Welcome to the second instalment of the Electone Records Blog. This week we’re having a look at more new acts we’ve come across, paying our respects and sharing what’s been turning our ears on record wise.
To start, we were truly excited to unveil our first club nights earlier this month kicking off in Glasgow and Liverpool in December both launching the Red Sands self-titled debut album due out December 9th on Electone Records. Electone have hand-picked some great new talent for both events kicking off our club nights showcasing the best of what both Liverpool and Glasgow have to offer and what to keep an eye out for in 2014. More on the club nights shortly…
Since the last blog, a lot of us here at Electone Records were sad to hear of the passing of Lou Reed at the age of 71. From his time with The Velvet Underground and a successful solo career to boot, a perfect summary of the man’s songwriting influence was ‘although The Velvet Underground never sold many albums, everyone who heard those records started bands…’
With the sad passing of Reed, hopefully his legacy can live on, as more delve into his rich back catalogue, I for one have had the Velvet’s debut ‘…& Nico’ on repeat for the last few weeks before his passing but now songs like ‘Heroin’, ‘Who Loves The Sun’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ becoming all the more sorrowful.
At the time of writing, two of Reed’s songs, ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ were set to re-enter the charts. Arctic Monkeys covered the latter at their recent headline gig at the Liverpool Echo Arena with guest guitarist and ex-Coral man Bill Ryder-Jones (see below). I’ll always now associate ‘Perfect Day’ with the day Margaret Thatcher died and the celebrations that took place in Sound, Food & Drink. What a day that was for the Liverpool people!
New acts and cuts to keep an eye out for is The Coral guitarist Lee Southall and vocalist Molly Tilston’s Northern Sky. With album sessions taking place at Real World Studios, they’ve been previewing snippets of tracks from their upcoming debut album, with ‘Painted Lady’ sounding majestic, leaving us wanting more, with an ensemble featuring Steve Tilston and Maggie Boyle, amongst others.
In other Coral member news, keys man Nick Power turns writer, releasing ‘Small Town Chase’, with visual collaborations with artist Low Coney, forms a collection of Power’s lyrics and poems, all about life on the outskirts of the city. Expect teenage boredom, drugs, love, and of course – inter-dimensional cement mixers. Click here to visit Nick’s Facebook page.
Another Electone Records favourite Edgar Summertyme, the former Stairs frontman and all round Scouse cosmic legend releases his follow up to last year’s fantastic ‘Sense Of Harmony’ album as well as The Big Kids & Isrites unreleased sessions compilation, with a return to his Stairs roots with ‘Morphic Fields’ released on The Viper Label last week. Click here for the details.
Another album to keep an eye out for is ‘The Optical Sound of The Hypnotic Eye’ by The Hypnotic Eye, who Electone first stumbled upon during their support slot on The Wicked Whispers tour last year, as well as supporting The Strypes in Amsterdam, with their 60s fuzzed guitar led single ‘Satisfaction’, with a storming set led by mesmerizing front woman Annie Bea.
Another cut is via Alan McGee’s 359 Label, with Canadian-born, London-dwelling Tess Parks’ limited 7’ single release ‘Somedays’ sounding like an intoxicated Velvet Underground & Nico track, and with an album ‘Blood Hot’ pencilled in for a November 25th release date, Tess seems to be the hottest act at the moment for the label. Expect dark smoke rings and loud guitars. Tess plays District in Liverpool on December 6th, at McGee’s own club night.
Another new favourite comes from Pete Wilkinson’s Aviator. After catching an intimate show at Filthy McNasty’s in London last year, I’ve kept and eye and an ear out, and after a well-received support slot with The Tea Street Band at their recent sold out Zanzibar show, the Cast/Shack/Red Elastic Band bassist releases the 7” ‘Desolation Peaks’, released on Eighties Vinyl Records, with artwork supplied by former La’s and Onset front man and artist Mike Badger.
Other selected tracks this week come from The City Walls, on the back of their solid performance in support of their fantastic latest EP release ‘Homefires’ at Bold Street’s Leaf Tea shop, swirling guitars and fantastic harmonies with fantastic support in the form of The Hummingbirds, cosmo rockers Sugarmen and Red Sails. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op36HH6ePI0
Other tracks on our playlist this week are Southern, featuring siblings Thom & Lucy Southern, hailing from Belfast, having recently made the switch to Scouse soil, hooking up with re-known Scouse producer and Lightning Seeds singer/songwriter, Ian Broudie, whose work with Liverpool bands like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Pale Fountains, as well as more recent works with The Coral and The Zutons, needs no introduction.
Southern have recently released their eponymous 4 track EP to rave reviews and featuring as The Guardian newspaper’s new band of the day. ‘World Don’t Shine’ is a stunning introduction. Keep an ear out.
Other bands that have caught our ear of late are The Levons. Two stunning demos were recently uploaded, with ‘Ain’t Enough Days’ on repeat for the past few days. The band featuring Danny and Phil Murphy, fresh from stints with The Sand Band as well as featuring in James and Ian Skelly’s backing bands for their recent tours. Surely this is a band that will make waves on the Liverpool music scene.
Keep up to date here: https://www.facebook.com/thelevonsuk
https://soundcloud.com/thelevons
It’s been a busy few weeks here at the label with The Wicked Whispers finishing up their debut album, and I was lucky enough to get a look in on a session with Mike Murphy (who is also producing the record) and Steve Powell at Track Studios last week to hear some of the tunes. The band are currently putting the final pieces together on the album tracks, many of which have evolved, with a few tracks on the highly anticipated debut album that will surprise the fans, featuring a number of live favourites and past releases re-worked. All of this as well as preparing for their Liverpool headline show at the Camp & Furnace on Friday 23rd November with support from Sankofa and Jimmy & The Revolvers.
Ahead of their hometown show at Camp and Furnace, Mike, Ste & Nathan dropped by and recorded an exclusive session with Dave Monks for his BBC introducing show.
You can hear an exclusive interview revealing more about the forthcoming debut album, the current tour dates and will playing a new acoustic track. Dave will also be playing live highlights from their fan only sold out Cavern show back in August. Listen again here.
Also coming up is the stunning line up for the first instalments of our Electone Records Club Nights, where we will be celebrating the release of the long awaited debut self-titled album from RED SANDS with a headline matinee performance from them at Broadcast in Glasgow, on the 15th December, with their album out on Monday 9th December on Electone Records.
Fellow Electone Records label mates THE WICKED WHISPERS will be doing a special stripped back acoustic set following another successful low key UK tour and taking a break from recording their debut album. The gig sees the band return to Glasgow for the second time this year after headlining Double Sight.
Also appearing will be local new talents THE DESERT WILLOWS and THE LITTLE ILLUSIONS, the line-up also includes DJs JAMO KIDD (Freak-Beats Club) and GARY O’PRAY / NICKY WRIGHT (Waterpistol)
Get your tickets here for jut £5 here.
The next instalment of our Electone Records Club Nights will be in Liverpool, on Friday 20th December at The Blade Factory, at 67 Greenland Street L1 0BY. The venue a branch of the Camp & Furnace. The line-up sees a Christmas special in the form of Red Sands, who celebrate their album release on Merseyside, with support in the form of a host of local talent, the three piece rootsy 50s rockers The Romleys, the cosmic underground rock sounding The Grim Fandango, as well as Thomas McConnell, on the back of a tour supporting The Vinyls and former Icicle Works frontman Ian McNabb. DJs on the night will be in the form of Electone’s own The Wicked Whispers.
Tickets are £5 advance and a limited number of £6 tickets will be available on the door.
Advance tickets are available here:
Just to end our picks of the best new vinyl releases, we are excited to see The Wytches new 7” ‘Robe for Juda’ on Hate Hate Hate Records released, due out December 2nd showing more promise for the band in 2014. Electone favourites Toy finally drop their brand new LP ‘Join the Dots’ on Heavenly Records December 9th and its sounding very special indeed. Beachwood Sparkes previously unreleased debut album ‘Desert Skies’ is also released in December bringing their modern LA psych sound to the masses it’s a shame this was missed so widely the first time around! Finally weve been excited for this for some time but now The Amorphous Adrodgynous finally release The Cartel volumes 1 and 2 in the latest of their Monstrous Bubble series of nostalgic remix and production exploration style records. Here we see the wizards of parallels mix the genesis of psychedelia with the explosion of the blacksploitation culture of the 70s with the likes of Curtis Mayfield. Expect great things.
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