Further Listening:

5. My God Tapir! Are A Good Band

Becoming something of a regular feature on these pages, Tapir! are a papier-mache-headed, South London-based six-piece, who are a “boiling together” of different artistic mediums bringing together music, theatre and the folkloric into their own mythological led project. If that all sounds a little high concept, worry not, they’re also very keen on everything they do being entirely enjoyable. After forming in 2019, playing one show at The George Tavern, and then seeing the UK plunged into lockdown, the band have subsequently wasted little time getting back to it. Signed to Heavenly Recordings, they’ve already released two EPs this year, or perhaps more accurately we should look at them as chapters of their debut album, Act 1 (The Pilgrim) and Act 2 (Their God). These will be brought together with the final puzzle piece, to form their debut album, The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain, which is due out in January, and was previewed this week with the first offering from the final section, My God.

My God picks up the story where Their God left off, the record’s lead character, The Pilgrim, learning the history of the land he has discovered, where, “the cracking of a gigantic mysterious egg led to the yolk-soaked desolation of the landscape”. However, it also seems to be reaching a subtle hand into our own world, looking at commercialisation, the tipping point of natural and man-made disasters and the, “persistence to carry on even when the world feels rotten”. While it could perhaps be misinterpreted as a satire of faith, vocalist Ike Gray is keen to dismiss that, “it isn’t intended to be a criticism of religion but more so an open conversation about faith – whatever that may be for an individual. At the end of the day, we all have something we believe in to help us push through“. Musically, it might just be Tapir!’s most intriguing moment yet, working with producer, and Honeyglaze drummer, Yuri Shibuichi and Hywel Pryer to stitch together a tapestry of drum-machines, arpeggiated keys and nylon stringed guitars as the vocal melodies dip knowingly into 60s pop. For all the explanation it takes, Tapir!’s ethos is actually laudably straightforward, the project is an open-hearted embrace of creativity in whatever form it takes, to conquer the decrepit mountain of modern expectation and let the simple joy of making something magical with your friends be your king.

The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain is out January 26th via Heavenly Recordings. For more information on Tapir! visit https://linktr.ee/tapir_band.

4. Mia June Has Very Specific Taste In Friends

Although based out of Perth in Western Australia, Mia June was born in Wales, growing up on a soundtrack of her parent’s favourite Britpop albums, even after she moved about as far away from ‘Cool Brittania’ as it’s possible to go. After arriving in Australia she took up singing lessons, picked up a guitar, and aged just ten put “releasing an album” down at the top of her life’s ambitions. While an album hasn’t yet materialised, since deciding to start sharing her music at the start of 2022, it feels inevitable for Mia June that that dream will come true. The next step will arrive next month when Father/Daughter Records releases Mia’s debut EP, Don’t Forget Your Bags, a record of moving from adolescence into young adulthood, and the people who come with us on that journey. Ahead of that release, this week Mia shared the latest single from the EP, Freckled Friends Forever.

Written when she was just seventeen on one of the first weekends she spent away from her family, Mia suggests Freckled Friends Forever is about, “waiting too long to let someone know your feelings about them as you want  ‘the perfect time’ to tell them, and then going to tell them and realizing the time has passed and you are too late”. Musically, the track is Mia at her most thoughtful and serene, as a metronomic beat ticks like a clock, beneath spacious guitar parts allowing Mia’s vocals to rise and fall like breathing lungs as she reflects with a tender sadness, “he was here and now he’s not”. The whole thing feels beautifully unhurried and undramatic, as if it’s the repetition of a pattern, the baggage of life we all pick up along the road, scars well worn but no less painful as a result.

Don’t Forget Your Bags is out November 17th via Father/Daughter Records. For more information on Mia June visit https://linktr.ee/fatherdaughter

3. You’ll Be Seeing Nudista Through Entirely Different Eyes

We last heard from nudista, the London-based Anglo-Spanish duo of Pilar Matji Cabello and Robbie Carman, back in 2022 when they shared their debut EP, Halfway Here. A collection inspired by the pair’s shared love of Mazzy Star, Yo La Tengo and Neil Young, it was released via Sad Club Records bringing together the tracks the band had worked on together during lockdown. With a headline show at the Shacklewell Arms in Dalston next month, this week the band shared their first new material since that EP in the shape of their new single, Different Eyes.

The track finds Robbie taking centre stage on a track about growing pains as he explains, “the song is describing a distrust of my own narrative. A gradual realisation that I have outgrown some previously held opinions about myself and world views, and the struggle of letting those go”. Showcasing the fuzzier side of nudista’s output, the track seems to exist in two distinct sections, initially, Robbie speaks openly of the importance of embracing others, “think you’re better on your own, but it’s because of others that you’ve grown”, before Pilar arrives for the second verse like the devil on his shoulder, “close your eyes and then you’re gone, saying it’s not you but the world that’s wrong”. Particularly wonderful is the chorus of sorts, where over a country-licked guitar the pair come together in luxurious harmony, channelling the spirit of Bright Eyes or Big Thief, as they sing, “you never want to be here, you’re always somewhere else, you’re always chasing something, trying to be someone else”. An exciting return showcasing a new ambition present in the music nudista are making, if this is a hint of where they’re headed next, we’re all in for a thrilling ride.

Different Eyes is out now via Sad Club Records. For more information on nudista visit https://linktr.ee/nudistaband.

2. Are Meagre Martin Your New Favourite Band – TBD

Based out of Berlin, Meagre Martin are a trio of Americans who were brought to Germany in one way or another by music and formed in the Summer of 2021 around the songwriting of Sarah Martin. Although they only started sharing their music earlier this year, they’ve already found plenty of support online and on the airwaves, as well as securing a slot supporting Alt-J on their upcoming US tour. The band are set to take their next giant leap next month with the release of their debut album Gut Punch on the Berlin label Mansions & Millions, and ahead of the release, they shared a new single TBD (The Big Death).

A song about, “the fear of uncertainty”, TBD dresses up existential death in the finery of a great pop song, as Sarah explains, “it deals with the difficulty in accepting death, both personally and environmentally. But this is hidden and sugar coated in a fun, upbeat indie track”. The track is built around a wonderfully propulsive drumbeat, equal parts shimmer and shuffle, atop it are luxurious layers of country-licked vocals and guitars with a Fleetwood Mac-like sheen, as they sing with a painted-on smile, “I don’t ever want to die, it’s alright”. Out of the soaring choruses, emerge the shadowier murk of the verses, bringing to mind the likes of Chorusgirl or Neighbor Lady as they reimagine 80s indie with an Americana-twist and tackle climate inaction, “the trees are burning, and we’re not learning”. Sashaying into looming disaster, on Gut Punch Meagre Martin’s self-styled “faux-country” might just make the perfect soundtrack for dancing while the world burns, and if we’re not careful we might all need one of those soon.

Gut Punch is out November 10th via Mansions & Millions. For more information on Meagre Martin visit https://linktr.ee/meagremartin.

1. I Table The Motion That Katy Kirby Is Rather Good

Although currently based in New York, and originally from the excellently named Spicewood, Texas, it was arguably in Nashville that Katy Kirby’s latest album, Blue Raspberry really came to be. The follow-up to the acclaimed 2021 album Cool Dry Place, Blue Raspberry was largely written in Nashville during a period of self-realisation as Katy began to identify as queer and began imagining the woman she would like to date, “if I was in love with a woman, what would I love about her? Especially if she was someone that I couldn’t touch, but that I was pining for“. The resultant album will be released on ANTI- at the start of next year, and this week Katy shared the record’s second single, Table.

Something of a “thematic outlier”, from the rest of Blue Raspberry, Katy describes Table as, “a lighthearted leftover from my god-haunted past life – it’s the last on the album and sort of serves as an epilogue or outro for the rest of the songs. Most importantly it’s quite fun to sing“. Table is an intriguing blend of singer and song, on the one hand, you’ve got Katy’s vocal, a poised retelling of Evangelical Christianity, “cutting up vegetables quickly and fine for the pot on the stove, the line out the door, give me your tired and poor”, yet around her is a fizzing catharsis, the scuzzy clatter of the Squirrel Flower-like guitars seeming to howl for freedom of expression and to break the shackles of limited sin-free living, at the vocal seeks to toe the line. An already fascinating prospect, perhaps most excitingly Katy Kirby also still seems to be growing as a songwriter, as she works out more about who she is, it only serves to give her more crayons in her box, more strings in her bow and more creative wonder to share with the world.

Blue Raspberry is out January 26th via ANTI- For more information on Katy Kirby visit https://linktr.ee/katykirby/.

Header photo is Katy Kirby by Tonje Thilesen