Into New Music: Albums Round-up December 2024
Well, the countdown for Christmas is well and truly in swing and many of you might be slowing down to enjoy the festivities. Over here at Into Creative towers however, we don’t stop! We have more musical delights to bring you so please read on and check out three great records…………….
Artist: Paul Crowe
Album: Sun Sets The Scene
Reminiscent at times of Mike Hart’s fragile solo career and with the occasional hint of Celtic texture, this makes for a refreshing addition to the rich treasure chest of Merseyside singer-songwriters. Paul Crowe’s Sun Sets The Scene is full of inventive melody, strong vocals and mature arrangements. Highly recommended.
Head to Paul’s Bandcamp page here for more details.
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Artist: Avi C. Engel
Album: Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film)
Label: Elephant Shrew Editions
A gorgeously solemn representation of the moments which sit somewhere on the borderlands of sleep; watery hypnagogic images lacking chrominance are conveyed uneasily, and slowly melt into rich and clear acoustic instrumentation. There’s an ever-present sense of hypnotic and eldritch unrest throughout, subtle enough to never feel forced which creates for a feeling of a dark lullaby. It really is an immense, elegant and thought-provoking album that artfully and gracefully balances dread and beauty.
For more on the album, head to the Bandcamp page here.
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Artist: Meat Whiplash
Album: Collected/ Contextualized
Label: Silvergirl Records
A superb package, beautifully put together to collect the entire work of East Kilbride’s Meat Whiplash. The band are perhaps best known for three things – 1) releasing one great single, Don’t Slip Up on Creation Records, 2) being the support band at the infamous Jesus and Mary Chain London Poly ‘riot’ gig and 3) being the ‘other’ noisy band from East Kilbride who were not the Jesus and Mary Chain.
As is apparent, the Jesus and Mary Chain feature heavily in the story of Meat Whiplash, but it is entirely unfair to remember them purely for that connection alone. On the contrary, they are an important part of Scotland’s 1980’s indie story in their own right. Don’t Slip Up alone is worthy of significance – it is a wonderful and, well, noisy single but it is full of melody and invention and an example of the DIY aesthetic: that working class kids can just go out and make worthwhile art on their own terms. The song was written on the bus journey from Scotland to London on the night before it was due to be recorded and that raw energy is scratched into the surface of the disc.
To order, head to the Silvergirl Records website here.
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Grant McPhee
@GrantMcPheeFilm
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