SUMMER // AUTUMN 2015

We bring to you a fantastic selection of tracks from http://www.richerunsigned.com chosen by Time Out

Richer Unsigned - Best of April 2016 by Time Out

Celina

Ceci Est Le Cœur

Out now on Slumberland Records (N & S America) and Fortuna Pop! (ROW).

iTunes: http://smarturl.it/expectdelays
LP/CD: http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/283

Evans the Death return with their second album "Expect Delays" in March via Fortuna POP! (Europe) and Slumberland Records (USA). Recorded again with producer Rory Atwell, the album bristles with an underlying tension and veers from rip-roaring noise to quiet contemplation, underpinned by Katherine Whitaker’s extraordinary voice.

Still barely out of their teens, there’s a tremendous sense across "Expect Delays" of a band coming into their own, honing a plethora of influences to make a sound that is uniquely them. Each song on the album has a different feel to it: some of them are melodic and pretty; some of them heavy and dissonant; and some of them are, to quote guitarist Dan Moss, “a bit strange”. While retaining the post-punk and 90s alt-rock inspired elements that peppered their debut, the music is more expressive, heavier and more experimental, and the lyrics more nuanced, the sense of despair leavened by sharp wordplay and humour.

The unsettling undercurrent of melancholy and hopelessness that pervades the record has its roots in the last three years, spent eking out an existence on the poverty line in Cameron’s Britain, leaving them with a succession of minimum-wage jobs and unemployment benefits interviews. As guitarist Dan Moss relates, the album is about “being in London and feeling hopeless and a bit lost. Not having any money, relationships falling apart, things just not connecting or going anywhere and getting absolutely wasted all the time.”

Named after the undertaker in Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood,' the band’s 2012 self-titled inaugural album saw critical acclaim from the likes of Q, Uncut and Artrocker, as well as radio play on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music and XFM. After a change in line-up following the release of their debut, the band regrouped around the core of brothers Dan and Olly Moss and singer Katherine Whitaker for the recording of "Expect Delays." Drummer James Burkitt was recruited from Leeds’ band The ABC Club to complete a taut new four-piece.

More ambitious and focused than their previous record, whilst sacrificing none of their spontaneity and vitality, "Expect Delays" is a supremely inventive and intelligently crafted album from a band who have suffered for their art, and used that experience to inform and nourish their work. Expect no more delays, Evans the Death have arrived.

“Evans the Death manage to make humdrum everyday existence seem quite magical” Q ****

“A wonderful marriage of converse elements elegantly crafted into its own neat mess.” Artrocker *****

“Terrific” Uncut


Evans The Death - Sledgehammer

Recorded on the 18th June 2014 at The Gallimaufry, Bristol
Disc artwork by James Strawbridge
Published by Maori Music
Copyright Matt Woosey, Robar Music Records Limited

Hook, Line And Sinker

Taken from the band's forthcoming album 'Alfarroba', out July 6th through Upset The Rhythm.

Available to pre-order here: 
http://upsettherhythm.bigcartel.com/
http://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk/

Pega Monstro are sisters Júlia Reis (drums) and Maria Reis (guitar, keyboard), both sing! The duo’s name translates as ‘catch the monster’, perfectly countering the band’s striving dream-punk sound. The name ‘Pega Monstro’ also references a novelty toy in the shape of a jelly hand on a string, which children have been throwing at each other in delight for many generations in their native country. Born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Maria and Júlia have been playing music together since they were 15 and 17 respectively, in other groups first before resolving on becoming a duo. Back in 2010, both sisters started a record label, along with some of their musician friends, called Cafetra Records to document Portugal’s garage punk scene. Cafetra represents a community of like-minded musicians who all help each other, making music that they’d want to hear, powered by enthusiasm. Pega Monstro were among the first bands on the label, releasing their ‘O Juno-60 Nunca Teve Fita’ EP the same year to a burgeoning audience of devotees, who’d turn up in growing numbers to each show and sing back the lyrics. Maria puts the band’s instant attention down to being different, “we were girls, we were young and we could rock, people weren’t used to that at all”. 2012 saw Pega Monstro release their self-titled debut album, which was produced by B Fachada, an extremely well known Portuguese singer songwriter. The band and producer hit it off like wildfire and recorded an impressive, raucous debut record that met with critical national acclaim.

Now Pega Monstro have a new album ready for Upset The Rhythm, whom they hope will bring their music to audiences outside of their homeland too. ‘Alfarroba’ is the name of this second album, it’s title meaning ‘carob’, after the sweet tasting bean that grows in the wild trees that spontaneously spring up along the Mediterranean coast. Maria explains further, “In Portugal there are a lot of carob trees in the Algarve and our mother's side of the family is from there, we spent every summer there as children. The scent is unlike any other. So apart from the phonetic appeal of the word, ‘Alfarroba’ is also a homage to that heritage”. The songs on ‘Alfarroba’ deal with many themes, some universal topics like love and growing up, others focusing on the nature of writing songs themselves, whilst some try to make sense of the world from a female perspective.



Pega Monstro - 'Braço De Ferro'

The brand new ep from 19yr Old Portsmouth Singer-Songwriter
Jerry Williams.

iTunes EP

COLD BEER

Brixton Prison

LP/CD/Tape/Digital: https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/album/hailu-mergia-his-classical-instrument-shemonmuanaye

Hailu Mergia — Shilela

Matt Woosey’s time is now. His eighth studio album, Desiderata, captures the most daring and progressive music of his career. His acclaimed solo shows dart between folk, roots, ambient and electronica. He’s an artist who slips the creative straightjacket of the modern industry, a trailblazer with no reverse gear, a performer who drags the acoustic guitar kicking and screaming into fresh relevance. “You’ve got to keep progressing,” says the Malvern-based singer-songwriter. “Like John Martyn. Like Robert Plant. Like Radiohead…”
Tipped by tastemakers from BBC Radio to Classic Rock, and braced for a headline tour across Britain and beyond, 2016 finds Matt looking to the future. Yet all the best artists come with a backstory, and it’s fair to say that Desiderata could never have been made were it not for a formative early career that took in passion, hardship and redemption. “If I’d become an overnight success,” notes Matt, “I’d probably be addicted to some horrible drugs by now. It’s like anything. You have to do an apprenticeship. You have to grow.”  
Rewind to the late-’90s, then, and as the son of forces parents stationed in Germany, Matt found himself packed off to a Bristol boarding school with a rudimentary cassette player and a stack of dubious tapes. He had little use for ABBA and Simply Red, but was spellbound by the souped-up, shape-shifting power-blues of Led Zeppelin’s debut album and II. “That’s when I fell in love with music,” he says. “When I knew it would be part of my life.”
That early taste for Led Zeppelin quickly spilled over into blues-rock heavyweights like Rory Gallagher, Paul Kossoff and Peter Green, with Tim Buckley and John Martyn also mixed into the palette (“I always loved the way they used their voices as an instrument”). Soon, passive enjoyment alone no longer enough scratched the itch, and Matt duly pinballed through a string of local bands that included a Thin Lizzy covers outfit. “I had guitar lessons at school on nylon-string acoustic,” he recalls. “I played electric guitar in other people’s bands, and did a few backing vocals. Then I started writing my own material and singing, going out on my own to open-mics and folk clubs.”
Out of the blocks, Matt created alchemy with the bare minimum of equipment, needing little more than his neck-tingling voicebox and fluid acoustic guitar chops to tame a drunk mob or command a transient crowd. “When I listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rory Gallagher or Roy Buchanan play electric,” he reasons, “I just can’t add anything to that, y’know? For me, playing acoustic guitar in an inventive way that’s different to anyone else is the most powerful thing I can do. I like to do things that turn heads, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the songs.” 
Indeed, by the time he came to record his solo debut in 2008 – an album released independently and flogged at gigs – Matt had established his ethos of all-original songs, whatever the cost. “I’ve never performed many covers live,” he says, “and my studio albums have all been my own material. As a gigging musician, that’s made my life ten times harder. I don’t earn anywhere near as much as if I was just going out doing covers.”
With integrity came uphill struggle. In past interviews, Matt has spoken openly of the solitude of the travelling musician, and the panic attacks sparked by the apathy and grind of a British pub circuit more receptive to Sky Sports and karaoke. Through it all, he endured. “I’ve played in golf clubs. I’ve played on boats. I’ve played with an Ann Summers party in the corner. I’ve played to the barman. I’ve done the toilet tour of the UK a hundred times. If there’s a five-square-mile radius I haven’t played in Britain, I’d be shocked. I’ve had the worst possible gigs, and I’ve had the most amazing ones.”  
Personally and professionally, however, there’s no mistaking Matt’s upward trajectory in recent times. 



 




