A 10-minute extended version of the song was released on 12″ but now there’s a video for the radio edit directed by Cherise Payne and conceived by Låpsley.
“The video Is inspired by an amazing night after my first ever Berlin show, when a group of friends took me out and introduced me to the city’s drag scene. That night’s stayed with me ever since and I wanted to pay homage and say thank you – this video’s as much for that scene as it is for me. Berlin’s also the city that first embraced Koze’s brilliant Operator edit so I wanted to return there to make the video, and try and create something that feels really timeless.”
DJ Koze’s version of the track beefs up the track’s club dynamics and stretches it out over 10 minutes of lush disco. Check out the extended disco remix of the track as aired on Annie Mac in a shorter forms. The official release is to come but it is a doozy.
2.
Clams Casino – ‘All Nite’ feat. Vince Staples
The producer is back with a vengeance.
From his long-awaited debut album 32 Levels (July 15) which features a impressive guest list: Kelela, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Joe Newman (alt-J), A$AP Rocky and Lil B. ‘All Nite’ has more bite than Clams’ entire clouded output prior to this.
3.
Portishead – ‘SOS’
Portishead dedicate their bleak Abba ‘SOS’ cover to Jo Cox.
Portishead’s dystopian and brilliantly bleak cover of Abba’s ‘SOS’, from the soundtrack to the movie High-Rise starring Tom Hiddleston is a chilling soundtrack to the very real Brexit leave vote that’s happening in the UK today. The video ends with a quote from Jo Cox, the UK Labour politician killed last week. “We have far more in common than that which divides us,” it offers. On dark days like this, strangely, the ever-bleak Portishead attempt to offer some sludged hope.
4.
Adultrock – Push And Pull
Adultrock’s Talabot-esque analogue dance cut is out now.
Gavin Elsted is my DJ cohort in Lumo Club (Body & Soul went well [video] so we’re looking forward to this Saturday), a Newbridge man (along with myself, Mmoths, DJ Deece, Knoxville Morning, Mix & Fairbanks, and Cinema to name a few, the Kildare town clearly likes its tunes), a former Super Extra Bonus Partyer and producer in his own right under the Adultrock name.
His debut EP on Bodytonic two years ago, found its way to the hands of Annie Mac, James Holden and John Talabot and this Friday, the label will release his second EP Push And Pull, three-tracks of melodic analogue electronic synth music with a chillwave haze and a dancefloor vision.
Lead track ‘Push And Pull’ is Elsted’s first vocal track with the refrain “How can you do it? How can you be so strong? Even if it all feels wrong,” set to synth arpeggios, crisp house rhythms and a rolling bassline that recalls Talabot at his best.
Produced by Maths Time Joy, this new track from the UK producer features a vocal that sounds exactly like Kelela and stays on that future electronic R&B tip.
DJ Koze’s version of the track beefs up the track’s club dynamics and stretches it out over 10 minutes of lush disco. Check out the extended disco remix of the track as aired on Annie Mac in two shorter forms. The official release is to come for this but you can hear all 10 minutes of the song on my TXFM show Thursday night from 10.
A surprise demo album called untitled unmastered. dropped Thursday night.
Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered. in its title and track listing suggests a temporary unfinished state. A collection of demos recorded from 2013 to 2016 without a place to go. Lamar has performed two of these songs live on TV shows Colbert and Fallon, but they’ve evolved much since these recordings. This temporary missive gives those songs a home while also showing us a jazzier side to his craft.
Despite this status, there’s much to enjoy and most of it comes from Lamar’s rhymes. An appearance from CeeLo Green is a highlight but the most well-rounded track is ‘untitled 03 05.28.2013’, an urgent rhyme matched by a celebratory beat that sounds close to completion.
2.
M83
‘Do It, Try It’
M83’s new song is grandiose and cheesy yet great
The music of Anthony Gonzalez, M83, over his discography has transformed from ambient electronic pop to the kind of large-scale electronic compositions that work well juxtaposed with Hollywood blockbusters. Sitting in between, was an 80s-inspired synth electronic pop that brought the former to the latter.
Nostalgic grandiosity has always been key to M83’s music.
On Junk, the new forthcoming album (April 8th), arriving five years after Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and that album’s apex – ‘Midnight City’, Gonzalez says he’s returned to the influences of his early career – Tangerine Dream, Kevin Shields, Aphex Twin and Brian Wilson, yet has tried to expand his sound again.
That epic quality is still evident on the album’s first single, after all Gonzalez excels at it. ‘Do It, Try It’ has its backbone in synth and electronic pop and pushes into ’80s French pop, ’80s prog and as the chorus suggests – “A dance on repeat / A trance of a heartbeat”, a kinship with dance music’s more euphoric elements.
“Listen to a sound of a new tomorrow,” the song’s introduction goes. When it comes to M83, the sound of tomorrow, is always primarily the past, and it works.
Holly Låpsley Fletcher has been working towards her debut with XL Recordings slowly and deliberately since appearing a few years ago.
Now that time is here. Long Way Home, the lady’s debut, drops on March 4th.
First single ‘Love Is Blind’ adds an extra pop spin to Fletcher’s emotive electronic textures.
You can catch Låpsley on the first Other Voices this Saturday on RTE2 at at 11.15pm.
“It’s an autobiography of my emotions and events over the past year. Everything that’s happened, I’ve channelled in some way into a song – whether that’s the theme of a long distance relationship, or something that he’s said, or the way that I’ve felt, or an argument. I only revisit the memories of that relationship when I go into the studio. I think it’s helped me, to be able to collect everything for those moments when I’m writing. I think that’s what’s driven this album.”
On dealing with producers on her album:
“They didn’t want to listen to me or they think a girl’s just there to add a top line, or they come to the table with ideas already. Straight away if I come in to a studio and someone says ‘I’ve written something for you’, then I’ll just walk out. I don’t care. I’m not there for that.”
The album was largely recorded with XL’s in-house producer Rodaidh McDonald with two tracks recorded with Paul O’Duffy. Mura Masa worked on the album’s last track ‘Seven Months’.
Long Way Home track list:
1. Heartless 2. Hurt Me 3. Falling Short 4. Cliff 5. Operator (He Doesn’t Call Me) 6. Painter 7. Tell Me The Truth 8. Station 9. Love Is Blind 10. Silverlake 11. Leap 12. Seven Months
Other Voices returns to Dingle in from Friday December 4th to Sunday 6th for its 14th year, this year with 70 acts playing over the weekend in St. James Church and on the music trail.
Announced as the first acts to play this year are:
Richard Hawley, Lapsley, Gaz Coombes, Gavin James and Otherkin
More additions will follow in the coming weeks. The open call for bands to play the last IMRO Other Room slot are now open until November 16th.
Free Banter talks by Jim Carroll, along with the music trail and live streaming across the weekend in pubs of the town ensure that even if you don’t have a ticket for the Church, you can have a great weekend.
As for getting tickets? All tickets for the main filmed events in St. James’ Church are raffled through competitions.
Other Voices is supported by RTÉ, the Wild Atlantic Way, Fáilte Ireland, IMRO and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
It’s no surprise to hear Låpsley’s new music move into more of a pop sphere. It follows the now well-trodden trajectory of a label-signed artist, who releases the more indie-sounding singles early on to blog-buzz before crossing over into a larger consciousness.
Except this time, that label is XL Recordings and the artist, Liverpool’s Holly Fletcher aka Låpsley has already established a unique sound – a brittle dropped vocal electronic ambient style. New single ‘Hurt Me’ just crystallises that sound for a larger audience without compromising the overall style. Fletcher’s vocals grow in stature and reach and the result is a larger sonic scape, that isn’t a million miles away from the feel of Grimes’ recent work.
The B-side ‘Hurt Me’ is more like the Lapsley you know, and is equally beguiling.
Having just been announced to play Electric Picnic in September, the young Liverpool singer Låpsley has released a video for a standout track from her recent XL Recordings EP Understudy.
The video has Holly Lapsley Fletcher on a car journey / reminiscing about a night out directed by Cherise Payne & Låpsley but it’s really an opportunity to shine a light on a great track.
Electric Picnic have just announced their lineup for the 11th edition of the festival in Stradbally Hall from September 4th to 6th.
Lineup
Florence + The Machine, Hot Chip, Future Islands, Manic Street Preachers, Chvrches, Underworld, Jurassic 5, Ride, Battles, Jessie Ware, Roisin Murphy, The War On Drugs, Tame Impala, George Ezra, Belle & Sebastian, Jon Hopkins, My Morning Jacket, Django Django, Pond, Low, Tourist, Metz, Girl Band, Kwabs, Lapsley, Alvvays, Marika Hackman, Jack Garratt, Wyvern Lingo, Circa Waves, Hinds, Shura, Ben Khan, Curtis Harding, Aquilo and Little May.
Tickets
If you’ve been to the festival before, there is a loyalty rate for tickets available until midnight Sunday 8th March from €154.40 to €174.50. Codes must be received in advance of purchase.
It’s always heartening and encouraging to see a nascent artist go from the bedroom to the studio to a live setting especially when it’s an artist like Lapsley, who while she had great tunes in ‘Station’, ‘Painter’ and ‘Falling Short’, was still only 17 and had yet to show she had the mettle to take the leap.
Signing to XL was a good hint as that label don’t sign people without natural talent. Here’s further proof – three songs performed for BBC Introducing and Huw Stephens in Maida Vale in a confident way that more than suggests, confirms Lapsley is on the way up. Her Understudy EP is released on January 5th.
‘Falling Short’
‘Station’
A cover of Daniel Bedingfield’s ‘Gotta Get Through This’
See this page for a Soundcloud playlist of all the tracks.
1. Kleerup – ‘Let Me In’ (feat. Susanne Sundfør)
The Swedish producer who has worked with Lykke Li has a mini-album As If We Never One on the way next wek (we just call it an EP) featuring collaborations with Malin Dahlstrom of Niki & The Dove, Jenny Wilson, Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds and this stonking Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Relax’ style beat track with Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør. The video just needs more 80s studio shots.
The Nialler9 TXFM show airs every Thursday night at 10pm for two hours. You can listen live on 105.2FM, online, the TXFM app or if you missed it, on the listen back function on the site, as per below. The show starts six minutes in, right after the news in each hour. Click the buttons to launch the TXFM site autoplaying links.
An accessible guitar-pop psych-funk teaser for the French band’s second album Piano Ombre out in March. ‘La Vérité’ is a airy track from the album, representing the band’s gift for mixing guitar pop, funk and psych influences into one jaunty whole.
After a quiet year, Dutch producer David Douglas is back with a new album Moon Observations, coming out on Atomnation later this year but before that ‘Higher’ is a track which repeats the same trick as his previous EP with twisted self-recorded vocal samples forming the basis of the hook while bass reverberates, muted disco handclaps and percussion add up to his unique sound. I recommend listening to it a couple of times in a row to let it sink in.
Despite the umlaut-style letter in the name, Låpsley is the middle name of by Liverpool singer Holly Fletcher, not some Scandanavian pop petal.‘Station’, Fletcher’s new track is something a bit special. Pitching down her own vocals so she can duet with herself is the start of things, but the song has a beautiful shimmering ambience with rippling gentle chords and an animal-esque noise puncturing the atmosphere. The vocals nourish the song with soul and the handclaps provide focus. A wonderful three minutes listening experience.
Aussie singer George Maple collaborated with Flume on his debut album, Snakehips on the wonderful ‘On & On’ and released a couple of fine soulful electronic tracks last year in ‘Uphill’ and ‘Fixed’ in the last year and she’s at it again this time with London producer Slime on ‘Begin to Say’ , a gorgeous sexy slice of contemporary soulful R&B.
5. St. Julien – ‘Jupiter’
Funkineven’s guise as St. Julien finds exploring a minimal synth-wave style beats. From the release on Apron Records next month.
Tune’s heavy! Newbridge duo’s bass-heavy techno turns heads and shakes chests, not least with new track ‘Move’.
7. Tinashe – ‘2 On’ feat. Schoolboy Q
After last month’s Black Water mixtape, Tinashe heads towards her major label debut with ‘2 On’, a faded yet direct R&B track with a filthy verse from Schoolboy Q.
Chicago singer Jean Deaux teams up with Sampha who provides the production and backing vocals on Find U, a track that appeared on New York DJ Kitty Cash Love The Free mixtape alongside Kelela and Kilo Kish . The track is subtle mix of digital percussion, synths and Jean Deaux’s magnetising tones.
9. St. Pepsi – ‘Mr. Wonderful’
The product of growing up in a world where everyone can listen to every genre, means that upcoming producers can pile on the sound references into one big mashup or they can seek something sleeker and more nuanced. Which is certainly the case with Ryan DeRobertis’ Saint Pepsi, a project which takes in dance, rap, R&B, pop, soul (via an Aretha Franklin sample) and mushes it into a vibrant and wonderful post-Avalanches world.
10. Marissa Nadler – ‘Dead City Emily’
From the American folk singer’s sixth album July, out in a few weeks on Bella Union, ‘Dead City Emily’ is an elegant spectral song that has wormed its way into my consciousness.
Despite the umlaut-style letter in the name, Låpsley is the middle name of by Liverpool singer Holly Fletcher, not some Scandanavian pop petal.
‘Station’, Fletcher’s new track is something a bit special. Pitching down her own vocals so she can duet with herself is the start of things, but the song has a beautiful shimmering ambience with rippling gentle chords and an animal-esque noise puncturing the atmosphere. The vocals nourish the song with soul and the handclaps provide focus. A wonderful three minutes listening experience.
A surprise demo album called untitled unmastered. dropped Thursday night.
