Indie band Catastrophe & Cure have shared their new single ‘Another Wave’ which features on their latest album Somewhere Down The Line. Their previous album release saw the band receive an Amadeus Austrian Music Award. Other noteworthy achievements of the band thus far include Indie Shuffle listing their track ‘On The Internet’ as one of the Best Indie Rock Songs of 2017. The band also currently sits just under 1 million streams on Spotify.
Catastrophe & Cure adds their thoughts on the new single, “’Another Wave’ was one of the first songs we recorded for our new album. It almost wrote itself. We had a couple of chords, the lead guitar and all of a sudden the song was finished. It’s a song about the ambivalence of love and about being at the mercy of one’s own emotions. “You’re my love / Yet my downfall / You’re my love / Still my pain”…. you get the idea!”
Catastrophe & Cure’s sound on this track is reminiscent of some of your favourite 90’s indie-rock anthems, feeling so familiar I would not see why this single would not feature at a club or on your playlist.
Dutch-Ghanaian singer-songwriter Nana Adjoa releases her I Want To Change, the closing track from her highly anticipated debut album, Big Dreaming Ants due for release on 24th September via Bloomer Records
Following a string of irresistible singles including, Consequence of Sound-approved ‘She’s Stronger’, ‘Throw Stones’ which received praise from the likes of i-D, Noctis, The Voice, C-Heads, Mahogany and Indie Shuffle to name a few, the Complex-premiered ‘No Room’ featured by London In Stereo in their Tracks of The Week and spinned by Chris Hawkins and Lauren Laverne on their BBC 6 Music shows, the upcoming album focuses on Nanas poignant lyricism tackling complicated questions of race, gender, religion, and sexuality – Nana often meditates on the meaning and make-up of one’s identity.
In the reflective new track Nana analyses the human condition, is about how you want to change yourself and your world around you, in many different ways, but it’s always in a kind of passive manner. It’s the magnitude of things you feel need changing that is paralyzing, but not paralyzing enough to not feel the urge to change anymore. Written on the piano, the track was built from the artist original demo I had a demo with the taped piano, delayed taped piano, ukulele, glockenspiel, synths, percussion, and drums. With the producer we built the track around the original demo. Nana handled the majority of the instrumentation herself, using a wide palette of instruments. A process that helped her to develop a multi-layered sound, rich in tonal textures, which is as intimate as expansive.
Nana Adjoa is sonic explorer armed with a deft poeticism and a fierce sense of musicianship, a skilled multi-instrumentalist and trained jazz player. Born in Amsterdam to a Dutch mother and a Ghanaian father, Nana joined her first band as a teenager, choosing to play bass because, every other instrument had been claimed. It was a lucky twist of fate, unbeknown to the musician, her mother had once been the bassist in a Ghanaian Highlife band and happened to have her instrument. Accepted to study jazz (electric bass and double bass) at the prestigious Amsterdam Conservatory, Nana traded the restrictions of a structured curriculum for the free-flow of her own compositions.
Since her debut in 2017 – the vulnerable EP Down at the Root (Pt. 1)– she has been praised for her sonic explorations and effortless lyrical poetry. Her second EP, Down at the Root (Pt. 2) and the Stereogum-approved A Tale So Familiar, increased support from international press including Consequence of Sound and The Fader, influential radio stations such as USA tastemakers KCRW, KEXP and streaming platforms. Making her USA live debut in 2018, Adjoa played a series of headline shows as part of a worldwide Communion residency, as well as performing on some of the European largest festival stages.
Chantel Van T singer-songwriter, actress and poet from Cape Town marks 2020 as the year she gives life to her solo career. Her second single, Come To Me, from her debut album Nicalochan released on the 14th of August.
Marked with the slow, low, roomy rolling guitar, Come To Me continues to embody the question of being seen in one’s entirety. This is the second single off the album but the 1st track of the album if listened in order – so its importance introduces the album that is to come. There is a bold statement in this song made every time she sings ‘Come To Me‘ and a deep intimacy in each vocal line of this song.
Chantel has carved out a spectacular album that announces the arrival of an independent artist with a fervent intention to both haunt and uplift the listener. Chantel is no stranger to the stage, already a familiar and renowned persona as the lead vocalist for South African, Space Rock band Diamond Thug.
Directed by Matthew Nelson, the video for MAR V is as surreal and chaotic as the world that we’re living in at the moment, reflecting the pulsating energy of the song itself – wall-to-wall with everything from flashes of a latex-clad gas-masked dancer to tour and lockdown antics.
Discussing the video, director Matthew Nelson explains: “The concept behind the video was a glorified tour vlog turned nightmare. I took influences from directors like Darren Aronofsky and the 90s dance track “Killer” by ADAMSKI.”
Some of the footage used in the video was from the last show that the band played just before lockdown, which was in front of a 1,000-strong crowd at MaNo-Musikfestival in Germany. Drummer, Sam Thorne says “I’d say that the video sort of represents our experience over the last 5 months. The craziness of MaNo and those amazing gigs, all the people and parties, and then a different kind of craziness once we crash landed into lockdown straight after.”
Lead singer and guitarist, Peter Marchant continues: “We had all this footage of us on tour, in the studio etc. which is all well and good, but we wanted to throw some kind of bizarre fly in the ointment. So Matthew suggested we film lots of extra footage in our flat, and use whatever bonkers ideas that came into our heads. We had a lot of hilarious moments shooting these ideas all night.”
Consisting of hypnotic synth lines, goosebump-inducing rhythm and a hint of dark and mysterious atmosphere, Phantom Isle’s latest release, ‘MAR V’ sees the band stray from their art-pop roots with great success; highlighting their effortless capability to blend genres and moods for maximum effect – think LCD Soundsystem/Hot Chip style indie-house.
Keyboard player, Joshua Pullen who took the lead with writing the music says: “The song started as a remix of our previous single ‘I Am Urs’ but became a very different beast when I was messing about with a new drum machine I bought. I was listening to a lot of Soulwax and Simian Mobile Disco at the time and loved how they would produce songs with a pounding single-note loop throughout.”
Despite its upbeat and energetic feel, there’s a dark side to ‘MAR V’. Lyricist and drummer, Sam Thorne explains: “The lyrics were actually written about feeling anxious and alone” comparing that feeling to an old friend that follows you through life, saying “you almost miss it when you leave it behind”. Singer and guitarist, Peter Marchant adds, “the song pretty much became the soundtrack of MaNo-Musikfestival in Marburg, Germany, where we headlined in March this year”. 2,000 fans jumped and danced frantically to MAR V’s hypnotic pulse at the festival’s closing show, seen in the single’s official video along with a montage of mischievous and surreal footage from the band’s journey so far. The band arrived in Marburg on March 5th (hence the romanised title, ‘MAR V’), they saw and conquered.
