Racked during a magical week at the legendary Rancho de la Luna studios in Joshua Tree, CA by producer/engineer Andy Freeman, and highlighted by the likes of Dave Catching (Eagles Of Death Metal) as a special guest, debut of the newborn outfit Vast Asteroid is able to instantly bring together the lovers of shoegaze, cosmic rock, britpop and heavier stuff like stoner and desert rock.
Hailing from Los Angeles, Vast Asteroid is a supergroup of sorts, composed of The Warlocks bassist Mimi Star, seminal UK punk-rock
band Slaughter And The Dogs drummer Mark Reback and singer and guitarist James Poulos.
After previously playing together in various configurations, the members coalesced around a shared love of the immersive, propulsive and passionate music of shoegaze, space rock, desert
rock, art grunge, and britpop. They also gave a name to this unique blend they together give shape to: spacegaze.
And they got it right, judging by the cosmic afflatus that permeates their rock-hard wall of fuzz. This record is a glance at the night sky from the desert, and its otherworldly yet hauntingly familiar epic instantly blows your mind and soothes your soul. The songs foundations lay on a tremendously mighty rhythm section, that shakes your speakers as if an asteroid had felt into your back yard; while brilliant guitar riffs and vocals capture the listener and won’t ever free him. The extra guitar madness by Dave Catching on “Spacegaze” is the icing on the cake.
Songcraft is particularly treated, and the band shows the ability to take away everything that is not needed, leading us straight to the very essence of things.
Born from a brief writing and rehearsal period in and around the Highland Park neighborhood of L.A., the band’s debut full-length album, is out now.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/vastasteroid
https://twitter.com/vastasteroid
https://vastasteroid.bandcamp.com
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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 -
Felixity – Twisted Love
Amy Winehouse-inspired pop/neo-soul artist Felixity releases her debut album ‘Love Sick’ on May 1 via Komplex Recordings. The latest single ‘Twisted Love’ also gets a swank powerhouse video featuring (and jointly choreographed by) Felixity herself with dancer Joshua Jung, who has performed with Mabel at The Brit Awards and appeared on ITV’s The Greatest Dancer.
Felixity recently released the Oberkon Remix of her debut single ‘You&Me’, created by a trio of heavy hitters: Andy Spaceland (a.k.a. Andy Jenks), part of Alpha and 5 Billion in Diamonds, together with Butch Vig; Jay Reynolds, notable mixer for the likes of Dua Lipa, Liam Gallagher, MIST, Fred Again, Gabrielle, Paloma Faith, and Pixie Lott; and producer David Francolini.
This collection of 10 deeply personal songs is part confessional, part exorcism, and all infused with her extraordinary voice and street smart lyrics. These songs, which were written at the very end of last year, taking the listener on a poetic journey to the heart of the singer. Felixity’s music is also influenced by The Weeknd (Trilogy), Etta Bond, J Cole, Anderson Paak, KAYTRANADA, and Jhene Aiko.
“On the whole, ‘Love Sick’ is a full stop on a part of my life. Written about personal experiences and laid over heavy drums and lots of strings, I wanted people to know that we all feel the same things and the hardest stuff never lasts. I wrote this about my past and the things that have happened. Sex, drugs love and addiction, it’s all in there,” says Felixity.
This album was recorded in London, Bristol, Brighton, Berlin and Geneva. Mixed by Cenzo Townsend (U2, Ash, The Strangers, The Wedding Present) at Decoy Sound and mastered by Brian Lucey (Katy Perry, Shania Twain, Liam Gallagher, Hatchie, Green Day) at Magic Garden Mastering, this album was produced and engineered at Komplex Studio by David Francolini, drummer for Levitation, Dark Star and Dragons. Francolini has been operating Komplex studios out of Bristol, UK but has now moved operations to the French Alps.
“Given the confessional nature of Felixity’s lyrics, it was important to create a dramatic soundscape; a cinematic and lush harmonic bed on top of which her wonderful voice could sit and her stories’ meanings are amplified. I have shapeshifted the feel of the songs throughout the record so it feels like the emotional journey that the lyrics portray. All quite conceptual really, but always keeping it uncluttered, funky, simple, and the groove deep,” says producer David Francolini.
“Fusing old school soul music with more contemporary textures, color, rhythms, and tone, I brought in some of the best musicians I have had the pleasure to have met for the album recording: Dekel Shula Adin (bass), Dean Frechtman (guitar), Ziv Sobelman-Yamin (Rhodes piano) and Adam Coombes (piano). We also have guest guitar from Angelo Bruschini (Massive Attack) and Alex Lee (Goldfrapp). The strings were worked on together with the soulmaster Martin Eden. I played all the drums and percussion myself and also myriad other synths etc. Was a fukkin labour of love!”
This collection of songs of love and loss is just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come for Felixity, who has several albums planned for 2020. The ambitious songwriter is already in the studio completing the second one. As for many artists, live shows planned in support of this album have been postponed. Nonetheless, Felixity is hoping to perform again later in the summer, current environmental permitting.
Featured image by Steve Gullick.
CREDITS
Written and performed by Felixity and David Francolini
Produced and engineered by David Francolini
Recorded at Komplex Studio in November/December 2019
Mixed by Cenzo Townsend at Decoy Sound
Mastered by Brian Lucey at Magic Garden Mastering.
All songs were written by F. Abbott and D. Francolini, except ‘You&Me’, written by F. Abbott, D. Francolini and S. Clines
‘Twisted Love’ video directed, produced and edited by Alex Rozerot KirkwoodLINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/Felixityx
https://twitter.com/felixity_x
https://www.instagram.com/felixity_x
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtqvgVRDF_xKKzWNNYnRVmA
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/felixity/1497518825
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0rrpwcxiKQNAtpsU3e4q7V -
Charlie Melrose – The Original Ghost
Touching upon the hook-laden electro grooves of Lady Gaga and Christine & The Queens, UK’s fast-rising art-pop/neo soul creator ‘Charlie Melrose’ delivers news of her single and video release.
‘The Original Ghost’ tackles her dad ‘ghosting’ her. Charlie was born into a musical family – her Auntie is 80’s music royalty, Hazel O’Connor (D-Days, Will You, Breaking Glass) and her father is Neil O’Connor. Throughout her childhood, her father would be away a great deal due to the requirements his career in music, especially while working with The Human League but as a child this was something Charlie says she found hard to deal with and didn’t really understand. In Charlie’s words ‘Instead of hating him, I just used to see him as this amazing person who kept leaving because I was probably rubbish… you know how children’s brains work?’
In the end, her father’s work took over and Charlie felt like she was totally dropped – which undeniably many daughters and sons would have an affinity with. Despite Charlie’s attempts to try and have a relationship with her father, he ended up cutting off contact and ‘Ghosting’ her. That is the backdrop to Charlie’s new single.
The story of their relationship both as a child and as an aspiring musician is a fascinating and heart-rending story. ‘The Original Ghost’ is Charlie’s attempt to come to terms with some of the confusion that affected her childhood and still burdens her today as an adult, her story as she explains resonates with many thousands of children who are now adults; the song’s lyrics combine both sadness and empowerment.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/charliemelrosemusic
https://twitter.com/Charlie_Melrose
https://www.instagram.com/charliemelrose
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-original-ghost-single/1441276392
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0xPg9VQMYIHLCVxB0zHjNS?si=DunLQNBlTVywa-X43RX5qg