Thanks Light- "I've Seen Hell" from the "Terrifire" Album

From the new "Terrifire" album- I've Seen Hell from Austin, Texas' Thanks Light speeds along with the pep and verve of a southern gospel choir overtaken by the spirit but thend these guys have seen Hell. I love the way the chorus falls into a more emotional sound and sway turning this more than just an upbeat alt folk song with that boot on the barn wood floor sound. Cool stuff and makes me want to delve deeper into their sound.
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Robb Donker

Brighton's Tilt- create a chaotic crescendo in "So It Goes"

The track So it Goes starts of with vocals only until a lone bass falls into place. I say falls into place because what follows is a cagey tone shifting emotional puzzle of Fender Rhodes-ish keys, guitars, bass, side winding drums and wailing vox.

Brighton (UK) based 3 piece rock outfit called Tilt are intent on making engaging music fueled by passion and an intensity that draws people into their emotional fray. They certainly succeeded on So It Goes which was recorded as one of three songs in only 2 days this past January on an Otari 24 track tape machine that "lives" in their soundproofed studio room. I cannot wait to hear the other two.
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Robb Donker

FAST FIVE: Death and the Maiden, Matador Mike, High Fantasy, Parker Moore and Tayrn

The track SNDIT by High Fantasy- is dreamy with hard and lush elements built on heavy synths and smooth vocals pushing through a static haze. This two piece collab out of the desert of Palm Springs, California are multi instrumentalist Ryan Jovian and bassist / vocalist Orlando Welsh.





From Death and the Maiden's second album "Wisteria" (released on April 27 in NZ and Austrailia and in the UK/ Europe and North America on May 11th) - the track Oooh Baby in the Chorus has a deep dreamy groove. Percussive sounds, staccato bass and circular guitar lines set the framework for evocative vocals.




Parker Moore former singer songwriter of the Bay Area's indie rock band Catholic Radio recently released his first solo album "Alterations & Repairs". The track Diving Bell moves like a post punk 90's fare but with it's dreamy guitars strikes other chords as well. I thought of War On Drugs and Ride.





Tayrn's beautiful and somber track Stones (featuring Dave Thomas Junior) lives somewhere between a love affair and the ending of it. At least that is what it feels like to me. What do you think?

Year Of The Kite- "Wild Blood, Wild Light" from the "With Sparks Flying" Album

Year Of The Kite from the areas of Abingdon, Oxford and Reading (England) just released their debut album entitled "With Sparks Flying". Their rehearsal space is a vintage church lending an austere and haunting filter to their already dreamy post rock sounds. The brushes they use to paint these sounds are traditional ones, piano, strings, guitars, clarinets and drums and the result feels classic dream rock to me. The natural acoustics of that church were key in defining their sound and bits of sounds they could not reproduce in the studio where recorded in that holy space and end up on the record

The track Wild Blood, Wild Light starts in such a beautifully way. While part of the sound feels so immediate and organic, the almost detached ambiance filled guitar sounds in the back feel like haunted memories. Truly dreamy stuff of Pink Floy-ian proportions. The vocal performance is somber and commanding. I so look forward to hearing the entire album out on Diversion Records.
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Robb Donker

"Monochromatic Fields" seeps in that part of your brain that holds memories- out of Denmark: ilt

ilt out of Copenhagen, Denmark are a post rock band that veer into foggy expansive dream works of sound. Their aesthetic when you think about it casts a wide net. As I look at people I know with all their diverse tastes from punk to indie rock to hip hop to rap and more I think what ilt does feels like sounds they would all get lost in. It is the nature of the sounds that take your mind away.

The track Monochromatic Fields seeps into that part of your brain that holds memories instantly. It eases in and then blows up with bigger rock touches and then rolls into pearly guitars and echoed vocals once again. When the evocative sax solo it is a surprise and, surprisingly a lovely one.
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Robb Donker

Garage Rock for Reptiles- (really) - UK's Chiba - "Reptile Room"

Chiba is a mystery. They reside in the London and the slithery track Reptile Room is inspired by Twin Peaks, John Carpenter 80's Horror VHS tapes. Awwww, that's why they sound like this.

Feels very proto punk / experimental / cinema punk to me and I like it. Oh and it is available on Cassette. C'mon people!
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Robb Donker

MAWD- in her "Dark Room" lays down powerful declarations

In Dark Room, Mawd (the moniker of California songwriter / musician Madeline Matthews) with a shifting stalking vocal performance lays down powerful declarations. The music almost feels like gospel infused rock with heavy piano downbeats, guitar power chords, and bottom heavy drums and bass. Within the sounds and especially her vocals there are post punk tones too filtered through blues rock nuances.

Of Dark Room (a song about how we can all feel isolation at times in our lives) Matthews says: "I felt like I was going crazy, sitting in my dark dingy dorm room struggling with the longing for a comforting feeling, trying to fit in, feeling like a stranger in my skin and discovering a new dark part of my mind".
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Robb Donker

New Body Electric's "Second LVR" from the "Interference" album

Second LVR (second lover) is off of New Body Electric's upcoming album release called "Interference".
It swoons with a lush wash of mid-temp sounds.
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Check it out.
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Robb Donker

Song Premiere: "Crown Of Holly" by Hectorina is Abstract Art Rock and More

40 seconds into the track Crown of Holly by Charlotte's (North Carolina) Hectorina amid pearly guitar picking, patterned drums, and fable-esque fever dream lyrics a surprising bass half note pops out at you. Shortly after, Dylan Gilbert waxes poetic about "a small swarm of bees, 3 or 4 helping each other, place a crown of holly on my head... on my head". As you follow this three piece art band down their rabbit hole the song ebbs and flows and eventually erupts into a cyclone of sounds. It is a beautifully trippy multi colored art piece.

Hectorina is Dylan Gilbert (guitar / main vocals), John Harrel III (drums) and Zachary Jordan (bass) and have been painting outside musical lines since 2012. While I may call what they do as art rock, their blend of music stirs in post rock, proto punk and progressive rock colors too (just to name a few).
Like in Crown of Holly their art rock can flow into the abstract and in 2015 the boys teamed up with local performers Caitlyn Swett (Triptych Collective), Mike Gentry (Mall Goth), Chris O'Neil (Shakespseare Carolina) and set designer Jon Prichard (Sinergismo) to turn their 2013 rock opera Collywobble into a theatrical production.

Crown of Holly is from Hectorina's 4th full length album "Muck" that drops June 1st of this year (2018) and is currently available as a digital and vinyl pre-order on their Bandcamp page (see below). Produced by Daniel Hodges at Fidelitorium it's trippy prose is about something. From the band: "Written during the 2016 election cycle, this album is inspired by the sound and attitudes of 90's post-rock, post punk and classic pop rock. Muck explores repetition, despondence and trying to find peace of mind in this murky modern America."
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Robb Donker

Melbourne's Bollard - shape shifting "En Bloc" from the "Trawlers" Album

Most songs move in straight lines but En Bloc by Melbourne, Australia's Bollard traverse maze like turns, moves in reverse and turns inside out. Jagged guitar that tightrope on dissonant lines amid proggy bass and drums while the vocal performance feels like proto punk spoken word. It is like the punk bravado of Gang Of Four with the unpredictability of Pere Ubu. En Bloc is from their recently released debut album "Trawlers" - a self described hybrid collection of post grunge meets free jazz.
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Robb Donker

Hiding Behind Sound - "One Last One" from her upcoming "Words Escape" album

The song One Last One has a lyric "so into the wound we poured the salt". It is a bittersweet song about the emotional distance that can exist between the intimacy of a relationship. There are other passages of words that feel so utterly real written by veteran New York drummer Sammi Niss amid indie rock sounds percolating on drum beats. Her moniker is Hiding Behind Sound and her debut album drop May 14th. Entitled "Words Escape" it was written and recorded before, during and after her treatment for stage IV non-Hodgkins lymphoma in the spring of 2015.
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES:
Hiding Behind Sound is the psychologically accurate songwriting and recording alias of the veteran New York drummer Sammi Niss, a fixture on the Hudson valley music scene and a founding member of the bands Battle Ave., American Film History, and Frankie and His Fingers. Sammi has toured and recorded with Laura Stevenson, Matt Pond PA, Pelican Movement, and many others. 

Co-produced with Kevin McMahon (Titus Andronicus, Real Estate, Widowspeak), 'Words Escape' was performed almost entirely by Sammi. The hurt cool of the songwriting and the unvarnished vocals suggest the influence of Jeff Tweedy and the Velvet Underground; the lavish guitar arrangements and tidal dynamics belong more to the tradition of Radiohead and post-rock. She just calls it “space twang.”

The People The Poet- stories of life - "Kids On The Corner"

UK's The People The Poet move minds and hearts with the stories contained in their songs. When you listen to Kids On The Corner from their latest album "A Short Obsession With Time" you feel the weight of youth in tough streets in an epic way. Like life the song feels sad, gritty but has rays of hope shining through.

The album speaks about the rebellious side of being a kid and the struggles of growing up and about how time marches on and how we all must deal with this progression.

The bands says of the album: "One day you’re counting down the new year on New Year’s Eve, then you’re counting down the months and days until you’re first child. You count on your parents, family and friends until one day some of them are gone and you find yourself counting the days and years since they left. The album comes to the conclusion that in seizing the moment each day, all will be good in the end."
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES:
The People The Poet (South Wales, UK) self-released their critically acclaimed debut concept album "The Narrator", inspired by real life stories sent into the band by their fans in 2013. The Narrator was produced by Todd Campbell, Gil Norton (on the tracks Sing & Molly

Drove Me Away) and Pete Miles (On the track Not For Now). Successful tours with Straight Lines and Deaf Havana followed in 2014 which also included Summer festival appearances at Latitude

Festival (handpicked by BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens), Hay Festival and Swn Festival. 2014 also saw the band get picked to become one of twelve artists to join the BBC Horizons 12 music scheme. The Narrator was nominated for the Welsh Music Prize and the year finished off with live sessions at BBC Maida Vale Studios.

The Pretty and the Chaos of "Build" by "Science for Giants"

Science For Giants is a two piece rock outfit out of Garland, Texas. The track Build from their art rock eclectic "Food For Hands" has Pink Floydian / Beatle-esque prettiness and Pere Ubu chaos all pushed through a kind of proggy jazz punk filter. Cool stuff like a complex dream that you wake up from saying wtf?
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Robb Donker

NOTE: "Food For Hands" is performed by Jacob Price, Mason Hartung and Ryan Dahir.

FAST FIVE: Jeremy and the Harlequins, Galapaghost, Electrockrat, Darth Nater, Sheeps

New York rockers Jeremy and the Harlequins latest single California Rock bristles with retro rock tones paying homage to Chuck Berry, Little Richard and early Beach Boys. Jeremy Fury says "The song is about my favorite time capsule, Los Angeles. Contrary to New York where a bank or cupcake shop will have replaced a mom and pop shop by the time you finish listening to this track, one thing I've come to love about LA is its Groundhog's Day-like permanence. Prior to moving to New York, I lived in Echo Park and then Downtown LA for almost three years. This tune is reflective tale.” 





Galapaghost is the solo project of Casey Chandler from Woodstock, New York and the track The American Dream (One Nightmare at a Time) speaks about becoming disillusioned with America after having lived abroad in Europe for two years. The track is off his latest album entitled "Pulse" which was recorded, mixed totally self produced with a friend of his in Italy last summer in just 15 days. Remarkable.

Blacktop Queen - first single "Desert" from upcoming EP

Los Angeles indie rock outfit Blacktop Queen is drummer Nate Lotz (Halsey and Ryan Adams) and vocalist Evan Ambrose.  A fixture in the local LA scene and selling out iconic venues the pair set off to produce an EP. The track Desert is their first new single from the ashes of the creative process.

"We basically recorded an entire EP, and made a trip to Joshua Tree with hopes of finishing it," says drummer Nate Lotz. "It was during that trip that we realized we hadn't made the music that was a true representation of us. We scrapped the entire EP and wrote a song about losing your soul. Blacktop Queen found its soul in the DESERT."
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Robb Donker

Blaire's shoe gazey sounds pushed through punk filters on "Smiling"

From Australia's Gold Coast, Blaire creates shoe gazey sounds pushed through a punk filter. The track Smiling is overflowing with the exuberance and folly of youth when you hold hands and jump off cliffs together not know if the waters below hold danger or not.

"'Smiling is about being really into something, when you know deep down it's probably killing you," says Blaire's lead guitarist and vocalist, Ben Stagg.
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Robb Donker

Yvette Nacer- "Who We Were Before" pristine through a sad haziness

Yvette Nacer's Who We Were Before with it's pure sound feels like pristine 60's pop. The musical and emotional cues are subtle and real. Nothing is overplayed or over dramatic but instead just simply beautiful filtered through a sad haziness. Penned by Yvette and Gustavo Galindo.

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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES: 

Cuban-American artist Yvette Nacer has been immersed in a musically diverse world that established her early on as a rare kind of singer/musician that is comfortable in a multitude of genres. Armed with a versatile voice, a unique lyrical perspective, and a raw, unfettered talent that weaves itself effortlessly into her, songs, Yvette Nacer has performed alongside some of the industry's biggest names including Jason Mraz, Ne-Yo, Weclef Jean, Gloria Estefan, Engelbert Humperdink, All-4-One and Justin Bieber among others.

Although her songs have been heard on a variety of films and TV shows, Siruis XM and various features, Yvette Nacer's talent is not just limited to music. The multifaceted artist is also an award winning actress, having landed such coveted roles as Cha Cha in Fox's star-studded cast of Grease: Live, Vanessa in the 1st National Broadway tour of In The Heights, and Kiki in the beloved Emmy Award-Winning TV series The Fresh Beat Band, to name a few.

Sleepy Gaucho and the runaway "Sleepless" from the album "Another Time"

Experimental folk rock out of Madison, Wisconsin. Now that doesn't sound weird to me at all. Wherever it emanates from Sleepy Gaucho, the moniker / project of singer songwriter Andy Goitia speaks to me. The track Sleepless (from his album "Another Time") bristles with a sound that feels a bit like late 70's Laurel Canyon garden / psyche rock. The organ drone and what sounds like a jamming Fender Rhodes and walking bass providing the runaway bottomless groove that speaks of late nights in cool, maybe decadent bars and night spots in equally cool and decadent cities.
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Robb Donker

Numb.er - track "A Memory Stained" from the "Goodbye" album

Numb.er is the band / project of L.A. photog and visual artist Jeff Fribourg. When I first listened to the track A Memory Stained there is a thick synth and bass prog that made me think of the Cars but Numb.er veers darker. Plush droning synths and high on the neck bass notes dropping dangerously low with filtered vocals make me feel a homage to 80's synth rock stalwarts like Gary Numan, Cabaret Voltaire, and Killing Joke all blended together (whether it is there or not).  Influences aside, it is evocative stuff that creates a dark brooding aesthetic. Love this stuff. The new album "Goodbye" drops on May 25th. Cool.
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES:

Fribourg developed his love affair with synthesizers -- and his open-minded approach to music -- as a founding member of LA psych-kraut favorites Froth. However, it was only with the creation of Numb.er that he was able to fully explore his eclectic musical inclinations. Combining elements of punk, shoegaze and post-punk, the project never commits to a singular worldview, allowing Fribourg’s vision to go anywhere without sounding ironic or forced.

With the release of Goodbye, Numb.er offers a genre-defying sonic document that finds them maximizing the creative potential of the studio while always remaining true to their dynamic and arresting live sound. Mixed and mastered by Mikey Young of Total Control, Numb.er takes a carefully orchestrated approach to chaos and adds Fribourg’s own subtle knack for memorable hooks and soft, melodic passages.

Family And Friends- Jubilant Sound- "Peaches"

Peaches by Family and Friends is full of dense sounds and all inclusive emotions dripping from every sonic element. The sound on this track is jammy and big riding on tom toms, pearly potent guitar lines and rushed waves of vocals. The aesthetic is part indie rock and part alt folk. I can feel intentional or unintentional bows to bands like Of Monsters and Men but also a nod to bands like Japandroids in the sense that this band has a furious passion. Hmmm, maybe Japandroids as a Gospel band (I'm kidding).
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES: 

Hailing from the musical mecca of Athens, Georgia and built on the idea that the sum is greater than the individual parts, Family And Friends has steadily gained a loyal following with their spirited live performances and “good music, good people” mantra since releasing their 2015 EP XOXO. Their new highly anticipated album Felix Culpa, produced by Chicago-turned- L.A. auteur Brad Wood and due out June 8th, is nothing less than an epic coming-of-age tale with a massive sound that amplifies their former indie-folk roots onto a technicolor, Cinemascope screen.

The forthcoming album title, which loosely translates to “blessed mistake," illustrates the notion that while we may continue to search for some semblance of meaning, the fact that we are here at all deserves to be celebrated, and Family And Friends intends to do just that. Felix Culpa focuses on a precipice of life’s journey, as we begin the quest for existential meaning and come to terms with the fact that people, relationships, and seemingly universal truths are more complicated than we perhaps realize. 

Out of Dublin- Motions' "Waiting To Tell You"

Waiting to Tell You by Motions has chill spartan moments but big lush sounds with walls of transient guitars too (love the guitar sound). I am feeling a post rock late 80's new romantic / new wave dance things happening too. Out of Dublin and formed by Tom Daly and Dave Nulty, Motions has recently released their debut EP "The Late Night Calls".
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES:
Following a string of singles from their debut “Back To Where I Begun” to “All I’ve Ever Known,” which earned global airplay in the U.S, Ireland, Germany & Australia, the band have recently released their debut EP 'Late Night Calls'. “The Late Night Calls EP” was produced and mixed by Philip Magee. They headline the Workmans Club on Friday April 27th.

Neon Cactus- "Beauty and Self Destruction" from "Beneath the Noise"

Neon Cactus is the alter ego / project of singer songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Tom Bruss. When I listen to the track Beauty and Self Destruction from his soon to be released "Beneath the Noise" album with it's syncopated guitar rhythms and pop drenched chorus filtered through funk undertones I thought of new wavish pop 80's sounds of bands like Simple Minds and later Tears For Fears.

Bruss wrote and recorded the debut album over a two year span in Bristol.
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Robb Donker

Portolo - "I Don't Want To Lose You" from the "Awards" EP dropping April 27

Portolo is the alter ego / project of Erin Roberts.  Her track "I Don't Want To Lose You" feels like an inviting piece of apple pie in a cool diner in the wooded North West.  She has wanderlust in her heart canvassing the areas of Denver, Gunnison, Eugene and Fort Collins drawing inspiration from her locales and those she meets along the way.
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Robb Donker


PRESS NOTES:

Porlolo releases Awards EP on April 27, produced and engineered by James Barone (Beach House). Players include Tom Mohr, Anna Morsett (The Still Tide, Brent Cowles), Jake Miller (Esmé Patterson, The Still Tide, Brent Cowles), James Barone (Beach House), and Pat Meese (Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats).

Rainbrother's "Rio Rita" will transport you

Rio Rita by Denmark based Rainbrother has such a lush sound hinged on a vocal performance embracing a harmony done in such a way that the two voices feel like one wrapped up by dreamy sounds and potent yet totally trippy lead guitar work. Love this track.
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES:

After an eventful 2017 Denmark-based Rainbrother is ready with new material made in cooperation with Danger Mouse’s right hand Kennie Takahashi. Following a sold out Denmark tour with Nelson Can a new single ’Rio Rita’ is now released.

Last year Rainbrother released the critically acclaimed debut album Tales From the Drought which gave the group a lot of Danish radio airplay and a ticket to SXSW Festival, SPOT Festival, English festivals like Wilderness and Bestival along with frequent touring in their native Denmark and the UK. The five rainbrothers also found time to drive their equipment out to an old farmhouse in the Danish countryside where they isolated themselves for two weeks and recorded a number of frontman Bjarke Bendtsen’s new songs.

The group now releases ’Rio Rita’ from last summer's session, a dark slow-grooving song that takes the listener down a quiet but unpredictable river. Or as lead-singer Bjarke puts it: "It is the kind of song you would like to dissappear in, when your heart is too full of love to understand anything and you just want to lie down on a foggy river bank and watch the leaves grow backwards." Just like the other songs from last summer’s session ‘Rio Rita‘ has been through the mixing console of L.A. producer Kennie Takahashi who has worked with the likes of Beck, Black Keys and Danger Mouse.

Power Outage does not deter the First Ever- American Pancake Song Analysis of "Vessels" by And Then We Lived Forever

Often times I can be found at my kitchen table with ear buds on and a big smile on my face as I let a particularly creative piece of music wrap around my brain and flow down to my heart. At these moments I want to share the feeling and sometimes there might not be like minded people around. Art, after all is such a personal thing. Tastes vary and while one person might find something so damn delicious it may give someone else what tantamounts to food poisoning. So I thought I might try my hand as posting a song analysis of a song I recently covered on American Pancake.  I don't consider this type of thing really a straight song review and in order for it to work it is important for me to do something that I usually don't like to do.  It is dependent on me talking over a song.

This very first attempt was a bit hampered by my less than smooth delivery (Anthony Fantano I am not) and a power outage. I hope you find it interesting and I hope you follow the links to the song and an amazing artist. If you want to hear more of these, let me know and if you want to spread the word I would so appreciate if you share the video.

Cheers
Robb Donker

Elliah Heifetz - "You Shall Be A Blessing" full of tears and truth

When I listen to Elliah Heifetz's tender (yet heart wrenching) You Shall Be A Blessing it feels particular relevant to me right now at this moment. It feels to me to be about letting someone go but hoping they keep in touch even in small ways and letting them know that if they need help or love or anything that they can come back at any time. In the next several weeks I will probably come back to this song many times and the last guitar strum will end with me looking in the distance with watery eyes.
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES: 

Following up the grassroots success of debut single "Simona" (20k+ streams in its first month), Elliah Heifetz offers the plainspoken yet poetic "You Shall Be a Blessing." Calloused and acoustic, Heifetz shines light on a rarely-covered moment in break up song—coming to terms with it all. The title comes from the Old Testament, when God tells Abraham to uproot his family and leave his old world behind, assuring him: "You shall be a blessing." Recorded at the Silent Barn shortly before closing.

 Elliah Heifetz​ ​is a first-generation American folk rock singer with a story to tell.​ Born to Soviet refugees living on food stamps, Heifetz learned to channel his experiences through poetry and music, studying literature at Yale. He soon began writing music for New York stages and major label pop projects, winning international awards and working with Hollywood and Broadway talent. Now, with the upcoming release of the ​Heaven On My Mind​ EP, he's finally singing for himself—writing music that only a Jewish child of immigrants with a weather-worn voice and a mysterious passion for folk music could sing. Because what's more American than that?

The Funky Delicious Power of Young Jack- "Move"

When I first heard / felt the funky-delicious groove of Move by UK's Young Jack I silently prayed that Taylor Swift would never do a version of it.... never ever.  Move is on fire from the very beginning. A sonic eruption of bass, guitar, horns.... yes bloody horns and Luke Bowe's commanding vocals. My only complaint is that the track ends much too soon. I wanted more horns and jams.
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Robb Donker


PRESS NOTES: Born out of a collective of musicians & creatives from Kingston-Upon-Hull, UK.

Young Jack are Luke Bowe (lead vocals/guitar), Danny Higgins (guitar/vocals), Ben Morrod (Bass) & Jack Allbones (Drums) along with The Horny Brass (aka Paolo Nutini’s Horns of Thunder). Born of Irish & America roots, Luke & Danny grew up together making music in Danny’s room, with a huge canvas of Bob Marley looking over them & getting inspired by a wide range of artists from Funkadelic & The Brothers Johnson to Carole King & Kraftwork. At 14 they bought fake IDs & soon found themselves getting down to Prince in the mosh-pit when he played Leeds. Enter Warren Records’ Stew Baxter (also the drummer in Life) & things start to take shape with Young Jack rehearsing at the back of legendary Hull venue The Adelphi. Meanwhile, local graffiti pioneer Pinkie, who back in the day was interviewed by indie soothsayer John Peel no less, was creating Young Jack’s visual representation with his vibrant imagery.

Skin Mag - coastal breezes and shedding creative skin in the shed - hear "Tonight Show"

Long Beach, California has produced a lot of great bands and Skin Mag is no exception. Rumor has it that this 5 piece band write and record all their music in a shed. Hey, it could be a luxury shed but I don't know any of the intimate details. The band formed in 2016 by singer / guitarist Shane Barton, bassist Davis Stewart, multi instrumentalists Noah Kurtz and Jack Nugent and drummer Devin Stewart. The track Tonight Show, a dreamy indie pop song with fluid lines of sound with cool downbeats. The dynamism feels blended and tightly compressed. There is a sweet wow factor and an intoxicated high to the sound. Maybe it is the coastal breeze that induces this transient vibe when they are not in the shed.
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Robb Donker

Take a jammy vacation on "This Way" by Water Slice

This Way by Water Slice (Patrick Phillips formerly of Brainstorm) is a jammy psyche pop tune with deep grooves. Phillips writes these tropical dream songs in Los Angeles and I don't know if they serve as visionary vacations of the mind or just fortify the chill coolness that still exists in So Cal.
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Robb Donker

Recorded at Frog Sound by Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen
Mixed by Ingmar Carlson
Mastered by Dale Becker
Patrick Phillips - Guitar, Bass, Keys, Vocals
Teddy Briggs - Drums, Vocals
Chris Lynch - Vocals
Adam Rasmussen - Keys
Dusty Ineman - Congas
Music and Lyrics by Patrick Phillips

Darwin Champagne and Brady Miller and "Slow Motion" from the "Lover Boy" EP

Darwin Champagne and Brady Miller share Slow Motion the lead single off their new EP "Lover Boy".  The alternative track blends post rock, funk, synth pop into a lush sultry mix. The vocals feel inward, self aware and a bit sad. I love the aesthetic and the surprising lead guitar work.

Of the track Darwin says:

Written and recorded at Red Light Studios, Brady and I had known each other vaguely in passing through mutual friends. When we found out we both made music, we went into the studio together, ordered a pizza, and made something different than we ever had before.

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Robb Donker

A Scene From Jaws - "You" is darkly sweet post punk with proto punk tones

From Ireland, the band A Scene from JAWS (don't you love this name?) kind of coalesced in the vibrant Cork city music scene. The track You made me think of the quirky new wave coolness of Boston, Mass's Human Sexual Response (circa early 80's). There is something about ASFJ's sound that possesses the same slighly cynical, dark but smart proto punk / art punk aesthetic.

PRESS NOTES: Formed while frontman and songwriter Declan Hyland was in film school, his background in cinema brings a tight narrative structure to his songwriting. His songs harness the power of ten-year collaborator Shane Whelan, whose EDM basslines give the music direction ad energy. Hyland enlisted the help of his partner, Kay Finan, whose improvisational synth sound adds a distinctly moody atmosphere. Their shows mix the giddy haze of a dance club with the fast pace and dark humour of a midnight horror film. The album pending release features jazz drummer Ian Murphy, and their upcoming tour lineup includes funk guitarist Stephen Springall and Math-Rock drummer Eoin Hayes.

Their upcoming album features a number of pop songs alongside some moody deeper cuts, recorded at WhiteWell Studios with producer Ciaran O’Shea in Cork and in the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin.

the resolute but sad sound of Heartblanch: "Alive" from the "Day One" EP

Heartblanch hail from the Ukraine and their track Alive off of their "Day One" EP rides on it's downbeat, active bass beat and forlorn lead lines. The vocal performance pushed through far away filters feels resolute but sad. This aesthetic serves the band well in tracks like Skies of Ash and Keep Your Hope.
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Robb Donker

Hear the cinematic "Pelagius" by London's Chernobyl Sunshine Club

Chernobyl Sunshine Club are a 5 piece alt folk/indie outfit out of London and their second single Pelagius feels like a vast spaghetti western with tribal drums and kind of surf punk guitar strains. The cinematic comparison is so appropriate because as the song builds on itself you start to see images in your mind carried by dreamy sad melodies.
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Robb Donker

Mild Wild- the track Chain-Link Fence and the legend that is the Tascam Portastudio

Mild Wild. Not much to say about as there is not much info on this artist except that he records on a Tascam Portastudio. This fact makes my heart swell at least a little bit because what musician has not dabbled with this machine in their creative trajectory and, in fact, even musicians coming up now are discovering this Tascam machine and ping ponging. Sometimes it is good to step back.

This track is called Chain-Link Fence with washed out sounds, reverse elements and almost every element run though a reverb pedal.

check it out--

Robb Donker

Sabiyha single "Five Months" from her "Hollow Bones" EP

London based singer-songwriter Sabiyha's latest single Five Months is at once beautiful but filled with tension and pain between every evocative vocal phrasing. It is this ability to translate hurt and hope in the same lyric and her unique vocal styling that seizes you by the throat and punches you in the gut at the same time.  Sabiyha's aesthetic is not for the faint of heart because you will be moved and possibly transported to past pains in your own life but, wow, her sounds and the emotions they hold are something to behold. Her EP, "Hollow Bones" drops April 20th.
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Robb Donker

PRESS NOTES:

‘Five Months’ was written just after the end of a long relationship, where Sabiyha felt she’d begun to change ‘aspects of myself and held myself back to fit into his world.’ Having been told that he’d been thinking about ending the relationship for the past five months, this sentiment stuck with Sabiyha and she channelled all her frustration into songwriting. The track is powerfully relatable as Sabiyha sings of bending over backwards to save her fleeting relationship through effortless lyrical poetry, ‘just perspiration from trying too hard’. Juxtaposing fragility with great courage, producer Andrew David James expertly mirrors the concluding chapter of this story as hopeful brass melodies swim beneath Sabiyha’s vocal, just as it’s on the edge of breaking. The writing on ‘Five Months’ is as bare as it comes, but with an underlying sense of personal growth and coming to terms with her feelings, Sabiyha’s music is always so much more than just the sum of its parts.

Aussie dream punk by SCK CHX- hear "Monday" from the EP "Downward Dog"

From Sydney Australia - dreamy punk called Monday by 3 piece SCK CHX from the debut 8 track EP "Downward Dog".

FAST Five: Khaylan, Ali George, That Gum You Like, Jack R. Reilly, Moon Loves Honey

UK: Khaylan's track Dancer feels rock operatic. Featuring art rock touches and dramatic flair Khaylan's rock vocal chops are formidable with two parts grit and one part elegance.





Ali George recorded Times Of Hunger simply on a Zoom H2N but the spartan song and it's simple earnest emotion shines though. George's vocal performance goes down so easy and feels like an embrace. This Uk artist in some ways reminds me of old school Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) and that is a great thing. Times of Hunger is from Ali George's latest album "The Old Innocence",
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Robb Donker

That Gum You Like from Brazil- make dreamy shoe gazey sounds bathed in electronica. Hear Biography- 





Jack R. Reilly resides in Australia and his track A Set Of Reasons is an upfront rock ballad that builds slowly at first and erupts into a rock choir of sorts with cinematic flare. At least that is what it feels like to me.
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Robb Donker

Official Video for Glass Mountain's "Ghosts"

Glass Mountain hubbed out of Bradford, UK has got a big dreamy sound that rides on driving bass beats, sustained guitars and a cool postured vocal performance. See the video for Ghosts from the 'Wow & Flutter' EP - out now and available on deluxe 12" Translucent Red vinyl / CD / art print bundle - http://www.glassmountainband.com. The video looks amazing shot entirely on Super 8 cine film by Ady Cousins in Lister Park in Bradford. Film processed, edited and graded by Ady Cousins.
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Robb Donker

Somehow- Official Video for "While The Days Go By"

I wrote about Somehow, an indie pop outfit out of Paris centered around DIY multi-instrumentalist Erwan Pépiot  (vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard) and Aurélie Tremblay (vocals, cello) back in February

Check out the official video for While The Days Go By released last year. The song moves along like a hundred memories on percolating bass and beat, with dancing synths while Erwan's vox hold the  emotional sway close with Aurélie's harmonies . Yes, I am now still discovering more about this artist.
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Robb Donker

Figurehead just graduated high school and just released their second EP- hear "Ear To Lend"

From Fremantle, Western Australia the guys in the band Figurehead (Matt, Josh, Chet and Ross) just graduated from high school and just released their second EP entitled "All Worthwhile" (Spotify Link).

The track Ear To Lend feels like post punk indie rock 90's-ish fare but fresh and so good. I thought of bands like Dinosaur Jr (lite) and even Miracle Mile.
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Robb

Sims Volour : wake up and be a "Rebel"

Sims Volour is a guitarist, songwriter and graphic artist out of Belle Glade, Florida and his song Rebel spoke to me. There are not a lot of rebels that you meet in your day to day existence and I am not talking about those revolutionary movements that change the world and shift societies. I am just talking about those rebels in everyday life who challenge the status quo at work or in the creative endeavors they swim in whether it is music or film or whatever.

I love rebels and maybe, truth be told, want to be more of one so, yeah that is why this song spoke to me. Rebel with it's jazz infused sounds is inviting but also carries some deep lines amid the sweet guitar work:

 "you know I jam with the Buddha and I groove with the savior... and Mo said life is a dream and death is the wake up so wake up and be a rebel, rebel, rebel today... a revolutionary I say... I say....

And:

"we're just well behaved monkeys in a one horse town... always getting high to just to keep from coming down... "

Hell yes, wake the fuck up and be a rebel.
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Robb Donker

Rivvrs "Let It Die" homespun rock

The track Let It Die feels like homespun blues rock rattling some barn wood floors in an old Church porch off the beaten path in rural Georgia or Tennessee or Alabama. Rivvrs is the moniker for Brandon Zahursky out of San Fran and his songs have appeared in a slew of projects, in films, TV shows and commercials such as About A Boy, Bates Motel, When We First Met, Reebok ads and much more.

As Rivvrs his sound feels organic, deeply emotional but there is also something comfortable about it like mac and cheese. It is distinctly Americana rock filtered through indie folk and blues tones. Zahursky as singer songwriter drives the songs with his stories but it is his gritty yet smooth vocal performance that fuels it all.
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Robb Donker

"Soul Sigh" by New Jersey's Simple Man has 1 stark problem

Soul Sigh by New Jersey's Simple Man has one stark problem. The track is simply too short. The song starts with a beat and strummed chords moving into a chill yet evocative prose thrown down by frontman singer songwriter rapper Yaakov Kafka until it expands into this vast and beautiful groovy vibe. The refrain "sould sigh so high" sinks in like a mantra and then the guitar work by Eli Weiss is just cool and divine. I love the effect on the guitar.  There are other sounds shifting around provided by bassist Clayton McIntyre, acoustic guitarist Tamir Tusia and drummer Pat Mooney. The track ultimately feels like a blend of hip-hop and indie rock pushed through some jazzy and proggy filters. It floats you away but ends too short making you fall back down to earth. Cool stuff. I need to listen to this again for the 5th time in a row.
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Robb Donker


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