“Anna Calls From The Arctic” is a slow plodding daydream that follows a similar vein to their first album’s track “Leafy”, utilising pensive musings of muted synths and Florence Shaw’s haunting brand of oblique ASMR. Here we see Dry cleaning luring you into hypnotic introspection, and it feels pretty nice.

Check out the “Anna Calls From The Arctic” in the video below:

Discussing the new song, Dry Cleaning said; “The lyrics were partly inspired by phone calls with a friend who was living and working in the Arctic. The song developed from a keyboard, bass and clarinet jam. This then took shape during our pre-recording sessions with John Parish and Joe Jones in Bristol and finalised at Rockfield studios a month later, with some musical inspiration coming from the dramatic scores of John Barry. The song is observational and sensual.”

Recently, Dry Cleaning had a chance to reflect on being hand-picked by Grace Jones herself for her curated edition of Meltdown. Bassist Lewis Maynard stated; “We were at a festival when we got told. Our booking agent was like, ‘Right, you want to sit down for this one’ and told us all together. Some of us felt sick because of it.”

“She’s such a hero,” Nick Buxton (drummer) added. “We love all of those Compass Point records, and especially with Trevor Horn. She’s had such an amazing career.”

Shaw went on to say; “I think the control she has over her own image generally is very inspiring, she’s really the queen of wrestling the narrative about herself, and the choices she makes, back from the press or from other people. She’s amazing at that.

The forthcoming album Stumpwork will see the band team up with producer John Parish, who has worked alongside the likes of Eels and PJ Harvey. Guitarist John Dowse said of Stumpwork; “I think there’s more space in it, When you do the first one, every take you do you’re anxious, like, ‘This has to be the one’. When you do the second [album], you realise it doesn’t have to be the one – you just do your thing and then try something. Sometimes it gets on [the album], sometimes it doesn’t. I guess you just put yourself under a bit less pressure, and that made a big difference.”

As stated on her official site; “Access will be limited with priority given to fans who held tickets for the original show dates or had previously registered and been waitlisted for the ‘Weekends With Adele’ Verified Fan Presale.” Further information on dates and tickets can be found here.

In a message to her fans via social media, Adele said; “Words can’t explain how ecstatic I am to finally be able to announce these rescheduled shows. I truly was heartbroken to have to cancel them. But after what feels like an eternity of figuring out logistics for the show that I really want to deliver, and knowing it can happen, I’m more excited than ever! Now I know for some of you it was a horrible decision on my part, and I will always be sorry for that, but I promise you it was the right one. To be with you in such an intimate space every week has been what I’ve most been looking forward to and I’m going to give you the absolute best of me. Thank you for your patience, I love you, Adele.”

Words can’t explain how ecstatic I am to finally be able to announce these rescheduled shows. I truly was heartbroken to have to cancel them. pic.twitter.com/PQLiaPVYgO

— Adele (@Adele) July 25, 2022

When appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Adele commented; “I tried my hardest and really thought I would be able to pull something else together in time, and that was why it was so last minute,” she said. “I regret that I kept going until that late in the day. But it just wasn’t ready. It just would have been a really half-arsed show, and I can’t do that. People will see straight through me, up on stage being like, ‘She doesn’t want to be doing this.’ And, I’ve never done anything like that in my life. I’m not going to start now, you know? I’m obviously gutted.”

When asked why she couldn’t allow the shows to go on as planned despite the setbacks, Adele said: “I’m not going to try do a stadium show in a theatre – but it’s Vegas. It can’t just be me on my fucking guitar.”

BFB stated yesterday (the 21^st of July) that the number of British artists set to perform in Europe for this year’s festival season has decreased by 45 per cent when compared to 2017-2019 (pre-Brexit). The incursions largely being down to a lack of visa-free travel and work permits that are applicable across Europe for musicians and crew. Artists attempting to set out on tour once again after Covid have found themselves tangled in the red tape created by Brexit.

The CEO of Best For Britain, Naomi Smith broke down the meaning behind their discovery; “The Beatles famously made their name in Europe and it’s on tour that many musicians gain the formative experiences and audiences they need to take off. With their dud Brexit deal, our lame duck Government has not only robbed emerging British talent of these opportunities abroad, but has also made international acts think twice before including Glasgow or London in their European tours.”

Deborah Annetts, The Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and UK Trade and Business Commissioner, stated; “Previous witnesses to our commission have described how, if you’re a festival organiser in Barcelona who needs to fill a last-minute slot, British bands will be at the bottom of your list due to new barriers created by this botched Brexit deal. Whoever ends up replacing Boris Johnson must commit to removing this needless bureaucracy which is stifling the prosperity and creativity of the next generation of British musicians.”

The Ealing-born band White Lies are a prime example of the toll Brexit is taking on acts and artists in the UK. As they were forced to cancel their 2022 European tour in Paris in April 2022, with their equipment being held for 2 days after issues with; “Brexit legislation”.

Jack Lawrence- Brown, the band’s drummer elaborated on the situation; “We’d done our best to ensure that we’d be prepared in any circumstance. It’s very frustrating when you prepare for as long as we have to then rock up to the first venue and find that your equipment has been stuck in a 25-mile-long queue on the M20 through no fault of your own, and no fault of the trucking company either. It wasn’t the plan that we’d worked hard to get right.”

The band were dolling out frozen treats alongside copies of their new LP Hellfire which dropped on the 15^th of July 2022 via Rough Trade Records. Prior to the album’s release, the band played a packed-out show at Somerset House (with support from Caroline) which saw the lads in full swing. The invitation from Black Midi is as follows; “We’ll be running an ice cream van in London today, it’s gonna be at Soho square at 5pm and Peckham Rye Park at 7pm – if you’re in the area come and get an ice cream and other fun stuff – water pistols compulsory.”

pic.twitter.com/T9UKnZsvxO

— black midi (@bmblackmidi) July 19, 2022

The band stated elsewhere that besides the pressings of the new album, you will find; “a box of large somerset house exclusive tees and obviously lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of ICE CREAM.” With the added sweetener of; “Soleros hopefully”.

Tomorrow in London – water pistols absolutely compulsory #hellfire pic.twitter.com/igbBkbhZQS

— black midi (@bmblackmidi) July 18, 2022

Last week, Black Midi got to show off their latest hits at a show set in the beautiful Somerset House (with support from Caroline). The show was quite a spectacle (as per) and even contained a heart-melting rendition of Kate Bush’s classic track “Wuthering Heights”. You can witness the mayhem in the fan-caught footage below:

The latest record from Black Midi was described by vocalist and guitarist Geordie Greep, stating; “tell the tales of morally suspect characters.  There are direct dramatic monologues, flamboyantly appealing to our degraded sense of right and wrong. You’re never quite sure whether to laugh at or be horrified.”

Greep continued; “Almost everyone depicted is a kind of a scumbag, Almost everything I write is from a true thing, something I experienced and exaggerated and wrote down. I don’t believe in Hell, but all that old-world folly is great for songs, I’ve always loved movies and anything else with a depiction of Hell. Dante’s Inferno. When Homer goes to Hell in The Simpsons. There’s a robot Hell in Futurama. Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish writer who portrays a Satan interfering in people’s lives. There’s loads!”

There will be; “a strong emphasis on underserved communities and those living in areas of low arts engagement”, press material reads. The initiative will initially target six specific strands: early years; young people; the deaf, disabled and neurodivergent; mental health and wellbeing; LGBTQIA+, and older years.”. A full list of the programme’s activities can be found here.

Similar projects across the country no doubt inspired this new initiative, with organisations like the Warren Youth Project in Hull and the Gig Buddies scheme which focuses on inclusivity for those with learning difficulties. The work conducted by the IVC is thanks to funding from the Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, the Welsh Government and Youth Music.

Sybil Bell (IVC founder) stated; “Independent venues are the absolute heart of the music business, from small villages, to towns and cities, all around the country. What’s less appreciated, however, is the role they can play as community spaces, where local people can express themselves, try new things or simply come together in person.

“From first-hand experience, with initiatives like The Warren Youth Project in Hull or our own Soundcheck Sessions and BE, activity like this can have genuinely life-changing outcomes for people, especially those who don’t normally get access to these kinds of opportunities.”

“Our goal with Independent Venue Community is to harness these individual pockets of brilliance, and to inspire more venues to engage with groups and individuals in their area. Ultimately, we want to build a national network of engaged local communities, and encourage more music venues to throw their doors open in the day. By doing this, I believe they can increase and diversify the people coming through their doors and unlock significant hidden value and talent. It’s a win-win situation.”

To kick off the start of this movement a special event is being held at Lafayette London. There will be a panel discussion with supporting stars like; Nova Twins, Phillip Selway (Radiohead), Dom Frazer (The Boileroom), Kris Halpin (Dyskinetic), JJ Tatten (The Warren), Paul “Jacko” Jackson (The New Adelphi Society), Angelle Joseph (Ipswich Community Media & Future Female Society), Jodie Langford and the music journalist Jude Rogers will be moderating the panel.

The song is a punchy, urgent slapper of a single that dials you straight into a painstaking panic. The song’s video was created by Dave Crane and delves into the phenomenon of the; “false rockstar fantasy”. Have a listen to the latest offering from Stone down below:

The band’s Fin Power says that the video was informed by his issues and experiences with disassociation, stating; “‘Waste’ was written about being sick of people judging you without knowing anything about you. Opening lyric ‘you probably hate me’ refers to the fact that I started to find it easier to assume people disliked me from the outset, instead of being caught off-guard by negative energy. The chorus is about how the need to be liked or loved can become an almost obsession that is dangerous to my mental health.”

“The song’s middle eight section is inspired by a time where I felt so distorted in my own brain it was like I was in a video game – sat in the passenger seat of my own emotions. We produced the song with Al Groves (Bring Me The Horizon) and recorded the vocals in one take each time, running straight through the verses and choruses so that the anger and breathlessness was real and raw. We didn’t drown it In effects and the guitars were slightly under-tuned so that when I was raging my guitar, it would bend more into tuning (Al had a genius moment here).”

Having supported Yungblud for a number of dates, including two massive shows at Liverpool’s Mountford Hall. The band were more than ready to rise to the occasion, and stated dutifully; “Yungblud’s fans will be queuing from 10am, so we know there’s going to be a bunch of people dying to absorb new music, we’re going to cater for them. I’ve always said that I want to be an underground voice for the lost youth, and I feel like Yungblud is doing that on a much larger scale.”

Discussing the band’s future and what lies ahead for these challenging prospects, Power said elsewhere; “I just need to get in front of those crowds – it’s all about the live performance for us. Put me in a room with anyone and I will convert them all to fall in love with the band.”

Lead vocalist and guitar player Asha Lorenz said of the forthcoming LP; “Anywhere But Here! We approached the album differently from the first one, it was more of a live band process and the outcome has made it feel rawer and more sincere… we think. We wanted every song to have its own gravity but also have little snippets, or lyrical patterns that repeat, grow – metamorphosis. Everyone started to feel a bit alien in the last couple years with all that’s happened. It’s kind of weird being from London, growing up here, like anyone who’s been in the same place for ages. How all the landmarks, places, even people are the same, but it still feels different. I think we want things to change, or we think they will, but it kind of just happens again but in a different way. That sound is kind of the sound I imagine when you moan or cum or deep cry – it’s like rebirth. It’s the shedding of a skin!”

Check out the video for the new single; “Let The Light On” down below:

Discussing the inspiration behind this latest hit, the band stated; “It’s a fun love song for the club. A bittersweet track for us. It kinda touches on how you want to be honest and say things directly, but in the end that can also ruin them. If you’ve got a light don’t let it go out… sometimes you have to leave things behind but it’s hard to do. We tried to make it a bit ironic by saying things very plainly and direct. It’s the last song we wrote from the album and came out of us trying to find something more upbeat for the album. It started off as a dancey song with driving bass and drums and became more poppy when we played it with the band and recorded it.”

You can pre-order the new record at the band’s official website in a range of formats. You can find the tracklist here:

1.“Let The Lights On”
2. “Tell Me”
3. “Key To The City”
4. “Willow Tree”
5. “There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved”
6. “I Miss The Fool”
7. “Step”
8. “Closer”
9. “Baltimore”
10. “Hem of the Fray”
11. “Quit While You’re Ahead”
12. “Screaming In The Rain”
13. “Again”

The Edinburgh native- Mercury Prize holders love to cut songs that cut listeners. Dealing in highly evocative textures and imagery that seems viscerally present to some distant lobe in the back of your brain. Here we see Young Fathers jump back into this head-on, with a sensory overload of timbral inflections that seems both haphazardly disjointed and yet flows majestically from each section to the next. Primal vocal chants and screams lead the song into a celestial territory of raw, unbridled emotion. Check out the song in the video below:

The band said of their latest work; “A good time trying. That’s what Ma said, she was smiling, but it was meant as a warning, it’s a track about contrast, because life is contrast – pushing through, giving up, all at the same time. Wanting everything and then wanting nothing, then wanting everything again. It’s kind of reflective of where we are at the moment, trying to remember how to do this again. 

“Trying to make music and all of the other stuff that comes along with it. Trying to forget all the bad bits, just trying to get somewhere. And that’s where we are right now, trying to get somewhere. 

“It’s the tenderness in toil, we had expelled a bunch of stuff with a lot of drive and wilder energy beforehand but this one had focus. It widened the scope again for us personally, that’s where the real high comes from. We grew another arm. We surprised ourselves. 

“So coming back with a track called ‘Geronimo’ feels quite fitting. Just the 3 of us again, but still in a fucking basement.”

Looking back at 2018s Cocoa Sugar, one review broke down the seminal album, saying; “Young Fathers shouldn’t need to simmer down or spoon-feed what they do to gain popularity or make a better living. They’ve made it this far by being unlike any other band in the country, equally motivated by writing great pop songs and sounding completely alien.”

To which the band’s own Alloysious Massaquoi later mused: “We don’t know if it has connected, but we know that it’s a great album. Every time we go into the studio we do something better than what we’ve done before.”

Have a listen to the new version in the video below:

Yard Act aren’t the only talented so and so’s to be rejigging one of Warmduschers bops, the forthcoming remix EP will also use the gifts of Red Axes, Glok, and Joe Goddard of Hot Chip. Sharing their glee at the prospect of the new editions, Warmdsucher said; “There’s nothing better for the soul than taking what’s yours, giving it to your friends and letting them chew it up and spit it back out in your face. Something different, something weirder, something better, bolder, or even more beautiful! Ladies and gentlemen we’ve got friends in high places, and these friends have chewed us up perfectly.  We hope you enjoy more of the same, only much more different, Warmduscher the remixes!!”

Yard Act added; “When we found out they felt the same things about us, it could only make total sense to stick our fingers in each other’s noises. ‘Greasin’ Up Jesus’ is a perfect come-down album ender to a rollercoaster party record, but behind those louche elevator synths and chintzy shuffling drums, we could hear that there was still a party going on underneath, and so we tried our best to dig it up and let it out with our remix. We had so much fun doing this. Long live Warmduscher.”

To find a copy of the new EP, album or any other of the band’s simply stellar records, you can do so here.

Warmduscher will head out on a UK tour this year hot on the tail of the new EP which will conclude with a show at Electric Brixton. Take a look at the list of dates down below:

Tour Dates

01/11/2022– The Mill- Birmingham, UK
02 /11-Roadmender- Northampton, UK
03/11- Rock City- Nottingham, UK
05/11- The 1865- Southampton, UK
08/11- Sub89- Reading, UK
10/11- Waterfront- Norwich, UK
11/11- Electric Brixton- London, UK

To get your hands on tickets to see this live wire act, follow the link here.

Though it’s clear that the singer has a deep love for the city of Glasgow, it seems his mind was elsewhere during the show at TRNSMT when he said; “I haven’t been to Glasgow in a long time. I don’t recognise the place.”

He then added; “The Barrowlands where we used to play, I miss that place. I miss being pulled to shreds by the Glasgow crowd. It’s a fun place. My memories of Glasgow… always the most chaotic, violent shows of my life. This is a nice change of pace though. Next time, the Barrowlands.”

The feedback from the gig varies. In a lot of cases, the fans stated that whilst the catchy hits of the indie royalty still sounded great, the periods between each track which saw Casablancas dish out bizarre rants and banter to the attendees were less palatable.

As a long time Strokes fan, I felt genuinely worried about Julians wellbeing tonight at TRNSMT.

— Lisa Taylor (@LisaTaylorVol) July 10, 2022

Might be an unpopular opinion, sorry, but my god, The Strokes were dire at TRNSMT tonight.

Julian is borderline Shane McGowan levels of needing an intervention. Worst front man performance I’ve seen.

Sound issues aside, there was no stage presence, just a bit boring.#TRNSMT

— G (@OneManChatting) July 9, 2022

Sounds overdramtic but I think we just witnessed the end of The Strokes. The end of that set was hard to watch, Casablancas genuinely looks like he needs help. They sounded mint but the man looked unwell #trnsmt

— Rex (@AlexBoxteles) July 9, 2022

Sounds overdramtic but I think we just witnessed the end of The Strokes. The end of that set was hard to watch, Casablancas genuinely looks like he needs help. They sounded mint but the man looked unwell #trnsmt

— Rex (@AlexBoxteles) July 9, 2022

TRNSMT was interesting … Julian Casablancas of The Strokes did not bother hiding his disdain for the crowd (he called them Glasgow Children’s Choir and said he’d rather be at the Barrowlands) and to be fair most people were clearly not there for the tunes. Ah well.

— Laura Webster (@LauraEWebsterr) July 9, 2022

It was almost like the strokes would rather have been anywhere else but the main stage at trnsmt

— k (@kfrw_) July 9, 2022

The Strokes should be embarrassed by that excuse for a headlining gig @TRNSMTfest – zero energy, awful set list and slagging off the crowd with gems like ‘Glasgow childrens choir’ and ‘next time we’ll go to barrowlands’ – 15 years of waiting to see them live only to get that!

— Alex Kane (@Beacon_Dev) July 9, 2022

One punter said in this post; “The Strokes should be embarrassed by that excuse for a headline gig- zero energy, awful set list and slagging off the crowd”. Another Fan also commented that Casablancas; “Did not bother hiding his disdain from the crowd (he called them Glasgow Children’s Choir and said he’d rather be at the Barrowlands)”.

Earlier in the week, Casablancaas received much of the same criticism after the Stroke’s performance at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. According to setlist.fm their set started half an hour behind the allotted schedule and according to fans featured much of the same antics, i.e; “lots of erratic and endless banter from Casablancas”.

Following the rumours that he was inebriated during the show, Casablancas took to Twitter (with a message that has since been deleted) with a statement of his own; “I’m not tuned into Twitter things enough to know what some confused fan thinks or pretends they know,” he wrote, “but I’m fine… far as I know … people been asking me weiiird questionnns [sic] – ahh the dumb side of social media… Lame-Os running around so hard and free.”

On the 8^th of July, we sadly saw more of the same, when a woman was pulled from the crowd to join them on stage. Casablancas jested that he has going to head backstage and; “go do some blow”. The woman went on to sing the full six minutes of “Ode To The Mets” while Casablancas was still nowhere to be seen.