Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her reviews of new music with singles from Shady Baby Held In, Mye_Taai Blue Tick and Fosfín Retornello
Artist: Shady Baby
Track: Held In
Brighton indie-rock project Shady Baby rounds off 2024 with new single Held In. Keeping its toes dipped in anxieties and euphorias of U.S 90s Alt-Rock, Held In offers music of resistance and grit; of powering head-on through the heartbreak. Recorded with Dan Crook (Nadine Shah, Nuha Ruby Ra), and mixed by Theo Verney (English Teacher, Lime Garden, Egyptian Blue), the single dovetails driving, pared-back productions and a surging heart-on-sleeve melancholy.
It builds its edgy atmosphere throughout the track, the mesmeric quality of the guitars in particular capturing the ears of the listener. There is nothing downbeat about Held In, with its continuously buidling emotional power as it continues. A track that demands a repeat listen as soon as it ends.
Offering more on the track, Project spearhead Sam Leaver says: "Held In reflects on those lingering dreams that feel real but fade away suddenly when you wake up - so the lyrics are quite loose, with some references to those dreams I was having. The backing vocals, part-sung by my sister, were lifted from the demo and reflect that fading feeling in the chorus. It’s both about that and a sense of renewal and determination to keep moving forwards.”
The solo vehicle for Brighton-based songwriter Sam Leaver, Shady Baby were picked up by Nice Swan Records in 2022 after playing just one gig. Invited by Radio X to perform at Y Not festival this summer, a healthy spate of live shows in their native Brighton and across the south of England has brought support slots for the likes of Been Stellar, Personal Trainer, Malice K and Priestgate, plus dates on the DORK Hypelist tour, at Supersonic in Paris, and Mutations Festival
Shady Baby Live Dates
2024
8 December - Brighton, Dalton’s [Slack City Radio Live Broadcast]
2025
29 January - Brighton, The Hope & Ruin (W/ Cucumaras)
4-9 March - New York, The New Colossus Festival
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Artist: Mye_Taai
Track: Blue Tick
Mye_Taai has released their latest track Blue Tick (ft. Jamie Thrasivoulou of KEZ). It's a darkly atmospheric piece which delves into the depths of sound with its heavy basement rave vibes. You’re given 5 seconds to breathe in, before it catapults you straight into a list of thought clouds and refutations.
‘’Did you ever ask yourself who you would be if you all got what you wanted as a kid?’’
Thematically Blue Tick entices the listener into a shadowy world, reflecting the struggles of connection in a digital age. The electronic beats are hypnotic but the hint of edgy tension, perhaps reflecting the subject matter. The lyrics are by Mike Eelkema (aka Mye_Taai) & Jamie Thrasivoulou.
Mye_Taai describe themselves as Rave Club Punk which on the evidence of this track is spot on. As the song evolves with a sleazy bass on top of more nasty beats and synths, the song builds and builds and suddenly calms to a grinding halt. Around the 3 minute mark a train from Derby tries to stop in Den Haag with a boisterous sound. In comes the voice of the announcer, one of England's most vital poets Jamie Thrasivoulou (lead singer of KEZ) echoes through the speaker to confront either the listener, the writer or the passenger about the state we are in, you are in, I’m in or none of us is.
''Where’s your blue tic tac mate?''
Mye_Taai Live Date
9 November - Newcastle, Little Buildings
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Artist: Fosfín
Track: Retornello
Dublin based art rock band Fosfín (Irish and Icelandic word for phosphine) released their debut single Retornello on 31 October 2024. It's taken from their forthcoming EP Mutant, a self-recorded, DIY project set for release in January 2025.
Fosfín was founded by Brazilian born, Dublin based Paula Moura, and in 2023 drummer Meg Bruce (Tone Deaf, Gag Reflex and Shark School) joined the lineup for the recording of the EP. The band's music fuses distorted guitars with harmonic and syncopated rhythms, drawing influence from Brazilian popular music. Befitting its release date Retornello is a crisp yet twitchy slice of vampire inspired spookiness. The breathless vocals add to the atmosphere which is seeped in the darkness of the night.
Paula expands on the debut single “Retornello is one of the first songs I ever wrote! Back in 2009, while living in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, my band at the time, Fosfina, recorded a demo of it. I rediscovered the track in 2022, and I thought it still sounded very good, so I decided to give it another go. Once I had a new demo I shared it with Meg, who composed incredible drums for it. She also came up with the idea for the outro, which quickly became one of my favorite parts of the song.”
Meg and Paula’s former bandmates from Brazil (Daniela Steagall and Camilo Ramalho) were credited as co-songwriters, creating a meaningful bridge between two distinct eras of her life as a musician.
“The original lyrics were in Portuguese, so it took me a while to figure out the right approach in English. I always thought the lead guitar had a fun, spooky element, which led me to turn it into a horror song. The vampire theme was inspired by the TV show What We Do in the Shadows, which I'm a big fan of. My take was to write from the vampire's perspective - or the 'bad guy' - although the human turns bad in the end as well.”
Retornello dances in a post-punk black and white light, as does its music video. This is death-disco taken to its logical conclusion, hypnotically abrasive, but clean and straight. Fosfín open up and let you in, but they know what they’re doing, and how to get you out. For all their comfort in the shadows, this is a band who know how to capture a moment of pop-brilliance, and Retornello (a reference perhaps, to the recurring passage in Renaissance music and Baroque music of nearly the same name) is littered with them.
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