Artists
Boy & Bear
When your first EP wins you accolades like Rolling Stone’s Artist To Watch of 2011 and Australia’s prestigious triple j Unearthed Artist of the Year, not to mention wooing fans the world over – including the likes of Laura Marling and Marcus Mumford, no less – there’s only one thing you can do for your debut album: confound expectations.
“I would love to set a tone that says to our core audience to expect the unexpected on each record,” says Boy & Bear frontman Dave Hosking. “I think that’s what keeps us going personally, that creative endeavor to keep pushing ourselves and to find new territory.” After debuting at #2 in the Australian ARIA charts, Boy & Bear’s album “Moonfire” has done exactly that, climbing to Gold status after 3 weeks and is sticking it out at the top of the charts.
With sell-out crowds across three Australian national tours, an upcoming extensive national Australian and Twin-Coast US tour and tipped as ‘one of the most important discoveries’ at this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago, Boy & Bear have earned a reputation for delivering an invigorating live experience every time. Get swept away in thunderous drums, twisting guitars and swooning harmonies – Boy & Bear is good for you.
Gabriel and the Hounds
Brooklyn artist Gabriel Levine is set to release his debut, Kiss Full Of Teeth under the moniker, Gabriel and the Hounds, and he’s called upon some of his friends and allies to assist. A variety of performers working directly in or with the likes of The National, Beirut, St Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, tUnE-yArDs, Bjork, and Jonsi all feature throughout the record.
In the midst of a feverish writing cycle, Gabe realized the new songs were different beasts than those he pens for his day-job as vocalist of Brooklyn band Takka Takka. He was creating something raw and personal, intimate sketches that wove together stories of disappointment, letting go and of the inevitability of endings, those of relationships, youth and innocence. Inspired by Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love he found a name for the project and was on his way.
He recorded the album around Brooklyn in living rooms, garages, and in proper studios including community stalwart Sea Side Lounge and The National’s garage studio in Ditmas Park. Kiss Full Of Teeth juxtaposes the quiet intimacy of its genesis, a lo-fi field recorder, with the nuanced sounds of expensive microphones capturing the warmth of the orchestral players who expand the palette of the album.
Organic sounds of trains, birds, breath, fingers moving urgently over strings are tethered seamlessly to intricate arrangements that include layered vocals, reverb, and drum parts that blend thoughtfully into the album’s narrative. The beauty of the spaces between the notes lets our synaesthesia kick in evoking cold stones, worn wood, and rusted steel.
On “The World Unfolds” Gabriel and the Hounds are buoyant and brash. They shake off the shackles of youth – drums and voice rushing forward, chasing each other away from the past, while barely looking back. On “Wire and Stone” ghostly vocals call out to droning woodwinds. And what begins as a small melody on guitar on “Talk of the Town” builds, to add voice, confident drums and sweeping orchestra. Aching psalms of being left give way to the rebellion of leaving. Kiss Full of Teeth arcs gracefully to its completion and closes with solo piano ringing out on “An Ending (Between Friends).”
Although the writing of these songs was a very solitary endeavour, the recording process became a communal affair, with Gabriel making the studio a welcoming drop-in for a broad range of talented folk, including Bryan Devendorf from The National, who plays drums throughout the album.
Tracklisting: A Beginning / What Good Would That Do? / Wire And Stone / Lovely Thief / The World Unfolds / When We Die In South America / Talk Of The Town / Photos Of The End / An In-Between / Who Will Fall On Knees / An Ending
Gotye
Gotye first found attention with his second album, 2006’s Like Drawing Blood. Influential Australian radio station Triple J named it their album of the year, as did iTunes on its release in the UK in 2008. In Britain, Like Drawing Blood became a cult hit while in the States, it made waves after Drew Barrymore fell in love with single Learnalilgivinanlovin’ and used it in several of her films.
Hotly tipped Belgium born Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist and producer, Gotye, will release the much anticipated album Making Mirrors on 13th February via Communion / Island Records.
2012 looks set to be a very exciting year for Gotye (pronounced Gaulthier). Following two sold out London shows at the end of October the current swell of worldwide support has its sights set firmly on the UK.
Upon its online release in June, it was the video for the stunning track Somebody That I Used To Know that triggered an overwhelming worldwide response. Just three weeks after Gotye posted the video on YouTube the song had received nearly four million hits (this number has now exceeded 16 million), topped the charts in 4 countries (Australia, Holland, Belgium and New Zealand) and made it to No.1 on the Hype Machine Twitter chart. Hear it once and you’ll be haunted by it for weeks. It will be released in the UK on 6th February.
Ask Gotye about his new album Making Mirrors and he’ll speak not of songs, but of sounds. He’ll describe the various valves through which strings and choirs cycle on his Lowrey Cotillion, a vintage organ bought for 100 bucks in a second-hand shop that features on the record. Or how he constructed a bassline by sampling the Winton Musical Fence, an unlikely instrument he discovered in the outback of Queensland, Australia, comprised of five large metal strings attached to wooden fence posts and a resonant chamber. He may mention the horn break from a traditional Taiwanese folk song he discovered on a 1970s Cathay Pacific promotional record, which he sampled, sped up and dubbed out, before introducing it to some Turkish drum sounds. Or the unique, virtual versions of acoustic instruments – among them a chromaharp and an mbira – he created by painstakingly multisampling every note.
Listen to Making Mirrors and you’ll be drawn in by the details, transported to a world where every moment matters. This is pop at its most precise, but also electronic music at its most emotional. The record delves into dub, Detroit-era Motown soul, stadium-size politipop, synth-folk and world music on glorious, sprawling, huge-hearted songs.
Daughter
‘The Wild Youth’ is the new EP from 21 year old Elena Tonra aka Daughter.
A collection of four dark, ethereal & beautiful new songs, ‘The Wild Youth’ showcases a young musician experimenting delicately with a rich array of songwriting ideas and yet still intent on pouring out her soul pure and unadulterated.
Having launched with the stunning six-minute ‘Love’, a brooding, stark lament that shifts shape & form as it builds to it’s startling crescendo, ‘The Wild Youth’ includes three more songs (‘Home’, ‘Medicine’ & ‘Youth’) that beautifully weave the intimacy and honesty of timeless, classic folk with the glacial, experimental soundscapes that draw to mind the work of Bjork & Jonsi Birgisson.
Having made a series of demo tracks available at the end of 2010 via her social network pages, Daughter’s star has gently risen, collecting fans one-by-one as these tracks were gradually shared amongst enthusiastic friends and bloggers.
As the support grew Elena found herself moving – slowly, at first – up The Hype Machine. Within a month – and as the momentum grew – she’d reached #3 in the Most Popular Song Chart. The Independent’s Barometer column subsequently noting of her “beautifully-sung, literary folk” and her “ethereal melancholy” as they tipped her as a One to Watch.
Launching her debut ‘His Young Heart’ EP with a sold-out show at The Slaughtered Lamb, London in April, Elena was soon invited to perform sessions for Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music & Rob Da Bank on BBC Radio 1.
‘Landfill‘ – the lead track from the ‘His Young Heart‘ EP – was soon added to the BBC 6 Music playlist (B-list), with each play sending a surge of new fans to Elena’s social-network pages each intrigued by this mysterious young songwriter, her crystal-clear voice and her startling declarations of honesty (“I want you so much, but I hate your guts, I hate you” – ‘Landfill’).
Spring/ summer 2011 saw Elena – alongside electric guitarist boyfriend Igor Haefeli – support the likes of Lia Ices, Cloud Control, Sharon Van Etten, Ben Howard, Matthew & The Atlas and invited on her first UK tour with Bella Union’s John Grant. Debut festival performances were also chalked up at Bestival, Lounge on the Farm, Great Escape & two stunning shows on the BBC Introducing stage at Reading/ Leeds Festivals.
Each show bought Daughter in-front of a new crowd and and her reticent, yet beautiful, performances rendered crowds silent to a note.
The ‘His Young Heart’ EP’s slow-burning, word-of-mouth success began to spread beyond the British Isles. In August iTunes US offered Daughter the weeklong free Spotlight Feature for ‘Landfill’, resulting in over 150,000 free downloads of the track, which triggered the full EP itself to climb into the upper reaches of the iTunes singer/songwriter charts on both sides of the Atlantic. She was also invited to be Artist of the Week on Americana Vogue.
‘The Wild Youth’ EP is Daughter’s next step. Recorded in Crouch End with producer Ian Grimble (Igor Haefeli takes co-production duties) it will be released on 21st November via Communion Records (Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard).
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Michael Kiwanuka
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Communion presents The Flowerpot Sessions
To Kill A King
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Nathaniel Rateliff
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Treetop Flyers
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Ben Howard
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Three Blind Wolves
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Monument Valley
London-born songwriter Ned Younger first assembled some of the first Monument Valley songs whilst living abroad in Spain. Having spent his whole life writing songs, Ned returned to his hometown with a determination to work his endless pages of lyrics detailing everything from found market photographs to the weeks he spent in a Madrid hospital recovering from a collapsed lung (“No Air”) into a fully fledged musical project, titled Monument Valley.
Matt Corby
Matt Corby has certainly carved a unique path for someone that started his career aged 16 on a reality TV talent show in 2007. In 2009, he independently released his debut EP ‘Song For…’ before relocating to London and signing with renowned UK indie label Communion after capturing the attention of the label’s owner; Ben Lovett of Mumford and Sons fame.
Still only in his early 20s, Matt Corby’s songs and vocals elicit a sensation that is nothing short of captivating. Having previously been compared to legendary artists such as Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, Matt’s songs continue to deliver a uniqueness and maturity well beyond his years while his live performances have become renowned for bringing large audiences to a complete stand still.
After recording with Ian Grimble (The Libertines, Seasick Steve) and releasing his hauntingly beautiful EP, Transition To Colour in late 2010, Matt has been busy engaging audiences with his live shows. Matt spent the earlier part of 2011playing sold out shows in London and showcasing at SXSW in Austin, Texas inFebruary before coming back to Australia to play a string of intimate “Secret Garden” shows in fans’ backyards throughout NSW and Victoria. He soon after joined UK band Elbow as the main support on their national tour of sold outSplendour sideshows in July.
After spending the last few months writing, Matt spent most of September 2011 recording his soon to be released EP, Into The Flame, with producer Tim Carr (Ernest Ellis, Jonathan Boulet).
Into The Flame, showcases a fresh injection of soulful growling vocals and bluesy melodies bound together with his already unique style of melodic folk. Lyrically raw and endearingly honest, his songs take the listener through an introspective and heartfelt journey. The EP also features a duet with Matt’s dear friend and keyboardist Bree Tranter, previously of Australian band, The Middle East.
Lead track ‘Brother’ is now at radio with EP ‘Into The Flame’ slated for release on November 11 2011.
Matt will be supporting the release of his EP and single with an extensive national Secret Garden Tour throughout October and November followed by EP launch shows at The Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney on November 24th and at The Toff In Town in Melbourne on November 30th.
Marcus Foster
Sounding like a wisened beatnik from an era long since lost, young London born artist Marcus Foster is cut from a very different cloth to the multitude of singer-songwriters, who profess to sing directly from the heart. Musically adventurous, and metaphorically dropped from a rambling Kerouac chapter, Marcus Foster was born dancing to Louis Armstrong, and introduces his music by tipping a respectful hat, to the romanticism of Waits and Van Morrison.
Matthew and The Atlas
The eponymous Matthew Hegarty – by day a landscape gardener, by night the purveyor of a bruised, soulful and muscular brand of modern folk music. By accident or design his songs have a distinct sense of the earth and the elements; as though the dirt under his fingernails is settling on his guitar strings, shaping the tone and colour of their sound.
The voice is the thing; it sounds a hundred years old and is etched with all the heartache and weariness that implies (imagine Joe Cocker singing Bon Iver in a pair of steel toe capped boots after a hard day’s work in the field). But wrapped around these melodies, and offset by the fragile backing vocals of Lindsay West, the rough edges are softened to a real tenderness.
The beautiful ‘Deadwood’ was a “standout” (The Independent) in esteemed company on the recent sold-out ‘Communion: The Compilation’, which featured tracks by the likes of Mumford & Sons and Johnny Flynn. The ‘To The North’ EP, recorded this winter in a stormy and snowy London, is another big step forward and further indication that Matthew & The Atlas is destined for bright things.
From the harmonies, swelling hand-claps and rolling rhythmic banjo of rousing EP opener ‘I Will Remain’ through to the aching, quietly epic closer ‘In Winter, this is a special collection of songs from a warm and intoxicating new songwriter. Live, the five piece Atlas have also been stealing the show on bills in London and beyond this year with a set that sways from ‘hear-a-pin-drop’ fragility to moments of foot-stomping, heart-swelling communal magic.
Philadelphia Grand Jury
Forget Haircuts, forget NME, forget your ex-girlfriend – this is Philadelphia Grand Jury
All grit and all heart, MC Bad Genius and Berkfinger’s brand of Independent Punk Soul is painfully honest and heavily based in melody. Joined by an array of completey mental drummers over the years, the one thing that will never change is that if you go to see the Philadelphia Grand Jury show, you will definitely come back for another.
In an age where everything is plastic and you have to pay to take the piss, these guys are real and no bullsh*t, and they aren’t leaving until you pay attention.
Pete Roe
Pete Roe learnt his trade amongst the cobbled paths of Bristol and old jazz musicians. He soon found himself playing piano for Laura Marling after taking off to London in 2008. Having recently toured with Laura Marling as both part of her band and support act, Pete is now stepping into the limelight himself with ‘The Merry-Go-Round’ released by Communion Records.
‘The Merry-Go-Round’ – recorded completely live and solo – showcases Pete’s tender vocals and storytelling which have seen him compared to Bert Jansch and John Martyn.
Communion Compilation
