Stream: Maintain - Vilde

Vilde is the new project from Australia-born now Stockholm-based musician Thomas Savage. Previously frontman with Kins, Vilde has released a string of singles as he builds up to an album piece by piece.

Recalling Wild Beasts' more recent work, Maintain is a sinister aural assault - all brooding falsetto vocals and haunted synths. It takes a certain kind of track to create a genuine level of uncertainty as to whether it is actually playing correctly or whether your device is glitching out, and Maintain managed to catch me with that trick not just once but twice.

This is the kind of track that feels equally at home in your earbuds on a lonely rainy Tuesday morning as a beer soaked Thursday night. I just want more, longer, deeper.

Describing the song, Savage says:

"The subject matter of the song is somewhat of a crammed amalgamation of ideas. Part inspired by the film ‘Ace in the Hole’, where a news reporter begins to twist events in a dark way to gain fame through his portrayal of the story. There’s some pretty bleak imagery in the lyrics, yet bits of optimism seep through too, provoking a sense of solitude, release & calm."

Catch Vilde live later this year:

July 21 – Kantine Am Berghain, Berlin w/ Foreign/National July 29 – Old Blue Last, London w/ Foreign/National

Stream: Won't Look Back - Geowulf

Geowulf’s Don’t Talk About You has been bouncing around for a few weeks since a friend recommended it to me… It’s the kind of beautiful pop record that makes me swoon - one part desperation, one part determined independence - and the band brought it all together in a way that sounds like Warpaint started soundtracking 80s teen movies.

New track Won't Look Back further ramps up the 80s cinematic references with keys and lots of shoe gaze paired with a huge hook of a chorus. It’s the bridge that really soars here though, the melodies skimming along like they are bouncing off the Karman line.

“Won’t Look Back is about trying to look forward and deciding to be excited about what might be next.” says Star, Geowulf’s singer. “Toma had the idea for it a long time ago, maybe a year or so, but it really came together recently.”

You can check out the band live this month and next:

APRIL PIAS Nites, London (Thu 20th) Hit The North (Fri 28th) Live at Leeds (Sat 29th)

MAY Hoxton Hall (Wed 3rd) The Great Escape (Fri 19th) Australia BBQ @ Hoxton Bar and Grill (Sun 21st)

Geowulf - Won't Look Back Available to Stream/Download here: http://smarturl.it/GeowulfWLB Produced & Mixed by Duncan Mills Released by @37Adventures

Stream: Steady Cruising - Fang Night

Glastonbury recently announced their finalists for the 2017 Emerging Talent Competition. Whilst Fang Night didn’t make the final eight they hold a particularly special place in my heart since they were one of the three acts I put through to the longlist, a list of 120 acts selected by a panel of 40 bloggers.

Earlier in the year when I submitted my nominations for the longlist Steady Crusing was one of the songs by Fang Night I used to make my judgement. At the time I said “A great example of how to combine indie, R&B and pop into one perfect package” and that still encapsulates how I feel about this track. There is a cool minimalism to this track that reminds me of two of my recent favourite acts - Chinah and Philco Fiction.

The London duo are made up of Ben Walker and Ewa Lefmann and they have been making music together since they were 14. Steady Crusing is the first in a planned series of single releases for the year so you should expect to hear more from Ben and Ewa.

Steady Cruising is out now on Every Second Records. Fang Night will host their club night Plant x Jewel on 27 April at the Waiting Room in Stoke Newington in London.

For the curious… The other two acts longlisted by me in this year’s Emerging Talent Competition were Explorers and Tigerclub. You can check out Explorers’ track Numbers and Tigerclub’s track Control, both on Soundcloud.

Prod. by Oli Bayston

Stream: Touch - Haux

A bittersweet combination of dream-like melodies and melancholic R&B, Touch is a naked portrayal of longing.

Haux is the musical guise of Woodson Black - a photography turned musician who grew up in the Berkshires, first finding his voice exploring the surrounding environment. The influence of rural landscapes inspired Black’s photography and has also influenced Haux.

Check out Haux when his debut headlining tour kicks off later this month in Boston. He will be in the UK next month when he plays Manchester, London and Brighton.

Haux Tour Dates: April 25 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott April 27 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right April 29 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd May 3 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza May 4 - Portland, OR @ The Fremont Theater May 6 - San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall May 7 - Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater May 17 - Manchester, UK @ Sound Control May 18 - London, UK @ The Lexington May 19 - Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape May 21 - Paris, France @ La Maison Sage May 23 - Cologne, Germany @ YUCA May 24 - Berlin, Germany @ Musik & Frieden May 28 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso

http://smarturl.it/HauxTouch

Video: Fix - Hazel English

Hazel English has just announced her new double EP Just Give In / Never Going Home and to accompany it we have a new single and video in the form of Fix.

This is English at her best - sun drenched melodies that have a fuzzy feeling akin to the warmth hitting your skin on the first day in spring. It feels like this could be Hazel's moment, particularly as that new double EP is set to come out on Marathon Artists (home of Courtney Barnett, Jagwar Ma and Pond). There's a gorgeous wistfulness that runs through Fix and the John Hughes meets Sofia Coppola tone of it's accompanying video. I can't get enough.