Siren's Call

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

Bombay Bicycle Club have been writing songs for Saturday nights and songs for Sunday mornings since their mid-teens. That they’re now barely in their thirties and remain one of the most inventive, insistent and, arguably, influential British guitar bands of the past generation says much to their powers of reinvention. But it also speaks to the band’s effortless ear for a melody and the masters of its deployment.

By 2011, and now fully in their stride, the band turned left once more to deliver A Different Kind Of Fix. It was a record that took, sonically at least, two big steps forward. An imaginative, but no less infectious collection of oddball pop songs that spawned the likes of Shuffle and How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep, and painted Bombay Bicycle Club in vivid splashes of colour.

Three years passed before the band reappeared with So Long, See You Tomorrow in 2014. A real “Greatest Hits” of a record, the likes of Carry Me, Luna, Feel all providing texture and leftfield rhythms that suggested a band in their absolute prime and at their heights of invention. It’s incredible to consider that the band were still a young band by anyone’s standards, but able to sound so accomplished, unpredictable and imaginative on an album that shone as a worthy nomination for 2014’s Mercury Music Prize. The band concluded the album’s cycle by selling out London’s Earls Court – the last show before it was demolished. That Bombay Bicycle Club took its roof off was a timely prelude to its eventual destruction.

ALVVAYS

Alvvays never intended to take five years to finish their third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable Blue Rev. In fact, the band began writing and cutting its first bits soon after releasing 2017’s Antisocialites.
In October 2021, when they arrived at a Los Angeles studio with fellow Canadian Shawn Everett, he urged them to forget the careful planning they’d done and just play the stuff, straight to tape. On the second day, they ripped through Blue Rev front-to-back twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes. And then, as Everett has done on recent albums by The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves, he spent an obsessive amount of time alongside Alvvays filling in the cracks, roughing up the surfaces, and mixing the results. This hybridized approach allowed the band to harness each song’s absolute core, then grace it with texture and depth. Keyboardist Kerri MacLellan joined Rankin and guitarist Alec O’Hanley to write more this time, reinforcing the band’s collective quest to break patterns heard on their first two albums.
The results are beyond question: Blue Rev has more twists and surprises than Alvvays’ cumulative past, and the band seems to revel in these taken chances. This record is fun and often funny, from the hilarious reply-guy bash of “Very Online Guy” to the parodic grind of “Pomeranian Spinster.”Blue Rev doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about Alvvays but instead reimagines it. They have, in part and sum, never been better.

FAT DOG

‘The dog has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors,
sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Dog breeds vary widely in
shape, size, and colour. They perform many roles for humans, such
as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and
the military, companionship, therapy, and aiding disabled people. This
influence on human society has given them the sobriquet of “man’s best
friend”. Through the subliminal powers of the dog, especially that of the
“fat” variety, one may even witness the regrowth of one’s hairline.’.

FRANCIS OF DELIRIUM

With just three EPs (‘All Change’, ‘Wading’ & ‘The Funhouse’), Luxembourg-based 21 year-old Jana Bahrich’s Francis of Delirium have quickly caught attention, finding champions in the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum, The FADER, Paste, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, BBC 6 Music, Radio 1, KEXP, NPR and more. She’s also been shortlisted for the highly prestigious ESNS Music Moves Europe Award. New single ‘Real Love’, produced by Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice, boygenius), is released on 20th July 2023.

GIRL SCOUT

It’s a tale as old as time: four young people meet while studying. In this tale our protagonists are Swedish and became acquainted at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm not too long ago. They studied Jazz, they played together. First two of our friends “formed a duo in an attempt to earn money, playing mostly evergreens and covering anything from the Beatles to Burt Bacharach at cocktail events and openings”, but soon enough, after they started performing original songs, their enthusiasm got contagious and they became a four piece.

The grapevine is buzzing already, Girl Scout have been making a name of themselves in the last months playing live shows around the UK and Scandinavia, supporting Holly Humberstone and securing first festival spots. “Where can I find your music!?!?” is the most asked question underneath their social posts, alas they didn’t have any songs out – until now. The wait is finally over. Emma Jansson (guitar, vocals), Evelina Arvidsson Eklind (bass, vocals), Per Lindberg (drums) and Viktor Spasov (guitar) are ready to release their debut single “Do You Remember Sally Moore?”

LOUPE

Amsterdam-Antwerp indie rock formation Loupe has the unique gift of sounding both impulsive and hypnotic: a fluid sound in which styles such as synth pop, alternative folk and indie rock are expressed through their unique chemistry. The smooth, aerodynamic grooves of Annemarie, the melodic bass lines of Lana and the dynamic, virtuoso playing of Abel form a kind of secret language. The recent addition of singer Nina Ouattara gives Loupe a unique voice to push the band towards a new creative path; the new single Tested Waters, to be released in January 2024, sounds both effortlessly groovy and intricate at the same time, and combines dark, moody lyrics with memorable sing-along hooks. The band’s debut album – Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? (Excelsior and Sinnbus) – was praised by the press and critics. Songs like I Keep Changing, Vortex and Holding Me Too Tight are full of subtle twists and turns that address some of life’s bigger coming-of-age dilemmas. Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? was recorded with producer Arne van Petegem (Moss, Styrofoam) and mixed by Beau Sorenson (Death Cab For Cutie, Sparklehorse).