The Night Cafe
Singles Club number two hundred and five brings symphonies, sandunes, a big thief, text speak, mixed signals and high flying birds, Getintothis’ Matty Lear bring this weeks top new tracks
Single of the Week:
Gabriel Olafs – Filma
Icelandic Pianist Gabriel Olafs newest single Filma sees him soar to the tender heights of fellow countryman Ólafur Arnalds in the sweet sphere of modern symphonies.
It is simply stunning.
Both breath-giving and breath-taking. The life and tension in it, the serenity and nostalgia conveyed so clearly – a truly remarkable track to listen to.
Something truly special.
Sandunes – Eleven Eleven
Upon the announcement of her new EP 11:11 in September, Mumbai-based producer Sanaya Aredeshir, otherwise known as the pseudonymous ‘Sandunes’, released the lead single Eleven Eleven.
On the song name, Sanaya explained:
“My fascination here isn’t about the numbers itself, as much as it is about these repetitive occurrences that we’re happy to call coincidences. When I was thinking about what I should name the song, my eyes fell on the time, and it was 11:11”.
This suits the track to a tee; a neat meditative soundscape textured with delicate repetition.
Treading the line between danceable vibrancy and trance, it’s certainly worth a listen.
Big Thief – Not
Having already released one album this year (and a brilliant one at that), Big Thief are set to follow up on U.F.O.F. with Two Hands – with single Not being taken from the latter.
With looser, heavier guitars reminiscent of earlier tracks such as Real Love and Parallels from their debut Masterpiece, combined with the more melodic intricacies of recent releases, Not is Big Thief in every sense.
Adrianne Lenker pens divinely-crafted lyrics of torment and triumph, her voice lifting them even further with all its cracks and gravel along the way.
It’s a song about living, ageing and dying: about sexuality and everything stopping.
Amazing, all-encompassing stuff.
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Devon – I DON’T WANT 2 B UR FRIEND
Recently signing to Universal Music and with his two biggest headline shows to date (London’s Camden Assembly on 12th October and Rough Trade Bristol on 17th October), the world is looking up for DIY talent Devon.
This new track expands upon his brand of exciting alternative pop, meshing the frustrations of unrequited love and bright melodic choruses to make for a sing-a-long as vexed as it is defiant.
It perfectly embodies the triumphs and tribulations of that hormone-hazed period that everybody knows, a real testament.
Whyte Horses – Ça Plane Pour Moi
Returning with a surprise new single in the form of a cover of seminal 1970’s track Ça Plane Pour Moi, originally performed by the Belgian pop-music polymath Plastic Bertrand, Whyte Horses offer up the flash of francophone psychedelic that you never knew you wanted.
It sounds bigger, heavier than the original. Perhaps more cumbersome, but isn’t that the point, to make it your own. Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds of quite a lot of fun.
Poppy – Concrete
Singer and performance artist, Poppy drops her highly anticipated lead single Concrete taken from her upcoming album. The artwork and sound are in keeping with her usual YouTube aesthetic, playing with the juxtaposition of dark and light, an attempt to establish her own style of multimedia super-stardom.
The track takes the ASMR eeriness of Billie Eilish and combines it with BABYMETAL in as much as the precise metal instrumentation and cartoonish chorus is concerned.
Zane Lowe introduced it on Beats1 with these thoughts, “what you are about to hear is the future of pop music”. If it is, the future is far stranger than you could ever imagine.
Blue Hawaii – All That Blue
Berlin electronic duo Blue Hawaii (comprised of Raphaelle “Ra” Standell-Preston and Alex “Agor” Kerby) announced their new album Open Reduction Internal Fixation out in October by sharing lead single All That Blue.
Laced with deep buzzing basslines, house inflections and vocodered vocal lines, everything here is irresistible, and that saxophone…
It’s dance-floor friendly. Syrupy. Wishing and wanting.
It’s house and its electronic pop.
Just perfect for those fading summer evenings.
Night Café – Mixed Signals
Following on from recent tracks Turn and Please, Merseyside indie-outfit Night Cafe find more tight melodies to catch onto spindling guitar lines.
Mixed Signals is taken from their brand new debut album 0151. It follows on from the magic formula found on highly acclaimed EP’s Get Away From The Feeling from 2017 and Bunkbed from 2018, it confirms the band as one of Liverpool’s, if not England’s, hottest indie prospects.
It all comes in time their UK headline tour in September and October this year, featuring the band’s largest hometown show to date at Olympia Liverpool, and a massive show at London’s Electric Ballroom.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – This Is The place
Twenty-Five years after the game-changing, seminal Definitely Maybe, older-brother (and contemporary music grump) Noel releases This Is The Place, the title track from the brand new EP set for release on September 27th.
With an arpeggiating tinkle and an undercurrent of squelchy bass both worming their way through the track, it is certainly a departure from previous releases.
Sounds like Elbow on acid. And if that doesn’t intrigue, I don’t know what will.
ROCH – I Love To You
Moved by a phrase devised by feminist author Luce Irigiray, in an attempt to rephrase and reposition “I love you” in order to liberate language, ROCH releases an atmospheric new track, I Love To You.
Giving a taste of what is to be expected from her debut full length album due for release in early 2020, here, idiosyncratic percussion, bruising synths and pitch-shifted vocals combine to make something of the ethereal.
“I am interested in relationships, and what language we use to portray the everyday”, she explains. “Sometimes you need to reinvent language to capture the essence of the relationship.”
Reinvention is the keyword here. The vocals, in particular, are unsettling but it is undoubtedly new. Everything about this is forward moving, fresh and linguistically-driven.
Granfalloon – The Elephant
This new single from innovative folktronica artist Granfalloon is the second track to emerge from the Manchester collective’s second album RGB, set to be released this October.
Sung bi-lingually in English and German, the track revels in Granfalloon’s own pan-European makeup. It sounds something like Hot Chip – if they were European and slowed down ever so slightly.
“Man kann sich nicht jeden Schuh anziehen / Wer über Wasser geht, der muss Barfuß gehn” croons frontman Richard Lomax, a German phrase that heeds the warning: “You cannot wear all of the shoes / Who wants to walk on water must do so barefoot”.
An amalgamation of lo-fi folk and electronica, English and German, this cinematic soundscapes of sorts is a celebration of cross-sections and culture.
Vile Assembly – Propaganda
The new release from Liverpudlian rockers Vile Assembly, Propaganda sees them basking in all their vitriolic, politically-charged glory.
It’s 80’s rock and punk refined and wisened with age, both lyrically and sonically, still, the sentiments remain the same. Paul Mason’s commentary is raw and rebellious.
A real fist-clencher.
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