HUSH FOR DOLLY SIMONE RECORDS How do you craft a debut album to make exactly the right impact? Do you rush into it while the inspiration is red-hot, or do you take it slow to make sure everything sounds exactly as you envisioned? For Montreal [...]
SHAKEY GRAVES FONDNESS, ETC. DUALTONE RECORDS When you decide to go lo-fi, make a DIY record, and make it work, there has to be a set of very solid musical reasons (unless it is a question of being forced to go cheap) behind it, and those [...]
SHHE THALASSA ONE LITTLE INDEPENDENT RECORDS Your personal background comes into play at some point when you create music, and for the Scottish-Portuguese sound artist and producer Shhe (Su Shaw), for her new album Thalassa she references her [...]
SIMON BROMIDE AND THE BROMIDES FOREST MOUNTAIN FOREST SCRATCHY RECORDS Carrying the torch of great artists and bands is not as easy as some listeners might think. That torch could be damn heavy if you haven’t picked up all the right cues [...]
ABIGAIL LAPELL SHADOW CHILD OUTSIDE MUSIC Some readers might get the impression that Abigail Lapell is kind of a Spill Magazine favorite. Ok, so they might be right, but the reasons for that do not lie solely with the fact that she’s from [...]
ROB & ELLEN IN ON IT INDEPENDENT Making pop rock that is distinctive is a feat, whether it relies on inspiration drawn from other musical sources or whether it brings up something completely new. And an even bigger feat comes when it all [...]
BITTER BLUE LEVITY TRIBAL RAJBER RECORDS Where is modern pop rock coming from these days? Simple answer – everywhere. The more complicated one – how does it fit in within general trends in modern music, how does it cross language barriers, and [...]
VALLEY BOY CHILDREN OF DIVORCE INDEPENDENT With a fresh moniker that is Valley Boy, and a debut album titled Children of Divorce, initially you just might think that you are encountering the music of this Valley Boy (real name James Alan Ghaleb [...]
KACEY MUSGRAVES MIDDLE OF NOWHERE INTERSCOPE/LOST HIGHWAY/UNIVERSAL MUSIC CANADA No, Kacey Musgraves is not your standard country musician anymore (if she ever was), no matter how quite a few listeners will think that her latest album Middle of [...]
ANDERVEL IRONCLAD & PALM TREES INDEPENDENT How does a prospect of a Mexican singer-songwriter sing in English and Icelandic (and only a single one in Spanish) sound? While the English in that equation might not sound so strange, well then [...]
TAJ MAHAL & THE PHANTOM BLUES BAND TIME THIRTY TIGERS What more can you say about an artist that has been on the scene for over six decades, has rarely recorded something that is a dud (everyone has got at least one of those), and has [...]
CHARMIAN DEVI DIAMOND HOUR INDEPENDENT Looking at a collaborators list for this album, the first thought that comes to mind is that there must be something interesting going on here. Otherwise, how do you get a list of collaborators for a debut [...]
BEATRIX WE SWALLOWED THE SKY NICE LIFE One thing you can almost instantly spot with singer songwriters is if they have classical music background. The key thing there is how they use that background in a pop/rock musical setting – are they able [...]
STEPHEN BECKER GRAVITY BLANKET ONE IS THREE RECORDS Avid readers of Spill magazine have probably noticed that NYC’s Stephen Becker is one of the frequent artists you can meet here. His brand of so-called bedroom pop has that quirkiness and [...]
ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE ANGEL IN PLAINCLOTHES ASTHMATIC KITTY There are a number of singer songwriters out there that might not have the wide exposure they deserve but do have a staunch core of fans that keep them going for fame or bust, and in most [...]
CARLA DAL FORNO CONFESSION KALLISTA RECORDS Upon hearing a new album, one thing music fans usually try first is trying to define and categorise the music they are listening to – try and fit it into nice and clear category or categories. Maybe [...]
CISKA CISKA ANGEL MAYWAY RECORDS No, you probably haven’t heard of Ciska Ciska (yet). After all, at the age of 25, Belgian singer songwriter Ciska Dhaenens who is behind this moniker has only four singles under her belt, all combined on [...]
FOXTIDE ENTROPY POSITION MUSIC California sounds revival? Not called as such yet, but that line leading from The Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield through the ‘70s scene seems to be being revived and modernized by the likes of The Lemon Twigs [...]
EMITTER EXTRA PALE INDEPENDENT Old sayings like ‘better late than never’ might sound trite sometimes, but in most cases, they turn out to be true. So is the case with Chicago’s Emitter and their old/new album, Extra Pale. So, [...]
FROG FROG FOR SALE AUDIO ANTIHERO Audio Antihero, the label that releases the music of the tricky little trio Frog, labels itself as ‘specialists in commercial suicide.’ Maybe they say that with their tongue firmly behind their cheek [...]
PRISM SHORES SOFTEST ATTACK MERITORIO RECORDS “Paperback Writer,” one of the greatest singles by The Beatles, never found its way one of their regular albums, but it did create one of the often underrated but at the same time greatly [...]
KAELEY JADE THE GREAT UNKNOWN INDEPENDENT Country music used to be full of formulas that begged to be broken, and for a while now Americana and alternative country artists did a great job in doing so. Joining those ranks is Edmonton-based Métis [...]
RICHARD BARBIERI HAUNTINGS KSCOPE David Sylvian-led Japan became legends of ‘80s electronic music, and Sylvian himself had a renowned solo career with a series of more and more experimental releases. Yet quite a few fans of the genre sometimes [...]
SPARKLER GLIDEWINDER À LA CARTE RECORDS Longtime shoegaze fans and followers surely have certain sound combinations in their minds that they would love to hear, and one such a combination would probably involve My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive [...]
