Mariana Murdocco, who goes by her surname, ‘Murdocco’ is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to her style and musical output. With her velvety and sultry tones, Murdocco’s songs allude to personal experiences where she transmits deep emotions, immersing you into her world. Using the piano and often heavy bass lines, she delivers a melodic, quirky and unique sound. Speaking of her upcoming release Murdocco says “I hope that my single ‘Rainy Day’ will inspire you to speak up and say all that you’ve been holding back, without fears or taboos. Let it out, you ought to say it!”
Originally from Uruguay, Murdocco is a London-based singer-songwriter, her original productions are a fusion of live instruments and Electronica, citing Bjork and The Knife as influences.
Murdocco started in Barcelona with her ever-evolving band ( Jose Martinez on guitar), she released a number of EPs produced by David Okuniev, which was much more Rock orientated. This solo project has taken her down a different path where she finds herself being much more experimental and free to explore other genres. This is the first of a number of releases that will be coming out over the forthcoming months.
Welcome to Murdocco’s world.
LINKS:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2G0cbBExtt6UIrbC1uqaLC?si=ZWdCeb5PQp2m_m2sWsahhg
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/murdocco/1540358146
https://soundcloud.com/murdocco/rainy-day-1/s-RZ44Sjzz8yh
https://www.facebook.com/MurdoccoMusic
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The Neville Staple Band – Put Away Your Knives
The Neville Staple Band has released their new single ‘Put Away Your Knives’, a 2Tone influenced punky ska and reggae mix with on-point lyrics addressing the growing knife crime problem in the UK. This is a lyrical and musical cry to young people involved in knife crime, motivated by a tragic event that struck their family in September 2018 – the fatal stabbing of Neville’s 21-year-old grandson Fidel Glasgow.
Here Neville and Sugary Staple are joined by British-Jamaican reggae musician and producer, Dandy Livingstone, who penned ‘Rudy, A Message to You’, which was later a hit for The Specials (as ‘A Message to You, Rudy’). His 1972 hit ‘Suzanne Beware of the Devil’ also reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.
This single follows their new ‘Rude Rebels’ album, released via Cleopatra Records in autumn of 2018 with contributions by The Specials’ original guitarist Roddy Radiation (a.k.a. Roddy Byers).
“We are dedicating the song to my grandson Fidel and to everyone else out there, who have been affected by violent crimes. It’s time we take back some control and teach the youth right from wrong, and the consequences of their actions. This song is highlighting the pain and the anger being inflicted on the families too. It asks the youths to just stop, think and put down the knives,” says Neville Staple.
“Even while we were in the studio recording this, my wife Sugary and I became very emotional. It hurts bad when you lose someone so young in the family, but it’s even harder when you know that someone took their life early. I get angry at just how easily the youth find it now, to carry weapons around. They seem to have no thoughts for who they are really hurting, including themselves. It is us, all the generations above them that must step in now and help fix this mess. This disregard for life! No one else is going to sort it out!”
The Staples are a permanent fixture of the widely regarded and enormously active UK ska scene, performing regularly at clubs and massive festivals. They are also well known for their charitable work and social activism.
Known as The Original Rude Boy, Neville Staple is a legendary frontman and co-founder of The Specials, Fun Boy Three, 2Tone and the Special Beat with Ranking Roger. Over the past four decades, Staple has picked up multiple awards, including from MOJO and NME, as well as Gold, Silver and Platinum discs. Today he fronts The Neville Staple Band together with award-winning wife Sugary Staple, known for spearheading the Skamouth series and also as an actress, vocalist end event promoter for over 30 years,
With 2019 being the 40th anniversary of Neville’s successful music career, and also for The Specials and 2Tone Records, this is a timely release. ‘Put Away Your Knives’ underlines that, not only has violence not gotten better after all these years but that it has actually escalated.
“We talk to young offenders and go to some schools and chat about the seriousness of violent crimes and talk about ways of staying away from it. Some are even young parents themselves! I asked if they would want their child to know that they cut someone or even killed someone. What kind of a role model is that?” asks Sugary Staple.
“If you don’t feel safe going to that place without carrying a weapon, then don’t go to that place. Just don’t go! It can’t be a good place to hang out anyway if weapons are needed. And if you feel pressured into carrying a knife or anything else that’s dodgy, talk to somebody you trust. If this is not your parents, then maybe a cool cousin, uncle or auntie, a grandparent or even a friend. This includes those of you who are groomed into that life and need a way out (forced into being someone you were never meant to be).”
Releasing this song also gives rise to the occasion for Neville and Sugary to highlight the great work that the independent charity Victim Support is doing. By promoting awareness about their services, they are encouraging more support and donations, especially in relation to the help they give to families affected by knife crime.
“Working closely with victims and bereaved families, we know just how destructive these shocking crimes are for everyone impacted. We’re really pleased to be working with Neville Staple and his wife Sugary Staple to help raise awareness of the issue and raise vital funds to allow us, as an independent charity, to continue our work. Families and communities are being devastated by knife crime and it is so important that we all come together to tackle this – organizations, government agencies, and all communities,” stated Diana Fawcett, Chief Officer of Victim Support.
Sugary Staple adds, “I call upon all the ‘good’ young people out there to join forces in saying #PutAwayYourKnives to other friends who you know are carrying. Why not make it a cool thing to share that message and separate yourselves from the negatives and the dangers.”
‘Put Away Your Knives’ can be downloaded from iTunes and Amazon. It can also be streamed on Spotify. You can also donate To Victim Support at www.victimsupport.org.uk/get-involved/donate.
LINKS:
http://www.originalrudeboy.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/NevilleStapleBand
http://goldenlanestaple.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/nevillestaple
http://soundcloud.com/the-neville-staple-band
http://www.sugarystaple.com
http://www.facebook.com/SugaryStaple
http://twitter.com/SugaryStaple
http://soundcloud.com/christine-sugary-staple
http://www.instagram.com/sugarystaple
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ceejaytee1/videos -
2Square & Mark Gardener – Chained
2Square has teamed up with RIDE’s Mark Gardener for their video for the new single titled ‘Chained’. The video captures the mood and moments of the song in that it appears as a quiet dream. An almost solemn memory of a moment captured more with feeling than with recollection. The director chooses subtlety over substance and it works to an almost relaxing state, perfectly complimenting the track.
The song is done in an almost avant-garde style of songwriting with a jazz-fusion style piano alongside the gaze-stylings of Mark Gardener and the post-modern wrapping that is the representation of the track but, when you listen again, there is so much more going on under the surface. Both electric and stylistically. Listen to this a few times for the sake of artistic comprehension. You won’t be disappointed.
‘Chained’ is available now via Mark Gardener’s own Bandcamp and will appear on other streaming and sales platform soon (date to be announced). Look forward to several more singles from this collaboration to be announced this summer.
ABOUT ‘CHAINED’
Recorded in Haeri’s small Parisian smoky apartment in the Strasbourg-Saint-Denis area, Gardener notes that this is “up there with my favorite collaborations ever”, saying this will “hopefully take our minds away from all current madness we’re living in”. Written by Stephan Haeri and Mark Gardener with Gardener’s lyrics, this single was mixed by Stephan Haeri and mastered by Mark Gardener at OX4 Sound.
Mark is best known as a songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist with shoegaze trailblazers Ride. He also owns and runs the OX4 Sound recording studio. Over the past 20 years, Mark has produced and mixed the work of many highly respected artists, producers and bands including The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Robin Guthrie, Telepopmusik, Dive Index, Rinocerose, Ulrich Schnauss, Man With No Name, Hopewell, Jam+Spoon, Mikel Erentxun, Dead Horse One, Cat Martino and Swervedriver, along with scoring the soundtrack for the Mojo award-winning film ‘Upside Down’ (The Creation Records Story). Mark now brings this knowledge and experience to his new purpose-built studio.
“I met Stephan through a mutual friend – Melanie Bauer, a well-known DJ on Paris radio. I had known and become close lifelong friends with Melanie since meeting her to interview on her program during an early Ride promo tour in Paris. Our paths with Stephan had crossed a few times but Melanie basically set up this recording session, thinking it could be a great combination. Stephan had a small apartment, which he lived in and had turned into a studio. I always loved to visit Paris so I was happy to go and spend a week with Stephan at his apartment, where I also stayed for the best part of a week,” says Mark Gardener.
“Stephan had some loose instrumental ideas and I got to work with lyrics and vocal topline ideas in reaction to these instrumental sketches I was hearing and then Stephan would mess around with my vocal lines. I think I popped out for food now and again, but we basically didn’t stop for a week until the songs were written and recorded. Stephan mixed it as we were going and then finished the mixes when I had gone back to England. This and the other two tracks are among my lifetime favorite collaborations.
Earlier, Telepopmusik released the highly acclaimed single ‘Sound’, featuring vocals by Mark Gardener, for which they released an intriguing video by Japan’s Toshiaki Toyoda. The vocals for that particular track were recorded during the same Paris session that spawned this new single ‘Chained’.
“I wrote ‘Chained’, reflecting on my old home in Oxford, which had become a non-stop nightclub during a time post Ride breakup, when I was living alone. All got a bit out of control for a while and I had some great parties and friends, but one, in particular, would always show up late at my house when I was working in my attic studio. He was a bit of a walking chemistry set, so he would always show up with substances. I was not in the best head-space at that time and was trying to get away from substances, which was not so easy when it kept on coming through my front door,” explains Gardener.
“We’d always end up having big and good nights drinking, getting high and listening to records until dawn for a period; hence the line ‘Chained till dawn to find a new way’ lyric. I knew this was slowly dragging me down so, in the end, I packed up my car with a friend and we drove to the Medieval Wilds of France in search of a new life. I ended up living in France for four years, experiencing a much-needed break from that life. It was just what the doctor ordered! France and nature basically refueled me and put back everything I felt I had lost after Ride and then a few lost party years in Oxford after that.”
‘Chained’ is available now via Mark Gardener’s own Bandcamp and will appear on other streaming and sales platform soon (date to be announced). Look forward to several more singles from this collaboration to be announced this summer.
CREDITS
Written and recorded in Paris
Music by Stephan Haeri and Mark Gardener
Words by Mark Gardener
Mixed by Stephan Haeri
Mastered by Mark Gardener at OX4 SoundLINKS:
https://www.ox4sound.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/ox4sound
https://markgardener.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/ox-4-sound
https://twitter.com/OX4Sound
https://twitter.com/MarkGardener
https://www.instagram.com/ox4sound
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFgoaqoGlLaRjvfNf-vUoQ -
Juniper Nights – All At Once
Juniper Nights is a four-piece alternative rock band from Oxford, formed at the start of 2017. The band consists of James Gallagher (Vocals/Guitar), Zach Wilmott (Guitar), Marty Melvin (Bass), and Tom Lindsay (Drums).
James, Zach, and Tom previously performed together in the indie band ‘Pipeline’, with bassist Jason Rich. Jason and Zach were friends from university and found James and Tom online through a musician finding the website. In February 2017, Jason moved to Sweden to pursue his career, and Marty took his place to complete the lineup. The band changed their name to Juniper Nights, inspired by the themes and style of the Black Mirror episode ‘San Junipero’, reflecting their change in lineup and darker sound.
Juniper Nights’ music is heavily influenced by a number of British rock bands such as Radiohead, Elbow, and Alt-J. Their style often varies significantly between songs, from somber and textural to grungy guitar-rock, with dark undertones being the underlying theme. Whilst their music is primarily guitar-based, they often experiment with other sounds, inspired by the works of trip-hop and electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Portishead, Massive Attack, and Unkle. This includes the use of keyboards, drum machines, and strings, as well as the manipulation of sound with effects.
In July 2017 the band recorded a number of tracks at Glasshouse Studios, Oxford, the first of which, ‘Antidote’, was released digitally on November 10th. Antidote received a positive reception from a number of critics, who described the track as “stunning”, “beautiful”, and praised Juniper Nights for “succeed[ing] in creating something with real resonance.” After reviewing ‘Antidote’, Jammerzine magazine selected Juniper Nights as one of their 17 standout artists of 2017.
Juniper Nights released their debut EP, ‘Human Rush’, on February 2nd, 2018, and supported the release with a UK tour throughout January and February. Human Rush was rated highly by critics, with Bucketlist Music Reviews giving it a score of 9.5/10, making it their top album of the week.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
http://junipernights.co.uk
https://soundcloud.com/junipernights
https://facebook.com/junipernights
https://twitter.com/junipernights
https://instagram.com/junipernights