Track Of The Day: LIINES – ‘Sorry’

Having received acclaim from the likes of Sleaford Mods, John Kennedy and BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq, as well as blowing us away headlining for us at The Finsbury, Manchester trio LIINES consistently impress with their distinctive, raw post-punk. And latest single ‘Sorry’ is no exception.

Oozing the band’s trademark dark, brooding power, ‘Sorry’ builds with deep, intense bass lines, the gritty, commanding growl of vocalist Zoe McVeigh and Leila O’Sullivan’s consistent pummelling beats. Propelled by a thrashing sense of urgency, an eerie swirling majesty encompasses the listener, captivating the ears with its punk-fuelled bewitching allure.

Of the track McVeigh explains:

“… it’s about whether somebody is present or absent, you’re trying to make someone feel sorry for you, but as the song speeds up it becomes a bit more of a manic notion and sort of bordering on obsessive. LIINES songs are more of a mental state than a specific event – they are an emotion, a feeling.”

 

Produced by Paul Tipler (Elastica, Placebo), ‘Sorry’ is out now (with B side ‘On and On’), with a limited number of black 7” vinyl editions available for direct mail order and through independent record shops, via Reckless Yes. Order via LIINES’ Bandcamp now. 

 

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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Track Of The Day: CATBEAR – ‘Who Are You?’

A heady, retro-pop tune about the breath-taking nature of new found lust, London-based duo CATBEAR have shared their latest single ‘Who Are You?’. Full of lush synth sounds and snappy yet danceable beats, the track is an aural flirtation designed to provide a moment of joy during uncertain times.

“This was so much fun to write,” explains band member Zoe Konez. “I came up with the first half of the song on a train during my commute on one of the last days before [the first] lockdown and we developed it during those first few long weeks of quarantine where making music kept us going.” Along with bandmate Sarah Smith, Konez wrote, recorded and produced CATBEAR’s new music fromhome over the summer, an achievement that’s made even more impressive by the fact that Smith worked on the frontline in A&E for the NHS throughout the pandemic, and that Konez runs a music programme in a mental health hospital.

‘Who Are You?’ is a wonderfully upbeat escape from the pressures of the duo’s daily routine, brimming with that infectious and overwhelming feeling of attraction when you find your thoughts spiralling over a new crush. Listen to the new single below and follow CATBEAR on bandcamp, Facebook and Spotify for more updates.

 

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Ailsa Tully – ‘Drive’

A tranquil alt-folk tune that gently encourages listeners to escape the greyness of their day-to-day reality, Welsh songwriter Ailsa Tully has shared her latest single ‘Drive’. Released via Dalliance Recordings who Tully has recently signed to, the track is a breezy reflection on what it means to break away from the daily stresses of life and exist in a peaceful moment of escapism.

“’Drive’ was inspired by a time when my brain was festering in a boring job,” Tully explains. Through her soft vocals and melodic guitar sounds, she eases the relatable tensions that come with wasting your precious time in an unfulfilling career, finding that “silver lining” in the greyest of situations.

A former guest on our Hoxton Radio show, Tully is deeply influenced by her Welsh heritage. A member of her church choir, she recalls walking across the Welsh countryside and hearing voices reverberate beyond the church walls, which has influenced her own sound to include elements of choral music, folk music and field recordings. ‘Drive’ is the first taste of Tully’s new music, and she’s set to release more singles in 2021.

Listen to ‘Drive’ below.

Follow Ailsa Tully on bandcamp, Spotify, Facebook & Instagram for more updates.

Photo Credit: Adam Whitmore

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Soho Rezanejad – ‘Half The Shore’

Uncompromising is a word that’s used to describe a number of musicians, but rarely does it seem truer than with Danish artist, composer and playwright Soho Rezanejad. Digging through her back-catalogue, both under her own name and that of her alter-ego, Angeles, is like uncovering a series of art installations crossed with epic movie soundtracks – as daunting, impressive and overpowering as a mountain range.

Born in New York City before growing up in Copenhagen, Rezanejad seems to carry all manner of influences in her work to date – from the synth orchestrals of Vangelis, the no-quarter given vocals of Nico, and the industrial, goth and post-punk sounds of various British acts of the 1980s. That sense of movement and diverse influences is also reflected in her latest album Perform and Surrender – to be released by the artist’s own Silicone Records in December – which results from a series of performances in Copenhagen, Vienna, Helsingør, Munich, Montreal, Toronto, St. Petersburg, Tromsø and Nantes across 2018 and 2019.

‘Half The Shore’, taken from Perform and Surrender, actually offers a notable change from Rezanejad’s previous work. Opening with a minute of strummed guitar, and gently picked notes that echo in an alt.country style, this is a far more approachable piece than perhaps anything Rezanejad has released before. The voice that follows is shot through with a raw balladic quality.

“Love without trust is a river without water”, she sings, “so don’t leave me”. In a sense, this is old in style and emotion, made new; an artist seeking a brave new front in more antiquated fashions. According to Rezanejad herself, the album was taken from “small scores, bits of stage direction, with performances special to each…” As this suggests, there is the hint of something slightly off-the-cuff to ‘Half The Shore’, not least in the vocalising that teems through the track’s instrumentation like sunlight through mist, around the 2 minute 40 mark. That said, and despite a sensibility that it is perhaps more organic than many of the songs on Rezanejad’s previous LPs, there is still a story being told here, and this is still a soundtrack, of sorts. “I lost someone very dear to me at the time” says Soho Rezanejad of the creation of Perform and Surrender, “All things…resembled a testimony of life and death”. 

An album that is bathed in the rumination that follows loss, ‘Half The Shore’ is one of two tracks that prominently feature strings – the other is the preceding track, ‘Absence’, a violin-led elegy – and both sit at the album’s centre. Nature too, is hidden in spaces within the tracks: the songs of birds appear just at the close of ‘Half The Shore’ as it segues into ‘Hera’, for one example, quite literally dovetailing with but also acting in optimistic opposition to the album’s recurring aspect of mourning.

And what of that title too, just what is ‘Half The Shore’. Evoking images of cliffs crumbling and land being part-swallowed by the sea, the cataclysm that is ongoing but not completed. And yet in the phrase too is optimism – a sense of returning to land, a glimpse of something firm to come back to. You get the impression that, with Soho Rezanejad, there are no obvious or easy answers.

 

Perform And Surrender, the upcoming album from Soho Rezanejad, is out 4th December via Silicone Records.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

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