Now I’m going to make a detour to Fort Worth, Texas. I simply have to after having listened to Leon Bridges “Lisa Sawyer”, a fantastic song full of tender soul that would fit right next to one of the great Sam Cooke’s tunes. And that’s probably the best rating I can give to a soul track. Obviously he wrote the song as an ode to his mother. I have also added “Coming Home”, a song with the same retro vibe and a part of his upcoming debut album.

Leon Bridges’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

The alternative rock trio Death By Toaster, who started the release of a quartet of EP’s in December, launched the third episode yesterday, “No Gravity”. They continue to deliver interesting tracks with a good variety, and the title track here is probably the sharpest I’ve heard from the band this far.

Death By Toaster’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

In 2013 the duo White Birches released two of the best electro pop songs that year, which eventually ended up in the EP “Stands of White Birches”. Now they are heading towards their debut album (release in April) and have started this year by releasing two singles, “Hunting” in January and yesterday also “It’s a Hollow World”.

Their dark electronica is if possibly even darker now, not cold and hard, but rather like the feeling of being inside a beautifully freightening and ominous fairytale where Fredrik Jonasson’ heavy synth sounds surround us and where distorted guitars whip up black smoke in the corner of our eyes, while Jenny Gabrielsson Mares vocals guide us like Red Riding Hood through the dangerous forest.

White Birches site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Here’s a video premiere from the band Trail of Feathers and their song “Love and Theft”. The band has recently released the eponymous debut EP, an EP that impresses me. They write themselves about their various sources of inspiration and mention drummers John Bonham and Elvin Jones and artists like Portishead, Feist, Albert King and Shuggie Otis, which can be sensed here and there in the songs. To me the music seems to come right out from the British late sixties, the melting pot of rock, blues, psykadelia, pop and soul that gave birth to a number of genres and saw artists like The Yardbirds, Blind Faith, Cream, Traffic, Ten Years After to mention a few I’m reminded of here. It feels like the band have dived right into this bluesbased classic soil and picked out their own goodies, which they have developed in an exquisite way with a wonderful guitarsound and soul tinged vocals, topped with a delicious sense of melody.
Here’s the premiere video and below also three of the tracks from the EP.

Trail of Feathers på Facebook – på Spotify – på Wimp

The Berlin based band Tula got quite some attention in the Autumn with their cool cover of Chris Isaac’s “Wicked Game”. Now they have released their own song “River”, a piece of of dreamy electropop produced by Klas Åhlund, and a great follow-up to their earlier success. I have added “Wicked Games” below as well, in case you missed it before.

Tulas site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp