Introducing a Band: Giant Rooks

Today, I want you to get to know a band I found 2 months ago and loved them ever since. I'm talking about 'Giant Rooks', a German band based in Hamm. The five boys have released 2 EPs so far but only one of them, called 'New Estate', can be found on online platforms such as Spotify.

'New Estate' is a five-track EP that contains very catchy but yet special songs. In the big indie-world the guys managed to find their own sound and the lead singer Frederiks unique voice makes their Music even more remarkable.
In my opinion, the EP has a lot of hits and shows the bands huge potential. Every song on the EP is different but yet it's very cohesive. Everytime I listen to the EP, I find something new that I love.
The first song I heard - and I still think it's my favourite- is 'Bright Lies' which you can listen to below to get a first impression of the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm2RgfwFZDg

The band is currently touring and will play on a few festivals this summer, such as Lollapalooza Berlin. So if you want to see them live, you should definitely use the opportunity now because I think they won't play in front of such a small audience much longer. 

Album of the Year: "Broken Machine" by Nothing but Thieves

Since the Year is slowly coming to an end, I thought I would look back on the newly released albums in 2017 and pick my favourite for this year.
And the winner is the second studio album of one of my favourite bands: "Broken Machine" by Nothing but Thieves. The Album was released on September, 8th this year via the American record label "RCA Records".

https://www.reddit.com/r/NothingButThieves/comments/6ns9ut/broken_machine_album_covers_standard_and_deluxe/

Nothing but Thieves are a five-member alternative rock band from England that formed in 2012. I was already a big fan of their debut album "Nothing but Thieves" which was released on October, 16th 2015. But compared to their debut album, I feel like "Broken Machine" feels more like an album. On "Nothing but Thieves" the songs stand more on their own whereas the songs on "Broken Machine" are harmonically conected with each other. Don't get me wrong, the songs on the album are all very strong and can easily stand for their own. I just feel like the harmony between the songs is stronger and thus makes it more to a coherent whole.

On the deluxe version of the album are 15 songs. The first 7 songs are very dynamic songs and all have the potential to be a hit single. No wonder the pre publicized singles of the album were songs number 2, 3 and 7: "Amsterdam", "Sorry" and "Not made by Design".
The second half is more quiet and not as easy to get into, but after listening to the songs a few times and finding access to them, you'll notice that they are just as strong as the first half just in a more unique and noncommercial way. This is also great because -at least that's what I felt like- every time you listen to the album, you discover a new song that you love.
Therefore I can say that the album is overall very strong and processes important, political and self-reflecting topics with catchy and some very special lyrics.

If you haven't heard "Broken Machine" yet, you should definitely check it out because it truely is a great album and I see the next big alternative rock band in Nothing but Thieves. With their catchy and yet serious and unique music, they have a high chance of becoming very successful. Especially because they are also a very strong live band and have broadened their fan base by playing on several festivals this summer. They have just toured the US and Canada and are currently touring in Europe. You can find their tour dates here.

At least to me, Nothing but Thieves are already a very important band and their album "Broken Machine" is definitely my favourite album of the year 2017.


Below you can find the links to their youtube, spotify and soundcloud:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NothingButThieves
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1kDGbuxWknIKx4FlgWxiSp
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nothingbutthieves

http://img2-ak.lst.fm/i/u/arO/501244129cf5eee500617b92d0164b24

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:

Song of the Month: 'Jungle' by Tash Sultana

This month I want to introduce one of my favourite songs to you. The song I'm referring to is 'Jungle' by upcoming Australian artist 'Tash Sultana'. The song is taken from her 'Notion' EP which is overall an amazing piece of art. All of the songs are guitar based, atmospheric, quiet songs and aren't comparable with anything I've heard before. The song 'Jungle' has a pretty long guitar intro and has a touch of reggae to it.
Especially when you get to know that 21-year-old Tash Sultana taught every instrument herself, her gutar skills seem even more terrific.
Her vocals are also very remakable since she has a very unique and strong voice. In some of her songs, Tash even beatboxes. So you see that she is very open-minded and eager to try new things when it comes to her music. And I think that's overall what makes her music so special.
Additionally, she accompanies her instrumental music with wonderful and very meaningful lyrics. When you listen to her words closely, you hear that Melbourne-based artist Tash has a lot of life experience in her young age already. But nevertheless, the lyrics don't weigh heavily on the otherwise blithe music but are able to create a dreamy atmosphere together.

I would definitely recommend to you checking her out! In my eyes, she is a musical genius. While she is not well-known outside of Australia yet, her fancount within Australia is steadily rising. So if you want to be one of the first people in your country to fall in love with her music, watch the following video:

 'Jungle' by Tash Sultana

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 :)

Introducing a Band: Fil Bo Riva

For a little while, I've been listening to Fil Bo Riva on repeat now.
Fil Bo Riva is a German band consisting of singer and songwriter Fil and Felix on the guitar. They're my insider's tip for all lovers of guitar based indie music since they're still very unknown (They only have about 1150 fans on facebook so far).
About one and a half years ago, Fil posted his first song 'Eye Look' on youtube. His second song 'Like Eye Did' has recently been uploaded to youtube. It's the first song of their new EP 'If you're right, it's alright' that's only available at a few live shows in Germany.
The song is an absolute earwig with a very nice instrumental of the acustic guitar. The electric guitar creates a very unique atmospheric sound compareable to some Scottish guitarists from the 80s that accompanies Fil's singing harmoniously . Despite the extremely nice instrumental music, the focus is still on Fil's unique, rough voice. His voice will give you goosebumps, especially since he sings very emotionally fitting to the touching and deep lyrics that he is singing. The words he uses are very beautiful and along with the instrumental music, they make up a perfect song.
'Like Eye Did' is one of my favorite songs at the moment and I really recommend you listening to it!

 The band was recently touring with AnnenMayKantereit, a popular German band and also with Matt Corby so it could be that Fil Bo Rive will soon be successful with their music, too.
They are currently touring with Lola Mesh. You can check the tour dates on their official facebook page.

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. 

Album Review: 'Letters'

Last Thursday (July,23rd), Nick Cunningham dropped his debut EP 'Letters' with 6 songs on it.

The Album is a great mix of more quiet and powerful songs that you can listen to, no matter what mood your in.

To me, the EP is an easy summer listen that I can imagine listening to while on a road trip.

Nick Cunningham is an Australian Newcommer artist who is currently playing at bars and a few shows in Byron Bay in Australia. The Singer-Songwriter also played at the Australian Music Festival 'Splendour in the Grass' this year and last year as well.

In my opinion, Nick's Music is comparable to Ben Howard's and Matt Corby's so if you're a fan of either one you should definitely give him a listen. Due to Nick's unique voice and 6 guitar-based heart-warming songs, 'Letters' is definitely a set part of my this year's summer playlist.

You can find his music on iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud.

To get your hands on a hard copy of the EP, head to his webpage: nickcunningham.com.au