ALBUM: Tusks – ‘Dissolve’

If you’re a fan of delicately produced music, Tusks’ debut album Dissolve is an essential listen. Released today via One Little Indian, the ten track record is an impressive offering from newcomer Emily Underhill.

Created alongside longtime co-producer Brett Cox, Dissolve explores territories both internal and external: insecurity, the breaking down of relationships with ourselves and our lovers, and most importantly – hope. ‘For You’ opens the record with lonely keys, clicking beats and Tusks’ delicate vocals, all blended seamlessly to create a moving, ethereal soundscape. On ‘False’ she laments about the lover who “broke down my walls,” the wasted energy and lost faith is explored via piercing guitar riffs and tumultuous percussion.

‘Last’ is laced with reverb and aching vocals and a chorus that rings out in a style similar to that of ethereal indie band Daughter. The eponymous ‘Dissolve’ is a highlight of the record. Slow-building and sensitive, it’s an aural trip through bad memories that have seeped below the skin. It leads in to mysteriously named ‘1807’, which is a masterclass in Brian Cox’s production skills. Each click of percussion and tap of the keys sounds as crisp and pure as Tusks’ measured vocals.

‘Paris’ hosts precious whisperings of love and insecurity – “I’m not safe when I’m alone” –  and could soundtrack a sad night in the city it’s named after, whilst following track ‘Ivy’ is a metaphor for the suffocating doubt that lingers in toxic relationships. ‘Toronto’ contrasts nicely with predecessor ‘Paris’, and while the soundscape here is larger and lonelier, there’s still an essence of hope present in both the vocals and ambient guitar.

Penultimate track ‘My Love’ is a gentle ode to the discovery of true romance, bathed in twinkling synths and more of Tusks’ trademark echoing vocals. The record closes with an eerie cover of Foals‘ ‘London Thunder’ – which Tusks delivers in her own pensive, mesmerising way. Buy your copy of Dissolve today, and let its sensitive sounds erode your fears away.

You can order your copy of Dissolve here, and RSVP here to the album launch show at Kamio on November 15th. Follow Tusks on Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Harvey Pearson

Kate Crudgington
@KCBocCut

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Track Of The Day: Blonde Maze – ‘Thunder’

I’ve pretty much been addicted to everything New York artist Blonde Maze has created since meeting her when she was a guest on our radio show over a year ago. There are days when I find myself just listening to the sheer blissful sounds of tracks such as ‘Awake/Asleep’ and ‘Antartica’ on repeat for hours, just getting lost in their luscious, dreamy haze… So, I was pretty pleased to discover that, after a twelve month break from releasing music, Blonde Maze is back with another majestic electro-pop offering.

Oozing her trademark shimmering, ethereal melodies and atmospheric, sweeping synths, ‘Thunder’ is filled with rich textures and interwoven musical layers, making for a beautiful and utterly captivating slice of electro-pop. Of the track, Blonde Maze explains:

“‘Thunder’ is about growing and changing with someone…You start to miss older times with them, but you also acknowledge that the growth has made them an inseparable part of your heart. Sometimes, with a relationship’s maturity, you lose your patience more, you let your guard down, and you get hurt, but the beauty of this maturity is that there becomes no one else in the world you are as comfortable growing with.”

So, let yourself become completely immersed in and addicted to the dreamy splendour of ‘Thunder’, as we wait for the release of a new EP…

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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Track Of The Day: Velvet Volume – ‘Look Look Look!’

Having just released their debut album and recorded the theme song for the Danish version of The Powerpuff Girls (!!), Danish sibling trio Velvet Volume are fast becoming one of the most exciting rock bands around.

Taken from the album is latest single ‘Look Look Look!’. A slice of racing garage rock, it’s propelled by driving riffs, pounding beats and gritty vocals, making for a truly infectious offering. With shades of the likes of ’90s brit-pop legends Elastica or the seething punk-pop of Blondie, it oozes an immense sense of cool that’ll leave you longing for more from these three Danes.

Written about the bad habits that come with not yet knowing how to structure your life, Noa Lachmi explains of ‘Look Look Look!’: “This track was written at a point in our lives, where we all had to get used to time with restlessness and insecurity.”

Watch the vibrant, wig-filled new video for ‘Look Look Look!’ here:

Look Look Look!, the debut album from Velvet Volume, is out now via Mermaid Records.

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ALBUM: Mammoth Penguins and Friends – ‘John Doe’

There are moments that define you, for better or worse, scattered throughout life. The happy, the sad, the shattering. Arrivals, departures and all that’s in between. And then there are the moments which suspend you, that have the potential to break you completely but only fracture – a creased page in the centre of your story.

The ambiguous grief suffered by those around a man who fakes his own death only to return years later is the subject dealt with on Mammoth Penguins and Friends’ new album John Doe. From the record’s opening domestic sounds of tea cups nudging against saucers through lush strings and folk picking, and electronic bleep and scratch around indie-esque guitar, the album weaves this story, each track the view of someone around the disappearing John Doe. The not knowing, the resignation, the hope, the questions without answers in living through this event are all beautifully, painfully, and painstakingly crafted here.

Many will already know Mammoth Penguins, led by indiepop royalty Emma Kupa, but musically the addition of the ‘and Friends’ to the Penguin party has changed the shape of the band’s sound significantly. Haiku Salut’s Sophie Barkerwood and Joe Bear add programming, samples and synths, while Russell Lomas adds violin. The band also added to their three-piece indie stomp as bass player Mark Boxhall made field recordings across the space of a month, and to the tracks are the subtle addition of photocopiers, butter being scraped onto toast and Ramsgate beach. This brings a depth, a startling reality to the tales being told, sharpening their poignancy.

From those at the epicentre we get the innocence and disassociation of ‘The Child’, and album closer ‘The Wife’, a piano and found sound scratch beyond Kupa’s high, wavering and yet never-less-than-sure vocal. The effects of the disappearance ripple outward, to the dehumanising monologue of ‘The Line Manager’ and then sloshing back with two more up-tempo numbers in ‘The Ex-girlfriend’ and ‘The Ex-girlfriend Pt 2’. Each track has its own viewpoint, and its own distinct sound, revealing the mundanity and the monument of every day life and one person’s decision; but together the songs bring comfort and sadness in knowing even broken hearts keep beating.

Concept albums are not without stigma, often feeling heavy-handed and overwrought, and – while the subject matter here could easily have been rendered that way – it is the expert crafting of gentle yet raw emotion and melodic resonance which make John Doe an album of exceptional bittersweet beauty.

John Doe is out 13 October via wiaiwya.

Sarah Lay
@sarahlay

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