Last month, Toronto outfit Elephants And Stars announced the September 1st release of their new EP Get Your Own Army with the leadoff single “Bled Out at the Scene,” a Cars/Springsteen-influenced rocker that once again showcased the band’s uncanny ability to find the dark heart beating away at pop music’s gooey center with a chorus that gets in your head and stays there. Frontman Manfred Stittmann‘s meditation about an acrimonious breakup made it easy to pump your fist and cry into your beer—maybe even at the same time. 

With the EP’s second single “Gimme Ketamine,” Elephants And Stars deliver the ultimate summer anthem with an infectiously catchy rocker that sees the band wearing the influence of groups like The Gaslight Anthem and The Goo Goo Dolls on its sleeve. Again, though, surface impressions can be deceiving, with Stittmann exploring the tension between individual conviction and social pressure, offering biting lines like “Let’s crucify everyone who disagrees” in a way that one just can’t help but sing-along with. 

“If you look at a mega-popular hit like ‘Every Breath You Take’ by The Police,” says Stittman, “just think how many people have played that song at weddings and occasions like that thinking it’s this heartfelt love ballad, when in truth it’s sung from the point of view of a stalker. I listen to a lot of really dark, heavy stuff like death metal and punk, but those lyrics don’t connect with me as much when the words and the sound align too closely. They end up canceling each other out. To me, death metal is almost party music even though I take the playing very seriously.”

“On the other hand,” he continues, “bubblegum pop usually doesn’t do it for me. I need some contrast—that feels more lifelike to me because, if you think about it, life is contrast. And I feel like that’s what we’re craving in art that seeks to be more than just entertainment, at least I do. I like to be entertained too, but I like to think this band can do both. You can sip your beer and play our songs at a cookout, or you can put them on to dwell on whatever you need to dwell on. I’m not the most profound songwriter, but I like to think our music can be there for you at whatever level you need it to be in the moment.”

The band’s follow-up to their 2022 full-length Last Chance Power Drive, Get Your Own Army was produced by Steve Chahley and mixed by Ron Hawkins of alt-rock legends Lowest Of The Low. Elephants And Stars is the third project formed around the long-running creative partnership of Manfred Stittmann and bassist Mike MacMillan, both of whom also formed the core of the late-’90s/early-2000s groups Soap Opera and The First Time. 

ELEPHANTS AND STARS ONLINE

SPOTIFY

BANDCAMP

INSTAGRAM

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Quietly, almost imperceptibly—and most often entirely out of view—inspiration comes knocking and entices someone to veer off the beaten track. In the darkness of the unknown, where it’s too far to turn back but there’s still no sense of where one might arrive… that is the place where the Belfast-via-Bristol quartet Otherish find themselves on their third album How Lucky We Are Being Us And Each Other.

Four misfits with three distinct songwriters in their ranks, it took Otherish decades to get here. In fact, they weren’t here just a year ago, they can’t tell you how it happened, and they can’t even describe what it sounds like. That’s a good thing, because it’s best when bands that strike gold on blind intuition stay blind. From a listener’s standpoint, however, the appeal of How Lucky We Are is far less difficult to pin down.

Startlingly fresh, the album lands like a welcome splash of cold water to the face, immediately recognizable as a work that captures a band stepping decisively out onto its own limb. Conversely, the music bears a familiar quality, as Otherish somehow wrap their arms around the full arc of rock music and emerge with a seamless amalgamation—familiar and inviting yet undeniably offbeat.

So effortless and natural is the band’s ability to channel its influences that listening to How Lucky We Are is like looking into a mirror, where the listener hears elements of whatever they themselves bring to the table: fans of ‘60s folk and psychedelia, ‘70s prog and art rock, ‘80s baroque pop, ‘90s alternative, post-millennial indie pop and chamber pop, etc will all hear themselves reflected in the album.

Nevertheless, there’s an unmistakable sense that this music could only have been made right now. Like an author who’s spent a lifetime borrowing books from the library and realizes that their own voice came into fruition somewhere along the line, Otherish have invented their own language on tracks such as “Strange Rain,” “If Only,” “The Good, The Real, The Beautiful,” and so on. As the album unfolds, it becomes apparent that Otherish have become one of those groups that can only be described in terms of their own sound.

Sure, the band is unabashed about wearing hallmarks of other artists on its collective sleeve: a touch of, say, Peter Gabriel or David Bowie here and, perhaps, a dash of Richard Thompson or Nick Drake there, etc—all underscored by Beatles harmonies and an irrepressible drive for exploration, as well as echoes of Gaelic folk music and the affinity for written verse that resounds throughout Irish culture.

The secret to the way that Otherish allow these styles to bleed into one another is that the band’s four members have essentially been doing the same with each other for half a century: the bond between brothers Paul and Mark Bradley and their bandmate Francis Kane runs as deep as their bond with one another. Kane, in fact, was born in the same home as the Bradleys, just days apart from Paul.

In the ‘80s, the Bradleys and Kane relocated one by one from their native Northern Ireland to Bristol, England, each lured by the nurturing embrace of the arts community there, as well as by Bristol’s collective ethos that puts a premium on humility. As Kane points out, it’s fitting that the most famous artist to ever emerge from Bristol—the street-art legend Banksy—remains staunchly anonymous.

Along the way, Mark, Paul and Francis came across George Claridge, an Englishman born in Wales who joined the crew in time for them to form the fringe alternative outfit Me in the early ‘90s. (The late keyboardist Nick Scooper, also English, joined in ‘93. His presence endures in Otherish even after his passing in 2018.) Once proclaimed “best band in Bristol” by NME, the lads now concur with the assessment that Me’s impact was “not enough even to render cult status.” They didn’t escape Radiohead’s notice, but that’s a story for another day…  

Looking back on the way Me fumbled through their bid for wider recognition, Kane, Claridge and the Bradleys recall playing to empty halls. They also insist they had the time of their lives. In hindsight, they understand that trying too hard often takes you further afield from your artistic truth. These days, Otherish are refreshingly unencumbered by self-consciousness, so much so that they’ve managed to recapture something akin to the naiveté that guides children when they fingerpaint.

No surprise, the newfound buzz comes as a surprise that no one in the band expected. It shouldn’t, however, surprise anyone on the outside looking in: with George, Francis and Paul all contributing songs, vocals and multiple instruments, Otherish functions as a microcosmic example of multiplicity flourishing against all odds. The album, in fact, brims with examples of contrast and complementarism.

Seasoned by all the years of playing together, it’s as if Otherish can’t help but draw from a kind of unwitting intuitive wisdom. They would probably balk—maybe even laugh out loud—at the suggestion that there’s any wisdom involved.

“It shouldn’t work,” says Kane, “but it does.”

Multi-talented singer-songwriter-actress, Emily Mei, announced her single “MANIA (Where Them Girls At)” is out today, available now on all DSPs and streaming services. Supported by an accompanying music video, this is her second foray into creating new, original music, and is just the beginning of a deep dive into highlighting her versatile musical talents as 2023 moves forward.

With summer rolling in, Emily Mei packs in the heat with “MANIA”, complete with a full bass, clear vocals, rapid fire rap verses, and an unending supply of big boss energy. In a brilliant nod to her cultural roots, the song also showcases a unique, west-meets-east sound with the inclusion of Chinese instrumentation like the guzheng and erhu, adding a layer of complexity to the entire song. This self-made star reveals to the world once again that not only can she do it all, but she doesn’t need any help, singing, “Thank you, but no thank you, I can do it better.”

Paired with this girl-boss anthem is the equally stunning and incredibly empowered, cinematic music video. The scene opens to find the singer bruised up in an alley, with a pile of bodies at her feet;  showcasing a hard-earned victory from simply being the best around. Others can try, but they just can’t beat her. Reminiscent of the grimy, iconic gangster films of old, our singer takes the spotlight as someone going off “like a maniac,” and reminds us all to “watch our backs.” Mess around and you’ll find out just what’s in store, and from the looks of it, things will definitely get a little bloody in the process. Despite it all, our protagonist has no qualms with who she is, and if anything relishes in the carnage she can impart to all those who cross her, a beautiful combination of elegance, control, and power. What makes it that much more extraordinary is that this incredibly intricate video was shot over just two days, another testament to Emily Mei’s talent as not just a singer, but an actress, co-director, and producer as well.

Emerging from the depths of his basement studio in Vaughan, Ontario, 19-year-old Aidan Skira is driven by a visceral need to get his dark and yet hopeful perspective out into the world. Growing up in a working-class suburban family, Skira’s sheltered upbringing hid him from the atrocities of the modern world. Now deep into the trials and tribulations of adolescence, he is discovering the realities of adulthood and using his music and animations to make sense of it all. 

A one man show, he has a vision all his own; self-taught, self-produced, self-animated. With an organic following of bedroom-music-heads and kids from the suburbs who relate to the heartbreak of being exposed to the truths of adult life, Skira knows he has a unique perspective to share – and is bringing his people with him.

To be in someone else’s shoes is to experience things through their perspective. New single, “In Your Shoes,” tries to figure out what the other person’s angle is in order to relate/adapt to their outlook on things. Penned during a time in Skira’s life when he kept getting taken advantage of by people who took his kindness for weakness and drained him of his energy.

AMAARA’s debut album, Child of Venus, is a bold and unforgettable introduction to Kaelen Ohm’s music. The Canadian-born singer, songwriter, and producer’s third collection of songs is reminiscent of classic-era dream-pop as well as Radiohead’s most spectral and haunting moments—and yet the resulting sound is entirely her own, teeming with detail in a way that draws listeners in and keeps them coming back. 

A reflective work that zooms in on the things we hold close and what manages to escape our grasp, Child of Venus is a record that leaves a mark on anyone who hears it, in the best way possible

“Still” swoops and bends like Treasure-era Cocteau Twins as Ohm immerses herself in what living through love really means. “It’s about looking at love as a journey,” she says while discussing the song. “At the other side of it, there can be so much reflection and beauty – and questioning where the other person is at in their process.”

Child of Venus as a whole is a document of rediscovery and transition, with Ohm coming up for air as an artist and human being truly reborn. “I wanted to share this emergence of me as a person and artist,” she reflects. I’ve been going through so much change, and this record speaks to the path that I’ve been on. I hope this music will find its place in the world and will be able to act as a companion in peoples’ lives if they connect with it.”

Sebastian Reynolds’ “Cascade”  intones a captivating voice as forbidding drones ring against throbbing rhythms, leaving listeners unsure whether to dance or to seek cover. 

Watch and listen here:

Inspired by Reynolds’ love for bands such as Liars, Public Service Broadcasting and Radiohead, “Cascade” is an electrifying taste of what’s to come from his upcoming full-length Canary— taught, dystopian drones for a civilization in collapse marked by a compositional approach influenced by composers like Susumu Yokota, Luigi Nono, Olivier Messiaen, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. 

Once again, Reynolds traverses modern classical composition and retro-futurist production, this time visiting upon the stillbirth of a child, the death of one’s parents, the nature of consciousness, the relationship between mind and body, the fragmentation of our collective mindscape, and the awakening of machine intelligence. 

References to John F. Kennedy, Carl Jung, and Robert Monroe’s influential book Journeys Out of the Body pepper Reynolds’ meditations as samples from contemporary figures Sam Harris, Lex Friedman, and Navy SEAL Jocko Willink both guide and disorient the listener. As always, Reynolds is keen on preserving a sense of meaning in the mélange of programmed and organic sounds he’s come to be known for.

Reynolds has collaborated with German classical/expressionist musician/composers Anne Müller (Erased Tapes) and Alex Stolze (Bodi Bill) in their Solo Collective project, as well as Mike Bannard at The Aviary and others. He also continues to work on commissions for Neon Dance. Recent works with the company include Puzzle Creature, Prehension Blooms, the Thai-inspired Mahajanaka Dance Drama, and Manuals for Living and Dying. He is currently working on a film commission for Oxford University. His music has been widely supported across the BBC‘s networks and beyond. He hails from Oxford, where he spent his formative years cutting his teeth in the UK cult outfits Braindead Collective and Keyboard Choir.

SEBASTIAN REYNOLDS ONLINE:
SPOTIFY

BANDCAMP

SOUNDCLOUD

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK