Night Flowers Return 'Fortune Teller'

Night Flowers return with new video and material ahead of new album on October 25th from Dirty Bingo Records

Night Flowers who wowed the British music industry with their full debut album, Wild Notion, have announced the release of their second album Fortune Teller on October 25th from Dirty Bingo Records.

The first music released is the title track and it is accompanied by a new music promo which is a 360 degree interactive video.

Featuring Sophia Pettit's great vocal, the London Indie quintet's album is a love letter to 20th century rock greats - Petty, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac - and with Pettit at the helm the song carries a dream-pop uniqueness in this down on its luck political climate.

The song has chiming guitars, reflective synths and epic drums for a power ballad; with the lyrics evoking a need of the seven sins encompassing the singer on a journey. Reminiscent of their first album, there are great hooks, sweeping vocals and a feeling of euphoria.

It is great to have Night Flowers back and perhaps this will be the album that helps them break into the mainstream, the album cover is great and they are having a live show at Redon, London on 31st October.

The album can be pre-ordered here 

Follow Night Flowers on Twitter

My thanks to One Beat PR for the link

Endgame by Daniel Cole

The third Ragdoll book, Endgame, by Daniel Cole is published on Thursday 5th September

William 'Wolf' Fawkes returns following a brief absence from the majority of Hangman; to be the main driving force of the narrative.  Fawkes returns following the suicide of former colleague, Finlay Shaw; something does not add up though for Wolf who believes there is more than meets the eye in regards to the suspected suicide.

With his former partner, Emily Baxter and private detective Edmunds; Wolf attempts to solve the case in a race against time as he puts his career on the line while not everyone in the Met wants him back to begin with.

Cole does a clever narrative trick of showing the investigation into the suicide along with a flashback narrative of Finlay along with his then partner Christian in the late 1970s, when they made a name for themselves in drug busts and yet became the target of gangs who seeked retribution.

Once the narrative gets going in the 70s narrative in terms of Finlay and Christian dicing with death and establishing the relationships Finlay's suicide leaves in limbo, then the present day narrative takes off especially when Wolf and Baxter must address his leaving the end of Book 1, Ragdoll.

Daniel Cole, author of Endgame.

Cole has created in Baxter a unique female protagonist - fierce yet vulnerable, stubborn but knee-jerk - and the chemistry with Wolf who is a cantankerous soul brings the emotions to the fore for all.  In this novel, Wolf is merely a tool for psychological insight into the waste he left behind, his reappearance granting people a chance to vent and rage against his cynicism and selfishness.

What sets this book apart from the other novels of the trilogy - whereas the opener was a true original concept and plot; the sequel was an action packed female fronted thriller; Endgame is a book less about the end result but how you get there, a tale about camaraderie and fraternity within the police force - the bond forged between the boys (and girls) in blue and the ties that bind them to each other.

While the title may have a sense of finality to it all, hopefully that is not the case and the characters such as Wolf and Baxter can continue to work together and we be able to join them on the ride.

Endgame is out from Orion Books on 5th September.
I am appearing on the Compulsive Readers Blog Tour on 6th September

My thanks to Tracy Fenton for the opportunity to review.

Modern Nature - 'Footsteps'

Modern Nature is a new group from Jack Cooper, famous for being Ultimate Painting; and they have released a new video for new single Footsteps ahead of the debut album release How To Live from Bella Union on August 23rd.

The new video is directed by Jake McGowan; and it follows a thread in the album Cooper says that is 'a journey from the chaos of the city to the sanctuary of the country, so we wanted to condense the idea down over the course of Footsteps with the final scene being a baptism...washing everything away'

McGowan harks back to famous British films that has its lense look upon non city scapes such as Withnail and I, Naked and Wish You Were Here; he uses the monotony and cyclical nature of life to make a statement that we need to get away and get back in touch with our selves and the conditions we live in.

The new group are a combination of Jack Cooper (Ultimate Painting), Will Young (BEAK>) plus Aaron Neveu (Woods) and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) - and having taken their name from a diary entry of Derek Jarman, the band are clearly struck by the mix of urban and rural.

On the new album, the urban and rural cross and collide with cello strings melting into electronic beats, rising melodies on saxophones combat guitar strums.  There is an exoticness to the music on Footsteps - organic compositions create a rich quality to the music.

The new single is a great taster for Modern Nature who despite fighting between the rural and the urban have found a unique world of their own to occupy.

How To Live will be released from Bella Union on August 23rd and available for pre-order here.

'I Love You. It's A Fever Dream' - The Tallest Man on Earth

The self-proclaimed Tallest Man on Earth, Kristian Matsson returns with his fifth album I Love You. Its A Fever Dream out from AWAL in physical form 28th June.

Born in Sweden, Mattson gained critical acclaim in 2008 with the release of Shallow Grave. Three more albums followed. He released an EP in 2018 When The Bird Sees Solid Ground culminating in the release of this album.

Matsson is a one-man production force, setting himself deadlines to inject creativity and inspiration through the personal process of producing original music.

Matsson is a man of great subtlety and this understating modesty is infused within the works; his personality comes to the fore throughout by way of expressing his thoughts.  There is a pacing to the mood of this album, the second half of the title specifically mentions a momentary loss of reality, defences are down and love can seep in.

The album sets the tone with the opener 'Hotel Bar' a man stating 'things will be fine' as guitar strings evoke a period of fondness or unrequited moments, this continues with track two 'The Running Styles of New York' where Matsson's ability to communicate a place and mood reminds me of Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie; who regularly writes on the road evoking a moment of his life personally also.

The key track on the album is track four - 'My Dear' - a beautiful and equally haunting track that is borders on jaunty and carefree, yet there are echoes of many a bygone era where romance was king in songwriting and love could be worn proudly on a sleeve a la Neil Young or Dylan's emotional mid-1970s stretch of albums from Planet Waves to Blood on the Tracks.

All in all, this is a sumptuous album of mood, of melancholy but most importantly a love album for the ages.

I Love You. It's A Fever Dream is out now on all platforms but is out in physical form here.

The Tallest Man on Earth will be playing his biggest British shows to date in November later this year

My thanks to OneBeatPR for the review opportunity.

Motionless by Cold Showers

Out today from Dais records, the new album Motionless from LA synth trio Cold Showers

This LA trio may be synth and that genre of keyboards and musicality may bring images of coldness and industrial edge, yet the Californian team are a bunch of die-hard romantics from a by gone era.

The sound of this album first sampled by lead anthemic single 'Shine' is one of the late 1980s/early 1990s a la The Mock Turtles and 'Can You Dig It?' one of those tracks destined for airplay with a sing-along catchiness

On the album after a deliberate methodical beginning, the album has a great middle run of sequencing. The single 'Shine' is followed by 'Measured Man', the title track and 'Sinking World'. These songs are indebted to the 1980s wave of alternative music with a pop sensibility - imagine Morrissey and Marr being married with the edge of New Order and pop of Tears for Fears.

The next single 'Dismiss' is one of those tracks that the band have returned to after some time and is perhaps the song most reminiscent of Depeche Mode but with a killer Marr guitar riff.

All in all Motionless is an album that will be very satisfying for a new listener and a huge step for the band in terms of breaking for mainstream traction and Dais Records have possibly picked up a winner; keep an eye out for forthcoming release from Drab Majesty.

Cold Showers are supporting Tamaryn at the Shacklewell Arms in Kings Cross on Saturday 25th May - they may well steal the show.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

'Dismiss' by Cold Showers

The new video release from LA based synth pop band Cold Showers for single 'Dismiss'

The album is a fine amalgamation of pop influences from the 1980s and to present day, in the same vein as White Lies there is a sombreness to this pop with strands of euphoria reaching up to the sky.

Cold Showers are one of those bands that sound like they are from the North of England, where the bleakness has fed into the songwriting - when the band hails from Los Angeles where that mix of sunshine and isolation becomes a winning combination.

Lead single, 'Shine' is one of those anthemic pop songs that will feed into your ears and much like the maligned 'Simplify' by Young The Giant - a song that should be sung by many a festival crowd.

'Dismiss' is more about a relationship near its darkest point before the inevitable parting, yet it still has that europhic edge. Dating back from 2013, the band decided to re-record it for the new album 'Motionless' out on May 24th from Dais Records.

Opening with a riff reminiscent of Johnny Marr and The Smiths, with lonely vocals this is nevertheless a gripping piece of pop-rock music.

The band tour with Tamaryn in May -The Shacklewell Arms on 25th May; Broadcast, Glasgow May 27th; Night People, Manchester on 28th May and The Lanes, Bristol on 29th May.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Living Theatre - Olden Yolk

The second album from duo Olden Yolk is out from Trouble in Mind on 19th May

Following on from the debut self-titled album in 2018, the duo of Shane Butler and Caity Shaffer return with their second dose of warm harmonies and gorgeous minimalism.

While the debut album showed an air of vivid lyricism and artists in love with the world as well as people it was very much about the contemporary world they inhabited in New York. The sophomore album shows the pair growing as a tandem and away from the minimalism, creating these larger expressions of expansive creativity as they toured the world.

The songwriting of Butler/Shaffer has grown to embrace the electronic world with a cinematic eye embracing avant garde punk and folk.

The lead single, 'Cotton and Cane' was a reach for the mainstream an infectious ditty of pop that has this wonderful second verse that is never-ending culminating in a crescendo, the accompanying video showed an affection for Ken Russell and the Nouvelle Vague.

Written in a feverish three month period by the pair (much like Rayland Baxter) it shows the power of communication and collaboration and shows in this wonderful album full of colour whereas the debut album much like its album cover was more still and greyer in terms of tone.

Living Theatre is out from Trouble in Mind on 17th May and they are on tour in the UK in October.