We featured/loved Welsh band Kidsmoke in January for their restrained but quite formidable knack at pop songwriting on track “Waves”. The Wrexham band return with another strong entry in “And Mine Alone”, a breezy melodic number that will very very quickly have you in toe-tapping new favorite song mode.
We’re into the fresh blend of big gaze-y aesthetics and more straight forward riff-driven melodics on “Paper Boy” from London via Glasgow band Dama Scout. Dama Scout play The Dome in Tufnell Park in North London on April 28th with Happyness.
“Shatter”, the latest from Brighton band GAPS, is set to a minimal (almost hymnal) aesthetic ruddered around hypnotic whirl of repeated synth stabs and arpeggios. We’re very into “Shatter’s” fresh, trend-agnostic sound.
Gloucestershire four piece Low Chimes (f/k/a Hot Feet) stream impressive debut, the meandering, transportive, groove-stuck “Sleepwalking”. The “Sleepwalking” single, which is sampled below from Low Chimes forthcoming debut LP Illuminate , is available now.
Hartlepool band PLAZA fire forward a touch heavier sound on gaze-y latest “Deep In My Head”. The track’s deep in the mix main vocal (into that crusher of a chorus) and delay-driven guitar sequences create a cool expansive quality within the context of the song’s heavy main core. Spin “Deep In My Head” below.
You know Local Natives are not messing around when they put out their first single, “I Saw You Close Your Eyes, of a new album and create an entire website for the track dedicated to making sure you experience the track exactly how they envision. Head over to CloseYourEyes.net, where you can listen to the track, but only if you grant the website permission to your camera. Once permission is shown, the track won’t play until your eyes and closed, and they have to stay shut, otherwise the track will stop playing. The strong baseline of “I Saw You Close Your Eyes” creates a rooted hook that stays with you even after the track is over. The subtle sounds of the intricate congo drums keeps you wanting more. This track is one of Local Natives’ finest, delivering all the harmonies you know and love with some added texture.
B3SCI is pleased to premiere, “Nothing to Hide”, the debut track online of L.A.’s Coastal Clouds. The track’s West Coast sound composed of sunny guitar arpeggios, a spare lo-fi rhythm track, and a sweet bit of great melodic writing belies (and sadly, also reality too for many in California) the song’s lyrical impetus. Coastal Clouds’ Roberto said about the track, “The song, “Nothing to Hide” is mostly about my first few years in California. When I moved from Florida, I started interning in studios and working in restaurants to make ends meet and I was living out of my car in Venice for a few months.” He continues, “The irony is that I was parking my car by some of the most expensive streets to live or shop on and I didn’t have more than a few dollars to my name. Everyone in Venice seemed to recognize me at that point since I was always skating around grabbing coffees and lunches for the studio owners and the lyrics “ You might of seen me on an empty street when my cup was dry “ and “ Look at all those pretty things that I just can’t buy” are memories of those first few years in California which many people experience when they first move out here”
We love “Nothing to Hide” and we’re stoked to stream the track’s premiere below.
Halifax, Yorkshire band The Orielles preview impressive (the breadth of sounds and influences competently navigated is especially great) debut single “Sugar Tastes Like Salt” for the most excellent Heavenly Recordings.
“Fonda” is the debut single online for London-based five-piece SHEIKH. The track, produced by Ian Dowling who has worked with a couple of bands you may have heard of called Jungle and Catfish and the Bottlemen (that Jungle production fidelity is particularly applicable here), ably bridges that especially difficult nexus of artfulness and accessibility quite well with the overall coherence and stickiness of the track being especially accomplished. Stream “Fonda” below.
