(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 60: Under The Bridge (part 2)

Under the Bridge (Skep Wax, 2022)

Check here for part one

Under The Bridge is something more than a “compilation album”. It is more a reunion of fourteen bands who used to be on Sarah Records (The Orchids, The Wake, Even As We Speak, Secret Shine, Boyracer, St. Christopher) or whose memebers where in Sarah Records band (Jetstream Pony and The Luxembourg SignalThe Catenary Wires, Tufthunter, Soundwire, Leaf Mosaic, Sepiasound, Useless Users).
Under The Bridge will be released as a CD album, digital download and limited edition vinyl LP. CDs and LPs include a 16-page colour booklet. It will be distributed to stores by Cargo (and in the US, Redeye).

There will be two all-dayer events in 2022, featuring several of the bands on the album, in Bristol (The Thunderbolt) and in London (The Amersham Arms) on 23rd and 24th April respectively.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 59: Under The Bridge (part 1)

Under the Bridge (Skep Wax, 2022)

Bristol’s Sarah Records was a defiantly independent record label. Feted by many – if hated by some – it has been increasingly recognised as a seminal label which, during its short lifetime in the 1990s, created a whole scene around itself. While the label has long since closed its doors, and eschews re-releases, the bands on Sarah – or at least their members – have kept on creating perfect pop music. Under The Bridge is an extraordinary reunion, showcasing new material by fourteen of them. Many are British, but others hail from as far afield as Sydney, Victoria, California and Arizona. There are some names you’ll recognise: The Orchids, The Wake, Even As We Speak, Secret Shine, Boyracer, St. Christopher. In many cases, their line-ups are relatively unchanged. Then, there are newer groups, where different line-ups have evolved: Jetstream Pony and The Luxembourg Signal (both ex-Aberdeen), The Catenary Wires and Tufthunter (both ex-Heavenly), Soundwire (ex-The Sweetest Ache), Leaf Mosaic (ex-Sugargliders), Sepiasound (ex-Blueboy) and Useless Users (ex-Action Painting/Secret Shine).

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Louise Weseth – Woodlands

Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

Prima di decidermi a scrivere queste parole, sono andato a (ri)studiare la definizione di “conflitto di interessi” e mi sono reso conto che, almeno tecnicamente, ciò che mi sto accingendo a fare non è riconducibile in alcun modo a quella fattispecie.
Non esercito funzioni pubbliche e Triste© non è tenuta (tenuto?) a perseguire e/o curare interessi pubblici senza condizionarli.

Ciò non toglie che un pochino in colpa mi senta. E’ la prima volta, da quando insieme ad Alessio ed Emanuele abbiamo dato vita a quell’innocente divertimento che è A Modest Proposal, che mi permetto di parlare di un artista che fa parte del nostro catalogo.
Seppure non si possa configurare alcun conflitto di interessi, ma, più probabilmente, solo un uso privato della cosa… privata, mi è sempre sembrato un po’ scorretto e ho sempre ritenuto che parlare di artisti o dischi “nostri” mi mettesse a rischio di perdere quel poco di credibilità che in tanti anni di scrittura musicale mi sono faticosamente guadagnato (sempre che me ne sia guadagnata).
Ma per Louise Weseth ho deciso di rischiare.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 58: Violent Scenes

Violent Scenes (© Antonio Stea)

Violent Scenes describes itself: “VS is the New Greek Theater. Mindful of Euripides and Godard ’s lesson, it despises the TV theatrical shows and declares that Tragedy is not violent. Violent Scenes is an attempt at being human”.
The band (Giorgio Cuscito: voice, lyrics, electric bass; Gianfranco Maselli: electric guitar, electric bass; Gianvito Novielli: electric guitar, electronics; Antonio Iacovazzi: drums, electronics) lays on a deep long lasting friendship between the members who are based in Apulia, Southern Italy. In five years they staged several works: an album, an EP, the theatrical show Abandons with the apulian company Teatro delle Rane, the psych reading of Dialogues with Leucò by Cesare Pavese, the live painting Sushumna with the sicilian visual artist Silvia Ruggeri, a few sound performances of Godard, Lynch’s and anime films and more than one hundred concerts, opening for Uzeda, Mokadelic, Aki Onda, Control Unit and many others. In 2019 Grim July, the first music video from Stimmung, directed by Antonio Stea, wins the Cineconcerto Music Film Festival in Montecarotto (AN, Italy). The second music video, Nope Face, again directed by Antonio Stea, won a special mention for best experimental film at the Tokyo International Short Film Festival in 2020 and the first prize for best music video at Paris Film Art in 2021.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 56: Honeyglaze

Honeyglaze

“Born out of lead songwriter Anouska’s un-desire to be a solo-act, Honeyglaze met officially at their first ever rehearsal, just three days ahead of what was to become a near-residency at their favoured ‘The Windmill’, Brixton. Forming a mere eighteen-months ahead of a subsequent eighteen-months of mandatory solitude, Honeyglaze have since been making up for lost time, recently performing to a rammed crowd at Green Man festival, and at the iconic 100 Club for Fred Perry’s ‘All Our Tomorrow’s Festival’. Their debut single Burglar is reminiscent of Whitney’s Forever Turned Around and the stylistically-subdued existentialism of Julia Jacklin, or Haley Heynderickx. In their own words, they describe Honeyglaze as “the ungodly fusion of 3 humans into a clamouring superorganism. It eats only fish, and demands undistracted and constant worship. FFO Power Rangers, Salvador Dalí”. Their debut album Honeyglaze will be released 29th April on Speedy Wunderground.

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