(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 150: mòs ensemble

mòs ensemble (c) Lara Gasparatto + Cecilia Valagussa

Since its debut in 2019, mòs ensemble has turned into an eight-piece band guided by a collective vision, with a preference for areas where genres overlap or cease to matter, where rich arrangements of voices and other instruments become fully realized. The band members are active with an impressive list of bands and projects – in pop, jazz and remote areas -, and relinquish this broad-mindedness with a self-evident love for adventure and exciting interaction. The result is a collective in continual transformation, maintaining a balancing act between wonder and determination. Their latest album Pets & Therapy is the sound of a band still honing its sound, refusing to settle for a formula. Not because they’re trying to adapt to the whims of the day, but because their inner urges compel them to. It’s spellbinding to witness how this octet has managed to refine its art while keeping that sense of unpredictable discovery intact. If anything, the ongoing tension between apparent contradictions is what makes their third album such a winner. By now, labels like pop, jazz and chamber music hardly matter anymore. mòs ensemble became a band that swiftly switches from light-footed energy to dense drama, from dreamy fragility to punkish power, from melancholia to euphoria, and from the direct to the whimsical. Recorded in the spring and fall of 2022 in Ghent and Milan, Pets & Therapy boasts eleven songs. It is at once more compact and nimble then its predecessors Limbs (2019) and Behind The Marble (2022). As well as more elaborate and ingenious, the separate parts of the bands merging more fluently while keeping their distinctive individual identities intact.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 149: Jackie West

Jackie West

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jackie West’s songs follow her protagonists across city blocks, into and out of different rented rooms, and down farflung highways that form backdrops for liminal moments in her life. But even when she describes feeling lost -whether in someone else or in the world- West never sounds less than certain of her capacity to navigate the situation, singing in a voice that seems to be able to phrase any thought indelibly. More than two years after her first EP (Find Indigo), out in 2022, her debut album, Close to the Mystery (out May 10th via Ruination Records Co.), threads together moments of searching and reaching out from a variety of relationships and settings. Its masterful baroque-pop songs form abstract scenes in a larger story about a self and worldview taking shape. The varied musical treatments mimic her changes in setting and vantage. She breaks up sophisticated harmonies recalling bossa nova and classic R&B with cycling chord progressions influenced by folk (Tiny Flowers ii), progressive pop, and shoegaze (Snow Amplified). Led by producer/mixer/multi-instrumentalist Sarah Pedinotti (Lip Talk, Kalbells), West’s team of crack musicians accommodate these intrepid shifts, including Shahzad Ismaily, guitarist Adam Brisbin, Nico Osborne (Nicomo), singer-songwriter Katy Pinke, and more. Recorded live with the band, West’s alluring, jazz-inflected vocals sit commandingly at the center of the mix, bringing a diverse collection of classic singers—Sibylle Baier, Vashti Bunyan, Hope Sandoval, Peggy Lee.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 148: The Hit Parade

The Hit Parade

The Hit Parade is a music group that was initially formed by three schoolfriends: Julian Henry, Raymond Watts, and Matthew Moffatt. They founded their own JSH Records label as a vehicle for their releases and released their first single Forever in 1984. Their second and third singles were My Favourite Girl and The Sun Shines in Gerrards Cross. A year later The Hit Parade signed to Stiff Records but the label went out of business before anything (other than a track on a compilation album) was released. The first Hit Parade LP With Love From The Hit Parade was released in 1988. The album has been re-issued several times and is viewed as 80s indie classic. In the 1990s, The Hit Parade signed to Sarah Records label and recorded a single In Gunnersbury Park b/w Harvey and an album, The Sound Of The Hit Parade, in 1993. The Hit Parade then signed to Vinyl Japan and later Polystar Records, had a minor hit with Hello Hannah Hello and toured Japan several times, played at the opening of the Virgin Megastore Shinjuku, Tokyo, appearing on MTV Japan and other music TV shows, and signed to Minty Fresh Records in USA. In 2006 the band produced their fifth LP with The Field Mice and St Etienne producer Ian Catt, The Return of the Hit Parade. In 2014, the Hit Parade released Cornish Pop Songs, songs set in South West England. Five years later the eighth Hit Parade LP The Golden Age Of Pop was released on JSH Records. Now the band is back together for Under The Bridge 2, the new compilation by Skep Wax featuring bands linked to the Sarah Record experience.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 147: The Ian Fays

The Ian Fays

THE IAN FAYS are a Northern Californian indie pop-rock group comprised of identical twin sisters, Lizzie and Sara. The Fays released their first album, The Damon Lessons, via Homesleep in late October of 2003. In the years to follow, the twins toured the US and Europe multiple times after their subsequent releases, Dylan’s Lost Days (2008) and Jensen’s Camera (WWNBB 2011). On Halloween 2013, in celebration of their 10 year anniversary as a band, The Ian Fays released The Most Spectacular Party, and again toured extensively before taking a hiatus to foster a new generation of little Fays. On October 31st, 2023, in celebration of their 20 year anniversary as a band, The Fays released the title-track single from their upcoming album, Viola, followed by two more tracks, Olive Says and New Year’s Eve. The new album Viola, 5th LP release from the twins, was published on February 16th, 2024 via WWNBB Collective. On March 13th, the band attended one of the most important showcase festivals in the world, SXSW in Austin, Texas.

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(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.

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