(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 46: Meyverlin

Meyverlin

Meyverlin is a musical project that traces a link between Auxerre (France) and Lexington (Virginia, United States) where Thierry Haliniak (My Raining Stars) and Philippe Lavergne (Les Freluquets etc.) live respectively. The duo is completed by Gilles Ramey, author of the lyrics. The group offers us a refreshing makeover of guitar and jangle pop (like it still was around 1985-1995). The members of the band recorded all their materials swapping music through the net and the result is Daily Events, their debut album which was released on October 15th on the Brest label Too Good To Be True.
This is a real guitar-pop album, for indie-pop lovers, fans of C86 sound, and in particular Pale Fountains, Shack, The Lightning Seeds, Candy Opera or even Field Mice.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 45: Swansea Sound

Swansea Sound

Swansea Sound is a band that came into being during lockdown and decided that fast, loud, political indiepop punk was the answer to being stuck indoors.
Hue Williams is reunited with Pooh Sticks singing partner Amelia Fletcher (ex- Talulah Gosh, Heavenly), Rob Pursey (also ex-Heavenly) and Ian Button (Wreckless Eric’s live collaborator) provide the noise (Amelia, Rob and Ian also perform in The Catenary Wires). The band has played just one gig in real life – but there will be more in 2022.
Four of the tracks of their debut album Live at the Rum Puncheon, which will be out on November 19th, have already been released as short run singles on a variety of formats. 
The Rum Puncheon, a notorious pub in Swansea, closed down decades ago.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 44: The Slow Summits

The Slow Summits

The Slow Summits is a four-piece indiepop band from Linköping, Sweden: Anders Nyberg is the lead vocalist, plays rhythm guitar and does backing vocals, Mattias Holmqvist Larsson plays bass guitar, keyboards and Percussions and does backing vocals, Karl Sunnermalm plays lead guitar, keyboards, piano, harmonica and glockenspiel and Fredrik Svensson plays drums and sings backing vocals.
Slow Summits was the fifth studio album by the Scottish band The Pastels, released in 2013 and (who knows?) the band was named after that record. 
So far the Swedish band had a wonderful debut e.p. out in 2019, Languid Belles, (on two of the songs on the Languid Belles EP, Amelia Fletcher does some stunning backing vocals) a couple of jangly pop songs in 2020 (Safe And Sorry and Not The One) and a new song which was out this summer, Then Again. It’s unclear at the moment if they’re working on a debut album, but a couple more songs are in the making and hopefully one of them will be out before Christmas.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 43: Olivier Rocabois

Olivier Rocabois (credit: Alain Bibal)

Self-taught Breton singer-songwriter Olivier Rocabois was born in 1974. Quite soon he abandoned his studies in law and history to devote himself to his passion: Anglo-Saxon pop, The Beatles and their descendants. He, then, founded a myriad of groups in Rennes and then in Paris. ALL IF group was created in 2008 with Antoine Pinchot and Valentin Dutrey. A hundred concerts and a couple of self-produced records later, the album Absolute Poetry was released in the summer of 2017 (Pschent Music / Alter K). He also created a cover duet with German musician Jan Stümke: Puppets Of Digression. In addition, Olivier gladly lends his pen and/or his voice to more electronic obedience projects: Slove, Plaisir de France, Fedou, Kool Bandits, Now. Married, father of two boys, he lives as a recluse in his cottage in Yvelines. Raised on cult albums (Ram by McCartney, Giant Steps by the Boo Radleys), Rocabois developed an eclectic taste for the refined and the organic. His first solo record, the magnificent Olivier Rocabois Goes Too Far, was released on April 2, 2021 for the Acoustic Kitty label.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 42: Natalie Jane Hill

Natalie Jane Hill

Austin, TX Songwriter Natalie Jane Hill recasts the purest sort of folk music in a modern light, distilling intricate guitar picking and throaty, emotion-laden melodies into songs whose simple contours give way to hidden crevices and eccentricities. Her voice is like a breeze through the trees and her debut album Azalea caught a lot of attention last year (here!). Solely, her second album, again on Dear Life Records, adds pedal steel from Mat Davidson and Bob Hoffnar, as well as wonderful cello parts that recall Nick Drake.
Her incredible fingerpicking and her guitar are still the rocks around which her music is built, but her voice, with a distinct quick vibrato, is the unmistakable and unique feature of the record, reminding Sandy Denny or Linda Thompson.

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