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Walt Disco – The Warping + You Make Me Feel So Dumb

Glasgow’s Walt Disco have today announced their second album The Warping, out June 14th and available to pre-order now. Alongside the album announce the band have released new single “You Make Me Feel So Dumb” – the album’s “cynical disco banger”, inspired by the social burnout suffered from networking while on tour, accompanied by a wonderful tongue-in-cheek video that sees the band tearing up a stuffy corporate mixer event, which you can watch below. The new track is the second release to be drawn from the new album, following January single “Pearl”.

Written on both sides of the Atlantic, from Los Angeles and Austin to Glasgow and London, The Warping is a significant step forward from a band who have already seen strong success with debut album Unlearning. On The Warping, deft lyricism takes in deeply personal issues and writes them large, transposing feelings of envy, fear, joy and hope out of individual experiences. Yearning for another self is a recurring dream on The Warping, as they explore gender dysphoria and envy with radical honesty, accepting them as two tangled threads in the same experience.

Taking the cinematic glam of their debut and pushing it further, the band brought in classically trained orchestral musicians. Sonically, the horns, woodwind and swelling string sections lend an entirely new level to the Walt Disco sound – one that feels both fantastically organic and technically accomplished. While the foundations were laid during pre-album recording sessions at Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music’s studio the songs themselves largely come together in collaboration. The Warping was co-produced by the band and Chris McCrory, with engineering from The Vale studios’ Chris D’Adda, and the instrumentation is almost entirely analogue.

Speaking about the new album the band explain “With The Warping we explore themes of change, growth and dealing with the complex struggles that feature in anyone’s life. It feels like our most biographical body of work yet, listening to it now is like looking at a snapshot of a moment in time for us as people and as a band. This album is a roadmap of our vulnerabilities in a way, but it feels good to be so honest with our music and lay everything on the table with both our lyrics and arrangements. That acceptance of one’s emotions and honesty with oneself is what we’d hope people can take away from listening to The Warping.

Dream Wife – All The Things She Said

To celebrate International Women’s Day, London-based trio Dream Wife – vocalist Rakel Mjöll (she/her), guitarist Alice Go (she/her) and bassist Bella Podpadec (they/them) – have shared their cover of t.A.T.u.’s “All The Things She Said”, recorded during the European leg of their Social Lubrication tour.

Of the release the band says, “The legacy of ‘All The Things She Said’ is a total paradox – being both one of the most high profile examples of queerbaiting in pop culture and also one of the only positive depictions of same sex attraction us and our peers came across as youngsters. That and… it’s also an undeniable bop and everytime we play it live it absolutely pops off! We recorded our cover of All The Things She Said in a studio on the outskirts of Prague during our European headline tour. We had no idea what to expect from our first show in Prague and were thrilled to play to a room full of the most stylish lesbians (and lesbian adjacent people) we have ever seen. It felt cathartic, redemptive and very sexually charged to play this track live for such a receptive audience – as Queer people, for Queer people.

Dream Wife - All The Things She Said (Audio)

The band have also announced more of their riotous live shows across the UK later this year, all dates and tickets links are on their website.

Hinds – Coffee

Hinds today return with a glorious bang sharing “Coffee”, their first new single in 4 years. It also marks the band’s first release as the original duo of Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote since they burst onto the scene in 2014 with debut single, “Bamboo”, and heralds a fresh and invigorated era, now signed to Lucky Number worldwide.

Everything that makes the Spanish band so beloved and acclaimed is on full display on “Coffee”. Produced by Pete Robertson (The Vaccines, beabadoobee) and mixed by the Grammy-winning engineer Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg), it features the signature dual vocals of Carlotta and Ana and doubles down on what is so special about Hinds – the bright melodies betraying universal themes, delivered with an empowering, punk attitude. The band have always represented the strength of female musicianship and friendship, inspiring a generation of young listeners and new artists as a result. Hinds say: “Coffee is a sincericide, screaming the nasty truth as loud as you can with no shame. It’s about admitting to all the things you’re not supposed to like or doing all the things you’re not meant to do. It’s a lot of fun when you can be fully honest and shut that little voice in your head that tells you what you should or shouldn’t do.

The energy at a Hinds show is always palpable, and they kicked off 2024 playing several UK shows for Independent Venue Week, with further gigs now added in May for London, Brighton, Paris, Munich and Berlin, all dates and tickets here. The duo are also set to play SXSW 2024 in March, alongside two sold-out shows at Baby’s All Right in New York. With “Coffee” just the start of an energised new chapter for Hinds, expect to hear much more in the coming months.

Walt Disco – Pearl

Glasgow’s Walt Disco today release brand new single “Pearl”, their first original music since their 2022 debut album Unlearning.

The dreamlike, eagerly awaited track was written and recorded between Glasgow and its namesake Pearl Street Co-Op in Austin, Texas where the band first worked on the track while at SXSW. “Pearl” is accompanied by a stunning video that sees the band perform inside a music box, shot in Paisley Methodist Central Hall.

This song dwells on the homesickness and general disconnect from regular life that can come from being in a touring band.” explains songwriter Jack Martin. “The demands of being a musician can put both literal and figurative distance between you and other people in your life. Your touring bubble starts to feel like the only people you can truly relate to, and this can start to feel quite lonely and alienating. In the chorus of this song, I cast my eye forward in time and consider where the consequences of this lifestyle will leave me, while also accepting that this is the life I’ve chosen and I know it’s what I’m meant to do. The song is built around the keyboard part which I first showed the band on the piano at Pearl Street Coop while we were at SXSW.

Walt Disco - Pearl

Next week, the band will embark on a marathon 2 month UK and European tour in support of electronic pop pioneers OMD, and play Mighty Hoopla festival this summer, with many more headline and festival shows to be announced shortly. All dates and tickets on their website.

Middle Kids – Terrible News

Sydney trio Middle Kids have today released “Terrible News“, the latest single from their forthcoming album Faith Crisis Pt 1, set for release on February 16th and available to pre-order now.

Produced by Jonathan Gilmore (The 1975, beabadoobee), “Terrible News” is a confessional guitar laden track penned by lead vocalist Hannah Joy in an insecure time during covid. “There was a lot of confusion and information and rules and anger and people judging people and loss and distrust. I eventually felt so overwhelmed by all the noise, I couldn’t take it anymore.” explains Joy. “The guitars are kinda shouty too or maybe just urgent. I wanted to stack a lot of guitar layers to create almost a guitar choir. We got a friend Brendan Champion to play some brass on it which really elevates the song as it marches along.

Watch the music video, directed by Nick Mckk and Claire Giuffre, below:

Middle Kids - Terrible News (Official Video)