Uncle Tupelo - Chickamauga

When Americana pioneers Uncle Tupelo released their major-label debut, Anodyne on October 5th, 1993, it should have been the beginning of something big. In a way, it was. Led by Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy from tiny Belleville, Illinois, the alt-country movement’s promising breakout band was packing clubs in major cities across America and Europe, not just the college towns where they spent years building their fan base.
They were following up their left-turn acoustic record, March 16-20, 1992, recorded with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, with their best record yet — one that amplified the band’s strongest assets, the marriage of Jay Farrar’s yearning heartland spirit with Jeff Tweedy’s punk-rock soul.
Anodyne smoothed the jarring, start-stop rhythms of the band’s first two records, No Depression and Still Feel Gone, into a straight-ahead steamroll behind new drummer Ken Coomer. Farrar’s barbed guitar riffs sear on “Chickamauga,” where he compares a crumbling relationship to a Civil War bloodbath. Quieter moments such as the title track flex the strength of new multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston, who played dobro, banjo and fiddle, and former guitar tech John Stirratt, who held down bass when Tweedy switched to guitar.
Despite the buzz, Uncle Tupelo never had a hit. Their closest brush with fame was playing Late Night with Conan O’Brien on national TV, and they didn’t break the Billboard Top 200 until the compilation 83/93: An Anthology peaked at Number 173 in 2002. But following the band’s final show, a mere six months after releasing Anodyne, the band’s influence grew as Farrar and Tweedy found success with Son Volt and Wilco, respectively.
Eventually, the friction between lifelong friends Farrar and Tweedy brought down the band at their biggest moment. Tweedy rushed the remaining members of Uncle Tupelo into the studio to record Wilco’s 1995 debut A.M., while Farrar took the long cut and found success with the hit single “Drown” on Son Volt’s Trace a year later.
Farrar has continued to wrestle with obscure, early country and folk music and his textured guitar wranglings over eight solid albums. Wilco has evolved from a Tupelo-twin to an engine of reinvention, from the deconstructionist country-rock of 1996’s Being There to the shimmering heartbreak of 1999’s Summerteeth and 2001’s experimental Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Although the two have apparently reconciled since the band’s final show in 1994, Anodyne is where the fissures in their friendship, and Uncle Tupelo, grew into a fault and spawned two of Americana music’s biggest bands.  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/uncle-tupelos-anodyne-at-25-oral-history-wilco-733327/

 

Minor Gold - Way To The Sun

This is the second album from the Australian-based duo Minor Gold (Australian Dan Parsons and Canadian Tracy McNeil), the pair originally bonding in McNeil’s band, Tracy McNeil & The Good Life, before setting out on their new venture. Their first self-recorded album was well received, with AUK saying it was “a folksy offering with overtones of Simon and Garfunkel, a slice of Graham Nash-sounding harmony.” For “Way To The Sun”, the pair travelled to California and recruited drummer Austin Beede and, more importantly, the talents of Dan Horne, who produced the album and played bass and pedal steel. Horne has a fine pedigree, with acts such as Beechwood Sparks, Cass McCombs, and Mapache under his belt, and he lifts the album some degrees higher than on their debut.
The PR blurb mentions “sun-dappled folk rock”, and that’s not too far from the truth. The album is firmly rooted in that era when golden-haired hippies ruled the airwaves with bands such as America and their song ‘Ventura Highway’ and Nash’s ‘Our House’ painting a California idyll. ‘Break It Fake It’ and ‘Moonlight Silver Highway’ are the prime exponents, but it’s also evident on the deep swoon which is ‘Love Is A Killer’, alongside the closing number ‘The One Who Loves You’. With perfect harmony singing, fine guitar picking and some glorious gliding pedal steel, these songs are sure to resurrect memories for anyone who was around to hear such sentiments in the first instance.
Several songs are more nuanced. The opening title song has some of that foxy southern country soul which Bobby Gentry popularised, while ‘Pretty Peggy’, especially with its burbling bass and cosmic pedal steel, can be considered somewhat akin to some of the songs on the Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty”. The standout song, however, is the gentle and quite gorgeous ‘Leave A Light On‘, which finds the band gently backing the pair’s gorgeous vocals and harmonising. While “Way To The Sun” might be rooted in past times, it’s kind of heartening to hear those sounds being brought up to date in such a fine fashion.  From: https://americana-uk.com/minor-gold-way-to-the-sun 

Monolith - Starchild

The official animated music video for Monolith‘s most recent single, “Starchild,” has been published. Monolith is made up of former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini, Hernán “Motley” Rodríguez (bass/vocals), and Andy Barrow (guitars/vocals). The video, which was animated by Carlo Cassani and directed by Rodríguez. The first three singles, “Oligarchs,” “Mother Martyr,” and “Gooru,” were released last year, marking the beginning of Monolith’s entire concept tale. In December 2025, “Farmer” was released.
Early in 2025, Monolith made a splash in the music industry by shocking everyone with the release of their debut track, “Oligarchs.” When word leaked out that Mangini was collaborating with Barrow and band founder Rodríguez on this new endeavor, the song made headlines. Following his time with Dream Theater, Mangini would join Monolith as his first band. Since its premiere, the “Oligarchs” music video has received close to 400,000 views. The follow-up, “Mother Martyr,” has received over 480,000 views and is still gaining popularity among followers worldwide.
Rock, metal, and Latin rhythms are all pushed to their limits by the dynamic and genre-defying band Monolith, which combines a distinctive mix of musical influences and backgrounds. When Rodríguez, Barrow, and producer Gabo Sanoja came together to create music that was both inventive and profoundly expressive, the band was born. Mangini finished the band, adding a renowned percussion force to the early iterations of Monolith‘s sound. Pushing musical limits is just as important to Monolith as building deep, impactful relationships with their audience. Their music, which showcases an inventive blend of genres that promises to challenge listeners and inspire new ideas in contemporary rock and metal, is a monument to their collaborative spirit.  From: https://chaoszine.net/monolith-releases-new-single-starchild/

 

Nastee Chapel - Live at Roots at Ebenezer's 2024

There are songs that entertain, and then there are songs that transport you to another realm. Nastee Chapel’s 10-track alternative folk album, “Lost and Found”, is firmly planted in the latter category. With the gentle strumming of acoustic guitars, the haunting melodies of flutes, and soul-stirring vocals, this album is nothing short of a musical odyssey through the heart and soul.
The album commences with “Old Wind,” setting the tone for the introspective journey you’re about to embark upon. Nastee Chapel’s opening lines, “Old wind, holy ground, light the fire, gather round,” immediately envelop you in a sense of reverence. These lyrics gently beckon us to feel the storm, to become one with the ever-turning wheel of existence.
In “Rivers Run Dry,” Nastee Chapel takes us on a soul-searching journey. Their lyrics, “The sun rises slowly in the distance, ear to the shell, but no ocean hears your call,” remind us of the futility of seeking answers outside when the truth often resides within. This song explores the resistance we encounter on the path to self-discovery and the triumph that follows when we break down our walls.
“50 Soldiers” marches on a haunting melody that lingers in your mind. The lyrics, “One day, you’ll find that you’re wide awake,” speak to the awakening of the spirit. It’s a call to rouse ourselves from complacency, to question our own internal battles, and to realize that one day, we must confront our own truths.
“Darkness Awaits”: This track delves into the concept of a sleeping soul. It suggests that, in the past, we’ve traveled alone but that the journey transforms when we awaken to the truth. The lyrics, “And in the night you feel them call unto a paradise that is home once more,” capture the essence of self-discovery, where we awaken to our own inner paradise.
“Sisters” resonates with a deep connection between souls. The song encapsulates the bond between kindred spirits, encapsulated by lyrics such as “Sister, lie here at my side, I’ll share with you oceans deep and kingdoms wide.” It’s a reminder that on the path to self-discovery, we often find kindred spirits who guide us through.
“Innocent Burning” confronts the devastating impact of our actions on the world. It asks us to reflect on the consequences of our choices. The lyrics, “You can burn my flesh, but not my soul,” implore us to recognize the fire that exists within us, a fire that refuses to be extinguished by external forces.
In “Codeine,” Nastee Chapel’s lyrics confront addiction, whether to substances or ideologies. They challenge the idea that we should conform to norms that don’t align with our true selves. This song is a plea to break free from societal expectations and to embrace our uniqueness.
“Surrender” is a track that reflects the universal journey of letting go. Nastee Chapel’s lyrics capture the internal struggle, the push and pull between what is, and what we want to be. It’s a reminder that surrender is a form of empowerment.
“Down By The River” takes us to the river’s edge, where we confront the reflection of our inner selves. The lyrics, “We dangle from our web to touch our tiptoes on the floor,” encapsulate the delicate balance between self-discovery and self-acceptance.
The album concludes with “The Lamb,” an exploration of wandering souls and the pursuit of knowledge. Nastee Chapel’s lyrics convey a sense of unity with the universe. It’s a powerful reminder that in the pursuit of self-discovery, nothing is ever truly lost, only found anew.  From: https://medium.com/@boyziibusiness/nastee-chapels-lost-and-found-a-folk-odyssey-of-self-discovery-fdb664ad7482

Aerosmith - S/T - Full album

01 Make It
02 Somebody
03 Dream On
04 One Way Street
05 Mama Kin
06 Write Me a Letter
07 Movin' Out
08 Walkin' the Dog

“Good evening people, welcome to the show!” That’s the first thing you hear on Aerosmith’s self-titled debut album, and it’s a sentiment that only gets more poignant over time. Released during the first week of 1973, the album sometimes gets overlooked within Aerosmith’s classic 70s run. But listen closely, and you’ll find it more than holds up all these years later. You have two Aerosmith standards (“Mama Kin” and “Movin’ Out”), a few of their tastiest deep cuts, and one all-time rock classic, “Dream On.” Not bad for a mere two weeks’ work in the studio.
But, of course, the real work went down beforehand. By the time Aerosmith piled into Intermedia Sound Studios on Newbury Street in Boston, they’d had two years of gigging under their belt. Their first show was in November 1970 at a high school in the suburb of Upton, and it was gigs like that – plenty of them, in every no-glory venue they could find – that turned Aerosmith into a world-class group. At that time, superstar bands just weren’t breaking out of Boston. Aerosmith’s success went a long way toward establishing the city as a rock stronghold – setting the stage for the rise of Boston and The Cars later in the decade.
If Aerosmith has a theme, it’s about being young and hungry, dealing with setbacks, and staring them down. “Mama Kin” and “Movin’ Out” both capture that mood. The latter song was the first tune that Tyler and Perry ever wrote together, igniting their still-ongoing collaboration. Then there’s “Dream On,” which Tyler has described as a song “about the hunger to be somebody.” The track’s message – keep pushing till your dreams come true – is timeless. So is the power of Tyler’s vocal on that anthemic chorus. As Tyler revealed in an Instagram post, he wrote the music on a pump organ when he was 17; the words came during a two-day stay in a hotel at Boston’s Logan Airport.
The album’s deeper cuts have plenty to offer too. Rufus Thomas’ “Walking the Dog” was the first in a string of raucous blues and R&B covers; most of their 70s albums would eventually have one. “One Way Street” is the most extended cut on any of those albums; its harmonica/guitar showdown shows them taking the influence of the Yardbirds and supercharging it. “Somebody” is an early example of electric Perry/Whitford guitar synchrony; lead and rhythm are perfectly intertwined, each part essential to the other. “Write Me a Letter” even has a bit of New York Dolls swagger to it.
Aerosmith is without doubt the roughest sounding of all their albums, and the band members have expressed reservations with its sound. On their second album, Jack Douglas would take his place as producer. “We were all pretty naive about everything, including working in the studio,” Perry told Guitar World a few years ago. “The microphone picks up what you play, and that’s what gets recorded.”  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/aerosmith-self-titled-debut-album-feature/

Boss Keloid - Hats the Mandrill

There is no sneaking up on us from the bushes this time around; not after the critical success of Melted on the Inch. No, Wigan’s greatest export, Boss Keloid, are going to have to win us over by producing a pretty mean album with all eyes upon them. Their unique brand of hipster prog-stoner-doom was a clinic in quirky obfuscation several years ago, taking many of us by storm. Heck, Melted… was my Number Five album in 2018. Typically the novelty can wear thin between releases, but it seems as though the anticipation for Family the Smiling Thrush has been steadily growing. Can the lads deliver?
In a bold statement, the album’s longest song opens the album. “Orang of Nylon” starts suspiciously like most of the songs from Melted on the Inch did, with an awkward rhythm and a cleanish guitar melody. Vocals come in with a thick rhythm guitar beneath them, but the riff a minute and a half in is monstrous, and the way they augment it throughout the song is stellar. When a nine-minute song flies by, and finishes with a pretty heavy and spectacular flourish, listeners rejoice. “Gentle Clovis” has a similar arrangement, illustrating that the quirkiness of Melted on the Inch is still there, from the complex, awkward, yet hooky riffs to the uplifting and enthusiastic vocals, but it’s more aggressive, and progressive, than before.
If anything, Boss Keloid have gotten heavier on Family the Smiling Thrush. The loss of keyboardist Matthew Milne has been backfilled with layers of guitars, at times adding thick chords beneath the main riffs, at other times augmenting those riffs with inventive interplay. “Hats the Mandrill” is a great example of this, a front-to-back heavier song that anything on Melted… with a great riff and multiple guitar parts. For the most part the band eschews the use of quirky sounds, instead relying on the mind-bending riffs and clever melodies to carry the day. The riff-vocal interplay is at its heaviest on “Flatt Controller,” which closes out the album in stellar fashion, as both guitars and vocals heat up throughout the verses until both are at the melting point.
It’s like there’s some sort of band contest going on here. Paul Swarbrick is like “Okay, here’s my most messed-up riff yet, deal with it,” and Alex Hurst replies with “That all you got? I can throw a vocal melody over that in my sleep!” Then whomever names the songs is like “hold my beer while I activate my random word generator.” But hey, at least this time around Boss Keloid used actual words for the song titles, even if they still baffle us. It would all be a bit too pretentious if it wasn’t so damned fun – and sounded so damned great. The production is full-throated, with every instrument including Hurst’s voice amped up to an almost belligerent level yet all gelling perfectly. If one thing could be improved it would be to cut back on the vast amount of lyrics and give the musicians a bit more time to stretch out and explore, but the truth is it’s hard not to dig what’s going on here.  From: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/boss-keloid-family-the-smiling-thrush-review/

 

Betty Davis - Crashin' From Passion / If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up

 Betty Davis - Crashin' From Passion

 Betty Davis - If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up

One of my favorite recordings of Betty Davis isn't a song. In the summer of 1974, the funk singer/songwriter appeared on Al Gee's Rap N' Rhythm, a nationally syndicated interview program that was regularly pressed to vinyl and sent to radio stations by the U.S. Army Reserve. Betty had just turned 30 and was about to start her first tour to help promote her second studio album, They Say I'm Different. Their conversation barely lasted 20 minutes, so Gee could only ask a short series of boilerplate questions about her creative process and astrological sign. Nonetheless, there's this delightful moment where Betty is asked to describe her musical style and she responds in a distinctive Pittsburgh-by-way-of-Greensboro drawl: "I would just say it's raw ... r-a-w."
For many musicians, this kind of casually playful back-and-forth might not be revelatory, but that changes if you consider that the Rap N' Rhythm session is, as far as I know, the only extant recorded interview of Betty in the '70s. As such, it's one of the only times where we get a glimpse of her outside her musical persona, and the contrast is startling. Betty the funk artist was irrepressibly rowdy and raucous, a larger-than-life personality who could command a stage with little more than a pose. However, on Gee's program, Betty could be surprisingly soft-spoken, bordering on demure at times (though perhaps that was in response to Gee all but fawning over her). After her "r-a-w" line, she and Gee share a laugh. The first time I heard the recording I realized that, despite having interviewed Betty numerous times between 2007-09, I couldn't recall ever hearing her laugh before. It was nice.
Betty Mabry Davis, who passed away early Wednesday morning in Pittsburgh at the age of 77, was an intensely enigmatic artist, having spent the first 30 years of her life on a remarkable ascent into the spotlight only to utterly vanish from public view for the next 30 years. Up until 2007, when the first legitimate reissues of her music began to roll out, the primary way you would have discovered her at all was by randomly finding one of her three studio albums in a record store bin. Once you did though, it was like being let in on a secret that you instantly wanted to share with others.
Her songs were filled with gritty yet sultry style of electrified funk — dirtier than James with more blues than Sly. Likewise, as a vocalist, she shared little in common with her gospel-trained contemporaries with their perfect pitch and vocal control; she took her cues from growling blues singers like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Moreover, she was doing all this as an unapologetically outspoken, sexually empowered performer who shocked the Black cultural establishment of her time. Both musically and professionally, she was an artist without much precedent nor peer and because of that, she's been the object of constant fascination and inspiration for decades. I always think of how Joi, the accomplished neo-soul singer/songwriter, once told me that when she was first introduced to Betty's music almost 30 years ago, it was a "revelation that I was not alone."
It's important to remember that prior to (and even after) Betty's recording career, most of the prominent women in funk were managed by male songwriters and producers: think Marva Whitney and Lyn Collins (James Brown) or Parlet and The Brides of Funkenstein (George Clinton). In contrast, Betty wrote almost every song she ever recorded and produced most of her own studio albums, working with musicians she hand-picked. Few Black women in the music industry have ever enjoyed that level of creative autonomy so early in their careers: not her '70s contemporaries like Tina Turner or Chaka Khan, nor later artists she's sometimes compared to, like Janet Jackson or Beyoncé.
Even with her short-lived and abusive marriage to Miles Davis in the late '60s, she seemed a bigger influence on him than the other way around. While he helped produce a series of demo songs for her in 1969, they didn't land her a deal at the time; she did that on her own several years after their divorce. Meanwhile, Miles put her visage on the cover of his 1968 LP, Filles de Kilimanjaro, which included the song "Mademoiselle Mabry." Importantly, Betty introduced Miles to her own friends like Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix. Not coincidentally, this was also the time when Miles began his turn towards jazz-rock fusion, culminating in his landmark 1970 electrified album, Bitches Brew. In his 1990 autobiography, Miles only devoted a few pages to their relationship — much of it unflattering — but he at least acknowledged that she was "talented as a motherf*****" and "a big influence on my personal life as well as my musical life," opining that "If Betty were singing today she'd be like Madonna; something like Prince."
In essence, Miles was making the same observation that many others have regarding Betty: She was the embodiment of being "ahead of her time." But while that's intended as a compliment, it also suggests that, in Betty's day, her talents went overlooked or underappreciated. One of her first recorded songs was titled "Get Ready For Betty," but as it turns out, the world wasn't ready for her.  From: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/13/1080151853/game-was-her-middle-name-the-world-was-never-ready-for-betty-davis

 

Elton John - All The Girls Love Alice

"All The Girls Love Alice" is a look into the gay lifestyle of England through the eyes and lyrics of Bernie Taupin, Elton John's songwriting partner. He made up the tragic story of a young lesbian who dies in the streets.
This song marked the first time Elton sang about a gay character, although it had nothing to do with him personally. The first time he sang from the perspective of a gay man was in 1981 on his track "Elton's Song," which had lyrics by Tom Robinson - a gay man.
Elton didn't try to obscure the subject matter of this song, saying it was "about a young girl who gets seduced by the naughty ladies."
The song is part of Elton's double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The lyrics were printed on an insert, so there was no doubt about what Elton was singing about in "Alice."
The lyric is daring, and the music is similarly ambitious, with a distorted guitar by Davey Johnstone and a rollicking piano by Elton. The rattle is a tambourine, played by Ray Cooper.
You'll also hear a synthesizer in the slow parts, which didn't come easy in 1973. Only a few studios had synths, and only a few people knew how to use them properly. One of those was David Hentschel at Trident Studios in London. At Trident, he overdubbed synthesizer (an ARP 2500 model) on "All The Girls Love Alice" as well as the album opener, "Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding." Elton first used him a year earlier on his song "Rocket Man."
Many Album Oriented Rock (AOR) stations added this track to their playlists, as it fit the format's criterion of less-popular songs by famous artists. One theory posited by some radio folks, who had plenty of time to ponder this song over smoke breaks, was that it had something to do with Alice Cooper - perhaps it was based on the shock rocker's female fans. Cooper was an acquaintance of Elton, and Bernie Taupin would later write lyrics for Alice's 1978 album From the Inside, but we haven't found any hard evidence that Cooper was an inspiration for this song.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/elton-john/all-the-girls-love-alice

 

Charlotte Wessels - Chasing Sunsets

Can you share with us about the emotional journey behind crafting the songs of “The Obsession”?

I think in terms of the emotional contents of the record, less so than the songs are consciously crafted. Like, often I feel in a certain way and I process it through music and writing about it. And then afterward, I ask myself: “Am I going to let people hear this? Am I going to put it on an album? And am I actually going to say what it’s about?” So with this album, that journey was also kind of atypical.
But because it wasn’t until, I think February of this year, when I sat down and looked at all of the songs and realized, okay, this is an album about fear. Because I had not intentionally put that there. But yeah, it turned out that eventually, the album had that flow of having lots of songs about fear and obsessive thoughts and the escapes from them.

You invited ex-Delain members to this album. How did that reunion influence the sound of “The Obsession” compared to your previous solo work?

Well, it did change the sound and the songs on many levels. First of all, of course, by their performances, the heart that they put into the songs, and also their personality and their creativity. And Timo, for example, didn’t only perform his parts, but he was also very-very involved in the rearranging of the songs, because I still made the first versions of the songs here, in the basement by myself with my digital instruments.
So, we kind of worked on all levels, on the writing level, on the arrangement level, and then obviously at the performance level, when they actually played the songs in the studio.

During our last interview, you shared with us how inspiration came from everyday life. Has your creative process changed since then?

I think it still comes from everyday life. It still comes from the world around me, what I’m going through. Depending on the situation, it will be more introspective around my personal feelings and emotions.
Or more outwards or societal challenges. Or sometimes, you know, when like with “Ode to the West Wind”, where I just get really inspired by a beautiful piece of poetry and work from that. Inspiration is to be found anywhere.

How would you describe the thematic core of The Obsession, and what’s the visual narrative behind its artwork?

I think the thematic core is very much a fear. So, we shot the photography that is at the heart of the artwork. We shot that during the video recordings for “The Exorcism” and “Chasing Sunsets”. Tim Tronckoe, who shot the photos, was also directing those videos. He worked together with Claire Stuart from Blond en Blauw Films for that. Great team! And what we wanted to do on the cover, is to personify that fear.
On the cover, you can see me leaning into this fabric and next to my face, there’s a person who is kind of pushing through. This was meant to represent that fear. And you also see it throughout “The Obsession” – that fear kind of grabbing all around me and the band members. And there’s the other scene where I’m kind of tied to her, wrapped with our heads. This is Lidewij, by the way, she’s an amazing dancer, and she’s also Joey’s girlfriend.
One moment it looks like an embracement and the other moment it looks like we’re trying to get away from each other. So we tried to visualize this in all different sorts of ways.
For example, with the themes where I’m kind of holding arrows to my own chest. So yeah, we tried to make it visible in all kinds of ways in the photographic and videographic department. Nina made a lot of the decors and sets. And then another Nina, very confusing (laughs), from Studio Detour, made collages then with the material that we shot.
I think these collages kind of amplify or mirror the feeling that we put into those photos. So it’s really come all together and I’m really happy with it. We really wanted to visualize the different faces of fear.

In 2020, you highlighted “Legions Of The Lost” and “Masters of Destiny” as your favorites from Apocalypse & Chill. Which tracks from The Obsession hold a similar special place in your heart, and why?

I think “The Exorcism” – this is probably the most personal. Also, I cannot sing it without having the initial feeling that I wrote it with.
And “Chasing Sunsets”, because it just has a lot of things that I like. It has a very catchy hook and a very-very melodic breakdowns. It has a nice theme. It has a heavy riff. So I like its musical diversity.

How difficult it was to build your online presence as a solo artist?

The pandemic wasn’t easy. But it wasn’t easy for anyone. What was the biggest challenge? I don’t know. Self-doubt, impostor syndrome, you know, all those things. I think those are the biggest challenges. They’ve been holding me back a little bit.

Simone Simons and Alissa White-Gluz gave amazing performances on The Obsession. Were they “just” guest vocalists, or did they help co-write the duets? How did the creative process work when shaping songs like “Dopamine” and “Ode to the West Wind”?

I had already written the first version of both of the songs and put them on Patreon before I asked them. But I knew, of course, that they’re both super skilled, but also very creative vocalists. So, you know, even though the parts were already there I gave them freedom, if they want to do anything in terms of the vocal arrangements, if they want to add things and stuff like that.

There’s a sense of metamorphosis. Do you feel that you’ve undergone a transformation artistically, and if so, how has this impacted The Obsession?

There has definitely been a change. When I think about metamorphosis, I always think about the classic comparison: you have the little caterpillar, then it goes into its chrysalis phase and then the butterfly comes out – but then two weeks later it dies. So I always feel like I don’t want to go through a metamorphosis.

Which song on The Obsession is the oldest one? And which track took the longest to perfect?

I think that “Soft Revolution” is the oldest song since this already appeared on Tales From Six Feet Under Vol. I, which came out in 2021. But this is a re-record, so maybe that one doesn’t fully count. Otherwise, the oldest one is I think “All You Are”, which I already wrote before the release of Tales From Six Feet Under Vol. II.
I wrote it as an “end of the show”. Like, I really wanted to write an end-of-the-show song and I thought that this one, this would hit the spot.
The most complex was probably “The Crying Room”. I wrote the bridge of a song, then I wrote the verse and I was working on both, like making a chorus to go with it for the one, and you know, making a verse and a chorus for the other one. It took me a long time to realize that they were the same song. Like… This rarely ever happened. I’m not a person to “let’s check if I maybe have already written some time ago another chorus that could be combined.” I think that this rarely ever works.
But for this one, at one point I was going through my ideas and I was like, why didn’t I know that these were the same songs before? So I put them together and all of a sudden the rest of the lyrics kind of flowed out of me.
But then I got COVID. So it was very complicated because I still had to sing because I make new songs every month on Patreon. So, I have very tight deadlines and I had two or one more days left.
So I was like, I have to sing this. But the chorus was too high for me to sing because I had almost no voice left. So I thought I had to transpose down the chorus because otherwise, I could not sing it, but it was weird, so I also had to dress it down.
That’s kind of how that small ending was the solution to make it work. I thought, after the Patreon version, I would probably transpose the last chorus back up because I just did that because I had COVID, but in the end, I kept it like that because it kind of worked.

The songs on this album have a grand, bombastic feel with heavier soundscapes. How do you envision translating this energy into a live performance?

I think it will be easier to translate into a live performance than a material from Tails because that one was so electronic. It would not translate easily to a band. But we recorded this album with a band and they already know and are invested in the material.
We haven’t performed the entire album live yet, but we’ve done some festivals where we did certain songs. It worked really well. Everyone loves performing these songs and the response was well too.

From: https://mytoucheblog.com/portfolio/we-really-wanted-to-visualize-the-different-faces-of-fear-interview-with-charlotte-wessels-on-the-obsession/ 

Melting Pot - As I Lay Dying

Melting Pot was a relatively obscure but deeply groovy 1970 American psychedelic jazz-rock and funk band. They are best known for their lone full-length album, Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble, released in 1970. 
Formed in the early 1970s, the band blended the improvisational nature of jazz with the heavy electric instrumentation and raw groove of rock and soul. Their self-titled 45 RPM releases and album explored heavy Hammond B3 organ work, wah-wah guitar, and psychedelic instrumentation. 
Their debut (and only) studio LP, Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble, was released on the Ampex Records label. The record is highly sought after by record collectors and crate-diggers for its heavy drum breaks, driving basslines, and brassy psychedelic arrangements. 

Veruca Salt - Earthcrosser

“Daddy, I want the new Veruca Salt CD.” Not only is it a not-so-clever Willy Wonka reference, but it bears great similarity to a whine I overheard in a New Jersey mall record store the other day from the pouty mouth of a pre-pubescent adolescent girl wearing (no joke) a blue plastic miniskirt, browsing through the pop/rock section, commanding her father to buy her this CD. The episode biased me towards thinking Eight Arms to Hold You (also the working title of the Beatles’ Help!) would be your typical teenage alterna-album: angry/woeful vocals, punky guitars, happy pop melodies.
Okay, so Veruca Salt has all of these, and I like the combination, but that’s pretty much all they had on their first album, American Thighs. Last year they realized purebred punk wasn’t their schtick on Blow It Out Your Ass, It’s Veruca Salt, a four-song EP produced by Steve Albini. So what do you do when your band sounds like a million other indie bands and you pine for a better audience than obsessed eighth-grade girls and drooling boys (any age)? First you suck it up, then you spit it out, revealing some passion in your anger and meaning in your woe, finding some rock ‘n’ roll in your grunge, and adding some harmony to bolster those happy melodies.
The Verucas did some spring cleaning, finally locating the album-polish for Eight Arms to Hold You in their garage, and the result is a more cohesive album. They moved to Geffen-affiliated label Outpost and recruited veteran metal producer Bob Rock to give the album some saber-teeth. Yeah, Nina Gordon and Louise Post are still gooey in their singing and songwriting on sprightly songs like “Awesome” and “With David Bowie” (bouncy refrains, choppy piano, overuse of the word “awesome”). These, along with other tracks, such as “Sound of the Bell,” have an ’80s pop feel, like the Go Go’s meet the Wonder Stuff meet the Romantics in a ’90s mosh pit. But as a whole, the band explores stormier musical thoughts, and the most surprising evolution is the metal-hard, gnarled guitars that give a serrated edge to songs like “Shutterbug” and “Earthcrosser.”  From: https://lollipopmagazine.com/1997/05/veruca-salt-eight-arms-to-hold-you-review/

The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg / Plastic Man

 The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg 

The Temptations - Plastic Man

It was 1973 and The Temptations thought (perhaps hoped) they were at a crossroads. Their records had been growing steadily more “far out”, which worked in terms of sales, but psychedelic soul wasn’t a style of music they were necessarily comfortable with. Their producer, Norman Whitfield, had transformed them from sweet soul harmonizers into an act capable of thriving in the progressive rock era. One of their two 1972 albums was called Solid Rock, and their LPs charted strongly during a period when other Motown vocal groups barely registered. However, The Temptations preferred their old sweet soul style despite their facility for this rock-influenced funky groove.
Curiously, they weren’t only competing with rock bands that weren’t associated with them; they found themselves second in line for some of the songs that Whitfield and lyricist Barrett Strong wrote. “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” had been previously recorded by Rare Earth, even if it was The Temptations that made it massive. It must have rankled that the song had first been given to a Motown rock band that The Temptations should have outranked. Things were getting out of hand.
All Directions, the group’s second album of 1972, had featured a 12-minute version of “Papa…,” a storytelling ditty with a deep funky backing and a climactic mood-setting orchestra. So when Norman Whitfield began working on a lengthy title song for a new album built on similar lines, the group doubtless thought, OK, “Papa…” was a No.1, let’s have some more. However, the album which became Masterpiece was not like its predecessor. Its sleeve featured a fake marble bas relief of the group’s faces in profile. Underneath, a sign said “Produced by Norman Whitfield,” which also appeared on the back. The implication was that The Temptations were an artwork sculpted by their producer, the more important figure here. While the musicians were credited on the back, the individual Temptations were not. And there was a large soft-focus image of the producer on the flip, with The Temptations emerging from his head. So, whose masterpiece was it? Mr. Whitfield’s, apparently.
Masterpiece starts promisingly with the elegant “Hey Girl (I Like Your Style),” which casts the group in the mode of their 1971 smash “Just My Imagination,” with Richard Street’s lead voice suitably lovestruck. Then comes the title track – almost 14 minutes of it. While the lyrics are suitably ghetto in recent Temptations style, Whitfield, who wrote it alone, was not the lyricist Barrett Strong was, and there’s no storyline as such, just a few grim snapshots. The group get three minutes to express their vocal talent – just 21 percent of the track. Nonetheless, an edited version made the US Top 10.
Side Two of Masterpiece’s original opened with “Ma,” a more focused song, feminizing the “Papa…” template with a positive spin. “Law Of The Land,” with superb lead vocals from the late Dennis Edwards, who was underused on the album, delivers another funky message. This time The Temptations sang it before Rare Earth, though Motown chose the latter’s version for a US single. “Plastic Man,” the second single from Masterpiece, is a tough tune on a familiar early 70s topic, featuring more fine vocals led by Edwards. The closing “Hurry Tomorrow” turns the psychedelic element up to double rainbow, with Damon Harris gently singing of a room with no floor – it’s acid trip territory, a slowly rising wash of effects ending in chaos. This time Whitfield doesn’t overdo it: the song is trippy without losing a sympathetic human touch.
Plastic Man
Masterpiece might be an exaggerated title, but there is brilliance here, much of it from a group relegated to second fiddle on their own album. But they delivered what they were asked to. Arranger Paul Riser deserves credit for orchestrations that helped realize Norman Whitfield’s vision. What happens when the producer becomes the star? Masterpiece, overblown yet sometimes superb, answers that question. A better balance between svengali and singers might have been more satisfying, but the early 70s were times of excess in music, and this fascinating if overcooked album suits them perfectly.  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/masterpiece-temptations-norman-whitfield/ 

 

Tigers Jaw - Head Is Like a Sinking Stone

After another fantastic year for emo heartthrobs Tigers Jaw, they've settled firmly into getting promotional material for their new album out into the world. This rally cry has been met with resounding success, as not only has word of a new project for people to sob to drummed up a revitalisation of their persistent and loyal audience, but their all-new single ‘Head is Like a Sinking Stone’ has been hailed by all fans, new and old.
Tigers Jaw have traded the fractious vocals and resonant acoustic chords for a more complete and punctual sound. Seeing them employ a harsher and more abrasive tone has set a precedent for the upcoming album, which is bound to bring the audience a visceral contradiction of bountiful joy and crushing grief. The bigger sound that emanates from this track entails a lot of earlier punk and emo influences that simulates a continual chase for the band to get back in touch with the life experience and honest reflection of beloved projects that has often bought the best out of bands like Tigers Jaw. this new sound fits like a glove and really helps bring out their creative licence and gives room for every member to show off just how much they have evolved from tracks like ‘Plane vs Tank vs Submarine’ and ‘Chemicals’ to where they are presently.
After the year this band has had, it is amazing to see that they have put down the stage plans and live shows and jumped straight into this new project. Having played monumental shows all across the UK with Joyce Manor and The Hotelier, they had the chance to once again improve upon their performance, and it's evident that this happens every single time they cross the pond. This ability to gather new fans and assemble old ones for a good old singalong has heavily influenced the new tracks, as their live performance is always at its best when there is a riff to sweep you off your feet and place you on top of the crowd, and adjacent lyrics that carry true suffocating realism and emotion that can be belted out till your voice is sore. 
‘Head is Like a Sinking Stone’ reflects all of this; the pillars of their old sound are still there, but with a fresh new coat of paint and a complete structural upgrade. I, for one, am desperately excited to see this cross from speaker to stage and assist me in crying my eyes out in the middle of a mosh pit, as this fresh angle spells something truly brilliant for an already truly brilliant band.  From: https://whenthehornblows.com/content/2025/12/5/tigers-jaw-head-like-a-sinking-stone

Cardiacs - Skating

It’s finally here, in all its tainted glory, streaming filthy banners in the mist, trumpeting across the waves of time like a pirate ghost ship, ringing its mournful bells, warning that it’s time to be boarded and have all manner of mud and dirty joy plastered across your wretched and grateful souls.
In short this was the album they were working on before Tim Smith slipped his moorings and sailed to new horizons. And it slowly ebbed with each new tide into myth, oft mentioned in hushed and reverential tones before the hearths and hearts of many pond dwellers, pursuing rumour and hearsay into legend. Until one day, when Jim Smith decided that the time was right, and the massed ranks of the ABC family and friends decided to set sail anew and, aided and abetted with new crew mates on board, to finish the damn thing off. And here it is. One big album bursting with all the love and respect, compiled over the past couple of years from original tapes dating back to the early 2000’s, Craig Fortnam overlaying brass and string arrangements, while singers Mike Vennart and Rose-Ellen Kemp plugged the gaps that were left.
‘Men In Bed’ is as powerful an opener as you could wish for, with strident chords under a mass chorus with woozy brass counter melodies weaving around a tune reminiscent of early classic ‘Let Alone My Plastic Doll’ (which may have been no co-incidence as, before embarking on this project, they had performed their early back catalogue at the legendary Garage concerts in 2003). The same could also be said for ‘By Numbers’ which is reminiscent of their earlier punk stuff like ‘Gloomy News’.
Obviously Tim is all over this album, even when his voice isn’t. It’s all there in the dense and obtuse words and scatty arrangements. It’s all there in the heart racing starts and stops, and the gloriously epic highs and lows. It’s all there in ‘The May’, which surfs along on a crest of Bob Leith’s furious drums, and Kavus Torabi’s ridiculously fast guitar fills, making you smile with a delicious glee, and I love the way it segues straight into ‘Gen’ from the Ditzy Scene EP, with elements of Beefheart’s Magic Band in the guitar and drums (which I’d never noticed before).
Get ready for psychedelic overload with ‘Skating’. In fact just overload. I like things good and weird and this really doesn’t disappoint. I don’t want to say too much about it apart from it’s probably my favourite track on the album and for those of you who haven’t yet heard it you really are in for a treat. ‘Breed’ is a beautiful song which sounds more Spratleys than Cardiacs, and, despite the tender care given to it, it really misses Tim and Jo’s voices. Great slide guitar though.  From: https://joyzine.org/2025/09/10/cardiacs-lsd/ 

 

Mary's Danish - Killjoy

Every once in a while, an album comes along that is so ahead of its' time that it burns out before it ever reaches its' zenith.  Usually in such cases, the trajectory of the artist mirrors that of its' creation.  The unfortunate experience of '90's L.A. alt-rockers Mary's Danish is a tale so sickeningly wrought with late 20th century record label failure and criminal ineptitude that I won't delve deeply into that long, disheartening story here (though the excellent 1999 Sarah Luck Pearson article from the L.A. Weekly linked below is well worth the read). Suffice it to say, it would have been a cautionary tale for up-and-coming bands in that pre-download period in music industry history.  In those halcyon days of the early 90's when hard working hard rocking bands with D.I.Y. attitudes were just starting to elbow out the bloated excess of hair spray, spandex, and cocaine in the backs of tour buses, replacing them with Zeppelin t-shirts, ripped jeans, beer and beat-up Ford Econoline vans, Mary's Danish emerged.  A blend of rock, punk, funk and the occasional sprinkles of R&B and country, they followed in the paths of Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, eventually opening tours for both.  However, unlike their contemporaries and prior to the explosion of female-fronted alt-rock bands the likes of No Doubt, Garbage, and The Cranberries that followed in their wake, they boasted not one female vocalist, but a dynamic duo of divas with differing vocal styles that complemented each other to excellent effect.  After a pair of decent selling debut discs that bordered closer to the funk and ska-influenced poppier styles many who followed in their wake would ride to stardom, Mary's Danish would take a turn to a heavier, harder-edged sound on their third, and ultimately final, effort, 1992's American Standard.  Gone were the horns section, pop-leaning flavor and quirky humor, replaced by steady streams of hard rock twin guitar riffs from guitarists Louis Gutierrez and David King, James Bradley Jr's pounding drums, Chris "Wag" Wagner's technically brilliant bass lines, and grittier lead vocals from Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter belting out harsh cynically charged lyrics wrought with equal parts angst and anger.  This was a more groove based, rawer, album from the get-go.
Album opener "Killjoy" begins with the crash of Bradley's sticks crashing into a mid-tempo stomp as the band explodes into shape, while Seager and Ritter alternate between harmonized vocal lines and alternating call-and-answer lead parts.  The breakdown in the middle is especially foretelling of the overall theme of the album:

Load your dirty magazine
Isolate yourself from life
Take all the color from your dreams
Your world is pins and strife

From: https://ripplemusic.blogspot.com/2016/01/marys-danish-american-standard.html

Steeleye Span - Gower Wassail / Four Nights Drunk / Skewball

Steeleye Span have developed a reputation over the years for being an ever changing group of players, the line up depending very much on who is around at the time. The line up which recorded the band's second album "Please to see the king" did however manage to remain intact long enough to record this album, but fundamental changes were made after its release.
The rather odd title needs to be taken in two unrelated parts. The "Ten man mop" part refers to an olden days job selection process, the "Mop" being the group of available employees. A ten man mop was a collection of just ten candidates. The "Mr. Reservoir Butler rides again" part refers to an obscure performer who, according to band member Tim Hart, originally sang one of the songs on the album (although he cannot recall which song). The band were so taken with his unusual name that they incorporated it into the album title.
"Ten man mop..." as a whole has more in common with the band's debut than with the second album, the electric guitar of Martin Cathy being less dominant this time around. Many of the songs have Irish origins, something which would contribute to the departure of founder Ashley Hutchings; not because he did not like the songs, but because his ambitions for the band had been rooted in English folk.
The opening "Gower Wassail" has something of a post-Sandy Denny Fairport Convention feel, as it features predominantly male vocal. The piece features strong lead guitar played by Martin Carthy, yet seems all the while to be an a-cappella rendition. The following pair of jigs continue the Fairport similarity, Peter Knight's violin playing mirroring that of Swarb. Such tracks emphasise the traditional roots of the music while offering a pleasing diversion from the songs. "Four nights drunk" is a straight duet between voice and fiddle for the most part, although the full band join in for the closing jig section.
The album closes with "Skewball", the rather cryptic sleeve notes implying this is the name of a horse (the second favourite behind the legendary "Creeping Jane".. but as Carthy will testify, that's another story). The lyrics bear out the racing analogy, the song indeed being a sort of up-tempo "Creeping Jane". Here we find strong hints of the style Steeleye Span would adopt on subsequent albums.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=19858 

Moulettes - Picture//Frame Pt.1

So, what exactly is a Moulette? An inter-web search reveals nothing except this band and some rather unlikely reference to a hairstyle, as defined by the rather wonderful Urban Dictionary: the moulette is a stylized modern mullet, originating in Canada. It is essentially a curly combination of hat hair (in Canadian winters, hats are a must), the mullet and the famous hair swoosh (optional but encouraged)." Could this be the inspiration for The Moulettes? As Hannah Moulette (they refer themselves individually as a Moulette) has said before: "… I had a free haircut one day that turned into a mullet. We were joking that it was a moule-ette…." So, there you have it, a female mullet!
Not that they 'wear mullets' of course, that would be crass. Instead, they are a remarkably intelligent unit of musicality, sensitivity and adventure, a wild fusion of classical, prog, rock, pop and 'fantasy folk'. Comparisons are nigh on impossible but Bellowhead springs to mind or maybe the crazy alt-prog 70s rockers Gentle Giant (look them up!)? In any case, they make fresh and original music, helmed by the core unit of Hannah Miller, Ruth Skipper, Jim Mortimore and Ollie Austin, although the extended Moulettes family runs into double digits including recent recruit Eliza Jaye. Moulettes are female AND male…
Now based in Brighton, I went to visit Ollie and Hannah at their Queens Park residence, where a welcoming atmosphere of coffee and biscuit making was in progress, although Ollie is in tour preparation mode, which means he's off the booze and on the de-caff… And, almost immediately upon arrival a parcel arrived with a new batch of their bespoke Moulettes tea towels, designed by Hannah. Excitedly examining the goods, Hannah and Ollie give the thumbs up, a piece of band merchandise that apparently sells very well at their gigs (someone else once told me that their biggest seller on the merch table was mugs…), alongside the usual CDs.
One of the things about the band is the unlikely associations they have, including that with Mumford & Sons (more of that later) and Led Zeppelin. Their former manager Joe Cushley used to manage Seasick Steve (former Moulette Georgina Leach played violin for Seasick Steve), whose bassist is non other than John Paul-Jones, Led Zep's bassist/keyboardist extraordinaire. Of course, The Moulettes got to support Seasick Steve on occasion, including at Hammersmith Apollo… "We ended up in a room, backstage," says Hannah. "I decided to tell him about the dream I had about Led Zep the night before and his wife was there… I think he definitely thought I was weird; it was a really strange dream with people like Odin & Thor in it. I had never had a dream about gods, but I had been reading a book about gods, where all the old gods are pissed about the new gods, because they're stealing their thunder. And in my dream Odin and Thor were pissed off because Led Zep were more well known than they were…"
Initially formed by Hannah and Ruth when both were 'music scholars' in 2002, with Ollie (drums, guitar), Ted Dwane (bass) and Rob Skipper joining up soon after, the Moulettes has over the years featured many members who come and go as well as huge number of guests, whether on record or on stage. "We always liked playing live, finding small niche venues…. we didn't do much stuff on the circuit, but eventually we got those residencies in London (their Den of Inquity nights at the 12bar) and from that we invited bands like Mystery Jets and Noisettes. The first album was a culmination of playing these events," says Ollie. It was, however, the legendary Eel Pie Island events that really set the wheels in motion, a place steeped in rock'n'roll history and mystique. Off the coast of Twickenham, bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath performed in the island's hotel until it burnt down in 1971. Then, in the mid noughties, The Mystery Jets started staging parties on the island. "I've said this a few times," says Ollie, "but I think those parties they put on were really significant. You look back at all the players who played there, many of them are still going and it's a real treatment to what The Mystery Jets achieved. Unsung heroes!" The fledgling Moulettes were one of those bands… "Laura Marling was one of those who hung out at those Eel party events and I introduced Ted to those people. Ted Dwane then started playing with Laura Marling first (whom Marcus Mumford was playing drums for at the time and dating…) and then onto Mumford's… Last year The Mystery Jets supported Mumford's at the O2 arena.. wow!"
Marcus stole my moves! That whole guitar drum thing," exclaims Ollie. That is the combination of guitar and drums which Marcus Mumford made as a centre piece of the band's act. "Oh man, anyway…!" laughs Ollie.
Ted Dwane played bass on the first two Moulettes albums, but eventually choices had to be made… "Laura Marling and the Moulettes were both booked to play at Bestival and our sets clashed, which he didn't know about. And that's how it literally happened; he decided to play with Laura and that was the summer she broke and then Mumford's came quickly after that."
The phenomenal global success of Mumford & Sons means they have seen little of their former bandmate over the last few years. "We did see him last week, he came to one of our gigs. We love Ted. His health problem was a rollercoaster (he was diagnosed with subdural hematoma). Thankfully, his girlfriend gave us the heads up before it hit the press. That would have been weird. He's looking great and has been given the all clear. We miss him as a friend, it happened all so quickly.
As well as the Led Zep and Mumford connections, they have become good friends with Brighton's folk-rock legends The Levellers. "We did a lovely tour with them, in fact we've done two," says Ollie. "Their last record was really good; a lot of bands do burn out, but they haven't. They are such a hard working band; they love it, they live for it and are full time musicians in the true sense of the word. Such lovely people too."  From: https://brightonsfinest.com/music/spotlight/moulettes-interview-2014/2014/