I’ve been spinning Ernest Ellis‘ debut record Hunting a hell of a lot of late, but seeing as it’s not officially released until this Friday, my thoughts on the album are technically under embargo for a few more days.
What I can say is that this guy is really something else. Hailing from the Blue Mountains, his music has a certain brisk and chilly quality to it, recalling the likes of Bon Iver, with both upbeat and sullen songs laced with delicately reverberating vocals bound to send a chill down your spine. Ellis employs some brave and bold idiosyncrasies, especially for a debut, that define him as an original and daring upcoming artist.
So while the remaining days whittle away before Hunting becomes available to the general public, check out the video above of his single ‘Loveless’. I know Ernest Ellis isn’t my own personal find since he’s been rising considerably of late, earning airplay on triple j and support slots for the likes of Florence + The Machine, but for those of you who haven’t heard of him before, here’s your chance.
Thanks to my good mate Ben over at Lazy Acre Records, my Norwegian music obsession continues to be happily cultivated with his weekly emails to my inbox about new exciting artists – many of which are from my favourite country!
The bloke tugging on my heartstrings this week is Uno Møller, a singer-songwriter from Oslo who also heads the band Wintermare and gives his voicebox a harder workout in screamo duo Twin Pines Mall, is, as a solo artist, a typically sweet and subdued one. A nice change from screamo, no doubt. With a dreamy acoustic guitar and a steady, sometimes layered voice, Møller mulls over life and love with intimacy, with simple but affecting melodies that recall frosted Norwegian fields.
Møller’s three-track mini album, How To Lead You Home, is available for free download here. His EP collection, Lost In My Beautiful Colorball, will be released in the coming months.
Norway, Norway, Norway – our union really cannot come soon enough, especially with all these beautiful new discoveries.
I received an email from a bloke named Richard Lanyon this week. He wanted to tell me about his new musical project, Plantagenet 3, which he described as “a misguided combination of Spaghetti Western soundtracks, 1960s surf guitar and lo-fi post-rock…a bit like an instrumental version of Clinic or the Raveonettes”.
Interesting…
And really, that description isn’t so farfetched after all, I concluded after having a bit of a listen to the two tracks available on the MySpace. Clear electric guitars wade slowly through a sullen sea of sparse drum beats, with the only clear climaxes of the songs being a slight raise in tone rather than drastic rises in volume or mood – it’s very atmospheric, challenging stuff that crosses as many genres as it suggests.
Plantagenet 3 is mainly Lanyon himself on guitar and bass, with sometime collaboration from drummer Staz Owen – all coming at you from the reaches of London, UK. Have a listen if you’d like to hear something a little different from your usual, and keep an eye (or ear?) out for a 7″ from the project, which will be dropped sometime in the next month on Lanyon’s own label, Jitter Records.
I’ve made no secret of my love of Norway and its music in recent times – my favourite act of last year, The Little Hands of Asphalt, hails from Oslo and I’m planning a visit over there for later in the year. So you can imagine my delight when I caught wind of another stunning up-and-coming Norwegian artist, Solvor Vermeer.
Vermeer has just released the EP The Beaming Light, with a debut album to follow sometime soon. She’s a singer, songwriter, pianist and cellist, with gorgeous waif-like vocals that drift ethereally around her subtle, wintry songs. Norwegian music has a personality all its own, and Solver Vermeer brings that personality a whole new sense of feminine beauty.
Check out the above video of her song ‘Hope’ and head to her MySpace to stream a few more songs. The Beaming Light, which will be reviewed on BTTB soon, is out now through Bloksberg Music and Lazy Acre Records.
As per my good blog friend Bianca, I thought it would be a rad idea to post a new band/artist each week for your aural pleasure. (Hope you don’t mind me taking inspiration, Bianca!).
For the first installation, allow me to introduce my friend Jenna Fields and her man-half Chris Donlon, all the way from Los Angeles. The two lovebirds are planning to make a name for themselves first by posting cover versions of popular songs, before hopefully delving into their own songwriting. This is their first cover, a sweet, sped-up rendition of She & Him‘s ‘If You Can’t Sleep’.
Jenna and Chris are looking to name their new project, so if you have any suggestions fire them up in the comments here – so far they’ve got Turtle & Elephant and Bird Cousins on the shortlist. Hopefully they will have themselves set up with a MySpace and other such things soon, but for now enjoy this cover – I think it’s a pretty great one.
