There Goes the Fear, a UK/US Music Web site | Live UK gigs, news, and events

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Live Gig Video: Joshua Burnside shares acoustic version of ‘Desert Wine’, set to short video clips from his phone

I wasn’t sure where to put this video on TGTF, as it doesn’t fit neatly into any of our normal feature type. Since we often put acoustic live versions in the Live Gig Video section, I’ve decided to stick this here. Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll tell you more about the video. We all have photos and videos that we’ve taken randomly and saved on our phones, right? But how many of us actually do anything useful – or creative – with them? Northern Irish singer/songwriter Joshua Burnside had been collecting video clips, taking the advice to do so from his friend and fellow artist Emily McIlwaine.

To celebrate the recent release of a new album, he has set one of the album tracks to a collection of his video clips. ‘Wear Bluebells in Your Hat If You’re Goin’ That Way’, available now from Quiet Arch Records, is a 2019 updated version of the 2017 Northern Irish Music Prize winner’s 2013 EP ‘If You’re Going That Way’, which had only five tracks. The ‘Wear Bluebells…’ version now is 10 tracks strong, including an acoustic single version of the previously released studio version of ‘Desert Wine’. Watch and listen to the new version of the song below. Joshua Burnside is scheduled to perform next month at SXSW 2019; to date, his only official appearance on the official SXSW schedule is on Friday night, 15 March, at the Victorian Room at the Driskill. All of our coverage on TGTF on Burnside can be accessed through here.

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #413: Elder Island

When I first started blogging 10 years ago, bands with the word ‘bear’ in their name was a thing. Now it seems that the buzz word is ‘island’. (See my review last week of Low Island’s ‘In Person’.) The word ‘island’ conjures up individuality, but at the expense of isolation. Elder Island, named after a real place in Canada, are an electronic-driven trio who prove that isolation used as a means for indie bands to carefully create their art can be successful. The like-minded friends who were all studying art in Bristol have been steadily moving forward with their experimental music side gig over the last 6 years. 2019 is set to be Elder Island’s year, their time in the limelight, and congratulations are in order, and not just for their all-important shout to SXSW 2019. Last Friday, they self-released their debut album ‘The Omnitone Collection’.

They showed early promise on ‘Golden’, appearing on their 2016 ‘Seeds in Sand’ EP. You can understand the track’s origin, used as a transitional, loose point in our set where we could just let go a little”, as you get caught up in its beguiling vibrations. Katy Sargent’s vocals, stretched and echoey, act more like another electronic part layered on top of synthesisers. From the new LP, the first taster revealed to the wild was the rhythmically-mesmerising ‘Don’t Lose’. On it, their ability to pen a catchy tune is written all over it, and Sargent’s vocals have less effects put on it than on the EP, which make them more human. The accompanying promo video is a playful visual of how deft they are in transforming what could be techie electronic elements into parts totally accessible once incorporated into a pop song. Electronics aren’t just for nerds who that love them. These days, those who can use them in tandem with good songwriting are in good position indeed.

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #412: Breathe Panel

I’ve admitted publicly more than a few times here on TGTF that shoegazer slacker rock isn’t my cup of tea. I can appreciate that some find it the music and disaffected vocals great to chill out to, while other gear heads actually like the mechanics behind creating that oozy woozy, lazy sound. I don’t know why it’s taken me so many years to come to this conclusion: As an East Coast American with a Type A, neurotic, impatient personality, the sounds of guitar notes that aren’t played quite that precisely are probably what set me off. I think I could be making major strides here, as when I was going through the bands who were given a shout to SXSW 2019, I actually liked a band from this subgenre of rock! Ladies and gents, I bring you Breathe Panel.

The band use Brighton as their home base, so while their signing to local legendary FatCat Records isn’t entirely unexpected, it is worth applauding since there are so many fledgling artists there. Taking their location into account – being never too far from the soothing sounds of the lapping waves and evocative days and nights by the beach – their choice of swirling guitars and vocals oh so diaphanous that you couldn’t stick a pin in them make total sense. So do their noted influences of American bands Real Estate and Deerhunter, as well as their choice of producer for their debut album, MJ of Hookworms. On said album released last summer, they do their genre contemporaries proud, balancing upbeat, more agile numbers (‘On My Way’, ‘Sunrise / Sunshine’) with slower-moving ones (‘Hue’, ‘Red Wine Glass’). In that way, they’ve proven the name of their band is appropriate: panels are known to be solid and reliable, while ‘breathe’ describes the dreamy nature of their music well. Under the mood lighting found in many venues in Austin come nightfall, there’s sure to be those mesmerised by them.

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Live Gig Video: The Ninth Wave share short film for single ‘Half Pure’

Post-punks The Ninth Wave is part of a small but strong contingent of Scottish bands scheduled to showcase next month at SXSW 2019. Last May, I previewed their band ahead of their appearances at the 2019 editions of Live at Leeds and The Great Escape. As they’ve gone on, they have steadily building up a catalogue of short films designed to go beyond the conventional promo video and provide an appropriate visual counterpart to their music. The latest installment in the film series is the video for single ‘Half Pure’, which is now available from Distiller Records. Their synth-driven rock sound, as performed live, is joined here with their interpretation of a runway show, albeit one that’s gory and subversive, described in the press release as “incorporating elements of classic ’90s anti-fur campaigns and Alexander McQueen’s iconic runways. The concept is inspired by deploration of the consumerist, superficial nature of modern society and how overwhelming it can be to live in a “plastic World War III.”” Check it out below. For more on The Ninth Wave here on TGTF, follow this link.

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #411: APRE

In case you somehow missed the meteoric rise of Brighton’s Royal Blood and Tunbridge Wells’ Slaves, musical duos have proven you can make it in the UK music world without having what we used to consider a necessary full band. Ahead of their scheduled appearance Austin, I’d like you to meet another talented pair, APRE. Legend has it that Charlie Brown (yes, really) and Jules Konieczny first met during a chance meeting at Ealing Chess Club. You’ll have to wait until I meet them one day for us to find out who’s head is better in the game. Maybe they’ll teach me?

My first impression of their sound was how similar it is to another London duo we introduced you all to last year, Kawala. I’m not the only one to have noticed this sameness: late last year, the two acts were tapped for the Hopscotch tour powered by Utilita, an extension of Radio 1’s Jack Saunders’ club night. A feather in APRE’s cap that I don’t think Kawala have managed is to have a #1 single on Hype Machine. This fateful event occurred in spring 2018, and the song that got them there was ‘All Yours’, which also appeared on their later EP ‘The Movement of Time’. A jaunty guitar line plays over a smooth backdrop of keyboards on ‘All Yours’, and the syncopated vocals live in that sweet spot between pop and hip-hop. The vocals are echoey, too, and along with its accompanying video that must have been shot from high up by a drone. The overall effect brings you to the lazy days of summer. And who doesn’t love that in the middle of winter as I write this?

A more pronounced r&b edge has been introduced in their latest single, ‘Backstreet’. With an insistent tropical beat making the song super catchy, this sure ain’t your momma’s Backstreet Boys. This is also where APRE diverge from Kawala. The falsetto vocals and r&b groove are reminiscent of that of Jungle’s, but how the keyboards are employed here will remind you of the feel good moments of Hurts. Ultimately, APRE are the kind of act you’d expect to find in 2019, having taken the best bits from those who came before and having seen what works in today’s pop and what doesn’t. While their red jackets and sunglasses may get them confused for Nancy Pelosi in Austin, I reckon as soon as their music begins, any potential mix-up should soon fade away.