Indie

Reverend and The makers release sizzling new single, High.

14th Dec 2022 — Leave a comment

Why feel low when you can feel good?

Jon McClure, frontman of Reverend the Makers captured in Sheffield by Steve Schofield

A soul filled symphony, takes you back to lounging on a beach in summer High, by Reverend and the Makers, is the track we all need to smoke to escape these winter blues. (Don’t smoke, it’ll decrease how long you can listen to this banger for)

The heat this single brings burns with social commentary, showing us a clear world view. It sets diehard fans a challenge, demonstrating the sound of Rev cannot be pinned down or pigeonholed. Ever experimental this track lends itself to a blend of funk and classic soul. The psychedelic synths could almost convince a listener that everything is good, we are floating, light, above it all, but listen closer between the fluffy smoke clouds. This is an immersion into a haunted psyche. 

The pressure of one’s own potential can crush us, we are in the graveyard of who we could have been. Lead singer, Jon McClure laments, referencing his previous track heavy weight champion of the world, who he may have felt he could have been/ who he was in his youth, when he confesses, he never was that guy. The person you wanted to be is merely a watercolour daydream, a drug induced trip you bought the wrong ticket for.

It’s insightful, poetic and foreboding. Why try to change when you can escape it? Life is dark, we lose, we burn out, we breakdown, give it our all and get none. No one will blame you for needing a vice. So, get high, keep tripping over who you could have been instead of trying to be that person. Once again, these legends encapsulate the constant battle between what is and what could have been perfectly.

Or perhaps I am thinking too deeply into it all and it is simply about having a good time, enjoying the heat and being in love, after all Jon has described it as being about “lazing around on a sunny day with your lover getting stoned”. Our narrator has come to terms with who is and forgotten who he is not, for if we always try to be something else we undermine the achievements this version of us has met.

Either way you interpret the single it is undoubtedly set to get you BOUNCIN at their upcoming gigs!

After a 4-year hiatus, Reverend and the makers are set to tour the UK in 2023. The gigs will run from 2nd February until 17th February 2023 hitting venues in Brighton, Northampton, Cardiff, Norwich, Liverpool, Birmingham (sold out), Bristol, London (sold out), Glasgow, Newcastle & Manchester before concluding with a sold out homecoming show in Sheffield on February 17th. Get your tickets quick!

High is the second track to be announced from the band’s upcoming album Heatwave in The Cold North which is set to be out on April 28th, 2023. You can pre-order it here. 

Follow my TikTok to see the moment I almost got a photo with Jon.

BLOODWORM leaves you ‘Alone In Your Garden’

2nd Dec 2022 — Leave a comment

Their latest single leaves you brave in the face of the unknown.

Though our dark and damp high streets may be lifted with twinkling Christmas lights and foggy with the smell of roasting chestnuts and melted chocolate,winter has not yet fallen upon us . Autumn tries to linger, clawed trees cling to the skies as stubborn as summer’s ghost, we are forced to watch as the final brown leaves fall through the veil. The gradual demise of a season as the year slowly comes to a close can leave us all feeling slightly forlorn as we reflect on the previous 12 months. This retrospective outlook we are gripped by is echoed perfectly in the gothic punk instrumentals of East-Midlands based band, Bloodworm.

Alone in your garden Bloodworm

Days fall short and shadows grow darker, this plummet into the inevitable unknown inspired the bands’s latest single ‘Alone in your garden’.Band members Chirs Walker, George Curtis ad Euan Stevens,perfectly capture an ear with an intro that echoes a train coming up to it’s station, a drum beat that promises you’re on track to your desired destination.

The foreboding doom and inkling of victory imbued in the melody lull a listener into themselves. We sit lamenting the loss of a longed for loved one, damning the inevitable burial or final wave as the train pulls away.But one must seek comfort in the potential of a garden. Amongst the trees and crowded shrubberies things are born while others are buried, there is grown in these leaves and defiance in the soil.

Inpirsed by greats such as The Cure and Siousxse and The banshees, Bloodworm protests for more punk antics. Heralding change and making space in the industry, perhaps the rebelliousness that punk breathes is what we all need as 2022 comes to a close.

The birth of Bloodworm began the band’s pattern of defying the odds when their identity blossomed in the unlikeliest of places; A shed, where originally, they started as a grunge band before finding themselves more fit for gothic punk.

From the shed the band have gone on to support acts such as the Lounge society and LIFE at sold out shows in Nottingham.They have headlined at The Bodega with support from OTALA and with 2023 promising more up coming support slots, (in January they are set to support household names The Cool Greenhouse,(tickets here) , it is no wonder why Dean Jackson from BBC Radio Nottingham said he “absolutely loved it” when he listened to one of their previous bangers’ Cemetry Dance”- listen and hear for yourself.

Meet Mollie Ralph

15th Nov 2022 — 1 Comment

Described by the BBC’s Dean Jackson as a “Soul Queen”, this stirring singer is one to add to your Spotify playlists.

Mollie Ralph taken by Daniel Roizer photoshoot for her EP Old Cafe 2019

Nottingham based singer songwriter Mollie has performed in some of the most musically renowned venues including The Royal Concert Hall where she supported the Gypsy Kings and Rock City as part of the 2019 Future Sound of Nottingham night.

With a vocal range that echoes that of Amy Winehouse and Paloma Faith it is no surprise that Ralph has collected a catalogue of accolades since finding her voice in 2016. Three years later she would release her debut EP titled Old Cafe, in 2020 she released a slew of singles including breakthrough track traitor which reached over 80,000 streams.

Traitor is an emotional ballad, lifted with soulful jazz instrumentals, about a relationship gone wrong. A lover’s decision to defy their foreseen future for the embrace of a temporary hand. This selfish surrender of someone else for one’s own gain stings and you can hear both the pain and rage in Mollie’s powerful vocals. Those of us who have felt this blow of betrayal realise soon enough it is not just about this other person’s decision, in once choosing to trust them you slowly betrayed yourself. Everything you had with this person everything you perceived it to be based on a forced fed false reality. You betrayed your worth for someone you can no longer see. This person you once loved died in the arms of a stranger and now stands before you with an unknown face.

Mollie Ralph Music Video Traitor 2020 filmed by Simon Stewart

This piece of poetry catapulted her to the stages of the Isle of Wight festival where she stunned crowds enough to land her extended performances on two more stages. It was here she performed her album Dealbreaker. The same titled song itself explores the narrative of too many second chances, a torrent of torture that breaks a heart enough for it to crack but to also keep coming back, the hand that holds is also the one that lets go. Love becomes a commodity instead of a meaningful exchange where both feel wealthy, one heart turns to greed, another to self-debt spending all they can to keep their so-called lover in check.

As well as developing her own distinctive style she has used her range to refresh old classics. Most recently covering Nina Simone’s 1965 I put a spell on you. Fittingly released on the eve of Halloween Mollie’s haunting vocals and mystic persona posess the bewitching narrative of the song.

Mollie RalphMusic video for I put a spell on you filmed by Jessica Ralph

Not only is her music powerful due to the strength of her voice but also due to the meaning of her message. In 2020 she performed her single Give it up, in what I am assuming is her neighbourhood, to raise money for the NHS. The music video includes faces of friends, family, frontline workers during the lockdown all lip syncing her song. As a nurse herself Ralph felt first hand the impact of the pandemic and the desperate situation of our health service. The song itself was very fitting with the poignant lyric ” I want to be your hero, when the days get rough”. The song herald’s resilience and optimism conquering all,

Mollie Ralph Give It Up