Bud Sugar! representing swed Nation with a good vibe fixation Leaf Burners, Fast Learners, jokers with no focus who act bogus! but when the music calls us… …we drop the chorus!
5 members to be remembered, male gendered, always bringing big beats ’til the levels ended! acoustic flows, Bouncey shows, lively people on a Bud Sugar overdose so Give us a glance
or even a chance and we’ll enter your world like an alien advance!
LINK:
http://budsugar.co.uk
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Davey Woodward And The Winter Orphans – Bad Day
Davey Woodward And The Winter Orphans have premiered their new video for the track titled ‘Bad Day’. Capturing that quirky magic of the music, the video for ‘Bad Day’ gives that alt-rock bravado combined with the first-person perspective in a slow energy style grit guitar fiasco that is the signature of creativity. This is a new anthem for a new age. Let’s hope the title doesn’t carry over (lol).
‘Love and Optimism’ is out now, available on limited edition white vinyl and black vinyl, on gatefold CD with a booklet, and also digitally. It can be ordered via Bandcamp.
Check out our other features with Davey Woodward And The Winter Orphans HERE.
ABOUT DAVEY WOODWARD AND THE WINTER ORPHANS
Bristol indie music legend Davey Woodward and The Winter Orphans present ‘Bad Day’, the latest single from their ‘Love and Optimism’ LP. Best known for his bands The Brilliant Corners, The Experimental Pop Band, and Karen, they recorded this album ‘live’ in the studio. A very personal collection, this is Woodward’s most emotional performance, putting Davey solidly amongst the best songwriters of his generation.
Davey Woodward and the Winter Orphans play alt folk, often intimate songs set in Bristol. Sometimes they get into drainpipes and pointy boots ‘New Wave’ mode. ‘Bad Day’ is one of those moments.
‘Nobody visits. I’d like someone to stay
In my single bed with my microwave
I’m having a bad day.‘“Imagine a time when putting together the best cassette compilation ever (Today it’s called a playlist) was the sole purpose of the day. Getting it right would mean the difference between a good day or a bad day. It was also the best way to impress girls and show your mates how hip you were. A time when dreaming, looking cool, and disregarding the rules was everything. Decades later and life catches up, poverty, broken relationships, broken families. You could make a playlist but who would you send it to?” says Davey Woodward.
Ahead of this, the band previewed two singles – ‘Occupy This Space’ and ‘Warm Hands’, which could be a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie. This is pop music for grown-ups loaded with dark mysteries of desire and loathing, melody and lyrics that stick in your head.
‘Love & Optimism’ is the band’s second collective long-play, following their 2018 self-titled debut album, released via Tapete Records. On both set of recordings, the band wanted to capture that elusive live magic and spontaneity that is often lost by today’s modern recording techniques.
Davey Woodward first came to prominence with his 1980s band The Brilliant Corners, part of the jangly indie C86 scene, but with a diverse palette of indie pop, country, rock n roll, post-punk and humour. The mini-albums ‘Growing up Absurd’, ‘Fruit Machine’ and ‘Whats in a Word‘ brought the band to the attention of the music press and wider public, followed by their best-known album ‘Somebody up there likes me’ (1987), several John Peel sessions, indie chart success and regular tours. In 2013, Cherry Red Records released a retrospective of the band’s work ‘Heart on Your Sleeve’ (A decade in pop 1983-1993)’ to much interest.
Woodward’s next band The Experimental Pop Band (1996- 2012) was again championed by Peel and signed to City Slang Records, enjoying critical acclaim in the UK and Europe, and performing at Glastonbury.
In the last decade, Davey has released a handful of solo LPs, including the lofi folk pop album ‘6 miles east of here 5 miles north of nowhere’ (2011). He also recorded with alt guitar band Karen, releasing several EPs on The Environmental Sounds label.
The album was recorded in Summer 2019 prior to the Covid 19 pandemic and the tragic events that led to Black Lives Matter, but strangely it is still relevant to these times. ‘Occupy This Space’ seemingly captures the whole feeling of ‘Lockdown’ and the song ‘Clara’s Ghost’ is partly about the history of Bristol’s involvement in the Slave Trade. Just a few months after it was written, Bristol residents pulled down the Statue of Slave Trader Edward Colston in the center of town, making worldwide headlines.
LINKS:
https://daveywoodward.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/daveysongs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LjUye3GMgM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/davey-woodward-mn0000527805/biography
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/davey-woodward-and-the-winter-orphans/1412097438
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Oiv29FDDnrhtM3UiP7Lq2 -
Twilight Fields – Demagogue
Canada’s Twilight Fields, the solo moniker of singer-songwriter Allister Thompson, has announced his new album ‘Songs from the Age of Ruin’, slated for release in early 2019. Ahead of this, he presents the first rather politically-charged single ‘Demagogue’, an expression of anti-populist sentiment.
Twilight Fields is truly a one-man show, with Thompson writing, playing, engineering, mixing, mastering and designing everything himself from his home studio in North Bay, Ontario.
‘Songs from the Age of Ruin’ is a warning to the present and an apology to a possible future. While Twilight Fields is best known for his blend of ambient, dream-pop and progressive rock influences, this album pays grateful homage to such artists as Billy Bragg, New Model Army, Killing Joke, Midnight Oil, and The Levellers, as well as other artists influencing his music like Leon Rosselson, Bob Dylan, Robert Wyatt, and Phil Ochs.
‘Songs from the Age of Ruin’ is also an uneasy but compelling song cycle that begins with the bombing of Hiroshima and the absurdities of the atomic age and proceeds to tackle such difficult topics as homelessness and economic inequalities (‘Lazarus’), the evils of populism and political repression (‘Demagogue’, ‘Taken Away’), the toxicity of social media communication (‘Offended’), animal rights (‘The Animal’s Song’), and the utter stupidity of war (‘Soldier Song’). It concludes with a three-part “climate change suite” (‘Loss’, ‘Barren Planet’, ‘Why Did We Do It?’) that lays bare the tragic human consequences of catastrophic climate change.
The album also contains two cover versions, including of Bruce Cockburn’s immortal classic ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time’ and Thin Lizzy’s ‘Holy War’.
“While growing up, certain passionate, activist musicians were very influential to me. So much so that I’d say they changed and shaped the person I would eventually become. There has never been a more crucial time for musicians to step up and add their voices to the chorus of reason necessary to take us back from the brink of total destruction,” says Allister Thompson.
“The year 2019 finds the human species standing at a crossroads, with only two possible directions: survival or extinction. Artists should contribute their strong and clear voices to dialogues that could lead to our survival and renewal.”
Allister Thompson has had a varied musical career, initially playing with Toronto-based glam-rock band Crash Kelly, together with Sean Kelly (now guitarist for Nelly Furtado), and opening for such notable artists as The Black Crowes and Alice Cooper. He later veered towards making traditional folk music, progressive rock and ambient music, recording several ambient rock albums as Twilight Fields and numerous albums of ambient/Krautrock/psychedelia under the monikers The Gateless Gate and Khan Tengri.
As of December 6, ‘Demagogue’ will be available via online stores and streaming platforms, including Spotify and iTunes, as well as Bandcamp. The full album ‘Song From The Age of Ruin’ LP will be released on February 1, 2019.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/twilightfields
http://twilightfields.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/gatelessgate1 -
Rodney Cromwell – Comrades
British indietronica synthpop artist Rodney Cromwell has announced his forthcoming new ‘Rodney’s English Disco’ EP, his first collection of all new material in three years. Previewed by the song ‘Comrades’, which also features a 12″ extended dance mix by electronica act Vieon, the new EP will be available on 7″ vinyl, CD and digitally via London-based Happy Robots Records.
Where the debut album ‘Age of Anxiety’ by Rodney Cromwell (real name Adam Cresswell) drew on personal demons, on this new EP, social and political tribulations in the UK inspired these wry songs of woe. ‘Comrades’ is a robotic turbocharged rebel song for the twitter generation. ‘Barbed Wire’ is a song from across the barricades of the supermarket checkout. ‘Technocrats’ is a song for our illusory robot masters. ‘Dreamland’ is a breakup song for someone who just wants to go back to bed and pretend none of this ever happened. Sonically, this music sits between Kraftwerk, Pye Corner Audio and the Best of Divine.
Rodney Cromwell’s evocative synthpop looks to the proto-electronica of the 70’s and 80’s to construct a twisted soundtrack for the post-truth world. The instrumentation of the new EP has been kept intentionally minimal with its drum sounds taken entirely from a vintage Boss DR-55 drum machine and with a self-imposed limit on the amount of hissy analog gear used in its making. Melody and dark humor combine with simple motorik rhythms, soaring bass lines and the bleeps of retro synths, all within a lo-fi pop aesthetic.
Cromwell’s sound has been compared to the analog electronica of Kraftwerk, Section 25 and the ‘retro-futurists’ of Ghostbox Records. His miserablism and dark humor have been compared to that of The Cure and John Grant.
Rodney Cromwell’s debut album and subsequent EPs found crossover appeal, gaining Cromwell coverage from the likes of NME, Electronic Sound Mag, Huffington Post and Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music and on Spain’s national RNE3. At the end of 2015, Rodney Cromwell featured in 25 ‘Best of’ lists and was named ‘Most Promising New Act’ by The Electricity Club. ‘Barry Was an Arms Dealer’ featured in the 2015 Official Festive 50.
The video for ‘Comrades’ was produced by Dariy Karyakin, who has produced for David Lynch pet fave Nocturne Blue, has been praised by 6-time Emmy Winner Dutch Rall, and has earned various awards and honors. The sleeve artwork is by Latvian photographer Jelena Osmolovska, whose distinctive gritty post-Soviet fantasy aesthetic compliments the sound of this record.
Along with four original tracks by Rodney Cromwell, the EP features remixes by Rémi Parson, Vieon, Pattern Language and the debut release by Alice Hubble (Arthur & Martha, Mass Datura).
‘Rodney’s English Disco’ EP will be released on May 25 and available on red 7” vinyl, CD and digitally. Distributed by Cargo, this album is already available for pre-order via the Happy Robots Records store or Bandcamp. Catch Rodney Cromwell on tour in May.
LINKS:
http://www.facebook.com/happyrobotsrecords
http://twitter.com/robot_rocker
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ZvCbaApGUVuQA7m7jaJtg/videos
http://soundcloud.com/happy-robots
http://rodneycromwell.bandcamp.com