WATCH: Hinds – ‘New For You’

Following their debut in 2016, and having wowed us at Visions Festival back in 2015, and Green Man Festival last year, it is with excitement that we’ve seen this week that Madrid band Hinds have returned to brighten our January with news of a second album.

Taken from the album is new single ‘New For You’. Filled with the band’s trademark uplifting, sunny charm and truly infectious charisma, it oozes all the joyous, empowering spirit that we’ve come to know and love. Propelled by a fantastically jangly scuzz, it’s another wonderfully uplifting slice of catchy lo-fi garage rock.

Of the new video, guitarist and co-vocalist Carlotta Cosials explains:

“I thought [football] cannot be more Spanish and that it cannot be a more male sport, and that it is good to present a different gender-reality without even trying hard. I think sports are such a good metaphor with life, with goals, passion and suffering.”

I Don’t Run, the upcoming second album from HINDS, is out 6 April via Lucky Number. Catch Hinds live when they’re over in the UK:

15th April – Glasgow, SWG3
17th April – Manchester, Gorilla
18th April – Bristol, The Fleece
19th April – London, Electric Brixton
20th April – Brighton, Concorde 2

Mari Lane
@marimindles

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: Chiara Berardelli – ‘Deep Space Hibernation’

Following My Big Mouth and Don’t Be So Lovely, Scottish artist Chiara Berardelli is now set to release her new album, Seamonster. Confronting one of her most painful inner heartaches – the sadness of not having children – she’s taken more control in every part of the recording process, allowing her to impart her ideas at a deeper level than ever before.

Taken from the album is new single ‘Deep Space Hibernation’. Otherworldly, raspy violins within the intro provide an element of the unknown and other-worldly space before they unexpectedly fall away to the gentle pace of piano melodies. The soft tone which ‘Deep Space Hibernation’ suddenly adapts from here causes your mind to float away with the chords and – with Chiara’s soothing, husky vocals – you’ll find yourself within your own realms of deep space in an instant. 

Although the pace is gentle, ‘Deep Space Hibernation’ talks of finding that quiet strength which is in all of us. Singing of the “Fire in my soul”, Berardelli seems to have created a metaphor for the space between being mentally tired, but not ready to give up. The late addition of drums aids this symbolism, and also picks up the energy before being layered ethereally against luscious vocal soundbites.  

Of the track, Chiara explains:

“When I was at my lowest ebb, the idea of going to sleep for a long time and waking up when the pain was over seemed very attractive. Although it depicts sadness, I think it’s an uplifting song, perhaps reflected by the analogy of space, something way bigger than ourselves.”

Although tinged with bittersweet sadness, ‘Deep Space Hibernation’ also contains an air of uplifting hope, which deems the single the perfect easy listening song for those gentle Sunday mornings.

 

Seamonster, the upcoming album from Chiara Berardelli, is out 2nd March.

Nicky Lee Delisle
@Nicky___Lee

 

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: Black Gold Buffalo – ‘Lay It Down’

A well-crafted, slow-burning track about overcoming anxiety, Black Gold Buffalo have shared their latest single ‘Lay It Down’. The track follows the group’s previous single ‘Pearls Deep’, both of which are featured on their long awaited debut album, which is set to be released on 6th April, via their own label Buff Rekkids.

The band’s ethos is totally DIY. “We run our own label, we make our own art, and we call on friends to make vides and remixes,” vocalist Keziah Stillwell explains. We’re hooked on Black Gold Buffalo’s mesmerising, alternative sounds and after you’ve listened to ‘Lay It Down’, you will be too.

Follow Black Gold Buffalo on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

ALBUM: Mint Field – ‘Pasar De Las Luces’

Emerging from the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Mint Field are a duo of twenty-one year olds who bonded over their shared love of indie and shoegaze. Whilst this may sound surprising, Mexico’s cultural suffusion with all things guitar-led perhaps makes it inevitable that at least one group would take inspiration from US/UK trends of the ’80s and ’90s.  

For Mint Field, though, it’s not just about the music – Amor (synths/drums) and Estrella (vocals/guitar) have admitted that “We knew we liked arts, we just never thought we’d become artists as musicians”. Following the release of debut EP, Primeras Salidas in 2015, Mint Field have toured the US and Mexico, playing Coachella, SXSW and support slots for established artists, including Suuns. It’s quite a step up from a pair who could barely play musical instruments when they met. But perhaps it’s that commitment to art that explains why – with debut album Pasar De Las Luces – the pair have crafted something exploratory, inventive, and epic.  

Opener ‘El Parque Parecía No Tener Fin’ begins with white noise, before Estrella introduces the song with robot speech, leading into a bass-led, post-punk structure, with delicately-picked guitars. It’s a cinematic trick that appears on several songs across the album – the duo unafraid to let each song build gently, adding layers to their creation, before letting it fall away again.  

‘Ciudad Satélite’ repeats the style, with Estrella’s crooning vocals swooping over a post-rock guitar style similar to Mogwai or God Speed You! Black Emperor. It returns again on ‘Viceversa’ – with a sunnier, slower take and Estrella’s voice light as a feather -, on ‘Nostalgia’ with its swooping crashing symbols and threaded guitars and, finally, on the spacey, explosive and yet empty contrast of ‘Boötes Void’; the cinematic style drawing the album together in the manner of a soundtrack to an unmade film.  

Other parts of the album look to differing rock styles: lead single ‘Ojos En El Carro’ is a Warpaint-esque ballad that explodes into life with a hurricane of distortion in its final third. ‘Temporada De Jacarandas’ pulls back, initially, into something more synth-driven and introspective, that turns dark at its close. ‘Cambios Del Pasar’ follows in the footsteps of Yo La Tengo!, with the repetitive gloom-psych of The Black Angels hanging over it.

‘Quiero Otoño De Nuevo’ is similarly relentless, but draws more from the non-stop Krautrock of Neu!, whilst ‘Club De Chicas’ is as poppy as the album gets – a My Bloody Valentine shoegaze throwdown, perfect for staring at the floor.  

‘Para Gali’ is a surprisingly cheery number, while closer ‘Párpados Morados’ finishes the album with a mournful farewell. But it’s tenth track ‘Nada Es Estático y Evoluciona’ around which the album hangs. An epic, built just out of guitar, drums and vocals, its opening verses gently carry the listener, before a key-turn takes everything swirling down and out, as its guitar riffs grow heavier and more ominous.

Recorded in Detroit with producer Christopher Koltay, Estrella and Amor say of the album: “We had a much clearer idea of what we wanted and we had the tools to make it.”  With this stunning fusion of light and shade, emotion and distance, Mint Field have harnessed their ideas and tools to produce the freshest, most emphatic debut of this, or many years.

Pasar De Las Luces, the debut album from Mint Field, is out 23rd February via Innovative Leisure Records. 

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

Photo Credit: María Fernanda Molins

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment