musomusofm on the radar playlist #36 - The Banquets, The 139, Sabertooth Swing, Nicolaas Walle, Couvo, Aridonis, King Kismet, Huru and more....
This playlist is going out on Satruday 19th March but as I type these words, it’s Friday 18th March, I’ve just finished work for the week and am looking forward to letting my hair down tonight.
A wonderful French band called Nouvelle Vague are performing at The Phoenix in Exeter tonight but I have a colleague who is also a massive fan covering the show so at least I won’t miss out on photos and a live review to publish on the site.
Onto the playlist, same old drill, another 9 incredible tracks from bands and artists all over the world, as usual, I don’t set any rules so the mixture of genres is often wide and varied meaning that on every playlist, there’s bound to be at least one track that floats your boat hopefully more!
Hit the play button below and let us entertain you for the next 30 minutes. Whilst you’re listening, why not check out the bios and social media from our featured artists? there are 8 of them this time so plenty to learn about.
See you on the other side.
The Banquets
Roaring onto the music scene in 2019 with their rambunctious energy and unique blend of country, indie and rock, The Banquets have gone from strength to strength. From humble beginnings, supporting artists such as the South (formerly The Beautiful South) and Toyah Wilcox, as well as winning a place on the Introducing Stage at The Great British Folk Festival, they’ve recently gained the opportunity to play the famous Leeds Brudenell Social Club on a Saturday night and are rapidly building a name around the city. The band’s YouTube channel has racked up 1000 watching hours and is gaining 30,000 views per month, and new subscribers every day.
With this track, 'The Beautiful', The Banquets are spreading their wings, experimenting with string arrangements and exciting production techniques. This dark and brooding song combines the melancholic with the rousing, and is both exciting and ethereal. Lyrically, it’s a semi-autobiographical song, telling the story of lead singer Gem’s ongoing battle with depression and inspired by a line in one of Emily Dickinson’s poems, which reads ‘Our summer made her light escape into the beautiful’. Musically, the song follows the charge of the lyrics, galloping, then cantering, then crashing and then galloping again, with each whim of meaning conveyed. All of this effort drives the drama of the whole track and pulls you in. This really is one of the band’s finest works yet.
With big plans for 2022, The Banquets are touring more than ever and have a wide repertoire of songs and music videos slated for release this year. Part of the draw of this band is that you never know what they have up their sleeves next.
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The 139
From Bristol with love, The 139 are a new band to enter the indie scene. With soft melodies and solid licks, Tom, George, Ben and Danny speak for those lost in the middle without a voice of their own. Not only are they bandmates, The 139 are named after their shared home in Bristol where the boys are constantly writing new music and enjoying each other's company.
The 139 began in lockdown 2020, when lead vocalist Tom Smee began to write and recorded demos of tracks that would later become the band's first two singles. 'The Past 6 Months,' the band's debut single was released in Sept 2021, creating a splash in Bristol and acting as the pre-cursing for a number of large shows performed by the band.
‘Feeling Blue,’ was released on 4th March 2022 and is the first of 3 tracks to be released in 2022 and follows the successful debut from the band, ‘The Past 6 Months.’
‘Feeling Blue’ is an Indie Rock/Pop track with elements of Blues. The song has a calm yet emotive long introduction of solo vocals and synth pad to create a false sense of illusion masked by a glittery sequence of chords on electric guitar. At 0:43 the song bursts into life, adding a whole new feel to the track. The crunchy vintage drum beat, combined with gritty bass and introduction of those bluesy elements kick starts the track into the true purpose of the song. A fast-paced, riff-heavy second release from The 139.
The track depicts just what the name of the track might suggest and the longing for those things we can’t always keep. Rejection is something we all know well, and the song is derived from those sullen days of overthinking and reminiscing where we’re always left ‘Feeling Blue’.
The track was recorded and produced with Patrick Philips at Playpen Studios in Bristol alongside ‘The Past 6 Months.’ The studio, while tucked-away within the east of the city, was the perfect space for the conception of the two tracks. Patrick’s experience, built up over years of work at studios such as Abbey Road and Real World studios, beautifully compliments the band’s vision and desired sound for the songs. The final cherry on top was PlayPen studios, adding Ali Chant’s vintage gear collection of 20 years to the arena.
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Sabertooth Swing
“How does music carry memory? How does New Orleans music carry memory differently? Is there meaning in historical violence? What is the meaning of Louisiana’s historical violence?”
These are the questions being asked on New Orleans-based Sabertooth Swing Band’s newly released Delta Bound (March 18, 2022, Slammin’ Media), an ambitious album that brings together the work of poets, activists, and historical figures to become a meditation on the violent history and complex culture out of which jazz first emerged.
Produced by Sabertooth’s Romain Beauxis and Chris Butcher and writer Holly Devon, featured guests include Sister Helen Prejean, Bruce ‘Sunpie’ Barnes, Jeffery Broussard, Cedric Watson, Paul Chéene, The Daiquiri Queens, Zachary Richard, Kid Chocolate, Daiquiri René Jones, and Big Queen Mary Kay of the Original Wild Tchoupitoulas, who contribute thoughtful spoken word essays, readings of works by Sidney Bechet and Frank Stanford and excerpts from Spanish soldier Luis Hernandez de Biedma’s first-person account of the 16th Century De Soto expedition, and who perform songs whose lyrics address the history of violence in Louisiana- and by extension, all of American society.
Romain Beauxis of Sabertooth Swing Band, the originator of the concept of Delta Bound, wanted to make sure to include the de Soto history. “I've been in the New Orleans region for over 10 years, and I love it.” Beauxis explains. “But I want to face all the dark elements of it”. “De Soto Pt 1” is the opening of the whole arc of violence that that has always been a background, a backdrop, for a lot of histories. Sister Helen Prejean says, “We're a very young country and violence has worked for us in the past and it started with the genocide of Native Americans. De Soto is here to represent that part of the story.”
"Delta Bound" will appeal to readers interested in jazz, the history of jazz, racial issues, and the history of violence in Louisiana.
Although listed as 'original', "Delta Bound" includes some arrangements of traditional songs alongside the original compositions.
‘Delta Bound’ is available NOW on Digital Download, CD and Vinyl formats on Slammin’ Media/Believe Digital
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Nicolaas Walle
"This Is Me Telling You" is the lead single from the album "Strange Time, Strange Place" by Nicolaas Walle And Friends.
It features the extremely talented vocalist Ciara Adamson, who also wrote the lyrics.
Stand out features of the track include passionate, soulful vocals, a catchy chorus, a fun, bouncy rhythm and expressive electric guitar solos.
All of the instrumentation and production was performed by Nicolaas Walle, including recording, mixing and mastering (you could say that he’s something of a triple threat!)
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Couvo
You spend most of your days doing things you don’t want to do in the hopes that it will get you what you want tomorrow. But what if that tomorrow never comes?
“For most of us,” says Couvo (aka Josh Couvares), “we’re still waiting for that tomorrow. And that sounds a lot like purgatory.” Maybe he’s right. We live a lifetime of todays that, for most of us, consist of bad jobs and debt, of unfinished plans and unfulfilled dreams, with nothing for company but that nagging worry hiding in the dark corners of the mind that you’ll never get what you want.
According to Couvo, this sparked his latest album, The Drinks Are Always Free in Purgatory, mixed by Charlie Stavish (Jenny Lewis, Interpol, Weezer) and mastered by Alex DeTurk (David Bowie, D’Angelo and the Vanguard, Norah Jones).
With a sound like 1970s Laurel Canyon meets your favorite dive bar, Couvo sings about characters who are broke and jobless (“Horses & Divorces”), anxious and aimless (“Visiting Hours”), dulling their days in dive bars and deadend relationships (“How It’s Always Gonna Go”).
But above all, he seems to keep asking the same question throughout this record--when will anything change? The answer seems to be: not anytime soon. At least not in Bushwick, the perennial setting for the album. “Every summer always smells of cigarettes/and the broken glass lines the pavement,” Couvo sings on “Every Summer,” summing up his neighborhood. It’s a song that hits like Pinegrove with a tinge of pop, gliding along at a smooth pace until it explodes into an outro that will jolt you awake and make you want to sing along.
This same feeling of stasis comes through on “Tired,” where Couvo mixes his lyrical abilities with a neo-soul sonic landscape reminiscent of D’Angelo and Solange. This song sounds like Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks if it was painted by Frank Ocean.
“This album, to me,” says Couvo, “is about the way we live in that kind of purgatory. But it’s also about how we still manage to find some salvation.”
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Aridonis
Aridonis is a music producer in Vancouver for nearly a decade, and just before the onset of the pandemic in December of 2019, he decided to start releasing his own music, and make that his main focus for the foreseeable future.... Not great timing, but he’s still having a great time….
Drawing influence from (in no particular order) Beck, Jack White, LCD Soundsystem, Bahamas, Sylvan Esso, Gorillaz, The Neighbourhood, The Black Keys, Hozier, Portugal. The Man, and classic soul artists like Otis Redding, and Curtis Mayfield, Aridonis was nominated for best Alternative/indie artist by CiVL, one of his local college radio stations. And in May of 2020 he managed to raise a couple hundred bucks for BLM pre-selling digital copies of his single "Princess".
He also takes climate impact very seriously in his promotion and merchandising campaigns. All of his next drops of merchandise are going to be entirely handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces from up-cycled garments for as little carbon emissions as possible. He’s also holding off any physical media releases until he can find a way to do it as ethically or sustainably as possible, he adds, “The fast fashion industry makes it really gross and wasteful to just be drop shipping brand new T-Shirts all the time”.
Asked what the song is about, Aridonis replied, “This song in particular is called "Hard Mode" and it's an indie-pop joint about that dopamine fuelled rush toward greatness we're all forced to take part in. Told from the place where it all started for me, in 1998, in front of my CRT TV, playing Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on my Uncle's Sega Genesis (Megadrive for any UK readers). This idea is juxtaposed against the more recent need we've all discovered in the last couple years. Slowing down, realizing none of it matters, because none if it is actually real. (Not in a scary, Q-Anon, "We all live in a simulation" type way, but in a more holistic-absurdist "Just do what you want to do because this whole rat race is pointless." type of way.)”
Aridonis is a beautiful name, we were keen to learn where it originated, “Aridonis is the name my mom gave me, and it's based on the Greek constellation Eridanus meaning "River of the heavens" or something…. What's interesting about constellations is they're just connect-the-dot puzzles in the sky that some one just kind of made up. But that's all the whole world is. It's just made up. It's all a fabric of the creativity of everyone that came before us. Accepting that fact has made my life and goal as a creative very clear. Just connect the dots”.
Keep up to date with his musical whereabouts at the following social media sites.
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King Kismet
King Kismet, aka Garett Pierre Rogers is a producer based in Chandler, Arizona (United States), his influences include Odesza, to Seven Lions, Excision, and Illenium and when asked how King Kismet came to be, he replied, “King Kismet became a reality at a music festival where I saw Odesza. I was working on an album at the time under a different artist name and the album was going to be called Kismet. At the festival, my good friend and advisor Josh Linkowski and I were having a conversation about how I have really stepped into my own power and the with the new music I had been working on it felt like it was time to move into a new artist name and start fresh. While at the festival all that tied in with this chalk board we came across where everyone had been writing and on the chalk board it said King and I thought, that's interesting. What about the artist name King Kismet. Josh was instantly like, that is Kismet. So Kismet meaning destiny was about becoming the King of my own destiny and following this new journey.”
Manifest is bringing something tangible into your life through attraction and belief. Making everything you want to feel and experience in life a reality with your thoughts, actions, beliefs, and emotions.
Asked about the thinking behind Manifest, he commented, “I wanted to have a few really powerful tracks to perform at live shows to really blow everyone's mind. I wanted a reason to get on the mic and have everyone in the crowd manifesting their dreams with me in that moment”
To wrap things up, Garett summarised, “Life doesn't always go as expected, but it is an opportunity to see what is happening for us. To believe that even in our lowest moments we can still find the courage to keep moving forward and to keep pursuing the things that make us feel alive. I like to give other people hope.”
To keep up to date with this very colourful character, head to his socials below
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Huru
With their last release gaining outstanding support featuring on Spotify's- ‘New Music Friday’,’Ginger Me’ playlists and featuring on ‘New Ams Radar’, ‘She Makes Music’,’OUT LOUD Radio’ ‘The QReview’ and ‘Alpha Sessions’,as well as ending 2021 supporting GIRLI and July Jones on part of their Damsel In Distress tour, HURU kicks off the new year with their latest single ‘Guilty’.
With her unique sound which she calls “Cosmic”, the eclectic/alternative singer-songwriter immerses you in her world of poetic lyricism and hooky melodies. Inspired by Indie Pop, Folk and Genre-less/Alternative styles, the British born Kenyan-Jamaican HURU invites her listeners on an honest and reflective journey with every song.
Inspired by the alt-pop sounds of WILLOW, the genre-bending worlds of Denai Moore and intimate story telling of Arlo Parks, ‘Guilty’ was brought to life at a time of healing and reflection. Once again working with good friend and long term collaborator Scott Colcombe, HURU brings her listeners in on a story of suspicion, betrayal and heartbreak to the backdrop of electronic and atmospheric sounds in this uptempo indie-pop track ‘Guilty’.
Speaking about the track, HURU says:
"Guilty is about the heartache that comes with acknowledging betrayal in a relationship. It was an emotional journey creating this song but the vision to be vulnerable was certainly important for me throughout the creative process. The lyrics came freely and are quite raw and unfiltered which I felt needed to be contrasted by a more playful, up-beat and sonically rich production."
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SO there you have it folks, another 9 awesome tracks for you to get your ears around. If you liked any of them, please hit them up on the socials and tell them, mention that you heard them on the musomusofm on the radar playlist and they might even buy me a cookie if our paths ever cross!
Please take a moment to spread the word on social media, it’s on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, just head to musomusouk on either platform and give it a LIKE, SHARE, THUMBS UP or whatever you can!
Until next time…..