Listen: First - Spill Tab

Spill Tab’s new single First has a deep, woozy feeling to it. From the ghostly opening bars, an old piano and a quiet vocal that picks its way through the wreckage there is something overwhelming about this song. It gradually builds and twists and overflows, like one of those conversations where one word leads into the other and before you know it you have said way more than you ever meant to.

Spill Tab are duo David and Claire, who collaborate to make music remotely, David from LA and Claire from New York. First is the follow-up to last year’s appropriately named debut single When U Call.

The feeling of this song feels perfect given its subject matter. First tackles the subject of seeing an ex replicating parts of your relationship with someone new, or contradicting the things they told you when you broke up. It can be an alienating and saddening experience, and the feeling of being unmoored and alone is palpable when listening to First. This is an impressively dramatic and emotional record. Check it out below:

Listen: Nothing Holding Me Back - Bella Mer

Nothing Holding Me Back is the new track from Bella Mer and it is her attempt to create a personal anthem - something that she can use to battle her internal doubt and fear.

With a delicate, angelic vocal, Bella Mer asserts herself in a simple refrain that “Nothing’s holding me back” whilst beneath her a throbbing bass line creates a sense of momentum and determination. It feels otherworldly, and yet the world it perhaps most closely resembles is our internal one - the feelings that bubble away inside all of us, mostly undetected as we go about our days.

Check out Nothing Holding Me Back below:

Nothing Holding Me Back - song performed by Bella Mer; written by Bella Mer & PNAHSI; produced by PNAHSI; mixed by Kyle Mangels; mastered by Ian Sefchick Art by @dianagracida, photo by @ashleykelemen Follow Bella Mer: http://bellamermusic.com http://facebook.com/bellamermusic http://instagram.com/bellamermusic http://twitter.com/bellamermusic http://soundcloud.com/bellamermusic https://open.spotify.com/album/3MRYlive6bl6HdGaNoYpGT https://youtu.be/cHia7bgmzkg Purchase on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1449474450?ls=1&app=itunes

Listen: Before I Loved You - Rynn

Having appeared on BlackPlastic.co.uk back in October with her track In My Head, LA-based musician Katheryn Kempthorne is back with her latest song under her Rynn moniker.

Before I Loved You feels like a counter to In My Head. That previous song described the feelings of trying to maintain a balanced perspective on the breakdown of a relationship - the bad as much as the good, the compromises. Before I Loved You is still a backward-looking song about love, but this time it’s a more sympathetic and uncertain experience, the feeling of walking away from a relationship only to find yourself still wanting it. In Rynn’s own words:

“Before I Loved You is about walking away from something and then falling in love with the fantasy of what could’ve been”

The song is constructed around a looping, heartbreaking vocal: “I lost you... Before I loved you”. The instrumentation exhibits this feeling, the noises seemingly pulled into the centre of that lyric like someone under the gravity-like pull of love... The sheer volume and detail in the music builds and builds throughout Before I Loved You’s four-minutes. Eventually it feels like it has lost all perspective, the aural equivalent of building emotional flotsam swirling around us. Sometimes that sense of detail feels innevitable... when you just want the same person for so long that they become like an additional personality in your life, even when they aren’t in it any more.

Listen: Not That Girl - Astrina

Astrina is a singer-songwriter who channels artists like Muse, the xx and Radiohead into her own blend of indie-pop, which combines her soft vocal delivery with melodic yet gritty musical arrangements.

Not That Girl is a song inspired by Astrina’s own feelings of empowerment and independence - her ability to do things on her own terms with her own skills. Having previously worked through a difficult period with a producer who took advantage of her professionally and romantically, Astrina ultimately came out stronger, growing and learning how to produce her own music.

Astrina deliberately brought out a lighter, pop-influenced sound on Not That Girl after a mentor challenged her and said she couldn’t write a pop song… On hearing this track he changed his mind.

The chorus here has a wonderful vocal hook but where this song really shines for me is in the way the vocals are layered around that bass line. The bass has an elastic quality and Astrina’s vocal shifts around it in a way that feels likely the melding of woman and machine.

released February 1, 2019 Music and Lyrics: Daria Black Producer: Daria Black Post-Producer: Danny Goliger Post-Producer: Chris Robinson Vocal Engineer: Zach McDermott (@zach-mcdermott) Guitar: Tre Ulseth Cello: Austin Shaw Mixing: Kieth Armstrong Mastering: Justin Shturtz

News: Glastonbury Announces 2019 Emerging Talent Competition

I’m excited to to be able to share that, in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, Glastonbury Festival have just announced the 2019 Emerging Talent Competition. The competition gives artists of any musical genre the opportunities to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Winners will also be awarded a £5,000 Talent Development prize from PRS Foundation to help support their songwriting and enable them to take their music creation to the next level. Two runners up will also each be awarded a £2,500 PRS Foundation Talent Development prize.

Those that wish to enter have just one week, starting at 5pm on Monday 28 January, to submit their entry before the deadline on Monday 4 February at 5pm. Entries can be submitted at the Glastonbury Festivals website, and should consist of one original song on Soundcloud plus a link to them performing live (even if it is just a bedroom performance).

Recent finalists in the Emerging Talent Competition include Nigerian-born Flohio, a rapper who featured on the BBC’s Sound of 2019 list, and Izzy Bizu, a 2016 BRITs Critics’ Choice nominee and winner of the 2016 BBC Music Introducing Award.

Once again I will be one of a panel of some 30 bloggers tasked with judging the initial entries and creating the ‘longlist’ of 90 entries. This longlist will then be scrutinised by Michael and Emily Eavis in order to compile short-list of eight artists who will compete to be the winning act in a live final in Pilton in April.