Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

French songwriter Thierry Haliniak has been making music as My Raining Stars since the late ’90s, drawing on the influence of C86, Creation and Sarah Records. After the early experience with Nothing To Be Done, who shared stages with the likes of The Boo Radleys, Adorable and Moose, he eventually released his first album, From St Saviour To Quickwell, in 2008. Since then, he has quietly built a discography devoted to the simple, timeless pleasures of guitar pop. His latest album is called Toy Club and, I have to admit, there is something strangely comforting about it. Listening to its songs feels a little like opening a box of old 7-inches and discovering that, somehow, nothing inside has aged. With Toy Club, Haliniak takes a deliberate step back towards his formative years, revisiting the spirit of the Lyon indie scene of the ’90s. The album’s nine songs were written and initially recorded by Thierry with Casper Iskov, before former Nothing To Be Done member Didier Frahier (E-Grand) was given complete freedom of action with guitars and keyboards. The abum works beautifully because it doesn’t sound nostalgic at all: it sounds more like a quiet conversation with the past. Haliniak writes the kind of songs that seem almost deceptively simple: bright guitars, uncomplicated arrangements, clear melodies and a gentle undercurrent of melancholy. What I particularly like about Toy Club is its lack of pretension. There is no attempt to make these songs sound bigger, louder or more important than they are. They simply exist, beautifully written and beautifully played. Toy Club may not reinvent guitar pop, but it hardly needs to. Sometimes a handful of beautifully crafted songs is enough to remind us why we fell in love with pop, and guitars, and melodies in the first place.

Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

1000 Rabbits is a London-based art-pop/indie rock band originally from Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The band consists of River (vocals), Laura (violin), Liv (synthesizer), Luke (drums), and Paolo (guitar). They released their debut EP, Are We Friends Yet?, on the Young label.
It is a lively, vibrant record that preserves the urgency of the live dimension from which it emerged. Six taut, electrifying tracks distill two years of growth, shaped in rehearsal rooms and on stage. Drawing close to the path forged by the reinvented Black Country, New Road, 1000 Rabbits blend restless minimalism with abrasive violin and sudden melodic surges, moving between folk, art pop and post-punk tension with remarkable naturalness. The songs retain a collective, intricate character without sacrificing immediacy, while showcasing River’s fragile, heartfelt voice, leading to the closing question that gives the album its title: an effective summation of an identity still taking shape, yet already unmistakably its own.