Rise Above recording artists, Blood Ceremony, share with us a new single, entitled ‘Powers Of Darkness’, accompanied by a new music video. The track, taken from their fifth studio album, The Old Ways Remain (released in May of this year), ‘Powers Of Darkness’ finds the band tapping in to new areas of mystical melodies, with poptastic allure. As founding member Sean Kennedy comments: “It’s been a decade since our last music video, and we’re thrilled to unveil a new promo for ‘Powers of Darkness.’ We drew inspiration from iconic ‘60s music programs such as Beat Club and Ready, Steady, Go!, and director Mark Cira captured a moody, live-off-the-floor atmosphere. The song is about invoking sinister elements, so there’s a heavy dose of pop-occult madness threatening to intrude on the performance.” [via Brave Words]
Last week, Philadelphia indie-punks Mannequin Pussy announced some big plans. They’ve bought back their masters from Tiny Engines, their former label, and they’re reissuing their 2016 sophomore album Romantic on their own newly-formed label Romantic Records. But Mannequin Pussy aren’t just reissuing their older music. They’ve also just released a brand-new single. Mannequin Pussy recorded their new single ‘I Got Heaven’ with veteran indie rock producer John Congleton, and it’s a revved-up anthem that moves from stomp-scream fuzz-rock fury to twinkly shoegaze melody and back again. Lyrically, bandleader Marisa Dabice is on her Patti Smith shit: “And what if we stopped spinning?/ And what if we’re just flat?/ And what if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?” It’s Mannequin Pussy’s first new song since their 2021 EP Perfect, though Dabice appeared on the remix of Dazy and Militarie Gun’s ‘Pressure Cooker’ last year. Mannequin Pussy haven’t announced a new record yet, but there’s more new music on the way. Here’s what Marisa Dabice says about ‘I Got Heaven’: “‘I Got Heaven’ is a song intended to merge the sacred and the profane and to serve as a reminder that we are all perfect exactly as we have been made and that no one gets to decide how a life should or should not be lived. Heaven is here on a planet that gave us everything we needed to survive. Heaven is in the plants and in the water and in the animals who we share this world with. Heaven is inside of me and inside of you. The weaponization of Christianity for political means, for individual profit and power, as a tool to intentionally divide us, is one of the greatest threats to our modern world and a threat to our ability to find solidarity through love. To allow the hatred and the violence and the noise to rise is to reject our sacred purpose as individuals, which is simply to love.” Mason Mercer and Anthony Miralles directed the ‘I Got Heaven’ video, which has a sunlight gothic folk-horror storyline and which might be lightly NSFW. [via Stereogum]
Sheffield’s Gia Ford has shared her striking new single ‘Alligator’. Word of mouth hype in her home city indicates that Gia Ford is pretty special, playing cafes and bars around the city. New single ‘Alligator’ is out now, a superb distillation of her influences. You can hear aspects of Nick Cave’s brooding torch songs in her work, alongside a penchant for Fleetwood Mac at their deliciously dark best. There’s a vein of originality, however, with Gia Ford pushing her own voice high above those reference points. The lyric yearns for emotional validation, with the songwriter urging others to accept her feelings as being real. Beautiful but also flecked by intensity, ‘Alligator’ is a fine start from a bold talent. She says… “‘Alligator’ is a song about a desperation to be seen and heard. I am being facetious by painting myself as multiple unbelievable creatures to garner attention. In the opening statement, I am an Alligator. Then, when that goes ignored, I am “Ten feet off of the ground, with feathers” — a whole new creature, perhaps still the Alligator, perhaps something different. The emotionally human nature in the first lines of verse two; “too far along now, I wouldn’t even know how to turn around” sees the Alligator swimming through a broken and contaminated landscape that it is getting used to and triumphantly withstanding. In the chorus, the final line “Albatross in the sky, aim my crossbow in the night” is a reference to ‘Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner’ by Coleridge. In the poem, the mariner is cursed after he shoots down the bird; it represents a self-inflicted burden.” [via Clash]
Problem Patterns have announced their debut album. Recorded and mixed by Niall Doran at Start Together Studios and mastered by Peter J Moore at The E Room, the Belfast-based punks will drop Blouse Club on October 27 via Alcopop! Records. To celebrate the news, the band have also shared new AA single ‘Lesbo 3000’ / ‘Poverty Tourist’. Bethany Crooks says: “‘Lesbo 3000’ was written partly out of frustration and also to reclaim and have ownership over my sexuality. The frustration is that lesbianism is consistently invalidated, we’re told that we just haven’t ‘met the right man’ yet or that some random man in a bar has a magic appendage in his trousers that will completely negate your attraction to women. The reality is that homophobic attacks are becoming more and more consistent with right wing social media emboldening bigots, while ‘lesbian’ remains one of the top search topics on all porn websites. (Mostly) men think that lesbians exist for their sexual gratification, but if they see two women holding hands they go absolutely berserk. I also thought it was important to reclaim the slur ‘dyke’. I’ve been called a dyke multiple times by homophobes who want to hurt me, but if I can reclaim that word it completely takes the power out of it. Yes I am a dyke. And that feels really powerful to say.” [via Dork]
The Kills, the long-running collaboration between Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, haven’t released a new album since 2016’s Ash & Ice. In 2020, Mosshart and Hince released the B-sides/rarities collection Little Bastards, and last month they released a pair of singles, one for each of the coasts: ‘New York’ and ‘LA Hex.’ Now, the Kills have announced their sixth studio album, God Games, which is coming October 27 via Domino. In addition to the album announce, the duo are sharing a new single, ‘103,’ which comes with a video directed by Steven Sebring. According to a release, ‘103’ is a temperature measured in Fahrenheit and “highlights the brutal reality of daunting uninhabitability through the lens of a dark twisted love song.” [via Stereogum]
Holy Wars have signed to Pale Chord, and are celebrating the news with an explosive single, ‘Deus Ex Machina’. The Los Angeles duo – vocalist Kat Leon and guitarist/producer Nick Perez – are building on early momentum with an impressively realised sound and vision, with Kat sharing of the band’s new song and what it all means: “’Deus Ex Machina’ was inspired by my love of psychology and how fascinating the brain is. The God of the human machine. Deus Ex Machina meaning God from the Machine really helped shape the message of what I wanted to say lyrically in this song, how our personal narrative is powerful. We often rewrite our stories as the hero’s tale but we very possibly could be the villain in another’s. Our words are powerful and our story is our legacy. In this song I wanted to display the attack side of the narrative, how any issue I have had with another has stemmed from projection, a choice and the power I allow it to have. The ghost in the machine haunting my thoughts and puppetting my actions. ‘Deus Ex Machina’ is a hard-hitting wild sonic ride of the mania that lives underneath us all.” [via Kerrang!]
Canadian-Dutch-Korean singer-songwriter Jeon Somi has shared the music video for her single ‘Gold Gold Gold.’ The music video comes fresh off the heels of her EP, Game Plan, of which’“Gold Gold Gold’ is the first track on the album. Game Plan marks Jeon Somi’s comeback after two years. That era was capped by the release of her debut album XOXO. Now she begins a new chapter, evolving both musically and as an artist, offering a more elevated look and sound. Jeon Somi participated in the songwriting of ‘Gold Gold Gold,’ showcasing her growth as a singer-songwriter alongside TEDDY and Danny Chung with production by 24 and Dominsuk, who are known as the hitmakers behind BLACKPINK. ‘Gold Gold Gold’ has Jeon rapping and singing with overflowing confidence over a trendy and infectious beat with a melodic bridge and addictive chorus. In true Somi fashion, the music video for ‘Gold Gold Gold’ is colorful, energetic, and full of glitz, glamor, and unbeatable choreography. [via uDiscoverMusic]
Following on from 2019’s Flamboyant and 2020’s My Agenda, Dorian Electra’s pending third LP promises to continue building their fantastical world of boundary-pushing pop – at least, that’s if new track ‘Puppet’ is anything to go by. Playfully merging traditional musical influences (the intro samples Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’) with thoroughly contemporary touches, it explores notions of control via both its lyrics and accompanying video (which you can watch below). [via DIY]
Following on from the success of her hit track ‘Padam Padam’ everyone’s favourite Australian popstar, Kylie Minogue, is here with another banger to see us through the end of this drizzly old summer. Her new single is called ‘Tension’. And so is her upcoming album, available for fans to gouge on in full come September 22. Of course, the 55 year old looks about 20 in the new music video – as she does – which sees her rocking a number of different guises, including a red-haired, silver-sequined goddess and a gothic, lace-clad blonde. As if some funky outfits weren’t enough, Kylie is also frolicking around in an imagined ‘retro future’ alternate reality. ‘Tension’ is the fourth song on the album, the second single to be released after ‘Padam Padam’, and was written by Kylie and long-term collaborators Biff Stannard and Duck Blackwell. Never has ‘do, do, do, do’ been so catchy than it is in the chorus of this instant club classic. It’s full of the enthusiasm of ‘Padam, Padam’, and laced with sass queen energy. The music video sees retro Kylie strutting into a futuristic world, with a sparkling, huge Kylie hologram stepping out of a screen and into reality. Retro Kylie – in a vintage hat and dress – sheds some layers and has a little flirtation with gothic, blonde Kylie, and the film unravels into disco chaos. ‘Tension’ gives seriously empowering vibes, and seems to be more about self-love than a partner when Kylie sings repeatedly in the chorus ‘touch me right there.’ The end of the music video sees the Kylie multiply into many forms in an electrifying crescendo, as the pop queen exits the world with energy still visibly buzzing in and out of her body. [via Metro]
Listen to the euphoric folk of Karin Ann Masters’ ‘a stranger with my face’. The symphonic folk-tinged tune is about losing parts of yourself when gaining feelings for someone else, becoming a version of the other person, or who you think they want you to be. Backed by bluesey guitar lines and flawless, Fleetwood Mac-esque harmonies, Karin Ann sings on the theme of over-idolisation. Of the track, Karin Ann says: “Some of the lyrics almost felt religious to me, so I wanted it to sound like a choir on the chorus. It’s almost like you’re making that person your God, you’re worshipping them in a very toxic and unhealthy way. You end up talking their slang, adapting to how they speak… it’s not even about trying to make them like you, more so that you like them so much that you almost want to be more like them. You end up not knowing who you are without them.” The accompanying video is part 1 of a short film by American director duo, TUSK (Camila Cabello, Alessia Cara, Tate McRae). Shot in Prague, Czech Republic, the visual follows a queer spy romance, set in 1950’s Hollywood. Starring Karin Ann alongside British-American athlete and actor Gus Kenworthy, and US actress Ashley Moore, the story follows a young secretary (Karin Ann) at a Hollywood film studio, who is tasked with finding out the truth about a movie star’s (Moore) scandalized love affairs with various men. Upon spying, the secretary finds out that such affairs are all a cover up for her true sexual identity, very much taboo at the time. During the film, it seems as though the secretary and actress may indeed have a connection between themselves… To be continued, part 2 will follow as the music video for Karin’s next single, coming soon. [via Soundsphere]
