(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 146: PINHDAR

PINHDAR

PINHDAR are an Italian duo composed of singer Cecilia Miradoli and guitarist/producer Max Tarenzi. Born out of experiences in the rock band Nomoredolls and the organization of the international musical festival A Night Like This, they explore the fusion of trip-hop, dark wave, and electronica with originality, influenced by the Bristol scene. Their eponymous debut EP in 2019 received praise from the British critics, with the single Toy broadcasted on major radios like KEXP. In 2021, they released their first album, Parallel, with the collaboration of legendary producer Howie B, published by Fruits de Mer Records.
The European tour included prestigious venues such as Stereolux in Nantes and Dr Sardonicus Psych Fest in the UK. In the summer of 2023, during their UK tour, they completed the new album A Sparkle On The Dark Water  (set for release on March 22nd 2024) with producer Bruno Ellingham, a former Massive Attack and Portishead collaborator. While they were working on the album in England, PINHDAR met James Johnston. The London-based painter and musician, known for founding Gallon Drunk and collaborating with artists such as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Lydia Lunch, Faust, and currently touring with PJ Harvey, honors them by gifting the image of one of his paintings for use as the cover of their new record.

Continua a leggere →

(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 145: Sunlit

Sunlit (©Shelley McIntosh)

After having visited many different territories, Joe Moore is back with a dream-pop, shoegazing, folk-pop album with certain crooner touches, where melodic elegance, the most profound relaxation, and romanticism are all back in full force. This new effort is being released under the name SUNLIT, and it is new proof that there is no musical ground that Joe Moore can’t inhabit, with marvelous creativity and tremendous results.
The amount and diversity of the albums he has released and produced for Elefant Records since 2011 is unparalleled. Everything started with The Yearning’s Jukebox Romance (2012), a wonderful chamber pop record, reminiscent of those girl groups from the 50s. Since then, he has made music with Lia Pamina; he has produced R’n’B and electronic pop for Maddie Mae; and he has written eighties-style Italo Disco and europop with Cristina Quesada. He has also collaborated with Julie Big (ex-singer from Le Superhomard) on the Julie Et Joe project, with which he paid a well-deserved tribute to 80s French pop (Elli Et Jacno, Lio, Mikado…). He explored electronic pop with Holly Vanags under the name The Perfect Kiss, and, together with Luci Ashbourne, paid tribute to Abba, to disco music, and 70s pop in general on his last album with The Yearning.
With this new project Joe steps into a new space that he has never entered before, and this time he sings the songs himself. Swimming through seas of dream pop, influenced by groups like Cocteau Twins, Julee Cruise, Chris Isaak, The Stone Roses, Lee Hazlewood, Alvvays, Beach House and Cowboy Junkies, Joe Moore gives us something beautiful and captivating that is characterized by the austerity of its arrangements, exactly the opposite of The Yearning, and the perfection of the melodies. He takes on all the vocals, and with a few guitars, bass, drums, and the occasional keyboard, he fills songs that take us to a place somewhere between Richard Hawley and Mazzy Star.
Sunlit will be out tomorrow, March 8 2024, on Elefant Records.

Continua a leggere →

(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 144: Y Dail

Y Dail

Y Dail (‘The Leaves’) is the musical project of 20-year-old Huw Griffiths from Pontypridd, South Wales, writing in both Welsh and English. Starting in 2020, the band have released a string of singles which have received excellent reviews and single-of-the-week awards on music blogs and websites. Forthcoming debut album Teigr has been several years in the making, and is partly inspired by Griffiths’s love of 70s Welsh-language pop he remembers from school discos and his parents’ record collection. He also cites Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Joe Meek, Television and early Prefab Sprout as influences. With the album’s completion and release delayed by the inevitable pandemic story, 2021 saw the deceptively young Griffiths juggling finalising the record with studying for his A Levels, eventually putting the finishing touches to the record with producer Kris Jenkins (ex Super Furry Animals) at Grangetown Studios, Cardiff in the lull following. Since then, Marc Riley has championed the band on his BBC 6Music show, calling Griffiths’ songs “perfect pop”, and national treasure Gruff Rhys has called the band “magnificent”, with Y Dail previously performing a radio session for BBC 6music’s Huw Stephens, who has been a long term fan. Their 2022 standalone single Whizz Kids was released via much-loved Welsh language label Libertino Records (Adwaith, CHROMA, Sister Wives) and featured on Domino Records’ Sound System playlist.

Continua a leggere →

(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 143: The BV’s

The BV’s (© Bruno Tenschert)

The BV’s are a band from Augsburg, Germany. Their bittersweet, looping, disintegrating mix of indie pop, shoegaze and krautrock came together by chance in the cascading granite greys of a wet English winter in 2016, when Fred moved from Augsburg in Germany to Cornwall in the UK for a University exchange programme and moved in with Josh. After living together for four months, they decided to record some demos for fun, which later became their first album, Speaking From A Distance, released in 2017 on German label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. After Fred moved back to Augsburg, The BV’s continued to make music over the internet, releasing an EP and a second album with Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten (Cartography, 2019), as well as singles with Cloudberry Records (USA), Shiny Happy Records (Indonesia) and Melotron Recordings (Greece). They also toured extensively in Europe and the UK, including appearances at Indietracks and Madrid Popfest. In 2022, Josh moved from the UK to Augsburg. With the band now finally all living in the same city, the bv’s have spent the last year recording their third album, Taking Pictures Of Taking Pictures, which was released on 16th February by Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten and Shelflife Records.

Continua a leggere →

(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 142: Black Tail

Black Tail

Black Tail is an indie rock band from Rome and Latina (Italy): Cristiano Pizzuti (Voice, Guitar, Synths), Simone Sicamanna (Guitar), Cristina Marcelli (Bass) and Roberto Bonfanti (Drums). The idea, and the name of the project, came out of a walk in the woods right outside Boston in 2013. A close encounter with a black-tailed deer, and a bunch of songs written while traveling. One of the songs is a demo recorded with a small portable device in Back Bay, dedicated to Elliott Smith, and presented during a short acoustic set on national radio station Radio Rai1. Three records (Springtime, 2015, One Day We Drove Out Of Town, 2017 and You Can Dream It In Reverse, 2020) released for the indie labels Mia Cameretta and Lady Sometimes, filled with indie-americana, jangle textures, and dreamy guitar arpeggios. The soundscape interlaces and changes, from sunny ballads to a shadowy restlessness. The musical vocabulary is influenced by Wilco, Sparklehorse, Teenage Fanclub, Yo La Tengo, Elliott Smith, all mixed up in an eclectic ecosystem made of handmade drawings and indie rock songs, slight folk roots and a rather lo-fi slackerish attitude. A personal narration of secluded worlds and introspective gazes. Wide Awake on Beds of Golden Dreams, which was recorded at VDSS Recording Studio by Filippo Passamonti between Dec 2022 and Sept 2023, is the band’s fourth full length and will be out on February 23rd (MiaCameretta Records).

Continua a leggere →