Watch: DNT — Roman Around

Based in Fresno, California, Roman Around is an American rock band and outfit for the songs of Roman Rivera. Identifying as non-binary and pansexual, Rivera is a proud supporter of the LGBTQ community.

Of both Mexican and Native American heritage, Rivera grew up surrounded by music and spirituality, initially honing their skills as a drummer before becoming a multi-instrumentalist. In their late teenage years, Rivera began touring as a drummer for a variety of brands, before working on their own music.

With a sound that blends genres and styles, there is a loose and funky feeling to DNT. Tight, clipped percussion and afropop melodies come together to create a muted, dubby and introspective atmosphere. The result has a groove, but also an emotional intensity. The song itself came together through experimentation, but wouldn’t have got to completion with some encouragement, as Rivera describes:

“DNT started as a demo in April of 2021. I was using it as a project to design synth sounds and create random drum loops. It wasn’t intended to go anywhere, but when some friends heard it, they became attached to the creation and encouraged me to finish it.”

The song depicts the depression and abuse, with the song’s central falsetto refrain, “Yeah, I don’t wanna feel this way,” becoming somewhat of a mantra for Rivera as they were living within an abusive relationship. That tension is audible in the song itself, with a drop that shines a tense light on an argument.

Alongside Rivera, who performs vocals and guitar, the group consists of Justin Vogal (bass, keys, and vocals), Chevas Vandel (keys, and vocals) and Luke Schafer (drums). Take a look at the video for DNT below:

Watch: Anyone — Hēir

Hēir’s new single and video, Anyone, basks in a dramatic sense of romance, as the singer, born Patricia Manfield, sings about moving on. Woozy, loved-up bass stabs and vocal samples create a bed for Hēir’s vocals, whose delivery benefits from the degree of space it is afforded in the song’s opening half.

The twisted feel of the production on Anyone gives it a drunk feeling — the edges feel unreliable, shifting upon contact. The effect reflects the song’s subject, a relationship that swallows you up dangerously, forcing you to lose your perspective and sense of direction. Describing the song, Hēir says:

“Anyone is about a toxic love left behind. It's an autobiographical song about falling in love with a narcissist. The kind of love that cancels you, consumes you, kills your self-esteem but always makes you come back because the abuse is familiar. Anyone is the realisation that, in reality, YOU were the added value to your ex, not the other way around. Now he is simply ‘anyone’ while you're finally feel free to love yourself.”

Manfield was born to musician parents in Russia, but moved with them to Italy whilst still young, and followed them around the globe. The influence of her exposure to different cultures and languages comes through in Anyone, and its video:

“Naples as location for the video was a spontaneous choice. I'm writing in English since I was a child living in London. I've always exported my ideas abroad and never the other way around. After years spent abroad, I began to look at Naples with different, enamoured eyes. "Anyone" speaks about a love you want to leave behind, about recovering self-confidence and the awareness of being master of your own destiny. I wanted to translate this awareness by humanising Naples as a real character, as if Naples were telling me ‘do not forget where you come from’.”

Check out Anyone below:

Listen: Laura — Sofi Gev

Laura remains one of Natasha Khan’s most distinctive and iconic songs, and her Bat For Lashes performance of the song is one of the finest moments on one of my absolute favourite albums.

I’d argue it takes either guts, or a lack of self-awareness, to take on this kind of material for a cover. Thankfully, Sofi Gev, real name Hannah Lovelady, demonstrates plenty of the former in her impassioned take on the song.

For some reason, I find myself thinking about something I read years ago, when Def Leppard claimed there are two types of cover version — those that attempt to make a carbon copy, and those that do something entirely new. The former always seemed kind of pointless to me, but Hannah’s version of Laura actually falls somewhere between those two states, with a performance that maintains the atmosphere of the original but changes things just enough to make it a compelling alternative.

The Bat For Lashes original of Laura is a stripped back performance — Khan’s vocal like shattered glass and teardrops falling onto the keys of the heartbreaking piano melody that propels the song forward. In contrast, Sofi Gev sympathetically adds a little additional vocal detail – an additional vocal harmony portraying the familiar piano refrain from the original, and layered overdubs creating a bit more depth. Strings also play a more prominent role in Lovelady’s performance, and generally, it feels a little fuller. It’s not better — but it’s just different, and an interesting alternative to experience.

The thing that struck me about Hannah’s version, however, is the way she hits the central line in the chorus: “Laura, you’re more than a superstar”. Rather than delivering it as Khan does, the word “superstar” initially delivered at one pitch and then dropping slightly, Sofi Gev seems to deliver it differently, descending further. If you aren’t intimately familiar with the original you might totally miss it, but as someone who has listened to Laura a lot, it actually led me to reappraise the intention of the line. Whenever I have heard Bat For Lashes’ version of Laura, I interpreted the line as to mean that the subject of the song is, to the performer, more famous and significant than a superstar. In contrast, Gev’s performance introduces more darkness to the notion of what a superstar even is — like it isn’t enough, that the role of a superstar somehow saps the subject of their humanity. Hannah’s performance feels like it is deliberately derogatory about the notion of stardom, that the word superstar is, in fact, a pejorative. I actually now suspect that is likely what Khan originally meant by that line, but it is only in hearing Gev’s performance (itself no doubt coloured by her own reading) that I felt that.

It’s not often that a cover version actually makes me think more about the original, and for that Sofi Gev deserves credit. It is clear that she approached this cover with the utmost respect, as reflected in Hannah’s description of her approach to the song:

“This cover comes out of my love and respect for one of the greatest female artists of our time, Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes. I wanted to stay true to the original but also put my own personality into it. We used a French Connection analog synth to produce the song's signature piano melody, and added Moog bass, strings and electric guitar to add character and emotion. I could never have improved on the original, but I hope listeners enjoy it and that it leads more people to Natasha's music.”

Check out Sofi Gev’s cover of Laura below:

Sofi Gev · Laura

Listen: tu:orbit — Tom Ashbrook x Greta Svabo Bech

Charting a musical path not dissimilar to Bonobo and Jon Hopkins, Tu:Orbit is a little more deep than I typically cover. Transcendent synths build an emotive sense of momentum, with angelic vocals deep in the mix. It was that human feeling at its core that pulled me into the track.

The overall sense of Tu:Orbit is one of a feeling, then, rather than a thought. In that sense, it actually reminds me of Sigur Rós, insomuch that there are words here, but what they say feels potentially less important than the feeling the voices communicate.

tu:orbit is the work of multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer Tom Ashbrook, and it is taken from his EP, ko:da. Exploring a series of variations of his 2020 track, Klass, from his album, Sensibus, the EP uses “original melody ideas” to build a collaborative new body of work.

Guest vocals come from the Faroese vocalist Greta Svabo Bech, known for her striking performance on Deadmau5’ Raise Your Weapon. The result sees Ashbrook apply Greta’s vocals to great effect — as much an integrated instrument as anything else on the song, and wholly original.

Watch: Tell Me — PELA

Tell Me, the new song from Brighton duo PELA, bristles with an infectious organic warmth. Producer and instrumentalist Olly Shelton’s fuzzy synths and snappy hip-hop inspired drums come together with singer/songwriter Hannah Coombes’ crisp vocals to create something truly seamless. The combination feels timeless yet modern, like Haim partnering up with Dan Snaith.

The video of Tell Me features a one-take live performance, the band joined by Dom Walker on saxophone, in St Mary’s Church near Brighton. I love the clean, classy feel of both the performance and the recording.

Tell Me is our first exposure to PELA’s soon-to-be-announced EP. The song itself bubbles with a sense of determined optimism, and the band talk about their inspiration of having the purpose of mind to make better decisions:

“Tell Me is about learning to interrupt the spirals we find ourselves in and how to navigate unhelpful thoughts. It was the first track we wrote after moving to Brighton and embodies the sense of a fresh start.”

It’s an important notion that I have found myself reflecting on and requiring in the past, and I love the quiet confidence demonstrated on Tell Me.