Track Of The Day: Beorma – ‘Without You’

A bittersweet reflection on losing someone you love and as a result a part of yourself, Birmingham-based band Beorma have shared their latest single ‘Without You’. Mixing R&B and indie pop sensibilities with a smooth heartfelt vocal, the track is an unexpectedly upbeat listen, brimming with emotion and a melody that warmly rushes the senses.

Formed of Ferns, Tom and Paul, Beorma performed separately in different bands before they began working together during lockdown in 2020. Sending ideas back and forth online, the band’s collaboration led to the creation of their debut EP Virtual Emotionality, which they released in early 2021. Following on from their previous single ‘Her’ – which captured the inner conflicts of desire and the need for distance when it comes to a breakup – on ‘Without You’ Beorma gently muse on the gap that’s often left by grief.

“With a lot of our songs we like to touch on darker subjects and ‘Without You’ is exactly that,” Ferns explains. “It’s the dark side of loss; it’s about not only losing something/someone dear to you, but most importantly losing yourself and crying out for meaning and purpose in order to find your footing in this world again. I think it’s important for people to listen to it and let it speak to them in whatever way it does.”

Beorma will be supporting Dream Wife on the Birmingham date of their UK tour at The Castle & Falcon on 24th March.

Listen to ‘Without You’ below.

 

Follow Beorma on Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: MASCA – ‘Unsure’

A catchy slice of alt-pop that explores the way we focus on our bad habits and relationships for reasons that often feel intangible, Bristol-based duo MASCA have shared their debut single ‘Unsure’. With the support of producer Elliot Vaughan, the band muse about the cyclical nature of uncertainty through their relatable lyrics, catchy guitar riffs, snappy percussion and melodic keys.

Formed by Christina Maynard (Souer) and Jack Hamilton (INDIGOS), who have spent the last six years writing songs together, MASCA combine dual vocals with catchy melodies and guitar riffs to create their fusion of pop and rock sounds. The band sold out their first Bristol headline show in late 2020 with no material released and have since played support slots for the likes of Delta Sleep, Kier, Beach Rio and Goan Dogs. Their debut single ‘Unsure’ is the first taste of what the band have to offer this year.

“Unsure is about those kinds of relationships which don’t feel quite right but you can’t help yourself carrying on with,” the band explain. “Sometimes the thing that pulls two people together is more like a negative addictive force than a constructive one. It’s such a hard thing to be aware of, especially while you’re actually in that situation. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a romantic relationship, and It’s not really meant to apply to really bad toxic or abusive relationships, just the more ordinary relationships that people can find themselves in which they don’t realise are holding them back until they actually move on.”

The single is accompanied by a video, directed by Jay Bartlett, featuring Christina and Jack dressed in mock-up Marlboro cigarettes packets, wandering around everyday scenes trying to escape the uncertainty they sing of. “It was quite a while after we wrote the song that Tina realised that there were quite a few references to burning and flames and that’s where the idea for the video came from,” Jack explains. “That kind of tied together these ideas of addiction and unhealthy relationships really nicely.

2022 looks set to be a productive year for MASCA, who have an EP release in the pipeline and appearance at Burn It Down Festival and Glastonbury Calling booked in too.

Watch the video for ‘Unsure’ below.

Follow MASCA on Spotify, Instagram & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: First Frontier – ‘Insist’

If you’ve heard any of the other tracks that Birmingham based duo First Frontier have released so far from their brand new debut EP, you might have an inkling of what to expect from ‘Insist‘; but the relatively gentle opening bars do not prepare you for the depth and power the duo have managed to inject into their latest song.Whether you’re familiar with their work or not, though, you can make the reasonable assumption that this is a track that is going to stay with you.

From the beginning, ‘Insist’ is made of the kind of stuff that seeps into your mind and lingers, though not in a way that is at all unwelcome. The track builds until the rich, wailing guitar and throbbing drum beat uplift the comparatively soft vocals. The song as a whole encapsulates the churning, roiling emotion that both causes and is hidden by the stoic exterior of someone who would never let on, on the outside.

‘Insist’ is a love song – though it’s not like other love songs in many ways you might expect, but it still has a very recognisable emotion. Instead of treating the hypothetical lover in the song as an object of pursuit, First Frontier makes them the inspiration to grow: it depicts love as a driving motivator. 

The lyrics are simple but heart-wrenching. The way the two vocal lines echo around each other create an image of the relationship that exists. One is tempted by the kind of desperate decisions that can destroy a life, while the other is beckoning them towards better, healthier things. Together they evoke an incredibly vivid picture of someone in the depths of despair, but who is starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. This is the kind of love that hurts, but it’s the kind of pain that you can channel into growth and use it to propel you to a better place.

First Frontier use a simple combination of just guitar, drums and vocals to create a unique and moving sound. ‘Insist’ a genuinely beautiful song – it aches to be consoled, but leaves you confident that there is hope very nearby.

Just Matter, the debut EP from First Frontier, is out now! Listen here.

Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt

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Track Of The Day: O Hell – ‘Untangle’

A shadowy, captivating soundscape that documents a personal metamorphosis, Brighton-based artist and producer Lucy Sheehan aka O Hell has shared their latest single ‘Untangle’. The follow up to their debut single ‘Down’, the track sees Sheehan unravel their feelings of disconnecting from a past relationship, carving a new narrative of self-autonomy via shuddering synth lines, twitchy beats and crystalline vocals.

After years spent touring and recording music in alternative bands around the UK, Sheehan has ventured into fresh sonic territory under their new moniker O Hell. Influenced by a love of eclectic, brooding soundscapes and a desire for creative independence, their debut single ‘Down’ was an “exercise in refusing compromise.” With new single ‘Untangle’, Sheehan explores this process further, finding catharsis and strength in deconstructing yourself and re-building a new identity.

“I wrote ‘Untangle’ when I was living alone in a cabin,” Sheehan explains. “This song came up and felt like a rare moment of clarity, that I was in the process of becoming an ‘I’ rather than part of a ‘we’, and that process could either be a brutal erasure or in fact a rebirth. The song is about disentangling from a person, who you can no longer discern yourself from, where the ‘I’ has become lost in ‘us.’”

“I was getting interested in making beats and then cutting it up at random – removing the odd snare, hat or kick with my eyes closed, so I landed with this slightly twitchy beat that immediately inspired the rest of the song. I was listening to a lot of Christine & the Queen’s La Vita Nuova and Nine Inch Nails, so when Ben Hampson and I got it in the studio, it was a delicate process of finding that hyper-pop dynamic, balanced with deranged sonic details.”

O Hell will make their live debut supporting Thyla at the Hope & Ruin in Brighton on 25th May.

Listen to ‘Untangle’ below.

Follow O Hell on Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Annie Dorrett

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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