Category Archives: TVD UK

The ’90s revival is well and truly alive, but Algernon Doll aka Ewan Grant, is shunning the neon colours, aztec prints, and electro throwbacks in favour of guitars, grunge, and soulful lyrics.

His second album Citalo-pop is out on 10th June, but he’s already released two brilliant tracks and videos online, “Cassini” and “Anti-them.” Visually, his videos are vintage ’90s, harking back to when MTV used to show actual rock music videos.

The tunes are both sing along and introspective and miles away from his debut album Camomile which dealt with Ewan’s issues with extreme anxiety disorder.

Algernon Doll burns a hole straight through the shallow nonsense and Citalo-pop is the sound of something real—Ewan Grant is a proper alt-rock talent who sounds wise beyond his years.

Greater Manchester’s most in the know radio host Shell Zenner broadcasts the best new music every week on the UK’s Amazing Radio.

You can also catch Shell’s broadcast right here at TVD, each and every Thursday.

Stuart Gadd (above right) and AP Childs (left) are promoters in London, and run monthly night Club Radio Free Europe. Both are freelance writers including Artrocker magazine, and in the past Stuart has written for Record Collector magazine. Writing for such publications has helped nurture a love for discovering the old and the new, and has honed his skills as a promoter in the discovery of music further afield across Europe and beyond.

Club Radio Free Europe highlights the best of emerging music in a different country, from Europe and beyond, each month. Their mission is to not only bring in something new, but also to bring a little romance back to the capital’s live music scene.

April was the turn of Estonia and the club brought together the eclectric, absurd, glam and gothic in the form of Kreatiivmootor, an electro-funk dada-ist experimental happening, and ravaging, funky and retro riff-rock of Elephants from Neptune. Two emerging local acts After The Ice and The Red Lapels opened the show. (Our “First Date” with The Red Lapels is here. —Ed.)

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Glaswegian indie boys Cherri Fosphate have just released their debut EP “Burning Youth” this week. The video for “Losing Teeth” is a track taken from the EP and a perfect little slice of Cherri Fosphate’s perfectly formed indie rock.

Comparisons have been made to bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes, “Losing Teeth” definitely feels like an homage to the latter with smatterings of old-skool Biffy Clyro in there for good measure. The video itself features a lovely looking young lady getting ready for a shoot with the band, painting them gold as they turn almost statuesque. We’ve no idea what this even means but it’s a terrific track and one you should definitely check out.

Cherri Fosphate are an exciting new Scots indie four piece, and this video and their EP comes in perfect time for the summer—upbeat, breezy, and addictive.

Anglo-Irish electro inspired four-piece, Saturday Night Gym Club are back with their second EP “The Nowhere Team” in June. After turning more than a few heads last year with debut EP “How To Build A Life Raft,” the boys have developed their sound further, delving into soundscape inspired, ambient dance, and electronic textures. They’re an exciting outfit and more than deserving of our Artist of the Week.

So far, the band have released two delights from “The Nowhere Team” including the free title track download and a brilliant video for “Terra Firma.” Their visual and melodic output is consistently strong and we can only guess what their live shows will be like (that guess is pretty damn exciting by the way!)

Fans of M83, Crystal Castles, and Grimes will be suitably impressed with these guys; the only way for Saturday Night Gym Club from here is up and up!

More great sounds coming from Scotland—there’s no stopping the volume of quality bands coming from its cold and blustery shores. The Deep Red Sky are absolutely marvellous and majestic. With a debut album due out very soon, they are more than worthy of our Artist of the Week.

They’ve already released their single “Zombies,” which was also a free download available from their Bandcamp. The single was a beautiful introduction to the Edinburgh based five-piece who cite their influences as Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro.

However, there’s not a hint of these bands melodically as they channel more of an epic Arcade Fire-esque sound with a hint of The National and that lovely lilting, faint Scottish twang to the vocals.

The Deep Red Sky’s debut album Plans is out on 13th May, 2013

Greater Manchester’s most in the know radio host Shell Zenner broadcasts the best new music every week on the UK’s Amazing Radio.

You can also catch Shell’s broadcast right here at TVD, each and every Thursday.

The/Das are an electro duo from Berlin, only they can’t really be described as an electro duo. They flirt with the idea of electro, techno, and dance but never fully immerse themselves within any of these. In fact, they call their unique brand of music “techno tenderness.” It’s this understated approach to their music which makes their debut EP “Speak Your Mind Speak” so special.

Opener “Have No Fear” feels like the start to an evening. The/Das, duo Fabian Fenk and Anton K. Feist build the track perfectly—it’s epic yet introspective. “Keep This” is one of the stand out tracks on the EP and a perfect example of their “techno tenderness.” There are hints of Matthew Dear here, which is no bad thing.

“Hope And Air” and “Colin” are brilliant comedown tracks, early morning, after a long night out. By the time we hit”‘It’s True,” we see a different side to the band—this is less of the techno and more of the tenderness. It’s thoughtful, beautiful, and sparse.

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