K-Pop group, CRAVITY, are ready to take their next leap forward with the release of CRAVITY 1ST ALBUM PART 2 [LIBERTY : IN OUR COSMOS], out today. Referred to as “ones to watch” by Forbes, the members of CRAVITY are ready to reach new heights with this album by exploring various musical genres from one track to the next. Previously taking on a more powerful image with past releases, [LIBERTY : IN OUR COSMOS] is showcasing a more youthful side to the group. Their defiant new image, illustrated in their music video and album, implies that the boys have finally become free after overcoming their inner worries and struggles. The title of this album also suggests that the members of CRAVITY have become one, and have found hope through finding stars in the cosmos, a place where they feel the happiest and most liberated. Overall, it’s a story that is completed by forming solidarity with the fans whom they were destined to meet.
The Aristotle of Bravado, Lady London gains another hit on her latest single, “Lisa’ Story” featuring New York rapper Dub Aura. The official music video, directed by Oni Honesty and creative directed by Lady London achieves a new milestone accolade today with 1 million + views via YouTube.WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO HERE
“Lisa’s Story,” a single derived from London’s acclaimed project Lady Like: The Boss Tape, has gone on to become a natural global hit, having amassed 1 million + engagements on social media platform Tik Tok as media outlets such as Billboard, Earmilk, Revolt, Hip Hop DX, and more has praised the single for its irresistibly refreshing appeal.As 2022 sets a grand tone for the one to watch artist, Lady London is making impressive strides as she rises as a 100% independent artist.
Photo Credit: Ariane Moisan
Montreal singer-songwriter, and official SXSW 2022 artist, Gus Englehorn is set to release his sophomore album Dungeon Master on April 29 via Secret City Records. It’s undoubtedly the cutest, heaviest, strangest rock’n’roll record you will hear this year — perhaps best demonstrated by today’s chapped and pleading single + video, “Exercise Your Demons.” Beginning with Englehorn begging, “Hit me, I want you to hit me,” from there it explodes into a headbanging path to salvation anchored by Englehorn and partner Estée Preda’s gnashing guitar and drums. “This one is partially inspired by David Lynch’s ‘Blue Velvet’, particularly the scene where Dorothy asks Jeffrey to hit her,” Englehorn says. “It’s about how we often turn to destructive behavior to try to make ourselves feel better when all you really need to do is get a little exercise.” It follows a pair of similarly delirious, off-kilter singles “The Gate” and “Tarantula.” Fans can expect to hear those and much more on Englehorn’s current US tour, with tickets and dates available here.
Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, rising Irish trio Rowan release their second single today, “Honesty,“ from the band’s upcoming debut album, Does It Make You Happy? due out May 6th via Beverly Martel, and available for pre-order now.
“It’s hard to be 100% honest with ourselves and each other” explain the band, who sing of the tribulations of keeping one’s integrity intact, over a bed of mesmerizing garage-rock grooves and blustery guitar lines. The track is accompanied by the following video, compiled of raw footage from the band’s archive; a montage of their favorite moments from the past year.
WATCH “HONESTY” (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
“Honesty” is the follow-up track from the visceral “Irish To My Bones” and the endearing “Youth & Youthhood” which have received support from the likes of Steve Lamacq & Lauren Laverne at 6 Music.
Born out of the early pandemic last year, when the three accomplished musicians were forced into a hiatus from session work, Rowan are fast becoming one of the most exciting new Irish acts around.
Kihyun, of Monsta X, has officially released his highly anticipated solo debut album; KIHYUN The 1st Single Album ‘VOYAGER’. Dropping 7 years after his debut in Monsta X, VOYAGER consists of 3 tracks and a music video. The lyrics throughout this album talk about Kihyun’s journey into the new world from the perspective of a ‘voyager.’ The first world that Kihyun encounters is his own ‘paradise,’ a world that he has been dreaming of. It’s a place where he can escape from one’s exhausting day-to-day realities. It’s an imaginary break – a comma from daily life. He will go on a journey to discover his sound, outside of anything he’s shown through Monsta X, and create music that he genuinely misses and craves.
As a musician and songwriter, GLDI’s goal is to have her fans feeling like they can embrace themselves and see perfection within their “imperfections.” Her December release, “Issues & Tattoos,” is exactly about that. A powerful track about owning one’s imperfections in a positive way, and celebrating attributes that make a “chaotic” girlfriend theatrical, but never boring. On top of her artist pursuits, GLDI is a huge advocate and supporter of females working in the music industry, mental health awareness, animal rights, and is part of the LBGTQ community. Coming from a long line of mental illness in her family, the need for an escape was the catalyst to her musical journey. “Music has been a major outlet for creating and getting out of my own head” she says.
I feel that, if you’re going to do a cover that slavishly copies the original, it’s the worst thing you could do. There’s no way you’re gonna out Radiohead Radiohead. The key is to make it your own.
I sent a group of songs to producer Mike Schlosser as potential covers. We wanted to take a song that no one would expect us to do and make it our own. Radiohead’s “House of Cards” was a late addition.
We wanted to do it in our style, but hold true to the song’s inherent qualities. As with many of their songs, it is haunting with an ambivalent lyric and a subtle, yet powerful feeling, but we wanted it to be danceable, Caribbean and soulful – three things Radiohead is rarely accused of, which perfectly speaks to what we do!
Stream “House of Cards” now on all platforms. Watch the official video via YouTube.
For the video, Director Patrick Hodgson and I decided that we wanted to evoke the spirit of the song: the longing, sexiness, tension and anxiety of all intimate relationships. So, our plan was to get couples of as many age groups, genders, orientations, colours as we could and let them be as vulnerable and intimate as they felt they were able to be. They are all real couples. We went to their homes, asked them to get half-naked and intimate, and captured it. Many of them were surprised by how easy it was to fall into that space and several of them kicked us out after so that they could continue in private!
JOHN ORPHEUS
The Galveston, Texas-based band’s lineup is comprised of guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter Jonathan Jourdan, bassist Robb Mars and drummer Dexas Villarreal, who continuously work to bring their fans music that is diverse, full of pulse-pounding riffs, but also infused with melody and lyrical depth. Prior to the pandemic, the band had been touring incessantly, having amassed a large following in their native Texas and doing a successful national tour with the band “Nothing More”. The trio got their big break when a five-day regional run with the legendary group Candlebox, this brought them the attention they deserved and catapulted them to the forefront of the metal scene.
“To Whom It May” has taken much inspiration from their Texas predecessors, including “Down”, who they have toured with in the past, but also from other influences, as they try to incorporate other metal styles into the fold. They are excited to showcase their newest sound with the release of their album “Olympian Gossip” this March.
Dedicated to an embattled past, Present Tense is Yumi Zouma’s offering to a tenuous future. The album follows 2020’s acclaimed Truth or Consequences, released via Polyvinyl on the very same day that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The band had only just embarked on the first – sold-out – North American tour when the world shut down and the four members of Yumi Zouma went their separate ways and returned to their respective homes in Wellington, Christchurch, London, and New York. “It was disorientating,” says co-founder/multi-instrumentalist Charlie Ryder. “We generally work at a quick clip and average about a record a year, but with no foreseeable plans, we lost our momentum.”
Journey Montana makes her return to new music Friday with the release of her emotively tantalizing new track and accompanying video to support “Looking For Love.” The sensational follow-up to her recently released singles “Good Girl” and “Bad Girl” featuring Metro Marrs takes a deeper dive into the rising star’s unique intricacies that holds to themes of love, loss, and liberation. LISTEN TO ‘LOOKING FOR LOVE’ HEREWATCH OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO TO ‘LOOKING FOR LOVE’ HERE “Having one person see the worst in you while everyone sees the best in you can be eye-opening and refreshing. This song reflects many lessons I learned from being in that type of dynamic. The refreshing, sometimes motivating side of a toxic relationship or any “toxic” encounter. As biased as it may be, this perspective can hold weight. I feel like I’ve always been looking for love— everyone is, and someone calling you out on it can spark some serious self-reflection,” Journey shares.
Photo by Christopher Borges
“In Bloom“ is a sonic recollection of my most memorable experience in Los Angeles, summer of 2021. I played a rooftop acoustic show, met a bunch of people, and ended the night skinny dipping with the same people in Venice Beach. It truly felt like living through a TV show episode. The vision behind this song was to create the soundtrack for it. The whole time we were listening to a bunch of house music and ended with some jazz. Those two styles guided the sound, while the lyrics detail everything that happened that night and the morning after.
Co-produced by Medasin, “In Bloom“ is out now.
https://levelmusic.lnk.to/InBloom
It’s been such a weird couple of years, so this song is meant to excite you. Be spontaneous, make friends, get out of the house and live. Listen to “In Bloom“ while you’re doing all those things too.
nodisco.
Marking their 10th Anniversary in 2022 – TEMPLE INVISIBLE – return with brand new music to share. Releasing the gripping “Hold” today (11 Feb), it arrives as a first glimpse of the ‘Chiasm’ EP, which will be the band’s first extended release for over 5 years when it arrives on 29 April 2022. LISTEN TO “HOLD” HERE
Fusing slinking trip-hop grooves to a track of their trademark industrial intensity, the duo of Irina Bucescu and Costas Ivanov prove they’ve lost none of their bite on their beguiling latest proposition.
A track about the inherent inquisitiveness of childhood and the powerful, expressive energy of human instinct, Irina explains:
““Hold” is about transforming our unconscious fascination for the past into the full force of the present moment. It is about the enthrallment that the small child has for his parents, about our perception of the feminine and masculine energies, the essential duality of our psyche, about bringing awareness to our unconscious attachment to our past and the unconscious burden of trying to recreate it. That “force” is our authenticity, which needs to be free from irrational and limiting constraints from our past, in order to bloom. The elation we’re talking about means that we don’t want to be a “walking life situation”, but a living, breathing being. It’s no small feat – finding balance. And in that process of deconstruction there is a mixture of first becoming aware of and then releasing aggressiveness, the need to control everything and, eventually, the feeling of loss. This initial “loss” transforms into finding that inner intersection, the chiasm of our true, authentic power and the actions that align with it.”
neillfrazer@hotmail.com
