Introducing an Artist: Tom Grennan

In this post I want to introduce you to one of my newer discoveries: British Aritst Tom Grennan.
This is my early christmas present to you, so I hope you enjoy! ;)

http://www.nuitmagazine.com/mag/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Andrea-Vecchiato7.jpg

With just over 20,000 fans on facebook, he's still undiscovered. But I can assure you, that he won't stay unknown for long! In my eyes, there's no doubt that he will very fast be a popular upcoming talent. You wanna know why?
First of all, his music has something very refreshing. It's nothing that you feel like you've heard before, his music is very special indie pop but yet all of his songs are real earwigs and are very easy to get into.
Most of the songs from his -so far- 3 EPs are guitar-based and have a very strong melodic guitar to underline his wonderful singing. Tom Grennan, who sings with an authentic and very nice britisch accent, was blessed with a very unique, husky voice which is in no way unpleasent but makes his music even more interesting! It fits perfectly to the raw stories he tells in his songs through some great and personal lyrics.
Thus, all of his songs have a high potential to be the next big hit. It was also a very hard decision which video to link below because I love all of his songs dearly and I coulnd't decide which one was best to introduce him to you.
On March, 9th next year, the 21-year-old will release his debut album "Lighting Matches" via the british record label "Insanity Records". It looks like 2018 is going to be a promising year in the music industry ;) I definitely can't wait for the release and the upcoming tour!
Tom was currently touring Europe and is heading to America next. You can find his tour dates on his page http://www.tomgrennanmusic.com/.

Below you can find his social media links and watch the video to his song "Praying", which was released on his second EP "Release the Brakes" in March this year. I hope you Enjoy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwzP095AeA

Spotify
Youtube
Soundcloud

Album review: "Revival" by Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Another gem that I was dying to introduce to you is the Brisbane-based five-member band "Vancouver Sleep Clinic".
On Friday, April 7th, they finally released their long awaited debut album "Revival". In contrast to the prior released EPs, "Revival" is a collection of more uptempo songs. But nevertheless, the band manages to bring across the same emotions as before and remained true to it's original, atmospheric sound.
If you don't know the band, I think their sound is best described as more quiet, ambient and electronic music. Their music is a mixture of different genres and therefor reminds of totally different artists, such as "Bon Iver", "James Blake" or some songs by "Bastille". So if you like any of these or similar artists you should definitely give Vancouver Sleep Clinic a listen.
To me, their music is something very special and touching.

There are eleven songs on the album of which four had been released as singles prior to the album. These four singles are "Lung", "Killing me to love you", "Someone to Stay" and one of my favourite songs from the album "Unworthy".
In my opinion there are many strong songs on the album that have the opportunity to be the band's breakthrough, for example the more uptempo songs "Whispers", "Killing me to love you" and "Empire" but also some quiet songs like "Unworthy" and "Sleeping World". 
I feel like the music puts you in a state of a calm mind where you can worrilessly think about life or even not think at all.
With a good mixture of uptempo and slower songs, some beautiful lyrics and a just as beautiful artwork for the album cover, I think Vancouver Sleep Clinic managed to create a very beautiful and convincing debut album that shows a development of the band but still reflects the band's earlier songs.

You can find the album on itunes and spotify. Let me know what you think of it!

Below you can check out the album cover and the band's tour dates for North America in May:

Introducing a Band: Ry X

The Australian singer-songwriter Ry X has been my favorite musician for a really long time. I didn't post anything about him yet, because his music is very dear to my heart and I wanted to keep it to myself. But for the new year I decided to share his amazing music with you guys. Ry X's music is best described as reduced, atmospheric, experimental guitar or indietronic music.

In May 2016, Ry X published his debut album 'Dawn' via the swedish record label 'Dumont Dumont'. In my opinion, 'Dawn' was definitely one of the best if not even THE best album in 2016. Every song on the album and Ry X's prior EP 'Berlin' is very soulful and has very deep and meaningful lyrics that you can completely get lost in thought over.
 

Ry X' soft and very special voice creates a magic and intimate atmosphere around the words he's singing. Along with the atmospheric instrumental music that's quite different in every song of the album, Ry X manages to produce very unique music that can truely be called art.

Ry X is also part of the electonic groups 'The Howling' together with Frank Wiedemann from the German electronic duo 'Âme' ; and 'The Acid' along with Adam Freeland and Steve Nalepa.
I'm also a big fan of those two projects but they are only focused on electronic music whereas Ry X's music is a mixture of different genres.

Below you can find the youtube video to his indietronic song 'Haste'. Enjoy!

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI1sQtRmIJU

 

Ry X is currently touring Australia and will play in Berlin on April, 8th together with a german orchestra.
You can find his music on youtube, soundcloud, itunes and spotify.
Since Ry X is my favorite musician, I'd be interested to know what you think of his music so feel free to leave a comment :)

Bands in Concert: El Vy

Sunday night (December, 12th), El Vy played at the Astra Kulturhaus in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

The room fits about 2000 people and as far as I know, the concert was sold out.

About half of the people were there to watch the preact 'The Penny Surfs'. The songs they played were quite different to one another, starting off with a slower song then going over to rocky songs and finally to soft psychedelic songs. Therefore they reminded me of different bands such as Placebo and Tame Impala   

Even though some of the music was very different to the actual act, the crowd seem to enjoy their performance.

The actual concert of El Vy was with about 50 minutes a bit shorter than most concert, but I wasn't really surprised since they only have one album yet. Their performance was very powerful and atmospheric which the light show increased even further. 

It seemed as if the band had been playing together for several years when in fact it was one of their first shows.

When they covered "She drives me crazy" the crowd really did go crazy. Especially Matt Berniger's performance made the cover at least ten times better than the original song; he put so many emotions in the song while rocking the stage. 

Very impressive were also Brent Knopf's skills, who was playing the guitar and the keyboard, both very well. During some songs he had to switch between the instruments which he was doing with an ease that really was incredible.

Overall, I can say that the concert was really enjoyable and musically on point. It was definitely a concert I won't forget so fast. 

Bands in Concert: The Neighbourhood

On Monday, November 16th, the Neighbourhood played at Postbahnhof, a venue that fits about 1000 people.

The preact 'Tunji Ige', an American rapper, started on time and fit to the music of The Neighbourhood hence the crowd was enjoying his performance very much. He was accompanied by a DJ, whose music helped entertaining the crowd even further.

After 40 Minutes of waiting, The Neighbourhood finally came on stage. Their entrance was musically underlined by the Intro of their song Ferrari, a song of their new album 'Wiped out', which was released October, 30th. It was a really good intro to the concert and made the crowd heat up even more.

Their concert was overall a good mixture of some old songs and songs from their new album. They played 14 songs of which 6 were taken from their new album.

Through out the whole concert, the band created a very special atmosphere and the lead singer Jesse made a very own version out of all of the songs. Due to that, the band rhythmically stuffed up once, but they didn't make a big deal out of it, they just confidentially interrupted the song and started anew. 

The band was also doing a great and very entertaining performance with a nice light show which I really enjoyed. Nevertheless, they still managed to focus on the emotions of each and every song and so it was a great balance of emotions and entertainment.

The only thing I found surprising was  that they didn't comment on the attacks in Paris even though the concert was only 4 days after. But maybe they just wanted the crowd to forget about it for a while and therefore didn't say anything. 

All in all, I can say that the concert was really enjoyable and unique. Due to Jesses very personal performance it was even better than I expected.

If you want to see 'The Neighbourhood' as well, go check out their website for tour dates. They will be touring some German cities next year in March, and the pre sale has already started. 

Introducing a Band: Oslo Parks

Stevie McMinn and Jeremy Lloyd form the Brighton based band 'Oslo Parks' together. Their indietronic music strongly reminds of some great 80's music (especially their song 'Fiction' from their 'Fiction-EP') and has a very atmospheric, remarkable sound. In my opinion, their music is well fitting for a listen during hot summer days and nights.
The band is signed to the recordlable 'X Novo' via which it has released it's debut single, including the two songs 'Twin' and 'The Night'.
With only 1200 likes on facebook, they're one of my insider's tips.
You can find their music on youtube, spotify, itunes, soundcloud and hypem.com.
7 days ago, Oslo Parks has released their new song 'Slipping Away'. You can find it on soundcloud here: 'Slipping Away' by Oslo Parks.