Kate Crudgington – Page 64

Track Of The Day: Ex-Vöid – ‘Churchyard’

A catchy, jaded slice of garage-pop inspired by an unusual past-time, UK power-pop punks Ex-Vöid have shared their latest single ‘Churchyard’. Taken from their debut album Bigger Than Before, which is set for release on 25th March via Prefect Records/Rough Trade, the track is a buoyant blend of melodic guitars, soft dual vocals and frustrated lyrics.

Formed by ex-Joanna Gruesome vocalists Lan McArdle and Owen Williams, along with Laurie Foster (bass) and Jonny Coddington (drums), Ex-Vöid are inspired by the sounds of The Byrds, Big Star and Teenage Fanclub. Whilst on the surface their music is infectiously upbeat, the band retain a sardonic, strung out wit through their lyrics, with ‘Churchyard’ being a prime example of this blend.

“I wrote ‘Churchyard’ when I was like 24 and living in Brighton,” guitarist Owen Williams explains. “My friend and I were unemployed and we used to spend a lot of time drinking cans of lager and taking legal highs in a pet graveyard. It was boring so at the end we sing ‘I get so bored’ over and over etc.”

This humourous apathy underscores the band’s debut record, Bigger Than Before. The album was recorded in just over an hour in a studio in Hackney, with minimal overdubs and no breaks. Bassist Laurie Foster was reported to have “kept on playing even though his belt came loose and his trousers fell down” – if that’s not incentive to listen, what is?

Listen to ‘Churchyard’ below.

Follow Ex-Vöid on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter & Facebook

Photo Credit: Max Warren

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

February 1, 2022February 2, 2022

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Track Of The Day: Kee Avil – ‘saf’

An intoxicating, claustrophobic listen that sharpens the senses, Montréal-based experimental artist and producer Vicky Mettler aka Kee Avil has shared her latest single ‘saf’. Taken from her debut album Crease, which is set for release on 11th March, the track unravels like a gratifying exhale, underscored by magnetic electronics and Avil’s intense, alluring vocals.

A guitarist, singer, producer and member of Sam Shalabi’s acclaimed Land Of Kush project, Mettler cut her teeth playing in various noise and improv outfits before fully fleshing out her new moniker Kee Avil. “Songwriting, to me, is like sculpting,” Mettler explains. “It stems from an initial word, emotion or sound, which I then build on, molding it into a more refined shape, glued into an artificial structure. Other times, my role is to peel it, scrape at its exterior, to reveal its natural state and its part within the whole.”

It’s this physicality behind the shaping of her sounds that makes Mettler’s music feel so visceral, especially in her new track ‘saf’. “Is this the same ache we all share? / can you feel it there under your ribs?” she probes over serpentine electronics, urging listeners to immerse themselves in the tense atmosphere she has created.

Following her self-titled EP released via Black Bough Records in 2018, Mettler’s debut album Crease was written over a period of three years, with each song representing “a certain moment in time, an emotion, exercise or spontaneous idea that creates its own world…built without consideration for the other.” With her razor sharp focus and disorientating blend of sounds and vocals, Mettler’s new full length offering looks set to be as spinetingling as her latest single.

Watch the video for ‘saf’ below.

Follow Kee Avil on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Lawrence Fafard (Mask by Ariane Paradis)

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

January 31, 2022

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LISTEN: SOFT LAD – ‘2 Know U Betta’

A playful musing on what could happen if your crush just spared the time to text you back, multi-instrumentalist SOFT LAD has shared her latest single ‘2 Know U Betta’. Taken from her debut EP MAXIMUM FEELS, which is set for release on 1st April, the track is an earnest reflection on what could have been, underscored by buoyant guitars and smooth vocals.

Sophie Gaplin aka SOFT LAD has spent the past fourteen years playing alongside the likes of Tom Grennan, The Breeders, James Vincent McMorrow, Jessie Ware, SOAK and SELF ESTEEM. Now, she’s stepping into the spotlight to share her brand of honest pop, with her second offering ‘2 Know U Betta’ exploring that all-to-familiar feeling of being ghosted by a crush.

“I had a spark with someone and wanted to get to know them more, in a casual way,” Galpin explains about the track. “I was like, ‘I’m not looking for anything serious and there’s literally no pressure here, but we could be having a really nice, fun time if you ever texted me back!’ I knew there was a vibe there and I thought it would be a shame to let it go, but in the end I had to accept that she had her own thing going on, which is totally fair!” Galpin puts this missed romantic opportunity into context via her conversational lyrics and breezy melodies.

Inspired by the sounds of Years & Years, MUNA and Shura, as well as her own experiences of queer love and relationships, SOFT LAD’s debut EP looks set to be a joyful, tongue-in-cheek listen, with singles ‘Singapore’ and ‘2 Know U Betta’ providing the first dose of her pop-infused wit.

Listen to ‘2 Know U Betta’ below.

Follow SOFT LAD on Spotify, Twitter & Instagram

Photo Credit: Lou Pye

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

January 28, 2022

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ALBUM: Brimheim – ‘can’t hate myself into a different shape’

“I am going to be completely honest with you,” confesses Danish-Faroese musician Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff aka Brimheim during the opening line of her exquisitely tender track ‘favorite day of the week’. It’s a simple enough statement, but she delivers it with startling conviction through her crystalline vocals and considered instrumentation. It’s this candid, yet tentative approach that makes listening to her debut album, can’t hate myself into a different shape, such a cathartic, rewarding experience. The follow up to her 2020 EP, Myself Misspelled, her new record is a poignant reflection on love in all its forms; romantic, platonic – and the hardest type to articulate and master – self love.

Brimheim – a name chosen as a homage to her roots in the Faroe Islands, translating as “home of the breaking waves” – worked alongside producer Søren Buhl Lassen to create the sublime sounds on her new record, which she mined from a “deep depression hole” during a global pandemic. Despite the raw and confessional nature of her music, the record is peppered with self-effacing humour and a strong sense of self-awareness, proving that even in the darkest moments of isolation, there’s still room for light and laughter, even if it is occasionally through gritted teeth.

Moving between the boundaries of alt-pop, grunge, shoegaze and electronic music, can’t hate myself into a different shape is an intense, brooding listen. “I have noticed that I am see through” Brimheim observes on the opening track ‘heaven help me i’ve gone crazy’, a frank but gentle expression of what it feels like to “pick at the edges” of yourself when your emotions have been muted by depression. What follows is a beautifully bruising unravelling of vulnerability, with title track ‘can’t hate myself into a different shape’ setting the emotionally resilient tone that permeates the record.

Whether it’s her soft plea for reassurance that she’s not “a burden” on ‘baleen feeder’ (a nod to the filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales), her disarming reflection on unconditional love for her wife on the atmospheric ‘lonely is beauty’ – “She is all I could need / Everyone else / Makes me feel lonely” – or a nostalgic ode to teenage friendship on ‘hey amanda’, Brimheim is a master at capturing a moment in its purest form. The exquisite, shadowy majesty of ‘poison fizzing on a tongue’ is a superb example of this, and further proof of her skill for transforming self-flagellation – “When I am finished resisting myself / I will be beaten senseless” – into poetic, exhilarating music.

The rawness of her lyrics on ‘straight into traffic’ are punctuated by fluctuating keys, as she resists the urge to give into thoughts of self harm, ending on a note of genuine hope: “Don’t give in, love / You’re more than enough.” On ‘this weeks laundry’ she extrapolates on the painful, yet absurdly relatable need to keep up appearances by “putting on foundation” for a “trip across the street” to disguise the fact you’re barely able to function. Brimheim pulls herself back from the brink each time, and even on the masochistically titled closing track ‘hurting me for fun’ – where she is pulling herself up “by my hair” – her self-effacing tendencies blossom into acute and astoundingly accurate observations of the effects these emotions can have on the human condition.

“I felt like I’d been in this black muddy place, not able to see anything and kind of drowning,” Brimheim revealed to us in an interview about creating the songs that formed can’t hate myself into a different shape. Carving her own path out of a deeply vulnerable state, she has managed to craft a stirring, intricately observed collection of life-affirming songs that chime with relatable melancholy, and that will undoubtedly provide comfort for listeners who may be living through a similar experience.

Brimheim’s debut album can’t hate myself into a different shape is released via W.A.S. Entertainment on 28th January. Pre-order your copy here