from the "Sounds Good" Album

Lemurians by Sore Thumb instantly tugs at you with broad folk indie rockish guitars and whistling melodies. The aesthetic feels indie rockish with the same musical nucleic acid of 80's stalwarts like R.E.M and Miracle Legion and even the Lemonheads with tinges of the Pixies too. That time period has particular musical cues and nuances that while not easy to define are potent reminders of the musical landscape shifting from that hair metal aesthetic with party machismo to more varied elements of proto punk, art punk and big folk underpinnings with lyrics that questioned everything. Lemurians and much of the "Sounds Good" album has that aesthetic as well.

Lemurians is officially the second single off of the album and the chorus features Maddie Goett on backing vox. The textures and endearing lead vocal performance feels like a classic and the jammy rock guitarjust kills. Kudos guys.

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Robb Donker




THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM- PRESS NOTES:

The anticipated follow up album to Sore Thumb's debut; 'Sounds Good' features a more mature alternative sound, without losing the quirky fun that makes Sore Thumb special.

Inspired by 90's Grunge, 80's New Wave, and 2000's Punk, the band took their sunny Surf Rock sound and added a twist of all of their influences. From Bossa Nova bass lines in 'Lemurians', to Queen's ripping guitar solos in 'Cold Comfort', Elton John's dancy piano lines in 'The Way Things Work Around Here', to the Symphony backing the band in 'Coming of Age', Sounds Good promises to broaden the scope of Sore Thumb while still delivering for existing fans.

Eva B. Ross shares those crush induced desires on the beautifully chill "Subliminal"

Eva B. Ross is a Los Angeles born and based singer-songwriter and her track Subliminal co-produced with Grant Milliken is anything but. On the chill indie pop affair propelled by R & B and jazzy undertones and Ross's beautifully self aware vocal performance that glides into sweet falsettos, she lay's out those kind of crushy desires that you sometimes keep to yourself. Of the song she offers:

I wrote this song about the subliminal messaging that happens early in dating. When you have a crush on someone, and you listen to their playlists and hope they're trying to tell you something. It's a fun little thing, before anything becomes real- and everything is still possible...

Listening to Subliminal for the 9th time in a row now. Nice. Love Ross's voice and the guitar that makes me think of those breezy 70's pop songs.

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Robb Donker

Twin Ritual - passionate and artistically poised on the post punk dance rock of "Strangers"

Strangers by Twin Ritual is at once stripped down dance rock pushed through post punk filters but also feels perfectly full because each component doesn't do too much (or too little). It is a synergistic sound lead with the passionate and art poised vocals of Laura Levenhagen (vox, synth). The sonic guitar sounds by Nathan Leutzinger pushing interwoven notes more so than just chords along with the bass melodies by Anthony Ramirez creates a kind of proggy yet in someway retro backdrop. Very cool.


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Robb Donker




THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM- PRESS NOTES:

Twin Ritual is an Indie Rock band from San Diego, CA. They deliver upbeat drums, swirling synths, fuzzed-out bass, driving guitar hooks, and dreamy female vocals, the band’s members include Laura Levenhagen (vocals/synth), Anthony Ramirez (bass), Nathan Leutzinger (guitar). Twin Ritual’s debut EP was produced by Dave Trumfio, who is known for producing bands like OK Go, Jesus and the Mary Chain, Wilco, and Built to Spill.