Been meaning to post this since it dropped earlier in the week, but December being what it is I'm only getting to it now. Anyway - a killer remix of the emotive closing track from Caribou's latest album Our Love from Carl Craig. The melodies are stripped back here creating an even more amplified disconnect - Dan Swain's vocals are all the more exposed against Craig's distorted, mechanical bass. So good.
Butterfly is the debut EP from Snowpoet and you would do well to think of it as a bit of an early Christmas present. The group are led by two core musicians, London bassist Chris Hyson and Irish vocalist Lauren Kinsella, but they work as a collective to combine experimental and improvisational music and spoken word.
They describe themselves as an alternative folk act but Butterfly is as close to jazz as folk, full of free form melodies and experimental instrumentation. The EP opens with Always, a shimmering and polished entrance full of details that glisten as Kinsella's spoken words walk you in, giving way to a soaring chorus and extravagant, cosmic closing third.
After a gently introspective interlude in the form of 1953, the titular Butterflies gently weaves itself around the listener, guitars panning back and forth as pianos twinkle. The music gives way to the sound of rain gently falling, a transition to runs into the final track Alive With Closed Eyes.
It is a dramatic, stark conclusion to the EP - raw and exposed in a way that contrasts to the polish of Butterfly's opener. A compelling release, Snowpoet are at turns strange and beautiful.
Butterfly is out now. Listen to Always below, stream the EP in full on Soundcloud or buy on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].
Your pulse ceases and the clocks stop as in the moment your heart breaks. If You Went Away is a gorgeously cinematic song from Daniel Wilson, who this weak has unveiled his new EP Boy Who Cried Thunder, available to stream in full on Soundcloud.
If You Went Away is a deadly ear worm of a track, it gently winds its way into your mind with a gently winding piano and vocal intro that gives way to Kate Bush-esque widescreen dramatics as the orchestral arrangements that kick in halfway through. Wilson's vocals betray a fragility, and the production a confidence that makes this music shine. It feels like the soundtrack to a trip to the airport where you plan to beg the love of your life not to get on the plane.
Listen to If You Went Away below, or check out the full EP on Soundcloud here.
Young Summer's new single Severing Ties is a fiesta of gorgeous husky vocals and 80s synth pop. Expect mental images that incorporate pastel skylines, glances at long-treasured crumpled love notes and shots of holdalls being thrown into the trunk of the car.
In the words of the artist herself, Severing Ties is "about deciding to walk away from someone who's been taking more than they're giving... It's one of my favorite songs on the record because it's an empowerment song, an anthem for those who've been the one who loved more in a relationship & waiving goodbye to the people that string us along."
Lovely new track from Portico. The band have undergone something of a rebirth - previously Portico Quartet, they consider this new guise with a shortened name a new start, and their forthcoming album Living Fields a debut. This fresh start sees three of the four members that comprised Portico Quartet collaborating with three vocalists for the new album - Joe Newman of Alt-J, Jamie Woon and Jono McCleery, who features on this track.
Living Fields is due out on 23 March through Ninja Tune.