Engine – Notes [free album download]

A while ago, I found out about a band called Engine, I got very excited about them, in particular a track called Motto. Now I’ve discovered that they released a six-track album called Notes back in December and I’m like the cat who got the cream. This album is made up of demos, acoustic and live recordings, the end result of which is a warm, rich, triumphant sound. It’s undeniably brimming with sadness and regret and at the same time, it’s jam-packed with some dazzling flashes of what can only be described as raw, brilliant talent. All of that makes for a particularly inviting combination, funnily enough.

Another highlight from Engine’s small yet mighty backcatalogue is Bury. It really is a prime example of all that can be great about folk music, bursting at the seams with brass, banjos and a very touching vocal perfomance from Sidney Sonnerberg.

Go forth and bask in the glory of it all yourself because all six tracks, including Motto and Bury are available to download for free via Bandcamp. Do it fast because some lucky bastard is bound to sign these boys and sell their addictive sound for a profit before too long.

Safe to say, there is now a huge smile plastered across my rather daft ginger face. These boys make such a lovely sound and 2013 could well be very interesting for them.

As unexpected surprises go, I’ve certainly had worse. There’s just something about Sidney Sönnerberg’s voice that is inexplicably easy to listen to. I maintain that Motto is the best track of all but the rest have potential by the bucketload.

Hopefully circumstances will allow for a full-length album some time in the not to distant future.

Henry Skewes

Henry Skewes is a rather talented rough diamond who hails from North London, where he writes and records his own music – a rather lovely brand of warm, guitar-centric folk that would have you believe he hails from much sunnier climes; luckily for the UK, this isn’t the case. Henry has been building up an impressive fanbase over the last year by playing a number of live shows in the British capital and uploadng his ridiculously listenable sounds to the internet.

His influences include Hank Williams, Loudon Wainwright and Roy Orbison (hence glasses, the hair and the track If I Were Roy Orbison perhaps?), three very talented, soulful artists whose impact on Henry isn’t exactly difficult to hear in his own work.

I’m not entirely sure about this but somewhere within the Aladdin’s cave that is Henry’s backcatalogue, there is this little three-track bundle, which I assume is an EP that is probably titled Coming Home judging by the photo on his Facebook page. It’s like Cluedo only I think he did it in the bedroom with a guitar… ANYWAY, wrap your ears around this, it’s great:

I reckon Hard Loving is my favourite of all, not from the EP but just as worthy of a little extra attention. Maybe it’s because of the female vocals or the key change or the gorgeous simplicity of it all but I’m smitten with this track.

There’s a lot more where all of that came from on Henry Skewes’ Soundcloud page. You can download all of the tracks for free, but they are master tracks so have an external hard drive at the ready. If disk space is an issue, don’t fret too much because with a talent like his, Henry is probably going to have a very good 2013 and I wouldn’t be remotely surprised to see a proper album appear before too long. Ideally in time for a long, hazy summer…

NO – Don’t Worry You’ll Be Here Forever & Stay With Me video

Los Angeles five-piece NO have somehow managed to cram a beautiful love story into a video with couple of crash test dummies. Just when American “indie rock” was about to be written off, along comes the antidote to The Killers’ overkill.

NO have already been tipped as one of 2013’s “next big things”, with a debut EP in the pipeline and a number of international shows in the offing. In fact, they played in London tonight with Father John Misty… so the world takeover begins, or rather continues.

This band are, as a lot of other people have already pointed out, very good at slow-burning indie ballads that explode rather pleasantly on themselves, a bit like an intentional cumshot. Their sound isn’t dissimilar to that of The Killers or any other wildly successful US alt-rock band for the last decade, it’s just different with an equally broad appeal – and it’s nothing like Coldplay either, thank fuck.

Download their previous EP Don’t Worry, You’ll Be Here Forever for free by clicking here.

The Cellophane Flowers – ‘Staring at the World’ teasers

The Cellophane Flowers, a four-piece from London, are due to release their highly anticipated debut album, Staring at the World on 3rd December. Before the album launch madness commences, the band have already uploaded a couple of the new tracks, Rock n Roll and Voices, to Soundcloud.

They’ve been up there for a while but I found it when dicking around on Rakkit (a mix of Hype Machine and This Is My Jam – a total bellend of a site but GREAT nonetheless).

It’s the drums I really like. That, and the fact that the above track is especially catchy – in a pleasant way. It reminds me of a lot of things, like Siousxie Sioux and Karen O – Francesca Corradini’s vocals are just brilliantly post-punk, put it that way.

It isn’t a huge surprise that the two tracks sound the way they do when you consider the fact that The Cellophane Flowers have been working with Dave Allen on their new album. The man is well-known for his work with The Cure, The Human League and The Charlatans to name a few.

So, whilst you put those on repeat until 3rd December, you can also peruse the tracklisting and imagine what the rest of Staring at the World is going to sound like. Pretty fucking great I imagine…

1. Voices
2. The Promise
3. Pendulum Eyes
4. Forever Lost
5. Tears of a Clown
6. Rock ‘n’ Roll
7. Belinda
8. Time
9. Lucky Day
10. In a Hole

Syron – Breaking

I get the impression that I might have been a bit stupid to have ignored tweets and blog posts about London-based hotshot-to-be Syron, real name Daisy Syron Russell. Her music is pretty damn good (well, judging by the one proper track…), not to mention really fucking catchy. It would be annoying if it wasn’t so easy to listen to.

Here’s the video for her debut single, Breaking, which comes out on 24th September via Black Butter Records, a hot-shot-to-be-record-label. I’m starting to see a pattern emerging here…

Could this girl be responsibe for a full-blown garage revival in the near future? Who knows, spose we’ll have to wait for an album before we can answer that one…

At any rate, she’s doing alright so far. She hasn’t even released a proper single yet and The XX, Radio 1, I Extra, iD and Popjustice are all behind her. Roll on the next thing I say, I like Syron a lot.

The Milk – Broke Up The Family video

Well before this week, I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of The Milk, a London Based four-piece, signed to Sony who have recently released this riotous good time of a video:

I want a beer and a cigarette now. That’s some toe-tapping anthemic material right there, it practically forces you to sing along before it’s even halfway through. For live toe-tapping, they are currently in the midst of a UK tour and are set to headline a few festivals over the summer, such as Isle of Wight, T in The Park and Beach Break, and to be honest I think they’re going to pick up a lot of sunburnt and beer soaked fans while they’re at it.

The May Birds

After building up a core fanbase in and around Soho and Camden, London based group The May Birds seem to be on the brink of something really quite exciting.

The band started out as a double act, Alice Haughton providing the vocals with Ella Parkinson on guitar, then after a while they decided to take it up a notch with the additions of Camilla Rockley on cello and Charlotte Workman on piano, which added a lot of depth to what Alice and Ella were already doing and furninshed the band with a sound could now have enough potential to break out onto the up-and-coming folk scene. If you can’t make it to one of their gigs anytime soon the girls released their debut single Inside Out late last year accompanied by B-side Wait For Me, available whenever and wherever you fancy on iTunes.

There is of course an official video, a visual side dish if you will, to go with it:

They’ve already had some exposure after supporting Jesca Hoop, established State-Side-but-now-lives-in-Manchester (our Manchester) folkie, and by playing both The Great Escape and Beautiful Days festivals in the UK last summer, enchanting more new fans as they went.

So what next? Well The May Birds have recently been selected for the live regional finals of Live And Unsigned which takes place on 11th March for anyone that fancies it. Until then their next gig is on 27th February in London if you can make it. These girls put on a pretty good show by all accounts, but if you just want to pop some headphones on then click right HERE and have a peruse of some of their other tracks, alternatively there’s that reliable old chestnut SoundCloud:

Beggar:

Blossom Trees:

Blossom Trees is a sweet little thing, but then with a name like that it was never going to be bitter…

To round off I’d say The May Birds can be filed next to/near the likes of First Aid Kit, Jesca Hoop, Jaymay, Sharon Van Etten and Ben Howard, yeah probably my kind of thing.