Jessica Wilde 
Teach Me How To Love 
Absolute Label Services 
 
Featuring the tell-tale voice of Afronaut Zu, with all its pebble-step character, Jessica Wilde presents a stunning video for the title track of her brand-new album. Teach Me How To Love delves into the inner world of Jessica’s motivations and desires where life and dream meet in a perpetual dance of wishes. Inspiration for the album comes from her spiritual adventure from concrete to wilderness as she travelled from her urban setting to the heart of the rainforest. A contrast of environment yet somehow the same, what surrounds us can make all the difference on how we feel about ourselves. The album makes full use of Jessica Wilde’s talented friends. Josh Barry, who’s worked with Nile Rogers and Gorgon City, Zoe Kyrpi of Black Coffee and David Lazarus note, James Newman, the guy who wrote the Brit-Award winning song Waiting All Night by Rudimental, all join Afronaut Zu to assist in this monumental and soul revealing body of music. Here’s the video.  
 
A rush of hand-drums and a flow of sliding guitar chords bring the music to our ears. A harmony of voices joins with the initial burst of passionate lyricism. A hip-hop vibe glistens in the mix as slow and graceful manoeuvres shift from drums to haunting rhythmless tones. Journeys with the progressive vocals unravel maps of melody and sentiment as the desire to love pushes onward through and into a drum and bass style thrust of beats that carry the music onward into another song. Jess Wilde's Teach Me How To Love is a dynamic and motivational number that takes a slice of peace and puts it to a wicked beat. The message behind the music, is she flirting or asking for advice? What do you think? 

You can follow Jessica Wilde on Instagram

and Facebook

Wyldlife  

Fast Dreams 

Thousand Island Records 

 

Channelling the realm of retro videogames, an 8-bit kingdom of sound and experience awaits with this new video from Wyldlife. Fast Dreams is accompanied by a Tom Petty cover, You Don’t Know How It Feels, as the much-loved B-side. On the idea of making an animated video, singer Dave Feldman said, “we’re already animated guys by nature”. I wonder if he means energetic or projected? Made in collaboration with the video Mr. Whizz Alex Derwick, who they’ve known since their college days, Wyldlife have crafted this mind-bending 3-minute number. Their classic glam-punk sound offers a highly consumable taste that’s complete with the classic edges we need for our enjoyment.  
 

Vibrant and upbeat chords shimmer on the beat as the music begins. Drums and vocal hits the tarmac, expressive words with multiple voice harmonies give a fun and rhythmic pace. Emotion rises in the agro felt within the voice, a punk disdain for authority perhaps, the music maintains a professional sense of expert craft, nonetheless. Catchy lines hammer down with repeating phrases and fantastically simple riffs that capture energy and translate it into movement.  

​You can find music from Wyldlife on Bandcamp

Follow Wyldlife on Facebook
 
​and Instagram
​

Fred Abong 
Listening 
New Orleans 
 
He’s back with another dive into creativity and purpose. The hottest bassist for miles around, former member of Throwing Muses and Belly, Fred Abong gives us Listening. He began his adventure way back in the 1980s when the punk scene was in full swing. Capturing the energy of rebellion while maintaining a musical edge that truly makes cuts, the journey continued well into the 1990s where the real magic happened for many. Since those early days, Fred Abong has achieved a PhD in Humanities, taught at several universities, and enriched his life with Vedic Astrology. Music from a master, it seems, as this new work takes everything and more just for our listening pleasure. Released on Moochin' About Records, and put to a wonderfully arty video, here is Listening. 
 
Piano casts its spell like a burst of distant thunder. Raindrops begin to fall with higher tones and cymbal strikes that offer a muted splash. The vocals begin, deep and resonating words fill spaces like fluid shimmering and full of life. The moving parts enjoy the space to breath as the graceful rhythm takes its own good time to pass from bar to bar. The keyboards expand with new sounds that add humming harmonies and orchestral introspection to the mosey. With feels like the new stuff by Moby and a nod to the early works of Mercury Rev, a laid-back melancholia sits comfortably in its easy chair, tapping its foot to the steady beat.  

You can find out more on the Fred Abong website

Get music by Fred Abong on Bandcamp

Follow Fred Abong on Instagram

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and Facebook

Philippa Healey 
I Used To Be Fun 
London 
 
A vibrant and out-of-the-ordinary personality shines from the talented Philippa Healey. She knows how to make music work for her as she crafts creative and courageous tunes for us to enjoy. This light-hearted number takes a page from the book of motherhood, where our priorities become those of another. When our energy and resources, time, and care all point in the same direction, it can leave others feeling that we’ve lost our cool. Luckily, it’s all in the mind, and to prove it she’s created this jazz inspired number with the help of Jamiroquai’s rhythm section. Doing her best to be exquisitely seductive and enlighteningly fun, the song is delivered with the extreme professionalism she clearly deserves.  
 
It opens with a super-groovy keyboard riff that sinks deep into the funky soul of Philippa Healey. She moves to the flow in the video with supreme dancing attractiveness and begins the song. A paced and melodic lyric section takes the lead, sing-along lines ring out over the slow and choppy pulse of the band. Keyboards and drums lap the shore with waves of motion that swing from left to right as Philippa adds her lush vocal section. A laid-back yet catchy energy maintains the flow as the video makes fun of the situation while gladly enjoying the positive vibes you just can’t put away.  
 
​You can follow Philippa Healey on Instagram

and Facebook

Timothy Clerkin 
Fading 
Insult To Injury Records 
 
With a brand-new EP out, the familiar face at Ransom Note’s sublabel Insult To Injury Timothy Clerkin teams up with Brighton’s Heather Sheret from HANYA for the title track. The combination of the shoegaze style vocals and the whopping electronic surge of Clerkin’s production skills gives way to a genuine fresh and invigorating experience. Recorded with genuine synthesisers of all kinds in the realms of Timothy Clerkin’s vintage studio, the modern wave of influence carries everything forward without letting go of what matters. Concocting the world’s greatest fresh acid techno and intellectual dance rhythms, the EP may be called Fading but Clerkin is getting brighter and brighter. 
 
With immediate effect, the rampant rhythm breaks open the music with a siren like bounce melody to keep us motivated. The gorgeous voice of Heather Sheret forms an emotive bubble in the mix as the bass begins. The rave and 808 style percussion pins down the trademark bass that oozes out from all the sides as it clobbers the floor. Rubber-band style rhythms culminate in a one-two step that moves up and down a catchy pattern. The vocal rejoins the mix and this time extra layers of melody are dashed against the sides with various inflections of after-effect. The track is a fantastic foot-stomping anthem for the summer and beyond with memorable hooks thanks to Heather Sheret, the solitaire on the gold.  

​Fading EP by Timothy Clerkin is available on Bandcamp

Find out more on the Timothy Clerkin website

You can follow Timothy Clerkin on Instagram

and Facebook

Sarah And The Safe Word 
Sky On Fire 
The Book Of Broken Glass 
 
As Sarah And The Safe Word prepare for a full-on tour with the impressive Machinery Of The Human Heart and The Weekend Run Club, they point us towards their video for Sky On Fire. Taken from the album The Book Of Broken Glass, which was released only last year, the cabaret punks are getting their set together so fans can enjoy the real-life renders that prove they can really perform. They’re a great live act, with a heroic slot filled at the Vans Warped Tour during 2017, the show is one for the calendar if you happen to live nearby. The tour begins very soon on the 26th of June and lasts until 7th July, giving us a rammed two weeks of back-to-back music in various locations.  
 
The music opens with a rush of the outdoors before a throbbing rhythm hammers in with bass and drive. The band rise up to meet the pulse before the vocals enter on wings. Melody haunts the vocal as the piano and guitar add atmosphere and echelon to a surging volley of emotional push. A semblance of intelligently edited sounds greets the humanity of the band in a middle-ground of merging sensibilities as the meaningful voice carries forward the emotional delivery. Beautiful music with a healthy row of teeth gives Sarah And The Safe Word an edge that carries weight on several levels.

​Find out more on the Sarah And The Safe Word website

You can follow Sarah And The Safe Word on Instagram

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Summer Tour 2024

6/26 - Washington, DC - DC9

6/27 - Millersville, PA - Phantom Power

6/28 - Brooklyn, NY - Wood Shop

6/29 - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place

6/30 - Detroit, MI - PJ's Lager House

7/2 - Burnsville, MN - The Garage

7/3 - Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen

7/7 - Denver, CO - Punk Rock Saves Lives Fest (Ratio Beer Works)​