Wilder Maker 'Male Models'

 

Latest album from New York band, Wilder Maker, out 29th July from Western Vinyl

The new album from trio Wilder Maker features an eclectic list of guest vocalists, combining with the sun-kissed soulful dripping indie rock that is on offer. Guests range from Adam Duritz (Counting Crows), Katie Von Schleicher and Felicia Douglass who each lend their vocals to another heartfelt folk laden composition married with Gabriel Birnbaum's insular narrative laden lyrics.

Male Models' inspiration is as eclectic as the sound it carries with influences ranging from novels to basketball and Thin Lizzy to positivity. The band comprises of frontman Birnbaum with long time collaborators Nick Jost and Sean Mullins, with the album being recorded live over several days. The overriding impression you get from the first listen is that this is an album for a vinyl listening party, something you put on in the background but every now and then you have to stop in your tracks because you are hearing something fresh, invigorating and hypnotic.

Birnbaum admits, 'I've been keeping an ever-expanding playlist of songs that I never want to skip. I wanted to make a record that sounded like a playlist in this way; it became a kind of songwriting challenge for me.'

The album succeeds in bringing that effervescence to your speakers with a balance of jam inspired soul and funk with pulsating indie rock that is reminiscent say of We Are Scientists but this really reminded me of a band called Video Age and their album 'Pleasure Line' while that had hints of yacht rock in it, that album and Male Models shares a strange sounding DNA and both had a summer release.

Latest release 'Static' is one of those such tracks featuring vocals by VV Lightbody; a jaunty jam of funk that marries summery vocals with a neat bassline.

'Silver Car' is a personal favourite of the band themselves and that features Katie Von Schleicher guesting and the album has these moments of calm amidst the fevered excitement elsewhere such as ballad 'Surfers Trace' which is sun-kissed and elegiac.

Following the global pandemic, there is a real sense that this big world did become a lot smaller as we all had to experience the change to our daily lives and routines. It forced us to reach out to those we may not ordinarily make contact with and provide support to those in less fortunate positions but also the chance for collaboration. 

Male Models is indicative of this sea change as music is made across zoom calls and ideas are shared frequently across continents and nations - the finished product fills you with a great sense of joy and pride that perhaps the good in humanity will win out as wars and corruption still appear in our society. This album speaks to the good in people and the light that shines in us all.

Male Models is out from Western Vinyl on 29th July.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Mint Julep - In A Deep and Dreamless Sleep

New album from husband-wife duo Mint Julep, In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep out 19th March from Western Vinyl

Following on from 2019's sumptuous release Stray Fantasies, the duo of Hollie and Keith Kenniff return with a kaleidoscopic and dreamy shoegaze pop venture that is at times an extension of the previous album and a progression of the creative partnership.

From the album opener 'A Rising Sun' this is not merely an album but a mood piece of contemplation - the sun of the track is breaking through the fuzzy fog we as a listener may find ourselves in as we cope with the mounting pressures of a global pandemic and the stresses upon a person's mental health.

The rich harmonies between the two are on display on track two, 'Black Maps' with its pulsing underlying bassline and gorgeous vocals by Hollie. This track is perhaps the most familiar song structure from the pair, yet as Keith Kenniff explains, 'Our previous material tended to be structured largely in a verse/chorus setting, but these songs are more free flowing and through-composed with a focus on mood and texture.'

The ability to alter your songwriting structure from one means to another allowing the moment or feeling to navigate the song is expressed throughout the album as a shape-shifting quality rarely seen amongst groups. Yet if pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we have to learn to adapt to thrive or move forward in the post-Covid world.

The whole album seems and definitely feels like a construct of work from an alternative dimension or perhaps five minutes into the future; from the ethereal album cover featuring a multi-coloured mysterious shape dwelling near a cave - is it escaping or entering? - to the dreamy mood of psychedelia and imagination which runs the full gamut of spectrums available.

At times sparse but at other times highly emotive, this album has something for everyone and covers a range of mysticism through the use of synthesizers and guitars creating an absorbing ambient collection of romantic dream pop.

In A Deep and Dreamless Sleep is out 19th March from Western Vinyl 

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My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Peter Oren - The Greener Pasture

New album from singer-songwriter Peter Oren out 24th April from Western Vinyl

FFO: Eerie Gaits, Bon Iver, Rayland Baxter, Bob Mould

His first new release since 2017's Anthropocene, Oren has recorded this album himself in his hometown of Nashville, Indiana. This is the first project he has mixed, mastered and produced himself and recorded mostly in seclusion at a cabin near his hometown surrounded by hilly and wooded acres totally 60.

The album involved him trading files with fellow musicians some he has never met in person, yet he has produced an album that is at both times about connecting in this large world, and in these unsettling times of pandemic that theme of unity and togetherness is even more telling.

Highly rooted in the history of Americana roots, blues and country and western, while it is indebted to that rich history of American musical genres, Oren is writing about prevelant first world problems so not tales of backwater gangs but as in 'Ones and Ohs' it is about excessive phone usage and becoming a slave to this modern technology at your fingertips.

'Fun Yet' (track 6 on the album) concerns the need to have fun despite all the ability at those same fingerprints. 'John Wayne' is about the search for heroes and icons in these times of trouble. So this album is as much about looking forwards as looking back in its stripped down woozy wonderfulness.

Opening single 'Gnawed to The Bone (Come By)' is about feeling isolation understandable when recording in isolation and the theme coming through the album is about Oren combating this period of isolation and having to overcome those fears of vulnerability and gain a voice amongst the chaos and loneliness.

That first single was released on 19th February, here we are two months later and the world is very much different to then. We are all coming together in periods of reflection and contemplation, and it is works like this that will help us do this - becoming a voice for the people who themselves are seeking answers amongst this weird dystopia we find ourselves living in.

The Greener Pasture is a rich work of individualism for the people, it is out on all platforms from 24th April from Western Vinyl.

Activity - Unmask Whoever

Debut album from New York four piece available from Western Vinyl on 27th March 

Formed a year ago in NYC, Activity, the four piece comprise of Travis Johnson (vocals), Steve Levine (drummer), Zoe Browne (bassist) and Jess Rees (guitarist)

Attention to this avant garde foursome came about with the release of lead single 'Calls Your Name' with a corresponding video that is both hypnotic and unsettling.

Yet this band have made music that while being harsh on the exterior and the sort of unrelenting indie rock powered by bass lines, there is an accessibility that comes to the surface once you listen to the album.

The hypnotic power of the lead single is matched by second track 'Earth Angel' - embracing the power of the individual and bringing that to the fore with lyrical themes of paranoia clashing with the current fragility of the person in this mad mad world.


'Nude Prince' the last single before the album release is one of those stay with you songs that is both pulsating and mesmeric, bringing a throbbing art rock beat to the party - the perfect marriage of aloof lyrics and synth beauty.

The band are this finally balanced four piece of two males and two females, an avant garde rallying call to arms from the conventions of indie rock to mark this new breed of current dystopia - paranoid lyrics and flawed humanity in musical form.

A band who are an amalgam of various forms have created an album inspired by literature, music and current events to make an album that is wholly unique and coherent. At times subtle and radiant, proud but buoyant this is a work that will be spoken of for end of years lists.

Unmask Whoever is released from Western Vinyl on all formats from March 27th.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Mint Julep - Stray Fantasies

Wife and husband duo, Mint Julep, release new album Stray Fantasies on 31st January from Western Vinyl

Mint Julep are Hollie and Keith Kenniff, a partnership born out of a deep love for synthesisers and electro pop, and this has been curated towards the album Stray Fantasies, a twelve track album full of pop nuggets dripping with basslines, punching drums and electro heaven.

This can be expressed in the new single 'Escape' a disco tinged gem, and there are many exciting tracks on the album to discover from opening track 'Blinded' to 'Just For Today' a song that would not look out of place on Pet Shop Boys discography.




When listening to the album there is a buzz you get from enjoying it that you rarely feel with other electro-pop fare; the fizz of melodies coupled with Hollie's winning vocal delivery and the professional production makes this a winning combination in life and love.

All in all this will be a great album for fans of New Order and other electro pop trendsetters, and there are tracks ripe on her for remixing for the club scene as well as crossing over to indie darling-dom as the wave of shoegazing is here also.

Stray Fantasies is out on 31st January from Western Vinyl

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.