PLAYLIST: November 2022

The Get In Her Ears team have put together another eclectic mix of indie tunes, guitar anthems and electronic sounds for your listening pleasure. Take some time to scroll through our track choices below, and make sure you press play on the Spotify playlist at the end of this post.

Follow GIHE on Spotify to hear all of our previous playlists too.

 

Big Joanie – ‘Sainted’
HUGE congratulations to GIHE faves Big Joanie on their nomination for Best Alternative Music Act at this year’s MOBO Awards! This groundbreaking new category also features our faves Nova Twins, who wrote an open letter to the MOBO Awards back in 2020, asking the panel to include an alternative category. This is a massive and hard won achievement, respect and solidarity to all those who engineered this much needed change! To celebrate, we’ll be playing this spooky Big Joanie tune, lifted from their superb new album Back Home, on repeat. (Kate Crudgington)

Currls – ‘Nerve’
Taken from their brand new debut EP Hello My Name Is, Currls’ latest single ‘Nerve’ is a perfect slice of gritty, scuzz-filled garage-rock. Propelled by the band’s trademark empowering energy and soulful allure, it leaves you longing to catch them live and dance along in joyous unity with fellow fans. And it just so happens that this is something you can do next Thursday 1st December at Shacklewell Arms! We’re hosting Currls’ London EP launch, with support from Collars and Hypsoline – tickets on Dice now. (Mari Lane)

Bad Sidekick – ‘I Ain’t Sick’
You may have noticed that in December we’re hosting not one, but two, gigs! The second sees brooding Bristol band Bad Sidekick headlining for us on 9th December. They’ve recently released an epic debut album Daily Lottery, but I couldn’t resist including this track from their 2018 EP – I just love its raging energy, frenzied, reverb strewn riffs and Cooper’s fiercely powerful vocals. Bad Sidekick will be headlining the Shacklewell Arms on 9th December with support from Alien Chicks and Cosmic Ninja – tickets on Dice now. (ML)

The Pearl Harts – ‘More’
Loving this new single from London-based duo The Pearl Harts! It sounded great list night at their sold out gig at Blondies too. The track is lifted from their upcoming album, Love, Chaos, which is set for release in early 2023. (KC)

Django Jones and The Mystery Men – ‘Bad For You’
Described as “music written for the restless”, this is the debut single from Sheffield post punk trio Django Jones and The Mystery Men. Loving the brooding intensity of this one. (KC)

Grandmas House – ‘How Does It Feel’
Unsurprisingly, we love this new tune from GIHE faves Grandmas House. It’s a bi-lingual blast of angst, pairing frontperson Yasmin Berndt’s French vocals with drummer Poppy Dodgson’s English vocals as “a call and response between two people about the feelings of confusion you go through when breaking up.” (KC)

Panic Shack – ‘Meal Deal’
This recent single from Cardiff’s Panic Shack reflects on the realities of the cost of living crisis as working people are increasingly undervalued and underpaid, whilst musically its swirling punk spirit and tongue-in-cheek lyrics uplifts and energises. A fun-filled, yet meaningful, indie-pop banger. Baby Shack, the latest EP from Panic Shack, is out now. (ML)

Human Interest – ‘Mixing Paint’
The latest single from London duo Human Interest reflects on the darkest crevices of the mind with a fizzing post-punk energy. Oozing the band’s trademark gritty allure and the sweeping power of Tyler Damara Kelly’s vocals, ‘Mixing Paint’ cements Human Interest as my favourite new band right now without a doubt. (ML)

Ideal Host – ‘The Conflict’
A sardonic cacophony that explores the antagonistic nature of the everyday routine, I love this single from Ideal Host. Led by Heather Perkins and Sean Hughes, both former members of the band Slowcoaches, the pair have returned to work together and evolve their sound under this new moniker. The band are planning to release their debut album in early 2023 and will be playing a string of live dates too. (KC)

M(h)aol – ‘Asking For It’
We’ve been following Irish post-punks M(h)aol (pronounced “male”) for a while now, and this track has always been a favourite of mine. Fueled by a palpable rage against rape culture, the band have re-released this track alongside the news of their debt album, Attachment Styles, which is due on 3rd February via TULLE Collective. Watch the poignant accompanying video directed by bassist Zoë with input from vocalist Róisín here. (KC)

New Pagans – ‘Karin Was Not A Rebel’
Following on from their stunning debut album, The Seed The Vessel The Roots and All, Belfast’s New Pagans have announced that they’ll be releasing their second LP, Making Circles of our Own, on February 17th via Big Scary Monsters. ‘Karin Was Not A Rebel’ is the first taste of what’s to come, celebrating the overlooked artist and designer Karin Bergöö Larsson, one of the foundational modern interior designers. I can’t wait to hear the band’s new record early next year! (KC)

The Empty Page – ‘Dry Ice’
Reflecting on pre-lockdown nightlife, this new single from Manchester’s The Empty Page soars with a dark energy and gritty allure, evoking feelings of nostalgia for that woozy joy of nights soaked in a smokey, sweaty haze. And it’s impossible not get utterly immersed in Kel’s sweeping vocals as they swoon with a haunting power alongside a riotous grunge-tinged musicality. (ML)

ARXX – ‘The Last Time’
The latest single from absolute long-term faves ARXX, ‘The Last Time’ reflects on feelings of heartbreak whilst referencing queer TV show Euphoria. An uplifting yet emotion strewn fizzing pop anthem, it oozes a shimmering synth-soaked musicality and catchy driving energy whilst maintaining the duo’s gritty, colossal power. It was absolutely wonderful to catch ARXX in all their empowering, endearing charm at The Social this Wednesday! ARXX’s long awaited debut album Ride Or Die is set for release very soon – pre-order here. (ML)

Collars – ‘Rainbows’
Providing main support at the Currls EP launch at Shacklewell Arms next Thursday, Collars are fast becoming a new favourite with their energy filled, fuzz-strewn catchy indie-punk offerings. Delivering rich impassioned vocals alongside jangling hooks and driving beats, I cannot wait to see this duo live! (ML)

Ailbhe Reddy – ‘Shitshow’
We’re big fans of Irish songwriter Ailbhe Reddy here at GIHE, so we’re thrilled to hear that her new album, Endless Affair, is due early next year on 17th March. “’Shitshow’ came from a lyric I played with for a few months which was ‘my god, look at the state of me, this is so embarrassing'” Ailbhe explains about this latest single. “It’s about looking back on a night out with regret while also addressing and apologising to an ex-partner about my antics. The first verse is to myself and the second verse is to someone else. It’s kind of a tongue in cheek examination of a bad hangover.” Hard relate to that one. Check out the excellent accompanying video for ‘Shitshow’ here. (KC)

Kierst – ‘How To Be’
This poetic rumination on a past relationship features on Brooklyn-based songwriter Kierst’s debut EP, Thud. Inspired by her memories of moving between people and places, the record is a heartfelt reflection on “how bizarre a thing a relationship really is.” (KC)

Dayydream – ‘Wasn’t’
A tender reflection on the transient nature of emotions and our attachments to other people, this track is lifted from Glasgow-based songwriter Chloe Trappes aka Dayydream’s debut EP, Bittersweet. Filled with delicate guitar strokes, dreamy vocals and affecting lyrics, Trappes ruminates on distance and desire across the record and the way these things can shift our perspective towards ourselves, and to others over time. I really recommend giving it a listen. (KC)

Queen Colobus – ‘5/9’
South London based indie-jazz collective Queen Colobus’ latest single is taken from their recent EP Think Fast, and I just can’t get enough of its blissful hooks, luscious swooning vocals and glistening laid-back beats. A wonderfully woozy euphoric soundscape. (ML)

Σtella – ‘Nomad’
Athenian Σtella has released ‘Nomad’ taken from her album Up and Away, which was released earlier this year in June. I’ve only just come across her now for the first time, but her music is beautiful, described as “vintage-flecked pop to the pangs and raptures of love.” This track is simply beautiful, and as with many of the tracks on the album, uses traditional Greek instruments (bouzouki and kanun). Be prepared to be swept away to the Greek seas. (Tash Walker)

Prima Queen – ‘Butter Knife’
Produced by The Big Moon, this bittersweet offering from London-based duo Prima Queen is a reflection on the cruel nature of Alzheimer’s disease. Blending spoken-word verses and softly sung choruses with gentle guitars and percussion, the track is poignant and personal lament to slowly losing a loved one. (KC)

Blonde Maze – ‘When You Move’
Another utterly euphoric creation from my most played artist over the last few years, ‘When You Move’ comes from a collection of equally dreamy tracks that the New York based artist has released recently. Oozing an immersive, shimmering splendour, it offers a comforting embrace in audio form, as rippling waves of electro hooks sparkle with an exquisite majesty alongside heartfelt vocals. Blonde Maze never fails to soothe and uplift with her blissful creations. (ML)

Maria BC – ‘ROF’ (Rachika Nayar remix)
Ohio-born songwriter Maria BC has shared a remix EP of their beautiful debut album Hyaline, and it’s just as dreamy and poetic as their original record. Featuring No Home, Rachika Nayar, Nina Keith, Lucy Liyou, and Ragana, the altruistic ambient-folk sounds are a perfect distraction from life’s more stressful moments. (KC)

paun – ‘Earth Timeline’
Berlin-based paun released this eclectic ambient track earlier this year in addition to being featured in the first Éclat Various Artists compilation. It’s been in my ears for most of this month, so definitely check out the rest of paun’s work on bandcamp if you’re into this. (KC)

Babyfather, Tirzah – ‘1471’
‘1471’ is the second collab between Dean Blunt under his alias Babyfather and Tirzah, the first being her track ‘Recipe’ off of her album, Colourgrade. Always thirsty for more Tirzah content me! (TW)

HOLDA SEK – ‘At Twenty’
This is the debut single from the London based HOLDA SEK, made with producer Caezar. I can’t stop listening to this song, very catchy beats which drill down through your ears into your brain. (TW)

Tempers – ‘Unfamiliar’
New York City duo Tempers specialise in a sleek strain of low-lit poetic synth pop, I got to see them in London at studio 9240 and they were fantastic. This is their lead single from their album New Meaning, which was released earlier this year via Dais Records. (TW)

Twin Rains – ‘Nothing in my Purse’ (Secret Sign Remix)
Inspired by the concept of death and possession, I’m a big fan of this shadowy remix of Toronto-based duo Twin Rains track ‘Nothing In My Purse’. Re-worked by Secret Sign’s Phil Baljeu, a Toronto video artist & longtime friend and collaborator of Twin Rains, the track is an industrial-shoegaze tinted gem. (KC)

DOUBLE HELIX – ‘Rat Rave’
I first heard this track at the hand of Kate, so I’m going to dedicate this one to you mate. Double Helix were another of the bands that I saw at Studio 9294, alongside the likes of Tempers and Curses. A pretty epic live performance, some serious shoulder shuffling from me. (TW)

LibraLibra – ‘Frenemies’
The new single from total faves LibraLibra, ‘Frenemies’ reflects on the comfort we may find in fake or damaging ‘friendships’. Lulling us into a false sense of security with a sweeping orchestral intro, it builds with a colossal magnificence as front woman Beth’s vocals simmer with a sultry allure, before exploding into a riotous anthem seething with dark undertones. And LibraLibra were absolutely spectacular, as always, supporting other faves ARXX at The Social this Wednesday. (ML)

 

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

INTERVIEW: Nova Twins

Almost a year after the release of their debut album Who Are The Girls?, alt-rock duo Nova Twins have returned to share Voices Of The Unheard, a charity compilation LP that’s dedicated to spotlighting artists of colour in the heavy music scene. Available to pre-order until 1st March, Nova Twins, aka Amy Love and Georgia South, have put together a blistering collection of alternative anthems that showcase an eclectic range of talent, featuring tracks from Big Joanie, The OBGMs, LustSickPuppy and more.

We caught up with Amy & Georgia to talk about the new compilation record (supported by Dr Martens Presents), their ongoing conversations about racism in the heavy music scene, their dedication to the underground music community and a shared love for DeathKult leaders Ho99o9…

Make sure you pre-order your copy of Voices for the Unheard here.

Hello Amy & Georgia! It’s been almost a year since you released your debut album, Who Are The Girls? What are you most proud of about this record? Did you get to play any live shows with it before Covid-19 hit?

Georgia: I feel most proud about the amount of people we’ve reached. We get messages that say stuff like “I’m so glad we’ve discovered you” or “we can see ourselves in you, and we can be something different too” because they’re seeing us play a different type of music to what people are used to seeing black women play, you know? When we won the Heavy Music Award last year too, it felt like a big achievement to us, because of what we look like. It was such a big moment for the band, but it was also a big moment for our community as well, so that was great.

Amy: We did manage to tour the record a little bit in March and April last year. We were in France for about nine days, which was great, so at least we got to experience a little bit of the live buzz and the kick you usually get out of making an album. But yeah, we were supposed to play Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds and all these new places for the first time, so we were a little bit gutted that we never got to play the album there.

I think people are listening and paying attention in a different way though. Yes, we’re more online than ever, but I think we can reach more countries and reach more communities this way. I think we’ve discovered a lot of different things and we’ve got to know our audience a lot better. I think the album’s actually done better because of the reach it’s had online, as opposed to us just gigging. Everyone’s in a different headspace now. I think it’s been really, really amazing to take a step back and just get to know our audience and watch them enjoying it as much as we enjoyed making it.

That’s true, people have been really appreciative of new music over the last twelve months.

Another amazing thing that you did in 2020, you wrote an open letter to the MOBO Awards asking the panel to consider adding a Rock/Alternative category to their awards show. They acknowledged your letter with a tweet saying they’re working towards representing alternative music genres in the future. How do you feel about their response?

Amy: I think we still have to now push for it to happen this year. We have to take into account that we’re still struggling through this pandemic and there’s issues with funding and things like that, but I think this is a time to push in the right direction. We’ve got people’s eyes and ears on us now more than ever and people are listening. We just have to keep pushing.

You also started up your Voices For The Unheard platform last year, which was originally a series of Spotify playlists and conversations online highlighting artists of colour in the alternative music scene. That’s now developed into a compilation LP funded by Dr Martens Presents, which is amazing! Did you have a record release in mind when you originally started the platform? Or did it develop naturally?

Georgia: I think it really was a natural evolution, it just kept escalating. It started from the playlist on Spotify and then we thought, why don’t we just chat to these people on our Instagram and have a conversation with them and discover their journey? We ended up having so much in common, even though we’re from different sides of the world, we have this similar feeling being a POC alternative artist on this journey. So that was great to see our audience discover them, as well and for us to meet so many new bands too. When Dr. Martens reached out to us and asked if we wanted to do something with them on a bigger level, that was where the vinyl idea stemmed from. We thought it would be amazing to raise money for The Black Curriculum and to push all of these artists we’d selected and to give them more exposure as well.

As you’ve mentioned, all proceeds from the physical release of Voices For The Unheard will be donated to The Black Curriculum, a charity that addresses the lack of black British history in the UK curriculum. How did you find out about this charity and the work that they do?

Amy: I think it came up on our social media last year when the Black Lives Matter movement started to happen again. All these forums and websites and Instagram pages started popping up. I think before that, we felt quite isolated. It didn’t feel that there was much of a community here for us to join, everything felt sporadic. I remember when AfroPunk held their first London festival at Alexandra Palace and we had all these incredible POC creatives artists and fashion designers turn up, and we were like, where did all these people come from? Because we don’t see them here. We didn’t feel like there was much of a community that we could just go to and feel like accepted, I guess.

So around the time of the BLM movement last year, everyone start reaching out to each other – all of us, no matter where you were from – sharing websites and discovering a whole new world that we didn’t really know existed. I think The Black Curriculum popped up through that and we just thought there was some really interesting stuff on there. We actually had to relearn and are still re-learning our black history. So we just think it’s really, really important for organisations like them to exist.

I grew up in Essex. I’m from Thurrock, and I was probably like, one of maybe two black people in my class? I remember my teacher saying, specifically, “black people are slaves, that’s where they come from, slavery.” Not saying why that might actually be, or how terrible slavery was. So I was like, “Oh, I used to be that?” I remember being quite embarrassed. I was just a kid! You just don’t know any better, you know? My parents are Iranian, so I grew up with my Iranian family. So I was immersed in that culture, but I wasn’t necessarily immersed in my kind of blackness, I guess, until I met Georgia’s family.

It was just painted that white people saved us here in Britain and how great the British Empire was, and how they decided to free us. It was a really strange and backwards way to learn your history.

Georgia: I grew up in London, so it was really diverse at my school. But when it came to black history, all they showed us was the Roots documentary. They said that slavery was bad, but they didn’t teach any other black history. Nothing about black kings and queens and how rich they were. That’s all I took from school.

I guess that’s why The Black Curriculum is so important isn’t it? I grew up in Essex too and I don’t remember anything about black history on the syllabus. Hopefully organisations like this will be able to change that for school kids in the future.

The Voices For The Unheard vinyl has been funded by Dr Martens Presents. What does it mean to you to have this kind of support from such an iconic brand?

Georgia: Dr Martens are our favourite shoe brand, we literally wear them every day. They’re a massive corporation, so their connection to underground music is so helpful. Even with the people that they put on their adverts, they could easily pick a bigger artist but they want to support new bands and they’re always searching for new music, which is refreshing.

Amy: I think it really makes sense for us because we genuinely love the brand. I mean, I could show my feet right now – I’m wearing DMs! It’s a natural alliance and it’s just great for us to be able to have a company invest in ideas support in the community in such a way so it’s brilliant, a really good match.

They’re so good at spotlighting new bands. I remember coming out of Camden tube station about three years ago and seeing the Dr Martens campaign that featured Ho99o9. They had posters of the band all the way up the escalators in the station and all over town, it was so good!

Amy: Yes, we love Ho99o9!

Georgia: I remember seeing the posters too, they were so good!

When it comes to the track-list for the album, how did you narrow it down to 11 songs? Your Voices For The Unheard Spotify Playlists are so extensive, it must have been hard to choose only ten artists?

Georgia: It was really hard! We were like “can’t we have 14 people on the record, please!?” I think many of the people on the track-list are the artists we first discovered and chatted to, so all of the people we’ve had online conversations with are on there. It was really difficult to be honest. We would have added like ten more if we could…

Amy: Exactly. We picked artists like Connie Constance who we love and feel like she is deserving of so much more. There’s obviously bigger artists that we love like Ho99o9 and FEVER333, but they’re kind of big already, so we tried to focus on people who may have not had that kind of kickstart or any kind of attention just yet. We wanted to explore the idea of new bands making new exciting sounds, and who have a new take on things, so we’re just really proud of them all.

Georgia: We wanted to be diverse as well, so there’s a mixture of non-binary and trans artists as well as artists from different cultures on there too.

It’s an amazing album and I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

So, what else is on the cards for Nova Twins this year? Any new music from you after this compilation release?

Amy: I feel like you never know what’s next for Nova. It’s so funny being in this band, I love it. One day we’ll be sitting there twiddling our thumbs and then suddenly, we’ll just run with this massive new idea. I think there’ll be loads of stuff that we’ll be putting out there, just trying to make shit happen for the community, and also just for us as two girls living in the UK, with a fucking dream, trying to get somewhere.

I think 2021 is going to be good. We’re excited about the new stuff we’re making and excited to join alliances with more artists. I feel like there’s strength in the artists joining together, as opposed to us being competitive with each other.Exciting times!

Thanks so much to Amy & Georgia for chatting with us!

Pre-order your copy of Voices for the Unheard here.

Follow Nova Twins on Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment