Bag o' Choons

As usual, another Bandcamp Friday lands and I'm faced with an overwhelming number of singles, EPs and albums vying for my hard-earned moolah.

In no particular order, the following dozen will be dead certs for the checkout and dominating my playlists over the weekend*

1) Once Around The Block (Cover of Badly Drawn Boy): Ellen Beth Abdi (single)

2) North Sixteen: Jo Bartlett & Neil Haydock (album)

3) Easy EP: Smerz (EP)

4) End Of The Trail: 100 Poems (album)

5) A Drop In The Ocean: Peace & Dub Soundsystem (aka Dan Wainwright) (album)

6) Butt Sex: Mykki Blanco (single)

7) Spellbound (Yves Schopin Remixes): Rae & Christian ft. Veba (single)

8) AngieAngieAngie: spill tab (album)

9) Little to Lovers: HANN (single)

10) Unsteady: Jezebell (single)

11) Ghost Rider Remixes (Cover of Suicide): Blavatsky & Tolley (EP)

12) My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It: Victoryland (album)

* I may have said this about the some of these artists and releases in previous posts, but this time I really mean it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache

I happened upon Smerz via a recommendation by Hifi Sean on Bluesky and I've been hooked ever since.

Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt are childhood friends, growing up in Norway, moving together to Denmark to study and then forming a duo to make music. 

The duo have said that the name Smerz is derived from the German word herzschmerz, or heartache in English. As of itself, schmerz translates as pain. In the best tradition of Scandi pop, Smerz songs are infectiously catchy whilst simultaneously unsettling. The videos only enhance the mood.

Third album Big City Life has been joined by an album of edits called, appropriately enough, Big City Life Edits, with Erika De Casier delivering a slowed down, after hours take on floorfiller Feisty.

You Got Time And I Got Money is the song that grabbed Hifi Sean and it takes things down even slower. And the video is just brilliant.

Of the two edits of You Got Time... on the album, the closing VVTZJ Edit featuring Boston, Massachusetts artist Clairo aka Claire Cottrill is the pick for me.

In a stroke of luck, whilst getting the You Tube links to post these videos, I discovered that Smerz are playing three UK dates in April, including one at the Lantern Hall in Bristol. Ticket duly purchased!

You can find this and previous Smerz releases on Bandcamp. I'd also recommend that whilst you're there, you try and buy music by Clairo and Erika De Casier too.