Track Of The Day: Nuala Honan – ‘Day To Day’ (Cephas Teom Remix)

With an immersive groove that hits with the comfort of a warm summer night stroll, Nuala Honan’s ‘Day To Day’ is a dreamy electronic progression filled with intricacy and smoothness. As the second release from a set of new remixes adapted from Nuala Honan’s hailed 2020 album Doubt & Reckoning, ‘Day To Day’ is a delicately enhanced tune at the hands of Cephas Teom.

With a new sonic palette to draw from and plenty of musicality to work with in Honan’s original track, Cephas Teom transforms ‘Day To Day’ into its second hypnotic life. Speaking through the language of MIDI, digital voices meet sophisticated jazzy tendencies in an array of grooves that intertwine with one another in the layered mix. Percussion is the catchy glue of ‘Day To Day’ and homogenises with the mellow MIDI keys only when it feels so right. Synth pads and deep bass create a grounded base that is elegantly rich in a fluid tone that expands for miles.

Floating vocals and simple melodies make Nuala Honan’s electronic articulation carry an electro-pop disposition to it. There is something accessible about Honan’s writing paired with Teom’s coding that is easy for new ears to latch onto, a warmth among the cold.

With her cathartic storytelling that steeps in solitude, Honan’s songwriting shares a welcome relatability. ‘Day To Day (Cephas Teom Remix)’ is a moment of relaxation hosted by gentle instruments that turn to liquid in sequence with the soothing tones of Honan’s exquisite vocals.

 

Listen to ‘Day To Day‘ now. Find out more about each of the album’s remixes on Nuala Honan’s Podcast ‘Phonin With Honan‘.

Jill Goyeau
@jillybxxn

Photo Credit: Paul Blakemore

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: Bad Idea – ‘Winter’

A fuzzy, relatable guitar tune that playfully reflects on the desire for escapism whilst working a low paid job, Bad Idea have shared their latest single ‘Winter’. Released in partnership with RoseColoured Records, the Leeds band channel the joys and frustrations that come with growing up through pop-tinged melodies, soft vocals and catchy lyrics on this track.

Formed in 2016 on a drunken night out dancing to Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’, Bad Idea’s Sarah Sefton and Daniel Johnson chose the band’s name after entering into a new creative project and a new romantic relationship together at the same time. They put aside their concerns about how this might affect their musical dynamics and enlisted the help of new bandmates Charlie Peacock and Liam Lambert in 2019 to flesh out their lo-fi sounds.

In 2020, the band released their debut EP, the ironically titled I Just Want To Go Home, after recording the tracks intermittently between lockdowns in a friend’s basement. The result of their efforts is a joyful, fuzzy exploration of love, loss, nostalgia and moving on to new experiences. New single ‘Winter’ is a lush example of how the band have trusted their instincts and channelled their energies into creating buoyant, charming tunes.

Listen to ‘Winter’ below.

 

Follow Bad Idea on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Facebook & Instagram

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: ĠENN – ‘Feel’

For Brighton-based four-piece ĠENN, the new year brings the release of a new single, the second from their forthcoming EP Liminal – but also, a freshening, furthering and more fully rounded version of their sound. The last couple of years have been something of a wild ride for the group, who released debut album Tittymonster back in 2018 and have supported the likes of PINS, The Orielles and Honeyblood. That list’s blend of post-punk and garage largely typifies the sound of Tittymonster, whilst their singles from last year showed other strings to their bow. The new wave-y ‘Duda Dance’ and the grungy, more political ’23rd March’ with its Nirvana-style riff. But it’s their sometime support of psych rock legends Acid Mothers Temple that makes the most sense in light of the strong psych influence on latest track ‘Feel’, which sees the band moving into less angular, and more free-flowing territory.

The track opens with a rattle of drums and picked percussion, settling into a garage-y groove, and the kind of funky bass-line that pops up on many a Tarantino soundtrack. There’s something a little Death Valley fried about the guitar riff that sits over the top of everything as well, resting with an other worldly grace, like oil on deep water.

Through it, Leona’s vocals cut, riding the sonic waves like a yacht. “I can’t see / but I can feel”, she sings in the song’s chorus – typical of the lyrical simplicity of the song (another psych hallmark), but no less effective for it. If anything, this is exemplar of the best things about a genre that focuses on release, often with a side of intoxication – or, as Leona sings: “I’m blitzed / I’m finally letting go”. She gives up on the lyrics and moves to straight-up vocalising throughout the song’s middle eight and its instrumental desert rock-meets-Savages outro. When all the guitar lines and percussion fall away, the last two aspects of the song are Leona’s vocals, barely above a whisper, and that bass-line, deep and enticing.

The video for the track – directed by Leona – features a woman musing whilst in a launderette, finding herself in different locations, intermixed with animation, before walking into a room where ĠENN are performing. It’s a nod to the way that fantasies are often born out of the most humdrum of activities, as well as introducing the surreal fish-headed creature from the cover of Liminal. But it’s also a kind of tacit acknowledgement of the times we’re in: the empty spaces, the distance between people, and the covering of faces (albeit not usually with fishes). Even the sight of a band performing seems somewhat wistful and nostalgic at time of writing. Psych is at heart – about the connection, on a deeper level, between people, across distance, through music. With that in mind, ĠENN might have just found the sound we need.

 

‘Feel‘ is out now, taken from ĠENN’s upcoming EP Liminal, set for release 30th March via Everything Sucks Music.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: BERRIES – ‘Copy’

In a riveting, riff heavy tune that takes off with intention the moment it begins, London-based trio BERRIES bring us a garage-rock banger with their brand new single. Having been firm favourites here at GIHE for a number of years, they’ve also received well-deserved acclaim from the likes of John Kennedy and Huw Stephens, and look set to continue gaining fans with this energy-fuelled latest release.

Gritty, overdriven guitar open ‘Copy’ with a provocative sonic adrenaline that sets the scene for the bold disposition that carries throughout the track’s entirety. This undeniably catchy riff never lets go, and with this captivating high-energy, BERRIES grab fans of indie-rock, punk and grunge all at once.

With only three players – Holly, Lauren and Lucie – BERRIES’ ‘Copy’ sounds impressively gigantic between its pulsing bass-lines and driving drums. The band’s instrumental chemistry is evident even in their studio recording, as the track scurries around itself reacting in the most particular ways.

Lyrically, BERRIES gives us an independent mood that is “rough around the edge” and self-motivated. ‘Copy’ forgets about the opinions of others and sticks to its own unique path, creating a track that is both electrifying and autonomous at every moment; relentless in both tone and fiery character. Of the track, the band explain:

“… (it’s) about imitation and how we are programmed by society to try and live up to other people’s expectations of happiness and how unhealthy, self-critical and obsessive this way of existing can be.”

 

If ‘Copy’ serves as a taste for the upcoming BERRIES’ record, set to be released  via Xtra Mile Recordings, listeners are certainly in for an original and memorable sonic experience from this power trio.

Jillian Goyeau
@jillybxxn

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment