Further Listening:

5. Pip Hall’s Perfect New Single

We’ve been closely following the career of Preston’s Pip Hall since we first stumbled on her music back in 2016. This week is a huge moment for Pip, with her debut album, Everything Before, out today and ahead of the release, Pip shared the latest single from it, The Perfect Life.

Discussing the music on Everything Before, Pip has suggested it’s about, “being bored, confused, broke and uncomfortable in your own skin”, The Perfect Life is an excellent example. Lyrically, it explores the idea of not letting yourself be controlled by your own self-doubt, about looking at those around you and not letting yourself think you’re any less than anyone else. Arguably even more impressive than her poetic musings on growing up, is just how mature Pip’s self-produced music sounds; here she blends chunky guitars with steady percussion and layered vocals, the whole thing coming out somewhere in the middle ground of Fleetwood Mac and The Breeders. Pip’s rise continues unabated, a rare talent just starting to bloom.

Everything Before is out today via My Little Empire Records. Click HERE for more information on Pip Hall.

4. Alison Sudol Flies To The Moon And Back

Probably best known for her role as Queenie in the Harry Potter prequel series Fantastic Beasts, away from acting Alison Sudol has been making an awful lot of good music under the name, A Fine Frenzy. Now stepping out under her own name, Alison has shared her new EP, Moon, as well as an excellent video for the title track.

Featuring an array of talented musicians, including Ali Chant, Adrian Utley and John Parish, Moon was recorded at a time of personal upheaval, not only recording between film shoots, it was during the break-down of her marriage, an experience that left her, “ferocious, liberated and devastated, grieving and writing as if my life depended on it”. Moon, is a minimal-masterclass; gentle waves of synth and crashing, processed percusion providing a back-drop for Alison’s cracked, waltzing vocal. While balancing the life of a musician and an actor is no easy task, on this evidence Alison Sudol sounds more than up for that challenge.

Moon is out now via Hearth. Click HERE for more information on Alison Sudol.

3. Find Your Own Fascinations

New York duo Fascinations Grand Chorus impressed many last year with their excellent EP, Anglesea. Five tracks of retro-tinged pop, they breathed new life into old sounds, and made something equal parts nostalgic and exciting. This week the band have shared the first new material since that record, new single, Until I Found You.

Until I Found You is a bold step-forward for the band, fuzzy-bass gives the whole thing a delicious warmth, as multiple tracks of Stephanie’s vocal, destined for a multitude of Zoeey Deschanel comparisons, shine out like a one woman version of The Crystals or The Ronettes. Fascinations Grand Chorus might take us back in time, but this is no blurry analogue recording, this the full technicolour wonder, and it sounds wonderful.

Click HERE for more information on Fasciations Grand Chorus

2. Mastersystem Get The Old Team Back Together One Last Time

Sometimes it’s impossible to separate the music from the story that comes with it. Mastersystem, a musical collaboration between members of Frightened Rabbit, Minor Victories and Editors, released their debut album, Dance Music, back in April, it would be the last record Scott Hutchison ever recorded. This week, the other members have decided to honour their plans to release Scott’s favourite track, Old Team, as a single, with all proceeds from the track to be donated to the Scott Hutchison foundation.

Old Team is exactly what Mastersystem set out to be, music recorded free from the pressure of being a band and all that comes with that. There’s monumental riffing, drums that are battered into submission and passionate, scream-along vocals. As the band themselves put it, “how we all started, throwing riffs and cords around until it sounds something like a tune. No fuss”. The track is accompanied by a video from the first, and ultimately last, Mastersystem tour, “it just shows a bunch of fellas, having the best time, ripping the piss out of each other, laughing and doing some shows. There’s something fucking brilliant about this”. Big burly rock songs aren’t meant to make you cry, for this one we’re sure you’ll allow us to make an exception. RIP Scott Hutchison – thank you.

Old Team will be available on vinyl on November 30th. Click HERE for more information on Mastersystem.

1. Ruby Gill Shares The Mother Of All Singles

Yet another exciting songwriter based out of Melbourne, Ruby Gill has just come off the back of a successful tour in her homeland of South Africa. Since those dates, Ruby has been in the studio, “making sounds out of songs”, the first of which she has shared this week in the shape of new single, Your Mum.

Your Mum is a raw and ragged piece of songwriting, entirely solo, Ruby’s voice brings the cracked emotional roar, while the gutsy electric guitar rings out along side her. It’s lyrically the track really shines, a mix of visceral sarcasm and powerful angst. The track dissects feelings of emotional abandonment, as Ruby explains, “we fall in love with people who remind us a little bit of our parents, But then, in a burst of 2am Freudian clarity and angst, we realise that those are pretty stifling expectations. So this is about being not good enough. About trying to be yourself in someone else’s kitchen. About admitting that you’re not f*cking fine. And it’s about your mum”. Raw, brave and achingly honest, Your Mum is a thrilling introduction, and one that suggests Ruby Gill might just be one of music’s most intriguing new voices.

Your Mum is out now. Click HERE for more information on Ruby Gill.

Header photo is Ruby Gill by Max Fairclough – http://www.maxfairclough.com