Swimming Lessons is the musical moniker of 24-year-old Leeds based musician Ben Lewis. The sound of Swimming Lessons is vast, pleasant and experimental, with a focus on creating waves of sound. Lewis has cited influences as diverse as Animal Collective, Arthur Russell, James Murphy and David Byrne, and the resultant music offers the listener a dose of...
Oxford four-piece The Sea The Sea create charming, summery musical creations. For a band very much in their early stages, (having had two gigs and receiving only local radio play), their music is already strong and encouragingly confident. Although at times heavily reminiscent of bands such as Foals or The Maccabees, The Sea The Sea combine that indie rock...
I recently saw Winter Mountain described as ‘pleasant’ and I have to say that pretty much sums these two guys up. There’s nothing extraordinarily different about their brand of indie folk, except that they’re doing it dang well. With vocals that blend like a smooth Tennessee Whiskey and songs tinged with early rock n roll...
Evolving straight from the pulsing musical hub that is Leeds, Heart Ships burst from the seams with their eclectic and slightly unnerving transcendental mix of meditative droning music and passionate, driving crescendos of sound. New release EP 1 marks the cornerstone of a promising career for these new bright sparks. Crafted in Sheffield by Tim Hampton,...
Us Baby Bear Bones are wonderfully difficult to pigeon-hole. The refreshingly unique Brighton-based trio are set to release their debut EP, What Starts with a U Ends with an I, on June 10th, and are definitely to band to watch throughout 2013. Consisting of Puff Gandolfo, Daisy Emily Warne and Luke Phillips, this band creates an ethereally beautiful...
London based Splashh are this year’s new musical antidote to the British summer. No matter the weather, Sasha Carlson (lead singer), Jacob Moore (drums), Toto Vivian (guitar) and Tom Beale (bass) will whisk you away to nostalgic memories of teenage summers in the 90s with their infectious grunge-pop songs. Formed in early 2012, the four-piece already have...
Formed in Birmingham at some point during 2010, two guys and a gal folk-pop trio Fallingham Fair have been doing pretty well for themselves recently. They’ve got a new second album, Songbook, which was released at the end of March to mounting acclaim. They’ve been featured on BBC Radio 6 Music and Channel 4′s Sunday Brunch, and they also...
Echopark is the exciting new project from Italian musician Antonio Elia Forte. Originally from Lecce in southern Italy, Forte now finds himself based in Whitechapel, East London. As such, Echopark’s music is an interesting fusion of blissfully rich, summery vibes and cooler lo-fi synths; curiously and definitively a creature of both sonic...
Mary at Midnight is an evocative name for any artist, conjuring up images of darkness and mystery. It’s safe to say that such imagery suits the artist well in this particular case. Mary At Midnight is an enigmatic singer/songwriter from London who is starting to make real waves with her music. And apparently she does her best work at night, which is why...
Bands form, bands make music, bands split up, band members form new bands. Such is the circular life of music. Often though, nothing radically changes. New people come in and new people go out but the sound stays largely the same. Sometimes though, band members can move quite drastically away from what they’ve always been known for. In the case of...
Snakadaktal may sound like a strange hybrid of prehistoric creature and new brand of low-fat cracker, but they are in fact a new band offering an absorbing blend of low-fi pop and dreamy indie, channeled through the instruments, vocals and synthesizers of five teenagers from Melbourne, Australia. Their sound puts you in mind of a wholesome, fresh-faced...
In 2012 Nottingham-based Kagoule landed a support slot at the infamous Rock City, had their demo ‘Made of Concrete’ played on both XFM and BBC Radio 1, and signed to Denizen Records. With their debut double-A single ‘Monarchy’ b/w ‘Mudhole’ being released as limited 7” vinyl on February 25th and an album to follow later in the year, you can...