LISTEN: CIEL – ‘The Shore’

A gentle, fuzzy, alt-pop gem; Brighton-based band CIEL‘s latest single ‘The Shore’ is a dreamy rumination about seizing the moment, and not letting life pass you by. The single is taken from the band’s debut EP, Movement, which is set for release this spring.

Formed of Dutch musician Michelle Hindriks and the friends she made when she relocated to Brighton, CIEL enlisted the help of Producer Jack Wolter (Penelope Isles) to help them create the atmospheric sounds on ‘The Shore’. Hindriks’ pensive vocals float above beguiling guitars, snappy beats, and blissed out synths, reflecting the waves of thought she sings about.

Hindriks explains further: “The song is about a moment where you feel stuck in your life and are waiting for it to ‘really’ begin; yet at the same time, you realise it’s just an illusion and your life has already begun, and you’re living it right now. Losing the connection with that essence can feel extremely frustrating”.

CIEL have supported the likes of Hatchie, Sasami and Penelope Isles, and are set to play more shows over the coming months. Listen to ‘The Shore’ below, and follow the band on Facebook and Spotify for more updates.

Photo Credit: Jantina Talsma

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Indian Queens – ‘Bubblewrap’

A beguiling lament about the state of the planet, London three-piece Indian Queens have shared their latest single, ‘Bubble Wrap’. The track is lifted from their upcoming debut album God Is A Woman, which is set to be released via Cool Thing Records later this year.

Formed of sisters Jennifer (guitar/vocals) and Katherine (bass) O’Neill, and lifelong friend Matthew Dudan-Bick (drums), Indian Queens were born and raised in Hackney Wick. Influenced by the restless city that surrounds them, the trio’s soundscapes reflect both the darkness and the light on a personal, and a universal scale.

Underscored by a genuine fear surrounding the current climate crisis, ‘Bubblewrap’ smolders with its dense beats, atmospheric guitar and Jennifer’s captivating vocals. “We were born in plastic bags / conveniently stored / bubble-wrapped indoors”, she muses in the chorus, conjuring up images of over-protection and suffocation. Despite the track’s haunting context, Indian Queens still manage to lull their listeners into acceptance, and hopefully into action against the forces escalating climate change.

2019 saw Indian Queens invited to play Robert Smith’s Meltdown at Southbank Centre, sharing a line-up with Nine Inch Nails and My Bloody Valentine. If they continue to release music as compelling as their latest single, 2020 looks set to be another successful year for the trio. Listen to ‘Bubblewrap’ below, and follow Indian Queens on Facebook & Spotify for more updates.

Photo Credit: Kana Waiwaiku

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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ALBUM: The Just Joans – ‘The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of The Just Joans’

January is no-one’s favourite month: you’re skint, you’re cold and you’re pretty sure you’re over the hill. Fortunately, Glasgow’s own The Just Joans feel much the same, and this January brings their fourth album: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of The Just Joans.  The title alludes both to James Hogg’s gothic novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (a depiction of Calvinist Christian fanaticism, published in 1824), but also the memories, however vague, of songwriter David Pope, and his increasing awareness of “the onset of middle-aged ennui”.

Thematically, the latter pretty much sums up the theme album’s opener ‘Hey Ho, Let’s Not Go’ with David sounding perfectly justified in wanting to just watch Match of the Day whilst fellow vocalist, his sister Katie, reminds the album’s narrators of the old times and nights out in the battleground of town. If the song’s lyrics are negative and insular, however, that’s a counterpoint to the bold brass that opens the album – a deliberate choice by the band to open up their sound, by roping in multi-instrumentalist Arion Xenos and keyboardist Alison Eales (from fellow Glaswegians, Butcher Boy). 

Second track ‘Who Does Susan Think She Is?’ is hilariously cynical, focusing on that one friend who suddenly decides to go to art school and turn vegan, whilst ‘Wee Guys (Bobby’s Got A Punctured Lung)’ contemplates acts of violence involving lads on the street.  

The album’s middle section contains its most heartfelt tracks, dominated by Katie’s winning vocals. Ranging from ‘Dear Diary, I Died Again Today’ – a lush string-laden ballad, and ‘When Nietzsche Calls’ – a sort of twisted torch song with a growing brass section, to ‘The One I Loathe the Least’, a minor key lilt whose stand-out lyric refers to the population as “subhuman scum”. 

So far, so sophisti-pop, but there’s C64 cred here too, with the squelchy synths and guitar wash of ‘My Undying Love For You Is Beginning to Die’, the dating disaster synth-pop of ‘Another Doomed Relationship’, until the album closes with the echoey Visage vocals of ‘Like Yesterday Again’, which sounds like the album sweetly expiring under the weight of its own efforts. There’s also pop-rock in the form of ‘The Older I Get The More I Don’t Know’ and the Ben Folds-y ‘Holiday’, whilst the album still has space for a nostalgically baroque tune in the shape of ‘People I Once Knew’.

Named for the agony aunt Joan Burnie, and her ‘Just Joan’ column in The Daily Record, it’s appropriate that The Just Joans may not necessarily tap into your best emotions – but they certainly make you feel a lot better about having them. For a band whose lifespan now stretches to four albums, it’s impressive that the cynicism, the bitterness and, most damning of all, the optimism of life as an outsider are still felt as strongly. It may say more about this writer’s age than the album, but there’s something reassuring about knowing you’re not the only one having a tough time and The Just Joans capture that feeling just so.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of The Just Joans is out now via Fika Recordings. Listen/buy on Bandcamp.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

Photo Credit: Allan Whyte Photography

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Introducing Interview: SUN

Following their visceral single ‘Higher Fire’, Franco-German brutal-pop outfit SUN have now announced the release of their debut EP.

With an intense, brooding sound that is uniquely theirs, SUN is the embodiment of founder and sole member Karoline Rose’s brutal pop aesthetic, creating utterly captivating, atmospheric soundscapes.

We caught up with Karoline to find out more…

Hi Karoline, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about SUN?
Hi Get In Her Ears! SUN is my music project. Live we play as a two-piece (I’m on guitar/bass and vocals and I have a mysterious drummer with me). Since I was a teenage metalhead in Germany I wanted to blend Pop and Metal with just a hint of Riot Grrrl. I came up with the term Brutal Pop. For years I was chasing after that Brutal Pop sound. I went from Church Choir to Death metal bands, then did Contemporary Theatre and Musicals as a performer. All in order to gain the skills to create the Sound and the Live show I had in mind since my childhood. SUN was born two years ago and SUN’s first EP Brutal Pop just came out in December. I feel so relieved that I finally have my very own musical language together and out in the world! 

How did you initially start creating music?
I would imitate my mom (who is a French chanson singer) as a toddler and go through some classical training on the piano as a child. When I was twelve I discovered Courtney Love and Tairrie B and from then on I knew I had to make heavy music. My American aunt would send me cool CD’s from oversees and I would analyse the song structure and the lyrics and create my own. I had my first band at 12 (they were between 18-25) and it all started then.

Your latest single ‘I Killed My Man’ is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about? Are there any themes running throughout the track?
‘I Killed My Man’ is a goodbye to a toxic relationship/ toxic relationships in general. Sometimes we mistake admiration for love and lose ourselves in the process. It can make us accept the unacceptable and it is very hard to get out of that kind of situation without casualties. I wanted to say goodbye to that relationship but also to all the toxicity in my life. I also wanted to say goodbye to someone I lost a long time ago.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Chelsea Wolfe all the way to Pink, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
I think my top 3 would be Michael Jackson, Hole and Devin Townsend! It’s really representative of the mix I wanted to hear for so long: Groovy Pop, Indie Grunge (life through this era) and powerful yet original Metal.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
In Paris we have some really cool spots and cool bands. Local promoters like Hypergéante or Morsure organise great gigs at Olympic Café,  Espace B  or the amazing Bus Palladium. In my second hometown Karlsruhe (Germany) we have an amazing club called Substage. In both cases the local scene is very small and especially in France promoters and festivals prefer to welcome foreign bands than giving the locals a shot. That’s why I try to support locals as much as I can.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
Our live performances are a Brutal Pop show. My background in Contemporary Theatre and Musicals helped us to make our shows more 360 degrees, not only – foot on wedge – rock n roll (even if there’s nothing wrong with that!). I wanted to be able to create a space in which I can let loose, run, jump, come from different angles without cables and surround my drummer like a wild lion playing with his prey. I would say that our live performances are pop shows but we headbang… a lot! 

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
I recommend my Parisien friends Toybloid (female fronted riot grrrl) as well as one of the craziest french bands ever, Igorrr!

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
It is difficult to get past the algorithm. if you don’t want to force your music on an audience that you’ve targeted and paid for you have less chances to be heard. . Things are chaotic right now and no one really knows what to do (labels, press etc) no one can be certain of any strategy, but maybe that is a good thing! Great music might take root in chaos and take off out of nowhere.

Finally, what does 2020 have in store for you?
SUN’s first EP Brutal Pop just came out in December 2019 and the second EP is already finished. It will come out in April 2020. In the meanwhile we will be touring Europe from January until April in a theatre play (‘Nous l’Europe’) in which I am an actress and SUN is the play’s music (for real! We play ‘Higher Fire’ and ‘I killed My Man’ amongst others). We will then go back to touring normally, and get our debut album ready!

Massive thanks to Karoline for answering our questions!

Brutal Pop, the debut EP from SUN is out now. Watch the new video for ‘I Killed My Man’ here:

 

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