ALBUM: Anteros – ‘When We Land’

After putting it off for many years, I’ve finally learned to drive, and as every 27 (or 17) year old knows; a perfect driving album is key to any good road trip. Enter When We Land, the debut album from Anteros released via Distiller Records. It’s the perfect dream-pop companion to hit the open road with.

Since forming in 2014, the band have been making the rounds touring the UK with groups such as Two Door Cinema Club, Blaenavon, and White Lies. They hit up Glastonbury and Reading along the way, honing their disco-pumping rock. I love a band that waits a little while to put out their debut album, and just like driving, this album is well worth the wait.

Standout Tracks include ‘Honey’ – an absolute thumping ear-worm with a lovely, sticky, fuzzy-bee of a bass tone. If ‘Honey’ is the call, then ‘Afterglow’ is the superb melancholic response. This banger would sound at home on the Atomic Blonde soundtrack. It sounds like you’re trying to dance your troubles away in a Berlin club and don’t want to find the exit.

‘Drive On’, the lead single from the album, keeps this record steaming on, and I particularly love the exposed fragility of Laura Hayden’s vocal in the bridge. ‘Ordinary Girl’ is a slowed down power ballad to gesticulate to, the best part of which being the drop before the gargantuan chorus kicks in. If the rest of the album is a night out, then this is the crippling, reflective hangover. Actually, this track is the reason for the night out in the first place; there’s an underpin of heartbreak to this album, and ‘Ordinary Girl’ finally gives the listener some answers as to where this heartbreak came from.

If you’re a fan of Black Honey, Dream Wife or Goldfrapp; you’re definitely going to be interested in Anteros’ album. It’s a great debut from a hard-working new band and it’ll take them to all the right places. Grab your copy here.

Anteros UK Live Dates 2019
26/03 Banquet Records in-store, London
27/03 Rough Trade in-store, Bristol
28/03 Rough Trade in-store, Nottingham
07/04 The Waterfront, Norwich
08/04 The Joiners, Southampton
09/04 Scala, London
11/04 Mama Roux’s, Birmingham
12/04 Dryden Street Social, Leicester
13/04 Arts Club, Liverpool
15/04 Stereo, Glasgow
16/04 The Cluny, Newcastle
17/04 The Gorilla, Manchester
19/04 Bodega Social Club, Nottingham
20/04 The Key Club, Leeds

Mark Docherty

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FIVE FAVOURITES: Lia Braswell (A Place To Bury Strangers)

Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers have been launching sonic assaults on the eardrums of their cult following for over a decade. Driving the trio’s sound is drummer Lia Braswell; who plays with a raw, punishing, and unpredictable style that’s best appreciated live.

If you’ve never experienced APTBS’s live show, you now have access to the next best thing: London’s Fuzz Club recorded a live session with the band last year and have released the recording exclusively on vinyl (available for purchase here).

We wanted to know more about what drives Lia to be the expert musician that she is, so we asked her to share her “Five Favourite” albums with us. Check out her choices below, and make sure you watch the Fuzz Club recording of ‘Punk Back’ at the end of this post too!

1. The Slits – Cut
When I first listened to this album, it changed my perspective of how punk music could sound. Primal, evocative, sensual but also very feminine. Something like an album that either came out of an imaginative shower or a communal dance around a bonfire, both introspective yet objective and literate. Initially, it was the album that I was searching for all throughout my angsty and awkward junior high school years, but didn’t find until after I was out of school. Then again, it might have inspired me to drop out before graduating!

2. Scout Niblett – The Calcination of Scout Niblett 
Simple, jagged, heavy. This album CUTS. It’s the inner snarky child who takes back their power and runs with it as an awakened grown up. After my roommate and I discovered that we have a mutual love for Scout, we busted out this record and started interpretive dancing to all the motions of fuzzed out guitar bends and primal drum breakdowns. This album brings so much raw emotion into an empowering force of self-affirming vigilance. Hell YES.

3. Broadcast – Future Crayon
Enchanting, subjective, expansive. What a beautiful masterpiece of subtle psychedelia mixed with dreamscapes that continue to resonate in the mind long after listening to the record. Such looseness in the drums, atmospheric bliss all around, and one of the most controlled and calming voices that graced this planet for far too short a life. It dials my heartbeat into a harmonious wake of contentment.

4. Max Roach and Oscar Brown Jr. – We Insist! Freedom Now Suite 
This is the album that makes jazz what it means to me. Historical, melodic, passionate, and rhythmic. What a powerful album. It is rich with so much history and depth. No matter how many times you listen, you still can’t break into it. You can’t break it down. It is still alive. It is still so real and raw nearly sixty years after it was recorded. This is the kind of album that should be explored in educational institutions and should remain to be one of the most prolific records ever to have been recorded.

5. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
A bit out of left field here, but this album was pretty essential to my life when it first came out. The melodies, the harmonies, the rhythm of the album catches me in a way that not many other albums have. It evokes a melancholy wrapped up in a waltz of dreamscapes along a tired river. I will most likely listen to this album when I am sixty years old and suddenly memories that were long forgotten will suddenly appear as if they were of the yesterdays.

Huge thanks to Lia for sharing her favourites. We’ve got some listening to catch up on! Follow A Place To Bury Strangers on Facebook for more updates.

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

Introducing Interview: Soia

In the run up to her new release, Where Magnolia Grows, we caught up with Viennese Soia to get to know her a bit better.

Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about how you got started as an artist?
Thanks! I started my first band when I was 18 with my ex-boyfriend who got me into hip hop, before I was mainly into 60s and 70s fusion jazz and klezmer. When I met the producer Mez years later we started working on the Soia project. It was all accidental.

Are you currently based in Vienna? How do you find the music scene there – is there much collaboration?
Yes, I have been living in Vienna for almost 20 years now. There are a lot of high quality musicians in Austria, a lot of highly skilled jazz musicians that wonder off to NYC one at a time. I recommend artists like Lylit, Schmieds Puls, Ruff pack, Jahson the Scientist, Esches, Oliclusive and more.

We’re loving your latest single ‘Run With Wolves’, can you tell us a bit more about what inspired this?
The song’s lyrics are about not minding so much what other people think of you and not letting yourself be categorised by others. For the video, we collaborated with the performance artist Mirabella Paidamwoyo Dziruni, as the lyrics reminded me of her unapologetic approach to queer and anti racist activism.

It’s taken from your upcoming album Where Magnolia Grows, out on 29th March – how was the making of the album and how best would you describe it in one sentence?
The album was a lot of work and somewhat challenging for everybody involved. I hope it all pays off with the quality we were aiming to provide. Once everything is finished you can reflect and appreciate it again, but in the process it can be wonderful and painful at the same time.

What can fans expect from your live shows, and more importantly are you planning on coming to the UK anytime soon??
I might come to the UK sooner than expected. Our live show is very intimate, and different every time. I love being on stage with the band! We try to make it a whole new experience so it sounds different than the production.

Finally, as we’re a new music focused site, are there any other new/upcoming bands or artists you’d suggest we check out?
I’m not the hippest up to date music digger, but I love listening to Allysha Joy, Solange, Mac Miller and Georgia Anne Muldrow at the moment. Also always the NYC fam like Black Spade, P.U.D.G.E. or Cavalier. I’m super excited for Kiefer’s new album coming up. The rest of my current music mood is mostly gems like Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway.

Thanks Soia! You can check out more from Soia via Instagram and Soundcloud

 

Photo Credit: Ina Aydogan

maudeandtrevorLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: The Franklys – ‘Not Guilty’

‘Not Guilty’, taken from The Franklys’ upcoming new EP, is pure rock ‘n’ roll. The opening riffs hook you in and by the time the big, shout-along choruses and pure-pop harmonies hit, you’re having a full-on shimmy in your seat. Or at least I was.

Much like The Donnas or Joan Jett and The Runaways, ‘Not Guilty’ feels effortlessly cool and stupid amount of fun. It’s empowering, exciting and threatens to get stuck in your brain until the end of time.

The Franklys say they formed when Swedish Jen Ahlkvist and Fanny Broberg came to London “intent on carving out a vital new sound”. And if ‘Not Guilty’ is representative of the rest of their material, it feels like they’re doing just that. They’re really putting their own spin on macho garage rock, and I love it.

Framed, the upcoming EP from The Franklys, is out 5th April.

Victoria Conway

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