A Shameless Multiplicity

By RingMaster Review on June 13, 2024 • ( 0 )

As we continue to delve into the latest bundle of finds by our dear friend Shauna from the ambient/shoegaze weaver UMMAGMA and of SHAMELESS PROMOTION PR, an eclectic richness of possibilities again proved intriguing and compelling. So no surprise that the following bring great diversity to ponder but all propositions linked by ear gripping craft and captivation.

With the release of his self-titled debut solo album and a UK Top-40 charting reissue of TRASHCAN SINATRAS own debut album Cake, a band he co-founded, as well as a host of highly successful concerts, the last 12 months or so has been a fruitful time for Scottish singer songwriter JOHN DOUGLAS. It is momentum we can only assume continuing with the release of his new single I Just Want To Go Home and its live performance video which was filmed in Hyndland, Glasgow in late March 2024.

Also part of his partner Eddi Reader’s band, Douglas has pulled I Just Want To Go Home from his first album and given it a standalone moment to captivate and beguile it certainly does. A song about the difficulty of finding peace in a one’s own world, what Douglas described as “a lonesome lyric”, the track plaintively caresses ears from its first breath, voice and guitar lamenting with low key but melodic beauty for company.

As it did musically, lyrically the track also struck a knowing chord within. All lives vary but the quest for a moment’s peace is a common if widely evasive yearning and magnetically captivated in every note and syllable of this delightful song.

A track that has been out a little while but also should not be ignored is Verrückt, the latest audio-visual offering from German postpunk duo CIRCOLO VIZIOSO and the title track from their acclaimed debut album.

Consisting of Tony Scafidi (guitar, bass, drum, hi-hat, vocals) and Paul Geigerzaehler (violin, snare drum, vocals), CIRCOLO VIZIOSO hail from Berlin. It is a project formed on a balcony in Friedrichshain in March 2020 during the first Covid-19 lock-down, its emergence described as “an attempt to keep art and music alive and to provide support to their neighbours during a time when no concerts were happening and no cinemas, museums or galleries were open.” That year saw the release of the 5-track EP, Isolation, a collection of senses nagging, thought provoking songs cast in a sound seeded in the inspiration of bands like FUGAZI, BLONDE REDHEAD, SONIC YOUTH, DEZERTER, SANDOW and SCHLEIMKEIM. All the same, it forged a unique template that the striking Verrückt album has built upon and stretched to another level.

A song about losing one’s mind in a world losing its own, Verrückt immediately harasses the senses with its throbbing pulse and beat, a guitar as quickly tantalising ears like a glorious itch within the track’s ominous post punk climate. Anxiety and disturbance wrap vocals as they join the discord, they in turn seemingly urging greater tempestuous in the sounds around them.

Featuring the thickly magnetic backing whispers and troubled cries of Audrey Quillons, Verrückt is one of those addictions that never leave once having infested ears. It is a glorious sonic nettle upon the senses and a trespassing pleasure from a band that is a predacious silver lining in an increasingly turbulent and destructive world.

Indie-folk outfit TWO HEADED HORSE will be releasing their debut EP, I’m Not Hidden via OX4 Sound / Wooden Pyjamas this summer and leading up to its arrival the London-based quartet has laid many seeds for keen anticipation with a host of ear-grabbing singles. Each has provided a real invitation to attention with Shimmer a real leader of the pack.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Mark Gardener (RIDE) at OX4 Studio, and a song sparking the keen attention and support of The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, Shimmer provides a prize example of the band’s infectious sound, an acoustically and melodically woven warm trespass that slips under the skin as if it was meant to be there.

The band itself consists of James Gable (vocals, guitar), Tristan Gable (keys, guitar, backing vocals), Gary Hanratty (bass, backing vocals) and Leigh Baines (drums) and emerged late 2023, the quartet dropping their first single, See For Miles (Bounder’s Motif), soon after. Further tracks have escalated the growing awareness and high praise that has surrounded the band with Shimmer, the second track from the upcoming EP, particularly one irresistible pull.

Shimmer immediately and gently caresses ears with the melodic contemplation of guitars, a slightly skittish and just as inviting rhythmic shuffle only adding to the captivation as too James’ warm vocal thoughts. With the song musing about “memories becoming entangled in myth”, its lively and virulent eruptions only increase the contagion offered, these turns seemingly revealing a different side to the proposal, a reflection of emotional exploration and maybe of the song rising from the uniting of two separate pieces of music originally.

It is a fluid and as we found quickly addictive aligning in a track that alone has ignited real intrigue and appetite for the first EP from TWO HEADED HORSE and indeed all that will follow.

Lastly we recommend something a little different to those above but a proposition just as richly captivating. Recently, American shoegaze icons THE VELDT recorded a full live session at the studio of Seattle’s KEXP RADIO, an immersive audio-visual experience that takes you to the heart of the band’s presence and sound in one fly-on-the-wall spotlight.

For the few yet to discover THE VELDT, the band was formed by and centres round the Chavis brothers, Daniel (vocals, guitar), Danny (guitar) with Hayato Nakao (bass, programming) completing its core. Formed in North Carolina in the 1980s, the band was at the heart and to the fore of first-wave shoegaze bands, and been a continuing inspiration and important part of the scene’s evolution over the years with a rich landscape of acclaimed releases and live performances to light the way.

Towards the end of last year, the band released Illuminated 1989 on vinyl via Little Cloud Records / 5BC Records, a collection of tracks set to be their debut album but denied their destiny by the band’s record label at the time that had them return to the studio to record what would subsequently be their first and also impressive full-length, Marigolds. Eventually getting its moment to tempt, Illuminated 1989 provided a fascinating end to 2023 and The Veldt brings a just as enthralling moment to its successor with this live studio recording which has been further highlighted by the In A Quiet Room (Live at KEXP) video.

THE VELDT has always had an immersive sound and presence and this recording/film proves that have your eyes open or closed alongside attentive ears and you find yourself drifting away on the band’s unique sonic sea while being drawn into its evocative and richly immersive depths, the band’s songwriting and music as powerful and inspiring as ever.