So, on a personal note, I haven’t really got a lot of time for writing much other than eulogies and legal letters at the moment due to bereavement. Death really is an utter bastard, isn’t it? However for some light relief from the unrelenting misery and the Kafkaesque nightmare that is dealing with the legal aspects of family estates etc music still provides the ultimate refuge. Bizarrely somebody (online) once angrily accused me of using music “to escape from reality”, like that’s a bad thing? Too fucking right I do mate! Anyway enough about my shit- there have been some great new releases of late sadly I have time for but three –
Black Honey and Chløë Black have a few things in common, the obvious one being the ‘black’, they’ve also had their music released by the excellent Flying Vinyl and their music, whilst not obviously similar does share a love of B-Movie film noir and has a certain Lynchian cinematic quality. Both are also friends of and have worked with the amazing Nadia Lee Cohen. They also have a DIY ethic and have pretty much-done everything themselves and on their own terms, owning their creative vision without industry cock rings saying ‘you should do it like this‘( *produces power point presentation of ‘target demographic’*) and thus sucking the very thing that makes them interesting artists into their horrible fucking beige industry void of bland twattery. Oh and I’ve supported them pretty much from the get-go (because I have ace taste obviously) Black Honey have released a new tune ‘Bad Friends’ which may be the most pop thing they’ve done and is another beauty to add to their list of classic tunes. They’ll be playing Liverpool Sound City tomorrow (5th May at Furnace – 20.30pm) so if you’re there do try and catch them.
I’ve previously featured Chløë Black’s tune ‘Good Times’ which for some reason reminds us of New Years Eve, I guess because it has that same sense of bittersweet loss. She’s just released a self-directed DIY video for said tune which shows that a career in video/filmmaking could a distinct possibility for this multi-talented artist, she even did the make-up and styling, and its beautifully lit, framed and edited. The song was inspired by tragedy and she told Paste Magazine that it’s an ode to a gender fluid friend who took his own life. Read it here.
And as I write another artist who has also had a previous release on Flying Vinyl, Zuzu has just ‘dropped’ (yes dropped) a new tune, ‘Beauty Queen’ which is, without doubt, her best yet. At times, on this track, she sounds a little like a scouse Julia Jacklin, which is no bad thing. She also plays Liverpool Sound City this weekend rather annoyingly around the same time as Black Honey – on Saturday 5th May at “On Air” -20.45