10 questions for blajk!

As our search to find out about new and exciting bands continue, we got to talk to Brent from BLAJK, which are turning out to be one of the hottest acts to be coming out of one of the coolest places in the world, Toronto!

1)First things first how did you come to be?

Jordan and I met a couple years ago through a mutual friend and started writing music immediately. Our shared musical taste made it click right away. Tom and Ray had been friends of mine for quite a while and we had always been jamming and hanging out together.
2)What genre of music would you say you play?

We’re an alternative band.

3)Which bands/artists do you take influences from?

David Bowie, Foals, Interpol, Elvis Presley, tons of 70’s funk, Outkast

4) Best venue you’ve ever played and why?

As a band, the Mod club in Toronto. It was a sold out show in our home town and the sound there is incredible.
5) Best gig you’ve ever attended?

Coachella 2014

6) A band you would most like to support and why?

We’re all really into HAIM right now. I think that would be an amazing show.

7) A band that you would like to work with?

If we ever had the chance, working with Frank Ocean would be unbelievable.

8) Top five albums you’ve ever heard?

Way too many to possibly list the top 5

9) Biggest accomplishment as a band?

Our biggest accomplishment thus far would be getting on Spotifys New Music Friday playlist. Its translated to over 400,000 streams on spotify and really garnered us a lot of attention.

10) What’s next in the pipeline?

We’ve just finished up our first EP and we’re releasing a single mid April. Followed by the full release mid May.
We’re doing a west coast Canadian tour with our friends Young Empires in May. We’re also playing at this year’s Bestival in June! Exciting few months ahead.

Thank you so much for the interview Brent, it’s much appreciated!

Interview conducted by Alex Wise @al4563

Wfm introducing…Bare traps!

 

With their new single being released tomorrow and their fan base rapidly growing, it’s an ideal time to introduce to you Bare Traps!

The four piece are made up from various parts of England, who create their music in Harrow, London. After deciding against getting real jobs they decided to throw all they can at becoming musician, and after listening to their first track they could be well on the way.

After creating a number of tracks to release throughout the rest of the year, the band are prepared to let their music speak for itself. Their sound could be likened to The 1975 and Bloc Party due to the use of the synth and infectious melodies, yet they do not let their influences cast a shadow over them.

To promote the release the band have leaked some teasers into the interweb and they’re well worth listening to get an ide of what they’re capable of.

After listening to the complete track, there are no concerns on my end.

 

WFM Introducing…Twin Hidden!

 

 

May we introduce to you a five-piece band from Manchester that go by the name of Twin Hidden!

After starting out in early 2013 the band have been making good progress having released their debut EP ‘Make/Shift’ which received some good feedback and reviews, along with a strong number of lessons.

They dub their music a V POP, which suits the band very well as their music is ultimately pop with catchy riffs and lyrics all over the place.

They’re new song ‘Plastic Unicorn’ pop music dramatized as it introduces strings and a number of other elements which make it sound larger than life!

Words By Alex Wise @al4563

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WFM Introducing…Son Joan

Son Joan is a solo act  which takes up all the major roles of a band, which is always impressive. Acts like these normally get trodden on due to their lack of being able to play live, but this should not be an issue, because the music is that good it shouldn’t come into play.

His psychedelic-folk style is infectious and playful, which draws you in initially and the longer it goes on it continues to tantalize you. His song Sucker Punch is a prime example of this being put into practice.

 

 

Why not like the Facebook page > https://www.facebook.com/sonjoanofficial/info

 

 

Music Review: Broken Records – Weights and Pulleys

 

For those of you who don’t know, Broken Records are an exquisite Five-piece from Scotland and they have been going for just over Seven years. They take many of their influences from acoustic like Dylan, Cohen, Cash and Cave, however their music takes what best of the acoustic style and transform into something modern yet unique.

Their third album Weights and Pully’s is a perfect example of how these old acoustic folk acts can influence a modern day band and help them create their music. Broken Records have storytelling and melodies at the core of the song, much like folk does, however they glaze it with synths and power giving the album that modern age that it needs, so it can survive in this day and age.

‘Ditty (We weren’t ready)’ is an ideal opener for the album, as it gives nothing away, and just drops tiny hints of what’s to come. ‘Winterless Son’ is where they come into their own, having a tinge of stadium rock about the song, it leaves them with connections to the Killers, which shouldn’t be a bad thing. ‘Toska’ is third on the album, and is a thoughtful number as the lead singer seems to share a story with us, giving the song more weight, making it an ideal single.

There are a lot of atmospherics surrounding the songs, which allows them to be connected to U2 in some respects; however they stray away from that with their subjects and folky tang.

‘Weights and Pully’s’ has a case to be the song on the album as it just gets more impressive the longer it goes on, the vocals are untouchable and it the all the elements seem to gel without trying. It’s ‘Betrayal’ that takes the song of the album as the ruckus and the drum beat completely elevate the album another level, as it expresses an attitude that wasn’t there in the first few songs.

The vocals provided by Sutherland are increasing important, as his voice rides the melody and hoists the instruments, this is shown throughout but best demonstrated on ‘Nothing Doubtful’ and ‘You’ll be lonely in a little while’

The album is a complete success as there aren’t any weak spots; all the songs are strong and admirable in their own way. Broken Records managed to take their loud-folk style and make it last for an entire album without it drying out, which is impressive on its own, but for each song to stand tall is impressive. The band can be happy with this release, with it definitely drawing in more fans and building up expectation for their next release.

9/10

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WFM Introducing…The Band of Holy Joy

 

Photo by Inga Tillere

 

Another new band that has been picked by WFM from large amounts of bands that scour the internet, we give you The Band of Holy Joy. The London band consist of six talented people who are: Johny Brown (vocals); Mark Beazley (bass); James Stephen Finn (guitar); William Lewington (drums); Peter Smith (keyboard/saxophone); Inga Tillere (visuals). The Band of Holy Joy have an array of talents, one of those is having the ability to create good music, which they have proved over the course of their new album ‘Easy Listening’, which you can download here > http://amzn.to/1lxBlPR

The band claim that they are forever changing, consistently unique yet, always somehow the same which is a tough line to live up to, however the band have managed to do this over the course of all their albums, by changing slightly, being unique and consistently performing on a high level.

Words by Alex Wise @al4563

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WFM Introducing…Ease Springs

Due to our reliable and trusty sources on our social media sites, we have found a band that should be brought to everybody’s attention, and be taken note of!

Ease Springs are a three piece band from Essex, who was formed back in glory days of indie rock music of 2004. Since then the band have been bouncing around the UK picking up a respectable fan base, and building up their social media sites as they seem to be booming.

However all of their potential was realised when they released their debut album ‘Who Is Leonard Bopper?’,  which has received positive feedback as it has been played on a number of radio stations including, 365 Radio and Birmingham City Radio.

With a wide range of influences scoping from Fleetwood Mac to Slipknot, it is a wonder how their music would turn out. The answer is that it turned out just perfect, finding the right balance between aggression and melody to write some interesting yet upbeat songs. The lyrics are an important element to each of the songs on ‘Who is Leonard Bopper?’, as they tie up the melody and make disclose some interesting stories, seemingly about this mysterious fella.

You can purchase this strong debut album over at Itunes >  https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/who-is-leonard-bopper/id647427281

The band will be playing May 16^th at the Asylum in Chelmsford, which should be a date in most people’s diaries.

The Domino Set – British Romance (EP)

Intro

Like the majority of bands we feature on here, these guys are a four piece indie band, but here’s the twist they’re from a different place, Shropshire. Since forming in 2011, the midlands based band have took off relatively fast, having already supported the fine Scottish four piece The View and heavily underrated General Fiasco. Playing these shows gained them some well-earned reputation and with their debut EP creating quite a buzz, this only added to it.

The Boys in the Band:

Lee Roberts – Vocals/Guitar
Russel Greene -Guitar
David parry – Bass
Kris Hill – Drums

British Romance EP

With the commanding drums, which sound very similar to marching drums at the start of ‘British Romance’, the EP gets underway. There are definite connotations of the early Monkey’s material with this song, as the sharp choppy strokes come through and remind of the 2003, where guitar bands were coming through thick and fast, and could possibly be argues as one of the best times for guitar music. Bar the Scottish accent you could draw some links between Roberts and Kyle Falconer’s voice, as they both seem to be able to give a song a new level to it, with the uplifting vocals. The chorus without doubt is the life of this song as everything becomes loud and is in full bloom, the only feature missing is a nice little solo, nothing too long, but a tiny solo. ‘You don’t listen’ is the second on the EP and also the closer; once again it’s another bouncy and punchy riff which serenades in our ears. It has a very Turner-esque style to the verse’s lyrics as they’re lengthy, catchy and witty, and needless to say they’re well delivered once again. The trebly guitar is dominant in this one, as the riff is appearing in every place it can, creating an indie – pop feel to it.

Although it’s a little short, there aren’t many faults pick with EP, the indie pop remains consistent throughout with the riffs taking much of the credit for it. With some new songs on the way, the next EP/Album release looks promising and we should be looking forward to what else these lads can bring to the musical table.

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Decibels – Ruza (Single)

Intro

Hailing from the Midland, Decibels are an electronic art-pop outfit that are prepared to play with your mind with their sounds. They describe their music as a blissful mix of lo-fi, ambient, electro and Indie, which is probably the best way to put it considering the amount of genres they seem to be crossing. They initially started out at as a band that supplied remixes to other artists, however the more they did this the more material they started to create, and more people getting interested from bloggers to BBC Introducing. Then they had to commit to doing something that every musician hates, selling their gear, so they could get equipment to play live.

The Band

Stuart Bruce (lead vocals, keys, percussion, looping)

Dave Crawford (synths, programming, sound manipulation)

Anthony Luk (synths, guitar, baritone harmonies)

Marin Luk (synths, soprano harmonies, percussion)

Adam Branaghan (guitar, tenor harmonies, percussion)

‘Ruza’

A contender for one of the funkiest songs this year, with Alt-J like drum beats and the smoothest vocals, this could easily win this non-existent trophy that I’ve made up. Along with this dance beat that sounds like it’s come out of the 80’s there’s some very subtle guitar work going on in the background, which can be linked to a band that have are trending at the moment called PEACE. This electro/art – pop tune is something that I’d never thought I’d admire, but after the 18th time of listening to it, I’m still not bored, and I’m still singing along with it “You know your breaking my heart”. What makes this song even more so out there and stand alone is the video, it’s a brilliantly put together video which looks like it took time to create, also it features possibly the coolest old guy, next to Forsyth. After a considerable amount of listens, I think I’ve found a new genre and more importantly a new band to keep my eye on, a group of creative people, creating music to break genres.

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The Uptights – Unsigned Bands

Intro

When I found this band, I was extremely excited because they’re MODs, and MODs are just the coolest, everything, the music, the style, the haircuts, just everything. I don’t have a lot of information on this band unfortunately, but I do know that they’re based in Southampton, which is bad for me because I can’t go and watch them in Southampton because I’m from crappy Birmingham. They take influences from, The Jam, The Libertines (So they’re already in my good books) and Joy division.

The Music

To my knowledge they’ve got 5 songs, and all of them are exactly how you would expect them to sound, loud , in your face, a commanding voice and blistering guitar riffs. The five songs are entitled ‘Liar’, ‘What comes around’, ‘Today’, ‘La’ and ‘The other side’. After listening to them all, I can honestly say there’s not one that is miles better than the other because they”re all they good. They’re all this good because they’re exactly what I want from this type of music. I’m going to put a few of the songs here, because I’d like you to go on their soundcloud and check them out yourself, and give them some feedback.

This one was released 3 days ago

If you wanna listen to the other two, get on their soundcloud! http://soundcloud.com/the-up-tight

If I really had to pick a favorite out of these three I think I would have to go with their latest ‘Liar’, mainly because of the attitude it has in it and I think the riff that’s in there is that loud and in your face, it has to be my favorite. Also the lyrics are just pure aggression, something that you can shout to the top of your lungs. Also from the first second it just goes, with that first drum beat it just pulls you in , and the rest of the song just makes you want more of the same.

In the second track that I’ve put on here ‘What comes around’, I think you can hear that Joy Division influence through the vocals. What I like about it is that even though they’ve took that Joy Division/Ian Curtis influence they’ve kept that uptempo beat with bass in the background, and that really loud drum beat as well, I think it works really well and I didn’t think it would.

‘Otherside’ is the final track that I’ve put on here, this is one of their oldest ones I think because it was brought out a month ago, but in a sense it’s still relatively new. I’ve pure put this on here because of the shouting part just after the chorus part, I think it’s class and have they have that shout in there, just so much attitude and aggression. When 2.12 comes, I think when this song has it’s brightest side because it’s got this cool little guitar piece slowing down the whole tempo of the song, the 3.06 hits and rock back into the middle of the song again, like your caught in a rut. I also like it because they’ve got the same affect as The Libertines ‘What a waster’ at the start haha.

Overall

Probably one the best bands I’ve listened to since I’ve started doing all the unsigned acts, because of everything in their songs, I could see these playing a gig with a crowd of people going mental, hopefully, it will happen one day. If I could sign em’, I would.

Follow on twitter

https://twitter.com/TheUptights

Check out the soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/theuptights

Like the facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Uptights/324612107558977