Misha Chylkova is a Londoner of Czech origin. Always drawn to darkness and repetition, her artistic perspective offers a highly personal view of reality and romantic relationships. In her music, elegance meets simplicity, as she gradually layers melodic threads into a crescendo of complexity. This melodic minimalism, enriched with a touch of sharp humour, was forged in London, where Misha fell in love with music and began playing within the anti-folk scene alongside artists such as The Awkward Silences, David Cronenberg’s Wife, and Extradition Order. In 2020, she began a fruitful collaboration with Darren Hayman (Hefner), Ian Button (Death in Vegas, Thrashing Doves), and Jonathan Clayton (Hurtling, Jim Bob), which led her to release several singles between 2021 and 2022 with the independent label Gare Du Nord Records. The same artistic partnership is the foundation of her debut album, Dancing the Same Dance (Gare Du Nord), set for release in November 2024. Dancing the Same Dance is a collection of songs that Misha Chylkova has written over the past few years, revealing her fascination with the concept of repetition. The album was mainly recorded in London. The work is driven by a passion for melody and for pulsating, looping rhythms, with influences ranging from Low, Angel Olsen, Black Heart Procession, to Suicide.
The Pearlfishers are a Scottish, Glasgow-based band (among its contributors: drummer Jim Gash, Dee Bahl, Brian McAlpine, Mil Stricevic and Duglas T. Stewart, also of the BMX Bandits) and now the solo project of the singer and songwriter David Scott, its only constant member. The Pearlfishers mixes acoustic-based music with subtle orchestral flourishes, refined and broadened their sound while maintaining coherence and uniqueness. Scott began writing songs while a teenager in Glasgow in the early ’80s and, after founding Chewy Raccoon (!) and Hearts and Minds, formed The Pearlfishers (named after the Bizet opera), with drummer Jim Gash, featuring Brian McAlpine on keyboards and bassist Mil Stricevic. Their debut single, Sacred, was out in late 1990 and an EP, Hurt, followed shortly. The Pearlfishers’ debut album, Za Za’s Garden, was released in August 1993. Signing with the German label Marina Records, Scott and McAlpine released, in 1997, The Strange Underworld of the Tall Poppies and in 1999 The Young Picnickers. 2001’s Across the Milky Way was the first (almost) solo album by Scott (with a dozen guest musicians), followed by Sky Meadows in 2003, A Sunflower At Christmas in 2004 and Up With The Larks, three years later. After a seven years’ hiatus, Your Colouring Book arrived in 2014 and Love & Other Hopeless Things in 2019. Another five years hiatus led The Pearlfishers to Making Tapes For Girls, produced with Johnny Smillie (Thrum), which was out in May, as usual via Marina Records.
Alpaca Sports are Andreas Jonsson, Amanda Åkerman and Lisle Mitnik (Tiny Fireflies, Fireflies, Very Truly Yours). It’s six years since their second album, From Paris With Love, came out and one can imagine that their twee pop formula may have changed, matured, grown up. With their new song Tomorrow I’ll Be Fine, out today on Elefant Recors, it’s (thankfully) very soon clear that it’s not the case. Listening to indie pop with adolescent characteristics is a source of comfort and relief for everyone of us and Alpaca Sports once again don’t let us down. Since they might be the group that currently best represents that crystalline pop sound (think of Aztec Camera, The Field Mice, Belle And Sebastian, Orange Juice, Sambassadeur), that’s why the arrival of new songs is such big news for all of us grown up adolescents. Tomorrow I’ll Be Fine is the first advance single of their upcoming new album, and it makes all the good things about the band clear: their sensitivity, exquisite vocals, jangling guitars, unforgettable choruses, and a mix of drum machines and live drums.
The Declining Winter, the project of of Richard Vincent Adams, former member of Hood, is back, just one year after the mighty Really Early ,Really Late -his first proper album since 2018- with a new single and the announcement of a new album. Today is out, on all streaming platforms, Mother’s Son, a reworked version of a song whose demo was out in July 2022, following the sad news of Richard’s mother Jean passing away in April that year. The (sad) song is the first taste of the new album, Last April, (previously described as an EP of very very sad songs in collaboration with Sarah Kemp aka Brave Timbers) which will be out on Second Language Music November 1st 2024.
Indie Sunset in Rome 