Track Of The Week: Sinead O’Brien – Roman Ruins
Coming from her upcoming debut EP, Drowning in Blessings, ‘Roman Ruins’ is a spoken word lament on change. “A hidden city. The city wants to stay hidden. This is the blind spot.” O’Brien sings. It’s a direct string of images that are eloquently framed by O’Brien’s cinematic, absurd poetry. The drum is bossy, the guitar ready to break its strings. Post-punk, no wave utter-isms. It’s a fantastic song to be pulled through.
Alex Rave and The Sceptical – Reasons
Right from the off, this tune carries a Pink Floyd feel, with its vocals sounding super raw and passionate. Drawling tones and downpours of reverb guitars, it just makes us wonder- who hurt you Alex? At least he got a banging song out of it.
Deep Throat Choir – Camille
What a band name, what a song. The chorus of voices merge together to form one constant sound that’s incredibly powerful. The band describe the track as “an exploration of the feeling that the boundaries between yourself and the natural world, or somebody else, are entirely porous and dissolving.” Couldn’t agree more. It reminds me of Judie Tzuke’s ‘For You’ – if you haven’t heard that, listen to it.
Ariel Pink – Iron Warrior
Ariel returns to his Doldurms-era with a muddy mix that’s somewhere between reality and a dream. It’s not quite the sharp sound of late from Ariel, it’s rather a constant nostalgic and melancholic feeling, but it’s a welcome return to his roots.
Jehnny Beth – Heroine
Backed by what sounds like The Shining’s Banshees, ‘Heroine’ is a shrieking beaut. Also, Jehnny bath and a sax? Yes, please.
LA Priest – Beginning
A really damn funky track that’s a bit odd, a bit strange, but thoroughly dance-worthy. LA Priest wants you on your feet, popping shapes in the bathroom mirror. I will not oblige.
Morgan Harper-Jones – Typical
The eerie plucking of strings accompanies an almost audible eye roll by Morgan Harper-Jones. Her raspy vocals are more haunting than a trip around a fairground’s ghost train as she laments the difficulties of opening up to someone. With brutal honesty set to a minimalist track, Harper-Jones will shatter your heart into pieces with ‘Typical’.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Falling Thunder
RBCF – as I call them – give us a War On Drugs-esque track about being an outlier, constantly looking to shut up shop on suburbia and make a change. There’s some great lyrics on this, some fittingly rolling choruses and a brilliant sense of pacing as the track begins stripped back before slowly chugging it’s way to full pelt.
The Academic – Anything Could Happen
In our seventh week in lockdown, ‘Anything Could Happen’ is the wholesome content we need. Accompanied by an equally cheerful music video, it’s an uplifting track that doesn’t need to break any rules to be groovy. Fair warning: fans may notice their cheeks begin to hurt from smiling at the song.
Westerman – The Line
Westerman turns moral relativism into a three-minute battle between good and bad, where ‘The Line’ is constantly changing. The jangle-synth backing reflects the track’s heavy subject by claustrophobically turning from a feeling of anxiety to hope, before resigning the emotion of being totally lost. Where was I again? Oh yeah, moral relativism…
We may have sold out of Volume 8, but we’ve still got some limited edition Hinds postcards left! If you’re looking for some lovely print material to read, then check out our store for copies of Volume 7 and 6 HERE.
