A Shameless Quickstep

By RingMaster Review on March 15, 2023 • ( 0 )

With a few swift breaths allowed to pass, we are again dipping into the exciting selection of new tracks discovered this month by our dear friend Shauna, an inspiring artist in her own right as part of Canadian duo UMMAGMA and head of SHAMELESS PROMOTION PR. It did not take long to centre on a near handful of very different proposals but all singles united in the finest temptations.

Having firmly hooked us with her recent single Love Machine, alt electronic pop artists MARI DANGERFIELD has done so again with its successor, Screen Time. It is another track taken from the Ealing, West London hailing musician/artist/producer/writer’s new album and another moment of unapologetic captivation.

Also recently unveiled, the DIMPLE DISCS released Love And Other Machines is an album which across its collection of lively electronic and alternative sprung pop songs explores the connections between emotions and technology using objects and gadgets as songwriting metaphors. It is an alignment echoed in its electronic virulence, rich imagination and Dangerfield’s radiant voice and organic delivery as well as indeed the videos and artwork Dangerfield also designs.

As the last single proved, it is a combination which radiates temptation and Screen Time reaffirms our captivation with its gentle but firm dare we say cunning persuasion. The track opens with electronic reverberation across a rhythmic pulsation, a lure which instantly reminded of early Mute Records artists such as THE NORMAL and equally in some ways FAD GADGET in its slightly tenebrific breath. Swiftly though Dangerfield’s warm presence and rumination rises with colour and glow.

Across its body, an array of electronic lights and suggestion continued to draw the senses, another echo of life’s absorption with technology with it woven in an almost orchestral involvement of ears and imagination.

Screen Time is another richly enjoyable moment in the company of MARI DANGERFIELD and alone a potent reason to check out Love And Other Machines.

March 17^th finds the new album from US indie rock trio QUIZ SHOW released via the MAGIC DOOR RECORD LABEL and it too has been given another rich teaser with the band’s latest single, Sound of Kissing. It is a track we touched on in our last singles round-up but deserves another look such the addictive attention it has since sparked.

Taken from the band’s Ray Ketchem produced self-titled debut, Sound of Kissing has a delicious clamorous quality to its voice and breeding, melodies and riffs a din of craft and temptation skilfully swiped by the rhythmic fertility equally enlivening the QUIZ SHOW sound.

Punk and post punk as well as noise pop make up its proposal yet the single also bears a shoe gaze meets power pop meets indie flume of trespass which makes for a compelling altercation upon the senses but a highly seductive one with the body similarly ensnared with the raw and thick virulence of Sound of Kissing. Alone it has grown to be a song to manipulate a sure need to check out the band’s album.

Recently Brazilian psych rockers BIKE announced May 5th for the release of their new album, Arte Bruta via QUADRADO MÁGICO RECORDS and BEFORE SUNRISE RECORDS and soon provided a potent appetiser for it when unveiling lead single, O Torto Santo, a song described as an “Amazonian psychedelic trip”.

Formed in 2015, BIKE consists of Julito Cavalcante (guitar and vocals), Diego Xavier (guitar and voice), Daniel Fumega (drums) and João Gouvea (bass) and has released a quartet of critically acclaimed albums. Similar success has come the way of their live presence which has seen them play more than 400 shows in 16 Brazilian states and tour and play within countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Scotland and Wales and Spain.

It is fair to say that Arte Bruta is a highly anticipated proposal which O Torto Santo is only going to add further fuel to the fire of keen curiosity. The track moves in with an almost sinister prowl to its gait yet is soon sharing the warmest invitation through mellow lined, inner exploring vocals and sultry melodic weaving. Simultaneously, there is an animated adventure to bass and drums, a rhythmic liveliness bringing rich energy and movement to the intimation soaked landscape of the track.

With its psych rock climate and chilled yet luxuriant soundscape, O Torto Santo proved an enlivening and evocative companion for ears and the imagination while paving the way to real curiosity for Arte Bruta.

With the release of new album, Heaving, coming ever closer, South Africa-German outfit LUCY KRUGER & THE LOST BOYS offer another potent teaser in the shape of its title track. It is a song which relishes the almost kaleidoscopic prowess of the band’s sound and their equal skill at weaving moments of ambient fascination.

Fronted by South African-born Lucy Kruger, the Berlin based band embrace essences of genres such as post punk, psych folk, and art pop as well as ambient noise to cast a proposition as manipulative of the senses as the imagination. The evidence is all there in the three singles taken from their April 7th, UNIQUE RECORDS released album and no more absorbing and haunting than with its third teaser, Heaving.

Electronic pulsation welcomes ears first, voice and sound pitter-pattering in ethereal space before Kruger’s soft caresses in voice and word align with melodic guitar lines. It proved immediately absorbing especially as darker bass led shadows moved in bringing liveliness in movement and eventful suggestion within the atmospheric landscape.

As if opening up an intimate otherworld within, Heaving enthralled and enlivened from start to finish, and with its predecessors in singles, Building Bridges and Stereoscope, the tracks have laid the hand of promise of an eclectic and fascinating exploration within the band’s new full-length; one we just have to partake in.

LUCY KRUGER & THE LOST BOYS TOUR DATES Concert tickets can be obtained at https://lklb.tourlink.to/tickets

Apr 04 Freiburg, Germany – Slow Club

Apr 05 Zürich, Switzerland – Fabriktheater Rote Fabrik

Apr 06 Alessandria, Italy – Cascina Bellaria, Sezzadio

Apr 07 Sion, Switzerland – Point 11

Apr 08 Varese, Italy – Circolo Gagarin

Apr 10 Macerata, Italy – Circolo Dong

Apr 10 Fano, Italy – Bagni Elsa Nº3

Apr 12 Bologna, Italy – Efesto

Apr 14 Paris, France – Supersonic

Apr 15 Lille, France – To Be Announced

Apr 16 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Cinetol