Hayden Thorpe – Moondust For My Diamond

Francesco Giordani per TRISTE©

Devo ammettere di aver scritto già tanto su Hayden Thorpe e sui suoi Wild Beasts, in ormai quasi vent’anni di ininterrotti ascolti e frequentazioni per così dire sonore. In un paio di casi, ad onor del vero, addirittura personali.

Nel 2010, nelle vesti di eccitatissimo corrispondente romano per conto di una rivista che ancor oggi potete trovare in edicola, seguivo non ricordo più quale edizione della rimpianta rassegna M.I.T. Meet in Town all’Auditorium Parco della Musica. Imbattutomi casualmente in un danzante Thorpe, abilmente mimetizzato nella folla grazie ad un cappellino di lana – la breve ma folgorante esibizione della sua band era terminata pochi minuti prima nella sala Teatro Studio – non ebbi un solo istante di esitazione nel riconoscerlo, chiedendo e ottenendo autografo in criptica grafia (l’alcool o chissà che fluido mistico era probabilmente già entrato in circolo) su una Moleskine rossa da cronista rampante che ancora conservo.

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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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Wet Leg – Wet Dream

Wet Leg (Credit: Hollie Fernando)

The Band:
Wet Leg are a British duo, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. They come from the Isle of Wight and are signed to Domino Records. Following almost a decade of friendship (Teasdale and Chambers met at college, and played in various bands and as fledgling solo musicians on their native Isle Of Wight), the pair took a ferris wheel trip at 2019’s End Of The Road festival. It is here where they found the embryonic elements of Wet Leg after seeing IDLES storm the main stage that evening.
Arming themselves with guitars, effervescent imaginations and a shared love of the The Ronettes and Jane Birkin, through to Ty Segall and Bjork, they set about making some recordings of their own. In June (2021), the British duo unveiled their debut single for Domino, Chaise Lonuge. Reception around the track was strong, generating some buzz around their name. The song, which has racked up 3 million streams and a million video views, was produced by Jon McMullen and mixed by Alan Moulder while the music video was directed by the band themselves.

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Constant Follower – Weave of the World (Video Premiere)

The Band:
Ever since the Scottish “soaring-ambient-dreampop-experimental-folk” band began releasing music more than three years ago, Constant Follower’s emotionally honest and pain-stricken, yet warm, lyrics have become one of the project’s most endearing and beloved qualities.  The name of the outfit itself is a reflection of those things that we carry through life, for better or worse, that ultimately define who we are.
As a teenager, McAll woke in hospital to find he had survived an attack by a gang that left him with a catastrophic head injury and every memory of his childhood gone. The next decade was spent in a cabin on the West Coast where Hebridean air was whipped in with the time to reflect and recover, eventually allowing him to begin songwriting again. The songs were originally recorded as raw ideas – thoughts and feelings forged in fleeting moments and recorded onto old cassettes as the wind howled outside. 

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Damon & Naomi – A Sky Record

Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

Dalle mie parti, quando una band esordisce con un album che si chiama More Sad Hits è molto probabile che diventi, velocemente, una delle mie band del cuore.
E’ successo esattamente così tempo fa, saranno trent’anni esatti l’anno prossimo, con il debutto di Damon & Naomi.
C’è da dire, a essere sinceri, che il duo di Boston, Massachusetts, partiva avvantaggiato, essendo i suoi componenti, Damon Krukowski e Naomi Yang, parte (e parte consistente) dei favolosi Galaxie 500.

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