Track Of The Day: Art School Girlfriend – ‘Come Back To Me’

A delicate blur of dreamy sounds designed to pine over; ‘Come Back To Me’ is the latest single from Margate-based producer Art School Girlfriend​. It’s her first release of 2019, and draws a full circle to her debut ‘Bending Back’, which she describes as its “lyrical inverse”.

Art School Girlfriend is the moniker of Polly Mackey; a producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from Wrexham, North Wales. Since moving to the British seaside town of Margate and opening her bookshop “Spine Books”, Mackey has spent most of her time creating new recordings that reflect the space and clarity she has found since her move away from the crowded city to the coast. Speaking about ‘Come Back To Me’, she explains: “The song is quite transparently about lust and being out of control of your own desire. It’s about wanting someone to come to you and how that yearning can be simultaneously enjoyable and torturous.”

Mackey performed at this year’s SXSW festival and will be joining The Japanese House on her April & May US tour dates too. She’ll be playing some UK shows before she sets off (see dates below) so make sure you catch her when she’s in town. Listen to ‘Come Back To Me’ below and follow Art School Girlfriend on Facebook for more updates.

Art School Girlfriend 2019 UK Tour Dates
02/04 – Bristol, Louisiana
03/04 – Leicester, Cookie
04/04 – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
05/04 – Newcastle, Cluny 2
06/04 – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
07/04 – Manchester, Soup Kitchen
09/04 – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
10/04 – London, Omeara

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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LISTEN: HunBjørn – ‘Who Are We To Love’

Danish electro-pop artist HunBjørn – which roughly translates as “small bear” – has shared a new element of her musical universe in the form of single ‘Who Are We To Love’. It’s a dreamy combination of synths, distorted guitars and sweet melancholic vocals.

HunBjørn (aka Ulla Pihl) was the former lead singer and songwriter in the experimental pop band Lima Lima, but now she’s recording as a solo artist. She released her debut EP In Vacuo in September of 2018, and began growing her fan base on social media by using a messenger-bot called the “She Bear Bot”. It’s an interactive behind the scenes experience for her EP that fans could join, and includes personal vlogs about every song and the story behind it.

Now, HunBjørn is ready with a new set of stories on her second EP Next Summer. She produced the record herself and it was mixed by previous collaborator Brian Batz (aka Sleep Party People). ‘Who Are We To Love’ is the first single, and it’s a love song to the environment, written to remind us that taking care of it is the responsibility of all of us.

Combining both organic and digital synth textures, HunBjørn has created a twinkling track full of her soothing vocals. Speaking about the single, she explains: “For a long time, I had been wanting to write a song about the environment expressing my concerns about where we’re heading. But I didn’t want the song to be sanctimonious or a lifted finger. So instead I tried to express the double standards that I myself apply. I was planning to fly to the other side of the world, well knowing how big my CO2 footprint would be. At the same time I see myself as environmentally conscious person. So I’ve tried to express those opposing feelings in the song. How much is just words and how much do we really act? How much do we leave for our decision makers or even worse – for our kids?

The official music video for the song is directed by Daniel Charluck Garrelts from Karma Film. HunBjørn’s pregnant body is painted in gold as a picture of the earth, which is marred by black oil as a symbol of how we treat the earth and what our children are born into. Take a look at the footage below and follow HunBjørn on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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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.

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LISTEN: Gurr – ‘Fake News’

Gurr‘s latest track ‘Fake News’ is a poignant observation on the world’s indifference to the opinions of others. The single is taken from the band’s upcoming EP She Says, which is set for release on 5th April. It will also be accompanied by a video shot by visual artist Shelby Sells.

The German duo – formed of Laura Lee & Andreya Casablanca – were inspired to write the song by the current political climate, as well as a recent trip to London. The pair explain further: “‘Fake News’ was a direct response to what was going on (and still is) politically at the time, and the growing gap I feel between people leaning both left and right. I think with press and algorithms, we are only fed the kind of news we already believe in and agree with, which is super dangerous”.

“The song then connects that to an experience I had when we visited the the BBC for an interview with Huw Stephens. We went inside and there was this gigantic newsroom with so many screens but no windows at all. I found that a bit disturbing: Like here’s the people making the news and they can’t look outside.”

Gurr are currently in the middle of performing at SXSW, followed by tours in Germany and USA next month. We’re looking forward to hearing their new EP, and hope the rest of the tracks are just as cutting and well-crafted as ‘Fake News’. Listen to the track below and follow Gurr on Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Miriam Marlene Waldner

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment