FIVE FAVOURITES: Me Lost Me

By exploring the binary oppositions of hope and despair, experimental Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent aka Me Lost Me pushes herself to her emotional limits. On her most recent album, This Material Moment, released in June via Upset the Rhythm, she examines the power of “words as a material”, how we interpret them and their contrasting abilities to physically soothe or sting us in life’s rawest moments.

She was inspired to write her fourth record after she attended a workshop with Julia Holter, where she explored the catharsis of automatic writing techniques and “chance-based writing strategies,” resulting in her most personal and vulnerable offering to date.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with Me Lost Me to ask about her “Five Favourites” – and she picked five albums by an eclectic range of artists who have inspired her songwriting techniques.

Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch the official video for Me Lost Me’s single ‘A Painting of The Wind’ too…

 

A note from Me Lost Me: I’m an album listener through and through. I love being lost in another world for 30-60 minutes, popping my headphones on, going for a walk and being whisked away. I chose these 5 album specifically because of the lasting impact they’ve had on the music I make as Me Lost Me, from when I was a teenager to just after I’d released my first record, when I was figuring out where I wanted to go with my music.

1. Patrick Wolf – Lycanthropy
Patrick Wolf has a lot to answer for! I grew up with the folk music my parents loved and then suddenly, here was someone drawing on that tradition and screwing with it. Crunchy intense pop electronics with these melodic motifs that felt so rooted in the music I knew and loved, but fresher, weirder and darker.

When I was a teenager I had a ukulele that got accidentally smashed to the point of it being unplayable. Later that year, I won tickets to a gig and meet ’n’ greet in London. A friend and I travelled down from Chesterfield, and I took what was left of this ukulele for him to sign (I didn’t have a record player at the time so I figured there was no point getting a vinyl for the signing). When we spoke, I told him I wanted to write music and remember him saying basically, “well, do it then, start right now”, and on the ukulele he wrote “Jayne, follow the star” (quoting some of his lyrics). I still have it.

I think I needed the permission, perhaps, to just go for it. His first few albums really presented me with the idea that you can play with older forms and ignore genre boundaries. I think that was massive for me then, and clearly stuck with me.

2. Bjork – Homogenic
I struggled to pick a Bjork album, but Homogenic was probably the first one I really fell in love with. In the end, I also had to choose this one because the “emotional landscapes” line in ‘Joga’ is something I’ve held onto as a conceptual ideal of the music I want to make – emotional landscapes – and I still go back to this idea when I write and arrange stuff.

The blend of organic and electronic sounds is so well done, it’s a proper cyborg album, fleshy and robotic in equal parts. Its hard to pick a stand out track, they are all amazing for different reasons and speak to me differently on each listen through. You have songs like ‘Unravel’, so intimate and vast at the same time and the simple visual metaphor in the lyrics is beautiful. Then tracks like ‘Bachlorette’ so full of this angry feral beauty, not as many belt-along tunes as other Bjork albums but they still get me going.

She manages to express this messy, tangled web of emotions and make me feel them along with her. I’ve always thought if I could ever make someone feel that way with my own music, I’d be so happy.

3. Einsturzende neubauten – Ende Neu
There’s a theme emerging here perhaps, artists that capture a multitude of things at once. The reason I love this album isn’t how well knitted together these different elements are, however, the thing I love most about Ende Neu is how the different flavours clash up against each other, it’s delightfully jarring. Its got that classic Einsturzende Neubauten intensity, but it manifests differently in each track. It’s got chant-along tracks like ‘Was Ist Ist’ and the creeping menace of ‘The Garden’, industrial moments, classical moments, and Blixa’s voice – super sweet one moment and pig squealing the next.

I love this album because it’s proof that you can lean into different feelings and flit around. You can be extremely serious and intense and then also be daft, give people whiplash if you like – an album doesn’t need to be a vibe-monolith. ‘The Garden’ is the stand out track for me. It’s the track that made me fall for Einsturzende Neubauten in the first place, it’s so simple but insistent. The lyrics are almost amusingly mundane “you will find me if you want me in the garden / unless its pouring down with rain” but then suddenly expanded out into this abstracted, time-stretching poem.

4. Laurie Anderson – Big Science
When I was studying fine art as an undergrad, I was playing around with musical forms, making sound art and performance art. In a tutorial, I was advised to listen to Laurie Anderson. This album completely blew apart my idea of art and music as separate entities, and rightly so – why would they need to be separate? Why did I ever think they were?

It changed how I framed my work completely and the whole Me Lost Me project came out of this desire to blur art and music – folk and electronic, past and future – and this album was so important for that. It’s a delirious dizzying and surreal experiment in storytelling. It gives snapshots into these strange narratives that are just out of the reach of reality, echoed by the combination of her voice and vocoder, such an uncanny valley feeling. It still gives me goosebumps.

5. Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch
I heard this album after I’d released my first record, Arcana, while I was putting The Good Noise together. It was the first of Jenny Hval’s work I’d come across and it instantly hooked me. It has everything I love: surprising twists, moments of jarring collage, of softness, of raw emotion, moments of addictive, euphoric pop choruses, lyrics I want to investigate, to know intimately. It’s a journey through so many emotional states, it’s the kind of album you want to crawl inside of.

I’ve been a huge fan of her work since and every record is stunning in different ways. I appreciate an approach to album-making that is almost like a collection of related art pieces, not necessarily the same medium, but linked with a through line. It’s like a concept album, I guess, but not in a classic “this has a linear narrative” way. Jenny Hval’s albums instead feel like explorations of an idea and an investigation into something, asking questions that are too messy for a simple answer.

Thanks to Me Lost Me for sharing her favourites with us!

Follow her on bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Amelia Read

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Five Favourites: Laura Reznek

Having received much acclaim for her debut and cross-disciplinary stage show Agrimony, and then this year’s innovative album The Sewing Room, Canadian songwriter and composer Laura Reznek interweaves poignant reflections on the struggles of living in a patriarchal society and personal loss, with her glistening folk-tinged melodies and delicate rich vocals.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, ahead of her upcoming UK tour which kicks off next month, we caught up with Laura to find out about the five albums that inspire her the most. Read about their five favourites below, and then make sure you check out her gorgeous album The Sewing Room…

Judee Sill – Judee Sill
Out of all of these, Judee Sill is the newest discovery for me and I don’t really know how it took me so long to find her. I think this record is so incredible – honest, sad, hopeful, beautiful – and when I first heard the opening song ‘Crayon Angels’ it felt like this warm wave washing over me. Every time I put it on – especially when that oboe hits! –  I always breathe a sigh of relief.

Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends
I will love Simon & Garfunkel until the end. This album especially was in my ears a lot while I was writing and recording The Sewing Room. I feel like it’s a really varied record and takes you on a journey. I always love an element of spoken text or conversation woven into music, so love ‘Voices of Old People’ which comes in before ‘Old Friends’ – which has a string arrangement I’m obsessed with. And I think that ‘America’ is the most perfect song ever written.

Madison Cunningham – Revealer
This album blew my mind when it came out. I think Madison Cunningham is one of the best songwriters out there and that this record is pretty much perfect. I heard ‘Life According to Rachael’ in the midst of immense grief and I found it incredibly comforting. I love her use of language and textures in her arrangements.

Anais Mitchell – Anais Mitchell
Another 2022 release, Anais Mitchell’s self-titled record has been a staple in my life. She’s been a longtime inspiration – I saw her play solo in 2016, the day after the US election and the week Leonard Cohen died – and it was the only show I’ve ever openly wept at. ‘Bright Star’ is probably in my ears about ten times a day.

Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
I will never stop being in awe of Fiona Apple. This album was the soundtrack to my lockdown, and the main reason why I wanted to try my hand at producing The Sewing Room on my own, after I heard she’d made the majority of it in Garage Band. It’s raw, it’s human, and makes me feel empowered, uncomfortable, and elated, which is everything I want from a record.


Huge thanks to Laura for sharing her Five Favourites! Make sure you have a listen to the exquisite The Sewing Room, and then catch her when she’s over in the UK in September and October! Tickets here.


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FIVE FAVOURITES: Cwfen

Forged by tenacious friendship and a shared passion for creating dense-yet-dynamic sounds, Glasgow-based heavy band Cwfen (pronounced ‘Coven’) have recently shared their debut full length album, Sorrows.

Released via New Heavy Sounds, it’s a record that “builds, burns, collapses and resurrects” – a potent amalgamation of their simultaneously doom-laden, diaphanous noise that the four-piece are preparing to perform live across the UK on their upcoming tour supporting L.A. “doomgaze” trio Faetooth.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with Cwfen’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Agnes Alder to ask about her “Five Favourites” – and she picked five tracks by an eclectic range of artists who have inspired her songwriting techniques.

Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch the official video for Cwfen’s single ‘Wolfsbane’ too…

1. PJ Harvey – ‘Rid of Me’
Of course, it starts with Polly Jean. That intro, how it hangs in the air just a beat too long, daring you. Then her voice, understated but razor-sharp, with those strange, confrontational lyrics. They feel like a promise scratched in broken glass. The breathing, the raw vulnerability, the sudden jarring falsetto before the whole thing detonates into that chorus. It’s a glorious, twisted mess that should collapse under its own weight, but instead it coalesces into something furious and powerful. The sheer audacity of a woman writing something this defiantly fucked up was so interesting to me. I didn’t think women got to write songs like this. She was standing there with her guitar, like some sort of wild goddess, telling you how she was about to become your beautiful, unavoidable problem. I wanted to be even a tenth as cool as her. Still do.

2. Melvins – ‘At the Stake’
This song changed my brain and planted the seed for Cwfen. I remember the exact moment, driving home through this long, flat stretch on the way to Fife, the dusk settling in, the sky dark and bruised. Then thunder cracked, lightning whipped across the sky and this song began. It was like someone put on a film. The storm, the landscape, the history of all the women persecuted as witches in this part of the country. It all became this enormous swell of feeling. That moment etched itself into me. Every time I hear those opening chords, I’m back in that storm. It made me realise I wanted to make music that told a story, that grabbed people by the gut and didn’t let go. It’s a simple song, but it hits you right in the middle. That’s the brutal beauty of it.

3. King Woman – ‘Hem’
I haven’t heard a King Woman track that I don’t love, but this is the one I reach for most. It’s the oppressive quiet; that thick, airless atmosphere that settles like a shroud. And the misery of it – and I mean that in the most loving way. Kris Esfandiari’s voice is otherworldly. Ethereal, melancholy, but this powerful anchor in everything that’s swirling around it. The whole thing is a slow, elegant descent into the dark. It’s claustrophobic but it’s not hopeless. There’s a vulnerability there, a kind of quiet reckoning. I imagine it as the sound of confronting your demons in the loneliest hours and finding strange beauty in the pain. It’s the heavy blanket you pull over yourself when nothing else will do. Their songs do this better than anyone’s.

4. Thorr’s Hammer – ‘Norge’
This track made me fall in love with doom. That funeral-dirge quality, giving way to sheer, elemental brutality. I just loved it from the moment I heard it and thought Runhild was just so bloody cool. It made me realise I wanted to learn to scream. I always think listening to it feels like a summoning. Like someone dragging ancient, indifferent spirits out from the stones. It’s monolithic. Unhurried. Unrelenting. It showed me what bleak beauty could sound like and I wanted to bottle some of that for myself.

5. Lingua Ignota – ‘Do You Doubt Me Traitor’
Gosh, how do I try and explain how this one makes me feel. It’s sort of what I imagine listening to an exorcism might be like. That deceptive fragility at the start, the slow build, then the absolute torrent of rage and sound. Raw. Ferocious. Absolutely disintegrating into the unhinged. The way she rolls every word around in her mouth, cradled deliberately or spat out like a curse. I once had it on in the car and had to turn it off because my passenger was having such a visceral reaction to it. That’s how potent it is.

It gave me the same shock as the first time I heard Diamanda Galás doing The Litanies of Satan. It’s more black metal than most black metal and it has directly influenced how I perform. The feral, unchained part of me on stage owes a lot to this, and finding a way to tap into that part of yourself where you lose all control. And those harmonies at the end are divine, like some sort of twisted Greek Chorus. They have this unsettling, sacred-but-desecrated energy. I wanted to try and do something similar, treating the vocal arrangement as choral rather than lead and backing on Sorrows. This track is a masterclass in catharsis. It’s awe-inspiring in the truest sense of the word.

Thanks to Agnes for sharing her favourites with us!

Follow Cwfen on bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram & Facebook

Cwfen will be supporting Faetooth on their upcoming UK tour.
Tickets here

13/06 – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
14/06 – Huddersfield, Northern Quarter
17/06 – London, The Black Heart
18/06 – Manchester, Star & Garter
19/06 – Norwich, Arts Centre
20/06 – Ramsgate, Music Hall

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Five Favourites: Roller Derby

Kicking off their UK tour tonight in Manchester at The Peer Hat (there will some tickets left on the door), Hamburg dream-pop duo Roller Derby have been charming our ears with their sparkling heartfelt anthems for some time now, and delivered such a wonderful performance for us at their sold out show at Shacklewell Arms last time they were over in London in 2024. Having recently released their exquisite debut album, When The Night Comes, they’ve showcased their ability to meticulously interweave the luscious celestial vocals of Philine Meyer with glistening multi-layered soundscapes and raw textures to create something truly captivating. 

To celebrate their first proper tour of the UK, Roller Derby have reflected on their five favourite albums by British bands and artists, sharing a few words about how much they love them and the different ways they feel influenced by them. So, have a read of their choices below, make sure you check out their stunning album, and pick up a ticket for their UK gigs now!

Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg
When we heard ‘Scratchcard Lanyard’ by Dry Cleaning on the radio for the first time, we were immediately blown away. We love the band’s sound, especially Florence Shaw’s vocal performance. The music video for the song is also one of the best we’ve ever seen. Their long-awaited debut album New Long Leg was released in 2021, and album track ‘Strong Feelings’ is also a really wonderful and hypnotic song.


The Cure – Disintegration
The Cure and Robert Smith are probably our biggest musical inspiration. The way they blend sadness with joy – melancholy with playfulness – is something that never stops inspiring us. Disintegration feels like one cohesive piece, yet it’s incredibly diverse – something we deeply admire and keep coming back to. ‘Plainsong’ is our favourite album opener of all time – maybe even Manu’s favourite song ever. We were lucky to see The Cure live at their 40th anniversary show in Hyde Park in 2018. It was an incredibly hot day, and pretty much everyone in the crowd was dressed in black – which made the whole thing kind of funny, in the most Cure way possible.

Temples – Sun Structures
Manu discovered Temples’ debut album Sun Structures back in 2014 and listened to it non-stop at the time. Alongside Tame Impala, it had a big influence on his taste in music and really pulled him deeper into psychedelic sounds. He has seen the band live twice in Hamburg, and the record is proudly displayed on our living room wall. Maybe the intro of ‘Shelter Song’ even had a little influence on our own track ‘Always on My Mind’!

Rolling Stones – Flowers
This list should also include what is probably the biggest and best-known band from England. Philine came into contact with the music of the Rolling Stones at a very early age, as a cassette of the album Flowers was always played in the family car on long car journeys. ‘Ruby Tuesday’ remained as a favourite song, but ‘Out Of Time’ and ‘Sitting On A Fence’ are also great songs. The recording of ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ is also amazing.

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy
I don’t think anyone has quite been able to get over the band The Last Dinner Party over the past year. They released such an impressive debut album – it’s really exciting musically and we really like the baroque-pop approach, which is reflected in their whole outward appearance. Philine particularly loves the songs ‘On Your Side’, ‘The Feminine Urge’ and of course ‘Nothing Matters’.

Huge thanks to Philine and Manu for sharing their Five Favourites with us! Make sure you check out the full When The Night Comes album and then nab a ticket to their special London headline show at The Lexington this Friday, 9th May!
Get a taste of what to expect in this gorgeous video for recent single ‘In Spring’:



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