Every week, Music News and Liberty Music look at the best new releases from emerging and self-releasing artists.
This week we have singles and videos from some of the best releases this week in indie-pop, alternative rock and folk.
Bare Traps - Take Your Time / Inside
London based alternative-pop band Bare Traps are a band that continues to move strength to strength, a name that continues to pick up in more ears from each show and their first release 'All In You / Waiting Outside'.
We now check out the band's sun-drenched math-rock guitar hooks, African rhythms and tropical beats in their latest double single release. Shining in dazzling alt-pop - festival-ready anthem, 'Take Your Time' is a track that kicks into their signature sound in seconds and jolts with infectious, jaunty funk guitar and drum work, while 'Inside' is a bittersweet love song that conveys another personality to the release, but styles as much enthusiasm as the latter.
MIRAMIS - Suppressing me
As a songwriter and artist, Emil Berg enjoyed several years playing with electro pop-rock outfit, The Majority Says. It was the band he founded whilst still a teenager in the small Swedish town of Linköping who shot to prominence when their song, '114' featured in a widespread TV advert broadcast throughout Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Once departed from The Majority Says, he returned in 2015 as a solo artist and summer hit single, 'Du Swipa Höger', in tow. However, whilst he was no longer part of the young Scandi pop outfit he first achieved success with, he was still very much cast in the pop-rock mould. Although after scoring more than 30 million streams alongside a Swedish Billboard #1, nobody is questioning the achievements of his initial solo project.
This year Emil is back as MIRAMIS having spent untold studio hours honing an absorbing new sound for 2018. The debut release for MIRAMIS is titled 'Suppressing me' and represents the first indication Emil is now focussing on a new, older electronic audience. 'Suppressing me' sees Emil fuse breathless vocals with a deep house inspired melody. A restless drumming remains consistent throughout 'Suppressing me' keeping it pacing as warm, techy synths blur choruses with verses producing a progressive indie-dance beat and impressive debut to boot.
Tom Lee-Richardson - Out Of The Oddness
Summoning childhood memories to reflect upon whilst writing music has long been a source to inspire many an artist. But while some may draw on these school day recollections in a negative light, Tom Lee-Richardson does the opposite.
The New Zealand national's latest single 'Out of The Oddness' recounts the extremely unfortunate mishap he suffered during his first day at primary school when he broke his arm. Not exactly an ideal start to any youngster's school life, the track's lyrics detail the incident to a stirring medley of calypso-tinged percussion creating an alt-pop furore for the choppy, abstract vocals to sail over. A highly experimental effort 'Out of the Oddness' is the lead single on Tom Lee-Richards' genre-defying mini-album of the same name.
Accompanying 'Out of the Oddness' is the music video produced by Phoebe Mackenzie & Emily Berryman of Lysbeth Rose Video which encapsulates the coming of age narrative of the track in the most glorious of cinematic fashions.
boerd 'Blind'
boerd (or Bård) is Swedish born electronic artisan whose awe-inspiring sound recently earned him a deal with celebrated house and electronica record label, Anjunadeep Records. In signing to the London-based, world renowned Anjunabeats imprint, boerd finds himself in esteemed company alongside Above & Beyond, Sunny Lax & Way Out West
An extensive career as a musician playing double bass in the Swedish Royal Opera, Swedish Radio Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestras has undoubtedly aided boerd in acquiring a profound understanding of soundscapes and arrangements, evident in his last three albums (Dwaal, Panacea & Cerebrum).
Blind is boerd's first release via his new label home and whist keeping in tune with his spectrally minimalistic musical nature the composition is underpinned by a bubbling array of crisp melodics and brittle synths meticulously placed in-between ice-cool vocals detailing the fall-out of directionless relationship, conveniently played out in the single's video as a road trip.
Nightshifts 'Next To Me'
Whilst Nightshifts may have spent much of his reasonably short existence playing in bands around his Toronto hometown, his first break came when a remix he recorded of Bon Iver's, 'Michicant' was noticed by the man himself and subsequently released through JagJaguwar.
The singer/songwriter & multi-instrumentalist has come a considerable distance since the famed remix, having conceived a style not a million miles away from Justin Vernon's Bon Iver musical pseudonym. Although Nightshifts' employment of vintage synths, electro-infused guitars and militant drumming compounded by the 25-year-old's unrelenting insomnia adds a solemn, ominous edge.
'Next To Me' is the is the fifth and final cut taken from the self-titled Nightshifts EP. On the track, Nightshifts describes it as "a slow-burning love song" which features an eerily jaunty backdrop of revolving melodies as descending basslines trickle over fuzzy synths and beating drum patterns.
Like Swimming - Strike A Pose
It's now been over two years since fans of Swedish synth-rock trio, Like Swimming were treated to new any music by them. After forming in 2011 following the breakdown of Claes Carlström, Ida Hedene, and Petter Wesslander's previous band, You Say France & I Whistle, the then newly formed outfit released debut album, 'Structures'.
Ironically it was the subsequent touring which accompanied the success of Like Swimming's first album and follow up EP 'Tiny Structures' that brought about a realisation for Claes that a musicians' life may no longer be for him.
Now seven years after originally forming, Like Swimming makes a jubilant return with a brand new single, 'Strike A Pose'. Ida's bold, soaring vocals remain at the forefront of the trios celestial synth-laden comeback which marks part one of a forthcoming double EP, 'Resistance / Relations'. Taking a two and half year hiatus has allowed the band some much needed time to reflect on issues both politically and personally and the intriguing double EP release will seem them express their feelings over two releases.
