What began as drummer Matt Shaw’s acoustic demos back in 2017 quickly developed into a six-piece band, bonding over a love of artists like American Football, Minus The Bear, and The Appleseed Cast. The group has taken influence from mid-western emo, math-rock, and alternative indie and combined those with Fleetwood Mac style dual-vocal pop melodies and twinkling glockenspiel to create their trademark “Glock-Rock” sound.
Earning their stripes in pubs and clubs of the Watford music scene, Lakes have been emboldened with a DIY attitude that was born from the frustration of life on the peripheries of a capital city. The group’s fiercely independent attitude has led them to record all their own music, produce their own music videos, and with families of their own – organize child-friendly matinee gigs in their hometown.
After self-releasing their first two EPs, Lakes joined The LP Cafe in the UK and Friend of Mine Records in Japan to release their debut full-length album in August 2019 entitled “The Constance LP”.
This led Washed Up Emo to label them “your new favorite band” and Punktastic to include them on their list of the most important bands of the next decade stating “it’s hard to look past their potential as future frontrunners of the UK emo scene.
With nods to midwestern emo giants in American Football and Braid, Lakes create a truly unique take on the genre interlacing shimmering glockenspiels, beautiful harmonies, and pop sensibilities in everything they do.”
The album was recorded entirely by drummer Matt Shaw in a spare room using a couple of mics and a PC over the space of a year. With no timing or financial restraints that would come from a proper studio, the band took their time crafting the songs and discovering their sound. This has resulted in a truly unique album, one that is completely holistic in its presentation with band members also taking control of photography, graphic design, web design and accompanying music videos.
Lakes’ ‘This World Of Ours, It Came Apart,’ was released in July 2020 via Know Hope Records in North America and The LP Cafe in the UK.
LINKS:
https://www.ourbandlakes.com
https://www.facebook.com/ourbandlakes
https://www.instagram.com/ourbandlakes
https://twitter.com/ourbandlakes
-
Solitude In Apathy – The Other
“The Other”, the first Solitude in Apathy single taken off their debut EP, was recorded at Vipchoyo Sound Factory studios with Giacomo Salzano of italogaze starwarts Stella Diana.
The song, composed spontaneously during a rehearsal, is built around a single sentence (“In the other, try to see”) and is about the will to understand the other or simply oneself, reaching its epilogue with the inability to truly do it; the same themes underpin the fascinating video directed by Gaetano Massa.
Solitude In Apathy are Santina Vasaturo (vocals, bass), Gennaro Cristiano (guitar) and Diego Niola (drums); the band was formed in Naples in 2016.
Their influences range from shoegaze to darkwave and alternative rock, with a hint of gothic. They have supported bands like Stella Diana and Rome in Monochrome; their debut EP is due out later this year.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/SolitudeInApathy
https://www.instagram.com/solitudeinapathy -
ToBy – 90’s Babies
Toby Season Volume 1 is a reflection of ToBy and Aleksander Vinter’s experience in the public domain as artists and equally, as humans. As such, “90’s Babies” acts as the perfect bridge into the world ToBy lyrically unfolds for listeners, track-by-track in Toby Season Volume 1; a project entirely composed in the few months ToBy has lived in Los Angeles full-time. “90’s Babies” lends itself to the idea of people being so distracted by their phones that have an ‘in real life’ conversation with anyone anymore is impossible.
ToBy says of the single: “When coming up with the ’90’s Babies’ concept we took a long hard look at the ideas of storytelling outlined in Joseph Cambell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces. We wanted to create a universe spearheaded by the version of ToBy that acts as the “zero to hero” type, ambling through life until he comes face-to-face with powers beyond his understanding. The choice to go 3D in the music video came from studying different styles of art that both Aleks and I grew up with; namely anime and mecha tv shows and comic books. ’90’s Babies’ was the first song we had ever worked on together (2 or 3 years ago), so it felt right to give it the spotlight as the single for the upcoming mixtape.”
ToBy concludes: “My sense of humor and Aleks’ artistic intuition collides together in what we feel like is poised to be one of the most interesting videos to come out in the modern rap scene.”
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information on ToBy’s upcoming mixtape.
LINKS:
http://tobyseason.com
https://twitter.com/official_toby
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialToByMusic
https://soundcloud.com/officialtobymusic -
Earthset – Flush & In the Pendant (Live Studio Sessions)
After a demo EP in 2013 and two years spent playing ’round northern Italy, Earthset have released their debut album “In a State of Altered Unconsciousness”. The album was recorded live in three days at Fonoprint Studios by Enrico Capalbo and produced by Carlo Marrone and Earthset. The first single “So What?” is an energetic, melodic number backed by an infectious beat and a crunchy guitar attack making it one of the most promising tracks to come out of the Italian indie rock scene.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/Earthset
https://twitter.com/EarthsetBand
https://earthset.bandcamp.com