Further Listening:

5. Ghum Show Some Get Up and Go

Multi-National Londoners Ghum first appeared back in 2016 and have been slowly morphing into the intriguing prospect they now are. Last year’s Double-A single, I’m The Storm / Undone, felt like a huge leap forward, and continuing that momentum this week, they’ve announced a brand new EP, The Coldest Fire, and shared the first track from it, Get Up.

Get Up seems to continue Ghum’s trip into the darker recesses of musical history, full of angular post-punk riffing, rumbling bass-lines and a perfect snarl of vocals, “you came to define me, deny you desire me, you go and divide me”. There’s both an intensity and confidence here, a band pushing their sound into new edgier places without compromising on the qualities that caught so many ears in the first place. With the upcoming EP, and plans already afoot for their debut LP, the rise Ghum shows no sign of slowing down.

The Coldest Fire is out June 28th vis Everything Sucks Music. Click HERE for more information on Ghum. Ghum play our gig night with Scared To Dance at The Victoria in Dalston on June 1st. Click HERE for more details.

4. Your Patience Won’t Last Forever

Patience began in Roxanne Clifford’s bedroom; following the demise of the much loved Veronica Falls, Roxanne set out to explore a world of analogue synthesisers and the creativity to be found within them, and accidentally birthed an entire musical persona. The result of Roxanne’s labour is the debut Patience record, Dizzy Spells, which is out today, and earlier this week, ahead of its release, Patience shared a new video to stand-out moment, Living Things Don’t Last.

As you could perhaps guess from the title, Living Things Don’t Last is a track that muses on the themes of loss and making the most of the life while you have it, “tear it all apart, ’cause living things don’t last”. It’s a track walking a line between the blunt fact that life is a transient state, and the human desire to find meaning and purpose within that. The whole thing is given a certain retro feel by the musical melding of Pet Shop Boys-like synths and glistening indie-pop guitars. Roxanne has a wonderful talent as a songwriter to make it feel like the room is swirling around you, constantly placing you, as the listener, in the middle of a chaotic scene.Listening to Patience you’re somehow removed from whatever is going on around you, as if finding solitude in the busiest of crowds, and inviting you to experience that with her, grab hold of her musical hand and follow her, it’s a journey you don’t want to miss.

Dizzy Spells is out today via Night School Records / Winona Records (US). Click HERE for more information on Patience.

3. Kyle Craft’s Showboats His Ugly Side

Kyle Craft has already caught our ear with the retro-pop stylings of both 2016’s Dolls of Highland and last year’s Full Circle Nightmare, and now with his backing band, Showboat Honey, set firmly in place, Kyle’s upcoming album might just be his most ambitious to date. The record, Showboat Honey, is as Kyle explains, “an album centered around bad luck and good fortune hitting at the same time…out of nowhere, I find love. Everything went to shit except that. I guess that’s how life works.” Ahead of Showboat Honey’s July release, Kyle and band have this week shared the first single from it, the glam-stomping wonder of, 2 Ugly 4 NY.

Described as a, “carefree sing-along”, 2 Ugly 4 NY, harks back to his earlier musical days, busking on the streets of Portland, dressed as the Grim Reaper, singing country songs. The track enters on a Clash-like guitar line, before the steady pulse of the bass and twinkling honky-tonk piano propel the song forward, through a thrilling three minutes. Kyle’s vocal, always a rasping, emotive howl, feels a little more rounded out than before, now existing in an unusual middle ground of Bob Dylan and Mark Bolan. In a way this feels like a natural progression for Kyle’s songwriting, yet it could have been something entirely different, “We thought we had the album done at one point. But at the last minute, I was like, ‘Shit, this isn’t the album. This isn’t it”, on this evidence, that looks a very good decision indeed.

Showboat Honey is out July 12th via Sub Pop. Click HERE for more information on Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey.

2. Apologies But Rose Hotel Is Running A Little Late

We last heard from Rose Hotel, the musical project of Jordan Reynolds, back in 2017 around the release of her excellent, Always A Good Reason EP. That record became something of a slow-burning sensation, reaching intrigued ears across America and beyond, on little more than word of mouth. If that record was a stripped back and intimate affair, on the evidence of new single, Running Behind, released this week, her upcoming debut album promises something considerably lusher.

From a gentle strum of electric guitar, Running Behind suddenly bursts into life, a crescendo of tumbling drums and bold, sonorous bass. The vocals are held back, only entering after 35 thrilling instrumental seconds, they waste no time though, a tumble of thoughts and feelings, all delivered in that stunning vocal style. Jordan seems to almost exists on another plane to the music at times; cocooned from the all the ambitious noise, as if existing in the eye of a particularly brutal storm. Running Behind feels like a bold step-forward, Jordan joining forces with the best of the impressive Atalanta music scene, to produce something way beyond the sonic boundaries of her previous output, yet at the centre of it all remains Jordan, a songwriter with the world at her feet and the talent to take her music as far as her imagination lets her.

I Will Only Come Out When It’s A Yes is out May 31st. Click HERE for more information on Rose Hotel.

1. Never Has Stef Ever

Hailing from Detroit, Stef Chura is an artist that reflects the character and the people of the resurgent city. Stef’s upcoming album, Midnight, is a record of defiance and resilience, of always looking forward and being prepared to leap head first into whatever life throws at you. The album, Stef’s first for new home Saddle Creek, is set to drop next month, and this week Stef has shared the video to the latest single from it, They’ll Never.

As Stef explaines, They’ll Never was written while, “living in a building in Ypsilanti, MI that was not up to code. No one cared about it. The kitchen was moldy, the carpets were dirty and the house was generally unfinished”. The house became something of a muse for the track, a building, a home, not loved enough to fix or even tear down, as Stef repeats as the track’s closing, “they’ll never tear this place apart”. The track seems to expand on that initial premise, reflecting how expectations aren’t always lived up to, “They sold you love, this chalk’s just dust.” The subtle anger in the lyrics at potential unfulfilled, seems to be mirrored in the track’s driving guitars and steady percussive throb, They’ll Never is a track unafraid to be abrasive , whether that’s a searing guitar riff or Stef’s striking, vocal howl. A thrilling and energetic reminder of a what a hugely talented songwriter Stef Chura is,  Midnight feels like a leap into the unknown well worth taking.

Midnight is out June 7th via Saddle Creek. Click HERE for more information on Stef Chura.

Header photo is Stef Chura by Chloe Sells – http://chloesells.com