musomusofm on the radar playlist #57 - Gionatan Scali, gloomy june, A Lone Acacia, Lockdown Co, Warahenege and more....
It’s been a while since I put out the last playlist, this was not due to lack of quality content, more so me taking a well earned break from the keyboard for up to 3 hours every night, listening, curating and writing about some of the acts that were kind enough to submit their music to a tremendous platform called musosoup which equate to around 75% of the music that I consume these days!
It’s a very easy platform to use, as a band or an artist, you can upload your music which then gets listened to by the experts at musosoup and once they’re happy with the content, they will work with you to categorise it and make it available for LOADS of bloggers, radio stations, DJ’s and influencers to make offers to you on how they can help YOU to promote your material.
I would go on bleating about how good it is but I don’t have all night and I’m sure you’d rather be listening to the new music that I recently added to #57 of the musomusofm on the radar playlist, be sure to read up on our featured acts below….
Gionatan Scali
It’s been just a month since Gionatan Scali released his long player ‘Ride On’, so you’d expect there to be a lengthy wait until new material surfaced.....think again, because on 15th June, he returned with ANOTHER album titled ‘A Prophet After His Turkish Bath’.
The mystical soft-core sound of East London based artist Gionatan Scali is based on a dreamlike balance of overlapping layers. Slurred vocals and melodic riffs combine for a powerful and wide sound that incorporates psychedelia, krautrock, and Middle Eastern influences echoing the likes of Durutti Column, Kurt Vile, Kevin Morby, Can, Dominique Dumont, Kikagaku Moyo, John Carroll Kirby, Cate Le Bon & Air.
His previous album ‘Ride On’ was released on 15th May, following a headline show at the Moth Club in March. It was recorded between September 2020 and December 2021 at Cable Street Studios in London. The following chapter ‘A Prophet After His Turkish Bath’ was released exactly 1 month later on 15th June. ‘APAHTB’ consists of 7 Tracks over 41 minutes. Gionatan co-produced the album with Richard James and Lorenzo Martinotti, and work on it began shortly before ‘Ride On’, in February 2019. ‘Perfect Town’ and ‘Suncannotpass+’ are the 2 singles released from the album.
Of the new record, Gionatan said, “We were working with drum machines and analogue synthesisers during the making of this album and we were aiming for something blissful, but also Vibey and mystical. At the time of recording ‘APAHTB’ we didn’t have a real drummer, but this didn’t stop us to work on something interesting. Actually, the fact that we had that limitation led us to find a new blend of sound, you can hear this clearly in ‘Cortazar’ and ‘Perfect Town’.
Gionatan has collaborated with a large group of musicians for his live performances and recordings, the majority of them have a solid jazz background. The band's members are bass guitarist Mark Thorne and guitarist Lorenzo Martinotti, who collaborates with Gionatan on music composition.
‘APAHTB’ is a deeply rich and rewarding record, be sure to check it out on Spotify from start to finish in order to enjoy the full experience.
To learn more about this fascinating artist, had to his socials below.
gloomy june
When 2022 began, San Francisco quartet gloomy june didn’t even exist. Fast forward six months and the group have played in four states and two countries, including 5 showcase events at the legendary SXSW and a set at Montreal’s punk festival Pouzza Fest.
On June 16th, they release their debut EP ‘Popsick’, which also happens to be the day before they embark on a month-long summer tour.
After nearly two years without live shows, gloomy june formed from Bay Area band The Y Axes, and has been working non-stop as if making up for lost time.
Guitarist Devin Nelson explains, “We’ve been really wanting to take it seriously, and some of us are quitting our jobs so we wanted to re-brand and be a new thing. Kind of starting from scratch.” he goes on, “When we started The Y Axes, we didn’t really know what the band aesthetic was so that’s why we did a big reset, so we could figure out ‘What are our vibes?’”.
A trio of infectious singles lifted from the Popsick EP, accompanied by wild music video concepts answered that question: With songs ranging from the anthemic ‘Save Anyone’ to the retro pop ‘Always Gonna Let You Down’, and imagery such as biblically-accurate angels, a grim reaper dancing through an abandoned house party, and a performance inside a moving van, Popsick showcases gloomy june having a great time playing songs about having a bad time.
The quartet has been writing new music on the road, aiming to record a second EP by the end of 2022, and will be releasing cover songs from some of their favourite artists later this summer. In describing their sound, singer and lyricist Alexi Belchere calls gloomy june, “the soundtrack of a beach party tinged with melancholy… pop refracted through an anxious lens, often queer, and always a little tragic.” Having listened to the EP at length, I couldn’t agree more!
Catch the band on tour from 17th June, venues and dates can be found HERE
A Lone Acacia
A Lone Acacia is an independent musician, producer and songwriter from Birmingham, UK.
His music utilises live instruments and merges elements of rock, electronica, ambient, fusion and film scores to channel new hues of introspection and melodically harvest the essence of escapism. Influences include Boards of Canada, Moby, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Björk, Tycho and the mighty Sigur Rós.
A Lone Acacia’s debut single ‘Hemispheres’ is available now (released on June 17th) on all streaming platforms alongside Bandcamp and iTunes.
Early listeners have likened the track’s ethereal vibe to songs like ‘Porcelain’ by Moby and ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack, whilst highlighting the memorability of the main melody and the song’s genre-blurring production style.
The track is simply breath taking and you know from listening to it that a lot of love and passion has gone into it. The whole thing has an edgy, cinematic feel to it and I for one can’t wait to hear other material which is currently in the process of being crafted for his debut album which will follow in due course.
Keep up to date with A Lone Acacia on his social channels below
Lockdown Co.
Heavy hitting rock duo North London duo Lloyd Meeks (guitars and production) and Doug Rimington (Drums and Bass Guitar) created Lockdown Co. from the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Influenced by any hard rock, progressive metal, Grunge and instrumental artists including Tides From Nebula, Alice in Chains, Toska and Royal Blood, Lockdown Co. have bottled the emotions of 2020, and channelled it into an energetic hard rock fusion of blues, grunge, prog and metal influences. Entirely self-produced and recorded remotely in Lloyd's home studio, their high octane instrumental approach can venture from improvised blues jams all the way through to prog and ambient soundscapes.
After releasing a string of singles throughout 2020, 2021 saw Lockdown Co. enter the rehearsal studios and play together physically for the first time. They showcased these rehearsals during a Camden Live livestream event in December, and moving into 2022 saw the duo hit the stage for the first time at the historic Fiddlers Elbow in Camden, as part of the Camden Live Zombie Horse gig series.
Now, they are releasing their debut EP ‘End of Chapter’ which embodies everything the band has built to date: huge production, heavy riffs, ambient breakdowns and blues grooves. ‘End of Chapter’ showcases the very best of Lockdown Co.'s songwriting and musicianship, with 5 tracks that will have you hooked and rocking.
The intro track, '4x12', channels the progressive metal and ambient influences, yet hits hard with huge sounding rhythm sections. 'Double Tap' and the title track, 'End of Chapter', are laden with heavy hitting guitar riffs and screaming solos. 'Chilli Inspired' changes the mood entirely, introducing a whole new funk and blues feel, and 'Frontier' see's the band venture into grunge and shoegazer territory.
You really are wasting time doing anything other than listening to this incredible EP and if this is the quality of their initial output, I cannot wait to see what comes next, definitely an act to keep an eye on!
Socials
Warahenege
‘Velvet, Black, Ignite’ is the title single from Manchester artist Praveen Somarathne’s (aka Warahenege) debut EP, released on 17th June 2022.
Inspired by the nights of restless ennui and quiet introspection; when all the decisions you've made are overanalysed and the past seems warmer and more welcoming than an uncertain future....
‘VBI’ is a dreampop song written and recorded alone in his home studio. Of the track Warahenege offers, “It grapples with the difficulty of loving someone else and how much it requires of oneself to be truly vulnerable with another. He ruminates on his own indecisions and faults, the urge to avoid attachment and the compulsion to run away but finds no easy answers.” The lush production of guitars, synths, bass and drums rally around a low, slow voice; sad and peaceful but moving at the same time.
The 20-minute run time of the EP captures with startling clarity, moments of love and loss, of hope and despair, of connection and rupture, of sadness and joy.
Warahenege's debut EP traverses the length of the dreampop/shoegaze spectrum from the rocky and driving ‘Strange New Crowd’ to the warm twinkling embrace of ‘Skyscrapers and Oceans’ to the symphonic groove of ‘Black Smoke, Autumn Breeze’ to the gentle, bittersweet lilt of the title track ‘Velvet, Black, Ignite’.
This is an immense body of work that deserves 20 minutes of your attention, I found the best time to enjoy it was late in the evening, sat back in my lounger with my headphones on, my favourite tipple in my hand and complete darkness, which really bought each track to life in the most wonderful way.
Music videos will be released for each of the 4 tracks on the EP a week after each other starting with ‘VBI’ on 17th June.
Keep up to date with Warahenege’s musical exploits at the following social channels
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…..