Category Archives: Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice

1st May 2023

Cat Clyde – Everywhere I Go

Brilliant opening track from the new ‘Down Rounder’ album released on her own Second Prize Records label. It is a record that has to be one of the most immediately enjoyable, familiar yet fresh records in a folky / country vein that I have come across in recent times. As this live version shows, Cat has a street wise edge to her delivery, a laid back nonchalance with a cutting edge and I strongly recommend checking out ‘Down Rounder’ for the highlights are many…

Miss Grit – Follow The Cyborg

Performing a new arrangement of the title track of their debut album, here New York based musician Margaret Sohn is incorporating strings and a strong visual aesthetic. The album is entirely self produced and the favourable influence of an artist like St Vincent is hard to ignore, particularly in the presentation style, the arch fusion of the melodic and electronic not to mention the fuzzy disturbance caused by the excellent guitar solo played here. Miss Grit is taking an already modernist sound and shaping it to their own vision with panache…

Night Beats – Hot Ghee

This band, the grungy kaleidoscopic vision of singer and songwriter Danny Lee Blackwell, are clearly not letting go of any momentum. It was in 2021 that I rated their ‘Outlaw R&B’ LP as one of my albums of the year, you can read my piece on that record here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/09/28/night-beats-outlaw-rb/ ‘Hot Ghee’ is a heady psych storm taken from Night Beats’ new album ‘Rajan’ set to be released on July 14 2023 on Fuzz Club and Suicide Squeeze Records…

Mirna Bogdanovic – Wish I Didn’t Miss You

This is the superb official video for ‘Wish I Didn’t Miss You’ by Mirna Bogdanović from album ‘Awake’ set to be released on Berthold Records on May 12th. The song is probably best known in its original recording by Angie Stone but this version adds a delightful layer of menace and anguish. That is especially captured in this video where Mirna is portrayed torturing herself relentlessly observing the object of her emptiness as they move on to new beginnings in life whilst she remains weighed down with hurt and obsession. Powerful stuff amid a tasty new arrangement…

Sam Shackleton – Pretty Saro

Folk ballads are made to be sung and passed through generations but it takes a special kind of talent to inhabit them and make them breathe in the authentic way that Scottish singer Sam Shackleton does. He says of this busked performance from earlier in the year, “this was filmed in the courtyard of the Old College of the University of Edinburgh which dates back to the 1700’s. This place is very familiar to me and I was here many times during my 5 years studying ethnomusicology and folklore at this lovely university – I even took exams here! But now I’m back here playing my own Scottish version of this beautiful English folk ballad which also dates to the 1700’s. This song disappeared in England and Scotland but was later re-discovered in the musical folk tradition of the Appalachian mountains – carried there by early English and Scottish immigrants”…

Meshall Ndegeocello – Vuma

I will conclude this edition of Fresh Juice with a giddy, groovy slice of Africana that feels so right to welcome in the sunnier days ahead (weather wise at least). This is from Meshell’s new album, ‘The Omnichord Real Book’, which is released on Blue Note Records. That is a tantalising combination for the German born, American singer and songwriter once credited with helping to start the neo-soul movement and the legendary label famed for its quality releases and for remaining the first port of call for anyone investigating Jazz music now or any time over the past sixty or seventy years…

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Fresh Juice

24th April 2023

The Routes – No Good

For my money the most vital and punchy sounding pop music still sounds like it was made in a garage in the sixties, that template and energy are a design classic. There is a reason why fresh young bands are still making that sound today whilst Freddie & The Dreamers or Herman’s Hermits soundalikes are nowhere to be found. Stylistically the idea of ‘popular’ music has evolved into something different, it is only in my head unfortunately that records like this are troubling the ‘top ten’ but who really cares about that stuff nowadays anyway? The Routes are Japanese renegades based a long way south of Tokyo in the mountains of Oita who actually first formed twenty years ago as The Facials, so maybe my use of the word ‘young’ is stretching it a little. Their journey may have been a bit off/on in those years, with some inevitable line-up changes along the way, but their recently released ‘Lead Lined Clouds’ album on Soundflat Records demonstrates that none of the raw power that first ignited them into action has been lost, quite the opposite in fact, this is pure primitive pop excellence…

Josienne Clarke – Anyone But Me

Josienne Clarke’s musical journey has seen a massive gear change after busting out of an acclaimed folk duo set-up which appears to have collapsed for her both creatively and personally. The way she is fighting back from that deserves attention as her solo music of recent times feels so honest and committed. Part of that regeneration is on display with latest album ‘Onliness’, released on Corduroy Punk Records, as Josienne revisits songs from throughout her back pages offering them up for reinterpretation and some spectacular relighting. That is especially true of this song; the accompanying video is a black and white, tense and vintage style delight. I love the humour buried in the details, just look at the headlines on the back of the newspaper relating to football and cricket. As a fan of both I probably shouldn’t find such a blatant dig at my two favourite sports so funny, but when an artist is expressing themselves as eloquently as Josienne Clarke today, then you just sit back and give them the floor…

BAILEN – Call It Like It Is

Here are a band of siblings out of New York with a genuinely infectious tune built around a simple clubby bass and drum groove, brought to life by a gritty lead vocal married to a melody that leaves its insistent imprint in your head. BAILEN are Julia Bailen on vocals and guitar, David Bailen on vocals and drums and Daniel Bailen on vocals and bass. They describe ‘Call It like It Is’ from the new album ‘Tired Hearts’ as “an anthem for anyone who refuses to be taken advantage of. It unmasks the ugly truth behind shiny veneers.” Sometimes simplicity exposes a lack of ideas, other times it is a strength when a song is so good it blossoms on the core elements alone, ‘Call It Like It Is’ is definitely the latter…

The Nude Party – Cherry Red Boots

This North Carolina sextet are releasing their third album, ‘Rides On’, on New West Records and the great news is that none of the rollicking good-time Americana vibes they are noted for have fallen away. If anything they are even more loaded with the good stuff today. Listening to The Nude Party for the first time in 2018 was a joyous experience as it felt like I should be marking every single song as an album highlight. The same thing happened with ‘Rides On’, their secret seems to be that in addition to bottling satisfying echoes of The Rolling Stones and The Byrds, they overload us with fantastic new songs just as they are overwhelming us with denim in this new video. The songwriting is where so many bands with reference points to the past fall short, but The Nude Party are shining bright today with good reason…

Gramercy Arms – Yesterday’s Girl

This is a stripped back acoustic performance from Gramercy Arms of a song featuring as the opening track on the collective’s new third album ‘Deleted Scenes’, released on the Magic Door Record Label. The bittersweet sound of Big Star is unmistakable on this duet between Dave Derby and Renee Lo Bue, which should come as no surprise as the modus operandi of Gramercy Arms is all about the hazy sunset sounds of America’s greatest sunshine pop mixed with gorgeous, happy/sad acoustic melancholy. The project leaves plenty of space for collaboration too, in fact this song was a co-write with Lloyd Cole, so with an abundance of influences and influencers thrown into the melting pot, the Gramercy Arms project remains a subtle little indiepop delight smoking out of the cracks in the US music scene…

Lakecia Benjamin – New Mornings

The New York alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin is working a look with more than a casual nod to the futuristic cutting edge worn by Miles Davis at the onset of the 1970s in this live performance clip. With her band she plays one of the stand out pieces from new album ‘Phoenix’, released on Whirlwind Recordings, a stunning follow up to 2020’s ‘Pursuance: The Coltranes’ and a very welcome return after a serious 2021 car accident left her with a broken jaw, broken ribs, a perforated ear drum, concussion and presumably multiple concerns for her music career. Not only that but the Covid pandemic left a devastatingly tragic toll on Lakecia’s family. But as the album title suggests, it was music fuelling her momentum on the road to recovery as, in tandem with a striking visual presentation, she continues to make some of the most vital sounding Jazz on the scene today which ‘Phoenix’ testifies so stylishly…

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Fresh Juice

17th April 2023

Alison Goldfrapp – So Hard So Hot

New solo release in which Alison lets her love of house and dance grooves out of the bag, with a video vignette by Alison & Mat Maitland at Big Active. The first in a series of visual accompaniments to tracks from the upcoming album ‘The Love Invention’ (out 12 May). These video vignettes (looped into the full length visualizer you see here) have been treated with a range of AI techniques to create extreme fluctuations on a spectrum that glides towards radical fantasy…

The Deslondes – South Dakota Wild One

These gritty country rockers are made up of members who each have very credible musical projects of their own, they are; Dan Cutler (vocals/stand-up bass), Sam Doores (vocals/guitar), Riley Downing (vocals/guitar), Cameron Snyder (vocals/percussion), and John James Tourville (fiddle/pedal steel). This love film from a remote garage location is part of the GemsonVHS movement previously mentioned on these pages…

Rodney Crowell – Loving You Is The Only Way To Fly

This is a gorgeous ballad from the forthcoming new Rodney Crowell album, ‘The Chicago Sessions’, released on New West Records on May 5th. This one also features a beautiful vocal contribution from Audrey Spillman who also appears in the video, lovely stuff…

Lisa O’Neill – The Globe

From an album ‘All Of This Is Chance’ which is already holding up as one of my strongest records of 2023, this is a stunning live performance filmed on location on the coast of Kerry in Ireland and directed by Myles O’Reilly…

Ben Folds – Exhausting Lover

The new Ben Folds album ‘What Matters Most’ is arriving on June 2nd on New West Records. He is set to spend 2023 touring extensively, reaching the UK and Ireland in November…

London Brew – Raven Flies Low

London Brew is a crème de la crème collection of 12 UK jazz luminaries. Comprised of a veritable who’s who of some of the most important and innovative musicians of the 21st century, London Brew features contributions from Benji B, Theon Cross, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Dave Okumu, Tom Skinner and more, brought together by Producer and guitarist Martin Terefe and Executive Producer Bruce Lampcov…

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Fresh Juice

10th April 2023

Wednesday – Chosen To Deserve

From North Carolina, Wednesday are an abrasive Americana band comprising Karly Hartzman on vocals, Jake Lenderman on guitar, Xandy Chelmis on lap steel and Alan Miller on drums. They are signed to the Dead Oceans label and forthcoming album ‘Rat Saw God’ is their fifth in as many years but one listen to this taster track, ‘Chosen To Deserve’, I think shows there is something definitely stirring in the Wednesday camp. This is such a great song, one of those ones where you can’t believe someone hasn’t painted this particular picture before; “I’m the one that you have chosen to deserve” hints at multitudes of destructive tendencies within the central relationship of the lyric, which just happen to be built around a thwacking great country-rock tune. Check out these opening lines; “we always started by telling all our best stories first, so now that it’s been a while I’ll get around to telling you all my worst”. This is just such great song writing, a song I was breathless with excitement about when I heard it…

Ron Gallo – I Love Someone Buried Deep Inside Of You

This version of a track from Ron Gallo’s new album ‘Foreground Music’ was recorded live at Tournament Studios in Nashville. The former Toy Soldiers front man is now releasing music on the Kill Rock Stars label and, as heard in this brilliant piece of film, he is channelling the same garage-punk energy that first brought him attention as a solo act nearly ten years ago, without sacrificing any of the sweet melodic instinct he brings to his best music. It is all as good as this, powerful, crunching and sugar sweet, all elements that seem to hit the listener in unison…

Brigid Mae Power – Dream From The Deep Well

This is set to be the title track from Brigid’s new album, released on 30th June on Fire Records. She is a stately singer-songwriter performer whose songs are often hymn-like meditations and by now, with what is about to be her fourth album, there is a track record of dependable excellence starting to build. In fact the previous album, ‘Head Above The Water’, was one of my favourite records in 2020 (one that seemed to really glow with warmth and texture on the vinyl pressing) so this is eagerly anticipated. This song, wherein the lyric seems beaten down by people falling short of the idealised testimonies they bestow upon themselves as Brigid pools her resources to continue aiming high, even as others go low, suggests another must-have LP is on its way…

Ron Sexsmith – Former Glory

The Canadian singer is seen here in a recent live clip performing a song from his latest album, ‘The Vivian Line’, released on Cooking Vinyl. Somehow Ron still feels like one of the exciting fresh talents on the scene despite the fact that he is into his fourth decade as a well-known performer and is now actually 59 years of age. That might have something to do with the fact that with every new album, Sexsmith continues to find some gorgeous low hanging fruit from the great song tree all musicians reach to pick from, causing a situation where every Sexsmith album has at least three or four songs that sound like immediate classics and a supporting cast that hardly let the side down. There is a simplicity to what he does, a craftsman-like ability to carve out exactly what the song needs without any superfluous decoration, he is always a delight…

Meredith Moon – House Full Of Sparrows

A home recording uploaded by the artist Meredith Moon, one of the daughters of Canadian folk legend Gordon Lightfoot, she has a new album out called ‘Constellations’ on True North Records. This is quite a haunting piece, the imagery is dark and a little claustrophobic and the lyric has a nice apocalyptic edge, it is undoubtedly a great little song. What I like about the video clip is that you sense it captures an artist in the early days of their relationship with a song, it is still quite raw as Meredith is feeling her way around the lyrics and the chord progressions, pulling out the nuances and threads, this holds your attention…

Abbie Finn Trio – A Real Job

This County Durham based trio are made up of Abbie Finn leading everything on drums and percussion, Harry Keeble on tenor sax and Paul Grainger on double bass. So much is spoken of the exciting Jazz scene coming out of London these past few years, it should be noted that way up north there are also young folk breaking out with classic Jazz templates and vigorously searching, as the form demands, to unlock new directions for the music to travel in. And as this is a unit that leads from the rhythm section up, there is plenty of punch to the way they take a charge at their own interpretation of the classic Bebop sound…

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Fresh Juice

3rd April 2023

Richard Gavril – Say Nothing At All

Another selection from the #gemsintherough competition on YouTube right now, this is a singer and a song that just stood out a mile. Fantastic writing alongside dexterous guitar playing, beautifully sung, an original number in the style of the classic sixties Tom Paxton or Paul Simon style of personal leaning folk ballad and I mean the comparison as a massive compliment. I dug a little deeper with Richard Gavril and he has good form in this mode, not only that but he is consistent with the hi-vis locker room thing as well, although it is unclear whether he actually does post his music during down time at work or if it’s an image he projects, like Neil Young and his farm hand look. I could go on a little rant about the music industry and how too much talent is hidden below the radar but why tarnish such a lovely song with negativity? With music as good as this, just listen and enjoy…

Temples – Afterlife

Of all the psychedelic bandits to emerge during the last decade, it was always Temples who threatened to orbit the mainstream with their rich sound wrapping songs that are packed in melody adorned by ever changing tones and colours. Temples continue to make this kind of music and surely many more people will board their spaceship this time around, especially as forthcoming album ‘Exotico’ has Sean Ono Lennon in the producers chair. Anyone following his eclectic music career should know by now, he is not one to lend his name to anything less than musically resplendent and so we continue…

Lavinia Blackwall – The Damage We Have Done

Similarly psych infused but wholly of her own grain, this is an exquisite new tune from the former Trembling Bells multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Soon to appear on her second solo album, it is hard not to think of the climate emergency within the lyrics, singing of our fast passing moment as “kings for a day”, the parasites that we are living off the planet whilst wilfully ignoring how we damage it. It is also all too easy to miss, amongst the vintage acid-folk stylings which seem second nature to Lavinia, that her songs naturally form ear-worms of the most delightful and welcome kind…

Oracle Sisters – Tramp Like You

If the previous song sounded like a crisp spring morning (to my ears at least) then this one is more of a hazy desert sunset, literally as it goes in the accompanying video. The Oracle Sisters are a trio whose seeds can be found in Belgium, then later scattered between New York and Edinburgh. Lewis Lazar and Christopher Willatt had played in rival bands, soon enough the same band thus forming a songwriting partnership. They were later joined in Paris by Julia Johansen, a Finnish songwriter who not only had a voice and style that blended seamlessly with theirs, but she also a handy ability on the drums. Check out their sound, it is free of unwanted clutter, drawing the listeners attention to the melodic piano and guitar frameworks that their alluring songs are built around. ‘Tramp Like You’ is taken from the album ‘Hydranism’, due out on April 7th…

Unloved – I Did It

Formed in 2015, the trio Unloved just released their third album ‘Polychrome’ and, as heard in this grinding groove driven song, have lost none of the dramatic tension that led to TV producers using much of their music on the soundtrack to ‘Killing Eve’. Originally from Los Angeles, the band are made up of Jade Vincent, Keefus Ciancia and the well known DJ, curator and soundtrack producer David Holmes, no wonder they get it so right so often. Like all great mixologists, this song has an echo of Peggy Lee singing ‘Fever’ hanging over it, but if that was in the creative minds of Unloved it matters little for they mould it into a new song, indisputably their own wonderful creation, side-saddling a playful nod to the past…

The Flowers Of Hell – Foray Through Keshakhtaran

If I tell you that this collective were once Lou Reed endorsed, their music was featured on what turned out to be his final radio show, then that should encourage you to check out The Flowers Of Hell in the expectation of bold, expansive music that unfolds its multi-dimensional structures the more you immerse yourself in it. This is the single mix of the trans-Atlantic experimental group’s 2023 album ‘Keshakhtaran’, which is an Urban Dictionary term for, “seeking nirvana through meditation to sound, especially when you’re stoned.” Release date of full album is May 12th…

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Fresh Juice

27th March 2023

The Burning Hell – All I Need

I think I came to The Burning Hell around ten years ago thanks to the recommendation of Paul Heaton (Beautiful South & Housemartins) in a magazine interview. He said he’d been listening to them and another band called Ages And Ages and they turned out to be two of the best heads up a music magazine has given me in recent years. Admittedly the latter band have fallen off my radar a little lately but The Burning Hell, who are the outlet for musical outpourings of Mathias Kom and multi-instrumentalists Ariel Sharratt and Jake Nicoll, regularly embellished by friends and fellow collaborators, have maintained an impressive schedule of record releases and live performance. Within their emphasis towards story telling and playing live, often in locations way off the regular tour schedule pathways, there is something of the folk music persuasion to this unit. That said, the Burning Hell sound is something else altogether; a rhyming and rapping and self-effacing groove monster with an eye and ear for the absurd married to the keenest of everyday detail, a band that are hard to resist…

Dungen – Hostens Farger

These Swedish psychedelic rockers are soon to be celebrating their 25th anniversary which is a noteworthy landmark when you hear how their European take on melodic UK freakbeat and cosmic sounds sewn in the sixties still sounds so vital. This is the suitably trippy video to a track from their most recent album ‘En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog’ released on Mexican Summer, obviously I cannot understand a word of what is being sung here but somehow, when the music is as eloquent an vivid as this, it matters little, you get the picture anyway…

Withered Hand – Waking Up

Back in the Noughties I, from my far away locale of Southern England, could be heard to wax enviously about the Scottish Fence Collective scene of artists up in Scotland. Catching artists like Pictish Trail and King Creosote at folk gigs near me then learning that they were all tied up in some way to this conglomeration of creative energy seemed fascinating. Withered Hand, the artistic identity of Edinburgh songwriter Dan Willson, are plucked from the same well, releasing a debut album back in 2009. This latest piece was filmed live at a Duddingston Kirk session and the song ‘Waking Up’ will be available on the forthcoming Reveal Records album ‘How To Love’…

Cinder Well – Two Heads Grey Mare

Not only does the music on this track stir up a dusk-time darkening of the spirits, but somehow this accompanying video summons up those dimming of the day sensations as well. Of the song, taken from the new album ‘Cadence’, Cinder Well says “this song is about a human spending a night with a selkie-like vision who comes out of the water. The selkie disappears in the morning, and the human is left with an experience that they can’t put their finger on, questioning reality and experiencing a huge sense of loss. I acted as both the human and the selkie in the music video, which to me portrays that we often look for an escape from ourselves, and we search for that in our external reality. In this case, the human finds this briefly and ecstatically, and then loses it again.”…

The Altons – Float

For my money, the fusion between vintage psychedelics and retro soul sounds has not been tapped to the full. When it works, as it does so well on this dreamy number, it really smashes it out of the park. This is a silky song called ‘Float’ but just listen to the spellbinding way it elevates us into the clouds towards the end, an effect that is captured pretty effectively in this video animation too. Released via Penrose Records, although the YouTube video is posted by Daptone, which is as surefire a guarantee of excellence in soul as you could hope to find today…

Kendrick Scott – Threshold

While I am on the subject of dependable record labels, has there ever been one with such a reliable reputation as Blue Note? To this day, here is a brand that appears to uphold the, now almost quaint, ideal that a label should be run by music people who are emotionally invested in everything aspect of an album release, from the recording of the music to the presentation of the sleeve art. Here drummer Kendrick Scott, who on new Blue Note album ‘Corridors’ is presenting his first compositional treatment in a trio context, proves that there is a place where adventurous classy modern Jazz can be found and it is pretty much the same place we could turn to for over eighty years now…

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Fresh Juice

20th March 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Pynch – London

From the bands debut album ‘Howling At a Concrete Moon’ which is due out on April 14th 2023, this is a take on melancholic pop music that lands its punches. As seen in this nostalgia tinted video, the song sets the hopes and aspirations associated with a city like London against the stark reality of trying to penetrate its societal brick walls as the debris of failed endeavour disfigure the landscape. As Pynch sing in this song, “have you ever dreamed of owning your own home? That’s just a bourgeois fantasy, better leave that shit alone”. Welcome to the real world, check this lot out now…

St Vincent & The Roots – Glory Box

As much as this magical pairing refrain from altering the structure of this Portishead classic, it is nevertheless a very welcome cover version. Performed with a live string section, Annie squeezes every last drop of drama and passion out of the lyrics whilst also taking full advantage of the understated guitar shredding opportunity the song offers. I never have a problem with respectful cover versions as a general rule, great music should be kept alive and played; this is as strong an argument for that view point as I can offer today…

Esther Rose – Safe To Run

Esther’s 2021 album ‘How Many Times’ was one of my outstanding albums of the year, I wrote more about that one here https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/05/23/esther-rose-how-many-times/ This is the title track from her forthcoming LP release on New West Records, it shows her music is continuing to show mouth watering hints of future mass recognition (if there’s any justice) and if I need to add any more inducement to listen, this song and video feature an appearance from Hurray For The Riff Raff’s brilliant songwriter Alynda Lee Segarra…

ThirtySeventy – Acceptance

Either written as above or as 30/70, this delectable slice of jazzy soul is the work of a musical collective from Melbourne, Australia. Taken from the newly released Energy Exchange Records album ‘Art Make Love’, this has a truly spiritual, laid back vibe that just seems to reel me in. They describe themselves as a musical family rather than a group and with this, their fifth album, it sounds like their hypnotic communal flight is really beginning to take off, check this out today…

Seth Martin – I Still Love You

In so many ways, folk music remains the true underground music of the people, even in the 21st century. What the people at #gemsonvhs have done, for a few years now, is set themselves up as the modern day version of legendary folk archivist Alan Lomax, collecting field recordings of below-the-radar singer songwriters playing their own original material, building up an online archive of these tunes. They also do a ‘in the rough’ new music contest which is currently running and has received an avalanche of entries. I would suggest you go and lose yourself in a treasure trove of exciting new talent but as a taster, here’s a lovely, rustic selection from Seth Martin, who says of his song that it’s “a ballad about recovery from heartbreak, but maybe more than that it’s a reflection on the idea that nobody’s an island, and how much we need one another even when we don’t know how to ask for help”…

Kokoroko – RAPT

Finally this week, here are Kokoroko with their first-ever official music video, a beautiful short film soundtracked by ‘Ewà Inú,’ ‘Home’, and ‘Age of Ascent’ from the band’s debut album (released August 2022 on Brownswood Recordings). The film is directed by the multi-disciplined filmmaker, writer & video artist, Akinola Davies Jr. It re-imagines the music as a soundtrack to a triptych of interconnected stories set in Makoko (sometimes known as the Venice of Africa), a community originally settled by fishermen, excluded from official census records, and under threat of demotion.

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Fresh Juice

13th March 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

The Faux Faux – Cold Hearted Woman

The Faux Faux is the new solo project of Faith Vern from Manchester trio PINS and this first exposure certainly teases a tantalising sound with strong dramatic echoes of early Portishead. Of the inspirations for this Faith has said  “I’ve always been intrigued by Cindy Sherman, Sylvia Plath, Gregory Crewdson, Virginia Woolf, Nan Goldin to name a few, these writers, poets, photographers, artists, who have shown us the beauty and the desperation in the mundane”.

Feist – Hiding Out In The Open

The music for Leslie Feist’s new album ‘Multitudes’ had been developed and evolved during live shows from late 2021 and through last year. That these songs gestated in such public view may be a surprise when you hear how personal they often are, more so when you realise they were written with both the birth of her daughter and the death of her father in Leslie’s recent past. The end result is a wonderfully intimate and yet eloquently layered affair as heard on ‘Hiding Out In The Open’, which is accompanied by a video that also illustrates the complexity and thought that Feist subtly brings to her work.

Margo Price feat. Sharon Van Etten – Radio

Another top tune from the album ‘Strays’ released on the Lorna Vista label. The great thing about this stylishly retro clip, in which Sharon Van Etten features on a vintage TV set, is how Margo clearly doesn’t take herself so seriously in these films, she has a laugh with the format. Why not? Her music reaches way beyond the Country pigeonhole and does more than enough talking in itself.

Lael Neale – I Am The River

In reference to the Velvet Underground influence of his track ‘Queen Bitch’, David Bowie wrote about “some white light returned with thanks” on the rear sleeve of the ‘Hunky Dory’ LP. In letting that light break out through the cracks he unleashed a source that filtered into brilliant music for the next fifty years and beyond. It can be heard here too, as there is an irresistible Velvets feel in both look and sound to this brand new Lael Neale track, taken from her forthcoming album ‘Star Eaters Delight’, out April 21, 2023 on Sub Pop Records

Shana Cleveland – Walking Through Morning Dew

Another lush track from the ‘Manzanita’ album which is out now on Hardly Art. Shana is best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist for surf rock band La Luz, she was previously a member of The Curious Mystery but here in 2023, the haunting kaleidoscope of sounds and floating melodies on this solo release make it one that is already bursting with album of the year potential

Lankum – Go Dig My Grave

Lankum seem to have struck a satisfying balance with traditional tunes such as this, whereby they can utilise ancient instruments and songs but invest them with so much real world grit and trauma that they sound nothing at all like museum pieces. As the opening track on their new Rough Trade album ‘False Lankum’ this one packs quite the devastating punch. It is a song that dates back to the 17th century and will be familiar to anyone who has taken a passing interest in folk music as, particularly with the 1960’s generation, it was a mainstay in the repertoire but here, Lankum absolutely syringe every last drop of hurt and pain out of the story before burying you in the most mournful, jarring, unsettling, extended conclusions I have heard in a long time. This is powerful beyond words…

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Fresh Juice

6th March 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Theo Croker ft Ego Ella May & D’LEAU – Slowly

The video to this new track, from Theo Croker’s new EP ‘By The Way’ is said to be a ground breaking movement in music and AI. It does have a head spinning effect for sure although at the core is some tasty trumpet playing and sleepy soulful vocals that are, to these ears, cut from a vintage cloth and very fine indeed…

Waco Brothers – In The Dark

This is the first single from The Waco Brothers latest album ‘The Men That God Forgot’ on Plenty Tuff Records. This video features live footage of the song being worked through with a pounding conviction at Kingsize Soundlabs in Chicago where the album was recorded in 2022 with Mike Hagler…

Robert Forster – Always

This is the Brisbane singer-songwriter and Go-Betweens co-founder Robert Forster playing a live acoustic version of the superb ‘Always’, a song from his new and eighth solo album ‘The Candle and The Flame’, at Lightspace in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The making of the record became a traumatic affair two thirds of the way through when his wife Karin Baumler received a stage four cancer diagnosis. By his own admission she is his most dependable conspirator in the music creative process and so it is so good to hear that, upon completion of the album, the pair are once again playing together, the healing power of music helping Karin navigate the other side of her ordeal…

Big Thief – Vampire Empire

Big Thief continue to spill over with creativity as heard in this clip of them performing a brand new song on the Stephen Colbert Late Show on TV in the US. There is some acid-folk style flute giving this one a delightfully pastoral wave, something which contrasts rather well with the crunchy electric balladry of front woman Adrianne Lenker…

Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra – Hilton

Always a treat to get any new music from Emiliana, this is taken from the album “Racing The Storm” set to be released 17th March 2023 via Bella Union…

Gorillaz – Silent Running

Gorillaz are letting their heart wrenchingly beautiful melancholy side come to the fore on this MTV performance of ’Silent Running’ featuring Adeleye Omotayo, from new album ‘Cracker Island’, out now…

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Fresh Juice

27th February 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Scott McMicken & THE EVER EXPANDING – What About Now

An irresistible slice of cosmic singer-songwriter fare from McMicken, best known as a founding member of Dr Dog. His solo side projects are generally low key self-releases on cassette or vinyl but for this latest project he has started a band and this mouth watering first taste from the forthcoming ‘Shabang’ album on ANTI suggests an inspired project that may well light up the springtime…

Andrew Bird – Never Fall Apart

Touring this spring, this is a new video offering to accompany another track off of Bird’s ‘Inside Problems’ album, one of our Albums of 2022 and written about here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/12/20/andrew-bird-inside-problems/

Gaidaa – Figures

Soulful songwriter Gaidaa releases her first new music of the year with this infectious tune. Of it she says it is “about the way we as a society can get lost in the sauce of the cyclical and mundane nature of our day-to-day lives. It is a reminder that though we are individuals trying to forge our own path, we will always exist as part of something greater and more meaningful (though we may not realize it)”.

The Arcs – Sunshine

The seeds of The Arcs were first sewn at sessions for what was intended to be a Dan Auerbach solo album sometime in the early 2010’s. By the time Richard Swift was involved they had become an eclectic electric outfit worthy of their own identity to accompany the release of 2015’s acclaimed debut album ‘Yours Dreamily’. Studio work continued whenever schedules from the day-job bands allowed and yet the tragic death of Swift in 2018 threatened to leave this unheard material on the shelf. In 2023 that music has been finished off ready for release on a second album ‘Electrophonic Chronic’ and it certainly shines a light on what a towering talent the music world lost in Richard Swift who, along with the ever inspiring Auerbach, made a full band LP of dizzying variety, a real audio treat far too good to have been left unheard…

Rachel Angel – Baby Can I Come Home To You

Real deal country in action with great song writing at its core, if you like your Americana sounds shot with a dose of Wilco, Neil Young and Bob Dylan by a writer who can also turn her hand to poetry then you would do a lot worse than giving Rachel Angel a listen. The deeper I dive into the musical styles that are typically thought of as traditionally American the more I sense that the US is going through quite a golden period, especially in its roots scenes and yet, you would not always know that if you focus solely on the floaters at the top of the pile, even today it’s underground where the action is…

London Brew – Miles Chases New Voodoo In The Church

Miles Davis’s ‘Bitches Brew’ album has stood the test of time for sure, it still sounds futuristic and ground breaking today which is probably why the cutting edge of the modern London jazz scene see it as ripe for interpretation. Calling themselves London Brew, they are Benji B, Raven Bush, Theon Cross, Nubya Garcia, Tom Herbert, Shabaka Hutchings, Nikolaj Torp Larsen, Dave Okumu, Nick Ramm, Dan See, Tom Skinner and Martin Terefe. This promises to be one of the essential jazz releases of 2023…

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