PEAKYS PACKAGE
THIS WEEKS ROUNDUP
OUT NOW, JESSIE REID’s sublime single, ‘A Little Closer.’
Added to Spotify’s coveted ‘Most Beautiful Songs in The World’ playlist, the raw and breathtakingly beautiful indie-folk love song also features French-born, Easymess.
“Ultimately, it’s a love song, but quite an ‘unhealthy’ love song,” explains Reid.
“It’s about feeling a bit lost and unsure of yourself in a relationship and knowing things aren’t right. Despite knowing this, you still want to feel a sense of comfort and love and to be held ‘a little closer,’ to hold on to some sort of hope, for a little longer.”
A songwriter wise beyond her years, Reid’s understated, but stunning vocals and innovative percussive guitar style have already drawn comparisons with the likes of Lucy Rose, Memorial and Ben Howard.
And playing live is very much part of this young artist’s palette, with festival appearances at Black Deer Festival, Moseley Folk Festival and Green Gathering already under her belt, along with support slots for Seafret, Dan Owen, Ciaran Lavery, Bryde and Brooke Bentham, and multiple Sofar Sounds appearances across Europe, the UK and South America.
Jessie Reid online: Home | JESSIE REID (square.site)
T W O
FOLLOWING the release of their acclaimed new album ‘Misanthropioid,’ Fellow Robot have released a superbly dark and striking animated video for the album’s opening track – and ‘Rabbit’ sets an ominous tone to the album, with its video counterpart a perfect pairing.
Fellow Robot named their new album ‘Misanthropioid,’ due to its brutally honest lyrics and melancholy feelings surrounding what it is to be a human.
“It’s our soundtrack to the last few years” says singer Anthony Pedroza, “a diverse take on the perception of emotion, especially regarding how we feel about our fellow humans’.”
The band does well in reflecting their disappointment of humanity, especially in the opening track ‘Rabbit’ which is a clear reflection of the BLM movement in the US. However dark ‘Misanthropioid’ is, it’s ultimately hopeful within its vulnerable and carefully stitched arrangements.
The album at times is theatrical and dramatic, each song seemingly being sung by different characters in a stage production, especially in songs like, ‘I’m Going to Hell’ and, ‘The People Next Door.’
“Society has many voices, and the space in between the harshest opinions are the most truthful,” says drummer, engineer, and cofounder, Luis Renteria.
Pulling from two previous animated collaborations, the Prebich sisters and Fellow Robot continue their social commentary with a voyeuristic, occasionally red pilled rabbit. We follow the rabbit down a series of disturbing paths, observing drip feed propaganda streams from the outside of your work, and living room windows, before the rabbit has enough and leaves earth.
For ‘Misanthropioid,’ Fellow Robot teamed up with Andrew Scheps (Green Day, RHCP, Adele, Metallica, Hozier, Johnny Cash) who helped co-produce and mix the album from his home studio ‘Punkerpad’ in Titton, UK.
Scheps joined the team during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and over the course of two years helped the band complete the album remotely. Fellow Robot’s latest album will be released through Scheps’ own ToneQuake Records.
Fellow Robot originally started out as a concept piece in 2016, pulling lyrics from the sci-fi novel ‘The Robot’s Guide to Music,’ written by Pedroza. While deeply rooted to its origins, ‘Misanthropioid’ is an album that lives closer to reality than science fiction, however blurred those lines are these days.
The origins of Fellow Robot are not abandoned as lead singer Pedroza’s novel has been adapted to a graphic novel, its first chapter being released this March through Seattle’s, Donut Sounds Record Co.
T H R E E
DANISH artist Sara Lew’s new single ‘Shady Light’ is set to shine on the earth’s surface with its release today, as a precursor to her upcoming album ‘LOUD’, due Autumn 2023.
‘Shady Light’ is a beautiful, dreamy, delicate indie ballad, about standing together in a relationship, learning from each other, sharing with each other, and continuing to do so even though life rushes along at breakneck speed.
“It’s about standing together in a relationship, even in a heavy storm when everything else is falling apart around you,” explains Sara. “I wrote the song after a long summer holiday where there was finally some peace, after a long and intense period.”
“It’s about daring to experiment and be vulnerable and stand on new land together. And though there still must be food on the table and the family must endure, to have the ability to seek refuge together in the very close moments, in love, in moments and special spaces of timeless being, where everything else is suspended.”
Sara Lew’s upcoming album ‘LOUD’ is based around the development of life, when young people become adults and experience personal confrontations with the past. It explores how to rein in anger and grief, to keep your head above water and be a role model for your own children when life all falls apart and how to protect love and togetherness when everyday life rolls on. It’s an album about living in the present moment with love for life’s stories, memories, moments of happiness but also life’s unforeseen trip wires.
Born and raised in Roskilde with an English mother and Danish father, Sara Lewis Sørensen aka Sara Lew now lives in Copenhagen. She was trained as an electric guitarist at the Rhythmic Music conservatorium in Copenhagen, and throughout her career has developed herself within jazz and improvisational music, and through singer-songwriter, alternative rock, and indie-folk-rock music.
The music is played and arranged by Sara Lew (vocals and guitars), Anders Filipsen (keyboards/synth) and Jeppe Gram (drums). The track was recorded by, and in collaboration with, sound and studio engineers Troels Bech Jessen and Casper Nyvang Rask, produced by Sara Lew, mixed and co-produced by Nis Bysted (Iceage & Choir of Young Believers), and mastered by Emil Thomsen.
F O U R
IT MAN’s new single, ‘White Heat’ is a joyful, wicked, satirical romp through the fictional psyche of a young, middle-class 20th century couple fantasising about explosives, casual gambling and being Ray Liotta.
And it’s a chaotic, mayhem-fuelled masterpiece.
In a moving tribute, the band also released a statement ahead of the release of their debut single.
“After much thought and consideration, we have decided we will no longer perform or release music as ‘The Jacques.’
“Since the formation of the band eight years ago, our line-up has changed, sometimes amicably but also in ways beyond our control. Four years ago, we lost our best friend and bassist Will. We had just completed our debut album, ‘The Four Five Three,’ after spending our early 20s living and touring together.
“These are precious memories of ours and we are grateful for all of the friendship, support and love we have received over the years. We are currently finishing an album we feel marks a departure from our previous musical direction. It is for that reason that we have agreed to be known by a different name moving forward.
“Thank you all for your continued support, Love, Finn, Elliot, Harry & Dexter, aka, It Man”
AND so it was, born of the ashes of one band who tasted early success touring with The Libertines, playing Glastonbury and SXSW, championed by the BBC and signing with a major label, the story unfolds in a new and thrilling way with the birth of IT MAN as they get ready to dominate UK and European shores with a scheduled series of heavy hitting new wave Britpop n rock releases and a new album later this year.
Lead singer Finn O’Brien slurs out, “I’m trying, I’m trying not to think about it, cause its only there when I think about it”.
And this, all the while the guitars perform a symbolic sleight of hand manoeuvre busily transporting the listener to some tropical beach, whilst nodding cheekily towards the spectre of neurosis lurking just beneath the consumerist glitz of modern life.
‘White Heat’ was recorded by the legendary producer Gordon Raphael and produced and mixed by Dan Swift.
‘White Heat’ is out now on all platforms via the band’s own label, Sore Records.
Catch It Man this month:
LONDON, 18th June, AMP with MENADES
BRIGHTON, 19th June Prince Albert with MENADES
Connect with It Man:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/itmanband
Website: https://www.itmanmusic.co.uk/
And if you’re wondering why ‘It Man,’ well, it’s the title of a John Cooper Clarke song which struck a chord with the band.
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