ALBUM: BCOS RSNS – ‘BCOS RSNS’

London DIY post-punks BCOS RSNS‘ eponymous debut album is the kind of release that cements a band’s place in a musical landscape just waiting for them to come and take their rightful place at its heart. Every track is clearly drawn from an authentic place, whether it’s a fond memory of a night out or an examination of personal experiences of bigotry. This gives the whole album a sense of vulnerability that makes listening to it feel like you’re in the easy company of friends.

The music is stylistically uncomplicated, with simple rhyme schemes that make it easy to absorb the point of each song. The lyrics are straightforward and accessible, delivering thoughts clearly and frankly. These are set to upbeat rhythms and buoyant guitars that make for a very enjoyable listen. Elements that really shine in every track are the incredibly catchy hooks that bounce around your brain long after the album ends.

The album as a whole showcases a diverse range of musical styles and skills, but the one thing every song has in common is its honesty. Every line comes from such a real place; the songs feel like the band is opening up to you, trusting you with the important things they feel about the world around them. The album carries you along on a rich emotional journey that is intensely personal, yet still relatable. You’re invited to dive into their explorations of everything, from conspiracy theories, to being ghosted, to how they would go about their dream revolution. 

Through the two singles that have been released, we’ve been perfectly introduced to the tone of the album with its direct approach to emotions and generally wholesome vibe. Then as it gets underway, it eases you into deeper territory. The fun rhythms and authentic lyrics give the album such a gentle pace you almost don’t notice how intense the subject matter becomes. BCOS RSNS begins with a love letter to live music, ‘(First On At) The Buffalo Bar’, and continues to pay tribute to the scene simply by contributing the band’s own fantastic new introspective and insightful gems.

BCOS RSNS, the eponymous debut album, is out now. Listen / download on bandcamp now. And keep your eyes peeled for BCOS RSNS on a stage near you!

Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt

Kirstie SummersLeave a comment

LISTEN: GIHE on Soho Radio with Rats-Tails (27.05.24)

Tash and Kate were back on Soho Radio playing loads of new music from some of their favourite female, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ artists. Mari offered some of her “musical musings” too. Artists featured on the eclectic playlist included Jenny Moore & F*Choir, AVR, Softcult, Schande, Brimheim, R.Aggs, NikNak & AGAAMA, adults, Rubie, Brennan Wedl and more.

Courtney from South London dream-rock band Rats-Tails also joined them in the studio to talk about the band’s latest single ‘Flowers’ and how they shot and created the animated video that accompanies the track. Courtney also spoke about Rats-Tails recent performance supporting HAVVK at The Shacklewell Arms for the March edition of our Get In Her Ears gigs, her band mates mutual love of artists like David Bowie and The Cure, as well as sharing Rats-Tails upcoming gig dates in London and Bristol.

Listen to the show below:

 

We’ll be back on Soho Radio on Monday 24th June from 12-2pm
 Make sure you tune in via www.sohoradiolondon.com

Tracklist
Le Tigre – Hot Topic
Jenny Moore ft. F​*​Choir – Ceasefire (You Cannot Stop the Sun)
Æ Mak – Let’s Do It
AVR – Confirm Humanity
Softcult – Heaven
Fishwyfe – Get Out
Brimheim – Into The Ooze
Felix Jaehn & Jasmine Thompson – Without You
Gigi Williams – Boulder
cumgirl8 – quite like love
Dermabrasion – Grim Sister
Yinká – Smoke
Naima Adams – Fragile
Coolgirl – Marked Walk
Jessica Pratt – Nowhere It Was
Rosie P – You
Rats-Tails – Flowers
**Interview with Courtney from Rats-Tails**
Pem – Awe
Tom Rasmussen – Dysphoria
Rubie – To Change
R.Aggs – Welcoming The Waves
NikNak ft. AGAAMA – Pandora’s Box
Schande – We’re Not Twins
Brennan Wedl – Scorpio
adults – Trouble
Avril Lavigne – He Wasn’t

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

FIVE FAVOURITES: NikNak

The genre-blending sounds of Leeds-based electronic artist, producer, and DJ NikNak are inspired by an eclectic collection of music and media. Her brand new album, Ireti, released via Accidental Records, leans into Afrofuturism, exploring the ways in which humanity and technology intersect, and has narrative crossovers with iconic dystopian films and video games like Blade Runner and Cyberpunk 2077. The record is a distinctive, cell-tingling fusion of jungle beats, jazz nuances, dub, reggae rhythms and cinematic electronics; all of which help to sculpt NikNak’s elusive, yet exciting new sonic universe.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to create music in the first place. We caught up with NikNak to ask about her “Five Favourites” – five tracks that have inspired her songwriting techniques. The thing is, she made so many great recommendations, that we decided to keep them all – so there’s nearly double the amount of tracks for you to sink your teeth into!

Check out her extensive list of choices below, and scroll down to watch the video for NikNak’s latest AI inspired single ‘Pandora’s Box’ featuring AGAAMA at the end of this post…

 

1. Willow Smith – ‘Big Feelings’
There’s these clips of Willow in the studio recording and piecing together elements of her latest album, Empathogen, with Yussef Dayes in there recording drums with her at one point…then I saw her Tiny Desk Concert and it blew me away; especially seeing a mostly all female line up of musicians vibing together. Her re-work of ‘ Wait A Minute’ is so glorious and uplifting. To think that she’s only 23 too!? To end on ‘Big Feelings’ takes me back to Jamiroquai and Herbie Hancock. Watching this performance made me go buy the album and has inspired me to work with more live musicians in the future. Brilliant stuff.

2. Mia Koden – ‘Hot Take’
This tune reinvigorated my love of 140 in recent years and gets bonus points for referencing the histories and all the wonderful things that make 140/dubstep so special. It’s kinda rare nowadays I think to come across music that makes a point of referencing its origins in authentic ways. What Mia has done here is make a track that is 100% her, but I also feel my ancestors through that baseline and multiple drum switch ups.

3. Jlin – ‘Open Canvas’
It was really hard to pick something from Jlin’s album, Akoma. I saw her live for the first time at Bristol New Music Festival alongside Ryoji Ikeda and was blown away by both performanceS, but seeing Jlin use the MPC live was something else entirely. I fully admire her work and she’s someone I’d love to connect with one day. Her music makes me feel nostalgic and warm – big vibes.

4. Loraine James – ‘Gentle Confrontation’
I’m kind of cheating a bit here, because I’d put the album in this too since it’s the same name, but the intro to Loraine’s newest album is beautiful and really imposing of where her sound has taken her in recent years. Picking a tune from her discography at this point is really hard for me, as I’m a big fan of her ever-evolving work. I just love that there’s a sense of play in her work, which is so important and richly evident.

5. Dennis Brown – ‘Get To Love In Time’
Dennis Brown is my fave reggae artist I think, and this song always takes me back to the exact moment I’d heard he passed away. I think this was the first time I’d really had an artist’s death impact me. If I didn’t get into production, I would have become a bass player simply because of reggae and the beautiful grooves underneath all the other instruments. Dub plays a big part in my music I think, whether I realise it or not. All the delays and reverbs, and the noise that comes from all of that, all play important parts in my music consciously and subconsciously, and I love that. RIP Mr. Brown.

6. Missy Elliot – ‘Whatcha Gonna Do’
Her discography is nuts, as we all know, but I’d say my favourite song of hers has to be ‘Whatcha Gonna Do’ from the So Addictive album. Whenever she works with Timbaland, magic happens and I think in hindsight, this era of R&B/Hip Hop really gifted us with a version of Afrofuturistic music in mainstream. This was one of the many tunes that helped me to see that we can literally make music be and look like anything we want, and that we don’t have to follow rules. It’s something we don’t really see now in the same way anymore, but Missy is definitely one of the pioneers of this.

7. Boxcutter – ‘Rusty Break’
Before this tune came into my life, I’d been introduced to DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’ and Cut Chemist’s ‘The Audience Is Listening’, and loved how they’ve been able to adapt, sample and repurpose classic drum breaks into new patterns and loved that. Then came Burial, and around the same I think came Boxcutter’s ‘Rusty Break’ and he took things to a new level. I think I was in my first year of uni at this point… I don’t know, I feel like I was hearing so much music that everything was influencing me in a variety of ways both in and outside of my studies, particular in my undergrad studies but ‘Rusty Break’ is up there for sure!

8. Burial – ‘Archangel’
I remember sitting in college going through a YouTube dark hole at lunchtime or free period, and I found an anime video someone cut to this track… immediately I was hooked and had to listen to everything Burial had put out at that point. Sampling Ray-J’s vocals in such a dark and atmospheric tune was nuts. The textures and gridless drums were nuts. Burial introduced me to another side of music production, another way to break rules and approach it like a sketchbook instead of it being so regimented.

9. Seed. – ‘Afronaut’
I’m a little bit biased as I’m now a member of Seed., but the first time I heard ‘Afronaut’ it made me an instant fan of them and Cassie’s phenomenal writing skills. All of the time signatures, melodic craziness, everything altogether is next level; and all the ways the keys, chords and tempos change and intertwine with each other throughout the track is very inspiring. Plus, XANA’s verses are just cherries on top. More rules broken here. As someone who can’t read music and didn’t learn to classically play an instrument, hearing talented musicians play such transformative music was another big moment for me I think too.

Thanks to NikNak for sharing her favourite tracks with us!

Watch the video for her latest single ‘Pandora’s Box’ below

NikNak’s upcoming UK Tour Dates 2024
(DJ sets unless otherwise noted. * = Ireti live)
May 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 – Leeds Art Gallery – Inner Ireti immersive installation at Leeds Jazz Festival (DJ set and artist talk at 1pm on May 23)
May 25 – Leeds, Headrow House
May 31st – Birmingham, Centrala,
June 6 – Newcastle, Cobalt Studios*
June 29 – Brighton, Fortune Of War
August 30 – Belgium, Meakusma Festival*
Sept 7 – Utrecht, Gaudemaus Festival

Follow NikNak on bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify, Youtube, Instagram, X & Facebook

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

LISTEN: pink suits – ‘Be Good To Yourself’

A distinctly pink suits take on the self care anthem, ‘Be Good To Yourself‘ combines the fierce drums, screaming guitars and passionate vocals the band are known for with an unmissable wholesome message. It’s easy to ignore empty platitudes telling you to live, laugh, love, but pink suits take a more insightful and defiant approach to self-care.

The track acknowledges how hard an instruction as simple as “be good to yourself” can be in a world where everyone is struggling for one reason or another with support increasingly difficult to access in the rare places it is available. A world where people feel more isolated than ever, despite the tools we have for connection, because of the dog-eat-dog nature of contemporary society; where you are made to feel guilty for not being on the grind every waking moment of your day; where the controlling elite profit when you feel bad about taking the time out to practice even the slightest moment of genuine self care (assuming, that is, you ever manage to practice genuine self-care, and not the self-care defined by capitalists involving spending money you don’t have on things that only really offer short time comforts). 

pink suits point directly at the cause of the problems likely to be weighing on you and make it impossible to argue with them when they tell you to find a way to be kind to yourself anyway. Every reference to the issues making self-care a struggle comes as a comfort. ‘Be Good To Yourself’ is a track designed to make you feel seen; the rage integral to pink suits’ energy echoes the frustration of self-care feeling so elusive. That energy makes you want to be good to yourself in spite of all the elements of the world around you seemingly designed to make you feel awful.

In a world that is cruel, and makes a particular target out of people who are already marginalised, this song redefines self-care as an act of rebellion and defiance. It hammers home how truly vital it is to ensure that, when there is no guarantee of compassion or kindness from anywhere else, you, at the very least, will be good to yourself.

‘Be Good To Yourself’ is taken from pink suits’ immense new album Dystopian Hellscape. Listen / buy on bandcamp now!

Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt

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