I can't stop listening to music that unbeatable duo

Dead Nature - In My Heart

Stream on Spotify / Apple Music / Deezer at http://ditto.fm/deadnaturetms
Buy the EP on vinyl at https://www.deadnature.co.uk

Written, recorded, mixed and produced by Tarek Musa
Additional production and performance by Joe Wills
Guest backing vocals by Bec Duggan

Photo by Amin Musa / Artwork by Joe Wills

Released via Dead Nature Records (June 2019)

All enquiries: deadnaturemusic@gmail.com 
Managed by Nigel Templeman and Jamie Osman at Redlight Management

In My Heart

"Stadium worthy" - Gordon Smart, Radio X

“There's a steady sense of calm running through the music of Shanghai Blues. Perhaps it's an innate sense of zen, or maybe it's simply confidence in their abilities” – Clash Magazine

“Definitely ones to keep an eye on” – Abbie McCarthy (BBC Intro Kent/BBC Radio 1)

“Indie excellence” – The Evening Standard

“Shanghai Blues have serious festival headline potential.” – Josh Hannen, Amazing Radio

Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Oz Craggs at Hidden track Studios, Kent

Artwork by SHANGHAI BLUES

Honey

'Casuals' from Sublime [2020]

'Casuals' music video - https://youtu.be/iOUIB3JiZNY

Learn more - linktr.ee/lukedesciscio

Album release date:
11 November 2020

Casuals

LYRICS

warm girl
I could do with your silence 
before I burn myself out 
peeling layers to the bone
surreal world 
where people are islands 
there must be some connection 
there must be somewhere I can go
somewhere natural
gonna find myself again
not sure who he is (or where he went)
they’re all so sociable 
but when you break open the shell
nothing oozes out

come and find me 
can’t you see where I am?
I pray for silence 
but I can’t keep my mouth shut 
no I can’t make my mind up

make me a boy again 
now I only seem
to long for the old days 
hoping it goes my way
but it only goes downhill

warm girl 
you’re free (as the sky is)
to overlay my senses 
free to leave such things alone
truth hurts
it’ll sting you for life, babe
carry on regardless 
but I can’t keep this to myself 
and is it any wonder? 
this may well have never been
but I’m here now,
so might as well

come and find me 
can’t you see who I am?
yeah I pray for silence 
but I can’t keep my mouth shut 
no, I can’t make my life work



J'aime les fleurs de la ville
Ca me rappelle la maison
Quand je ne sais pas ou aller

On tend vers la lumiere
Comme le font les fleurs
J'aimerais pouvoir te montrer
J'aimerais pouvoir montrer a tout le monde


(I love the flowers of the city
they remind me of home
when I don't know where to go 
we grow towards the light
just like the flowers do
I wish I could show you why 
I wish I could show everyone)

Warm Girl

Birds

While Heaven Is on Fire

Recorded & Produced - Mat Cammarano 
Drums - Elliot Smith
Mixed - Andy Lawson
Mastered - William Bowden
Artwork - Shane Beam

Pleasure/Pain

Holiday Inn

Promise The Monster returns with the ethereal masterpiece ‘Closed My Eyes’
 
Having established herself as one of Sweden’s most esoteric and mesmerising songwriters, with critical acclaim from Uncut, Mojo, Clash and Pitchfork, and shows with the likes of Chelsea Wolfe, Mark Kozelek and Jens Lekman in recent years, Promise and the Monster (aka Billie Lindahl) has now returned to deliver her latest sweeping single ‘Closed My Eyes’, lifted from her forthcoming new EP ‘Chewing Gum’.

Capturing more of that dark yet enticing sound that she is known for, ‘Closed My Eyes’ makes for an incredibly rich and inviting return. As her debut single through new label Icons Creating Evil Art, the new offering sees her reemerge in a whole new light, channeling a smooth and lofty aesthetic that sets her uniquely powerful front and centre.

Speaking about the new single, Billie said, “I wrote 'Closed My Eyes' surprisingly quickly after thinking about the ambiguity in that image, closing one's eyes for various reasons. It was good fuel. The women in this song are out roaming in the streets. Marilyn is famous and Kimberly and Brenda got killed by Ted Bundy. The song was pretty easy to record compared to the other songs - it was a Paranoid moment so to speak. You know when Black Sabbath recorded their album Paranoid they just needed an extra song and came up with that riff, and bam: history. It worked just that same way with this song.”

Billie’s musical education started young, playing Swedish folk on the cello at school by day and recording mix tapes by night. She became fascinated with Nick Drake, Kaki King and Elliot Smith, writing her debut EP ‘Antarktis’ and first album ‘Transparent Knives’ at the age of 18, having been picked up by Imperial Recordings. With a father playing country bands and mother into an eclectic mix of jazz and alternative rock, from day one her tastes were always going to be fluid.

By second album ‘Red Time’ in 2009, Promise and the Monster were touring Europe with, among others, label mate José Gonzales. Having relocated from the pine forests of rural Sweden, Billie embedded herself in Stockholm’s underground music, literature and art scenes. Collaborations followed, with experimental bands such as Alcest and This Gift is a Curse along with performances on heavyweight festival bills such as Roadburn.

Signing to Bella Union for her third full-length she released ‘Feed The Fire’ in 2016, produced by Love Martinsen, a quintessential break-up record that focused on abstract imagery.

In 2020, Martinsen joined Billie to co-write her upcoming material. The new songs explore a less introspective side of her psyche, with an emphasis on the tongue-in-cheek nature lurking beneath a veneer of earnestness.

On the signing news, Billie tells us, “I'm so pleased, together we can take this in a great new direction. I used to like writing quite cryptic stuff but I tried hard this time to get out of that safe haven and be more direct. The new songs often express the feeling of being that last person at the party, dancing slowly in the background, waiting for something to happen. Like a sad moonlight disco.”

While the label Icons Creating Evil Art added, "We are thrilled to welcome one of the most iconic voices in dark pop to our evil art family. Promise and the Monster has been working right beneath the surface and in the shadows creating the most beautiful world of her own. It's time we invite you all to share it with us! "

D I S C O V E R
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7M9SZIojabB1ukKSYEz2TM
Facebook: www.facebook.com/promiseandthemonster
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/promiseandthemonster

Closed My Eyes

Promise And The Monster - Closed My Eyes

Just Not Today - The Arosa

December, 1999 (feat. Benedikt)

everything / anything

Moment Passed is the second single from Scottish folk-pop collective Randolph’s Leap’s forthcoming album Spirit Level.

“Moment Passed is basically about stress. I wasn't taking proper care of my physical or mental health and the lyrics are a mixture of wanting to change things in my life but simultaneously worrying I was too late. The original demo had deliberately over-the-top autotune on my voice which didn't go down well with the rest of the band [but it did prove the catalyst for my A.R. Pinewood robo-country spinoff album]! We threw a lot at the mix on this one. Pete played glass bottle percussion and everything. Oh, and there's nothing cooler than a cha-cha-cha ending.”

Spirit Level is an upbeat, melodic indie-pop album full of personality, catchy hooks and memorable lyrics, rich in textural, polyphonic arrangements, and capturing the infinite charm of Adam Ross, the leader of this 8-piece band.

As a core songwriter with a large ensemble, Adam Ross may draw comparison with Stephin Merritt or Neil Hannon, while mining the rich Scottish seam of Postcard Records and C86. And as with contemporaries King Creosote or Withered Hand, is unafraid of drawing on folk music’s story telling tradition, detailing the minutiae of life’s fluctuations, here packaged up in glorious, anthemic and energetic pop.

The titular ‘spirit level’ is a steady reference point over what had been an unsettled spell writing the album, with Adam Ross uprooting from a decade in Glasgow to a tauntingly lopsided house in rural Aberdeenshire, navigating his way through shifting phases in his well-being and happiness, and reflecting on the untimely death of two greatly admired acquaintances. That balancing act came in the form of music, in an optimistic, even celebratory, collection of songs.

Recorded over a period of a year in Glasgow with keyboard player Pete MacDonald engineering, mixing and producing the sessions at home, the album went off to mastering in the nick of time: the following night Pete’s flat went Up In Smoke in a massive fire, taking everything bar Pete (and his pet hedgehog, Frida) with it.

“The next generation of witty Scottish indie pop” The Quietus

“A band deserving of every shred of love and success which came Belle & Sebastian's way” The Scotsman

"The Jonathan Richman of Scottish indie" The Herald

Randolph’s Leap started out as a pseudonym for the solo output of Adam Ross, and now includes up to 8 people in the full live band. The debut Randolph’s Leap album, Clumsy Knot, came out in 2014, with another four live and studio albums and a handful of singles across labels Fence Collective, Olive Grove Records and Lost Map. In 2018 a touring theatre show called The Isle of Love was devised around the songs of Randolph’s Leap.

They’ve recorded several Marc Riley sessions, performed at Green Man, T in the Park, Indietracks, and The Edinburgh Fringe, and have toured with The Burning Hell and James Yorkston. 
The Randolph’s Leap name is taken from a scenic location on the River Findhorn.

Randolph’s Leap are Adam Ross (songs, vocals, guitar), Adam Armour-Florence (drums), Ali Hendry (trumpet), Andrew MacLellan (guitar), Fraser Gibson (trombone) Heather Fox (violin), Pete MacDonald (keyboards) and Vicki Cole (bass).

December, 1999 (feat. Benedikt)

Simen Mitlid

Recent comments

Artem Hum

Claudio Souza Almeida

Related tracks