Something For The Weekend?
LONDONPEAKY’S new regular Friday round-up, grab a brew and take a peek, there’s something for everyone.
This week, CREEPY NEIGHBOUR, LOUD APARTMENT, WILDERMAN and RODNEY CROMWELL.
CREEPY NEIGHBOUR’S new single, ‘Somebody Else’s Dream’ is released today, two and a half minutes of infectious indie-pop which sees the artist exploring the social pressures of pleasing others and following their lead in order to be loved and make relationships work.
Creepy Neighbour is Max Taylor, former bassist in synth-pop outfit Clor who toured Europe for a year and half, eventually crashing and splitting up not long after performing at the first Ibiza Rocks Festival. Strangely, Clor’s only album now sits happily at Number 1 in the NME’s ‘100 Greatest Albums You’ve Never Heard.’
After stints on bass and backing vocals for the likes of Roots Manuva,Tom Vek, Groove Armada and Lily Allen, Max hooked up and toured extensively with the Lebanese-British musician MIKA, there finding confidence in his own voice and, during down-time on long international tours, writing his first solo album as Creepy Neighbour.
Creepy Neighbour’s debut album, imaginatively titled ‘Debut Album,’ follows on December 3rd.
Debut Album | CREEPY NEIGHBOUR (bandcamp.com)
NEW YORK CITY funk-art collective LOUD APARTMENT have released ‘Technology,’ the lead track from their ‘New Future’ album.
It’s a clever, heartfelt protest song: “Technological revolution can bring solutions, innovation creation no degradation no pollution, too much exploitation from the governments and corporations, privacy invasion intrusion and manipulation.”
Their distinctive fusion of funk, soul, and rock along with Latin, reggae, dub and hip-hop influences is inspired by growing up on the old Upper West Side. Inspired by such artists as Parliament-Funkadelic, Miles Davis, Santana, Gil Scott Heron, Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barretto, their sound embodies the intersection of culture that is New York City.
Produced by the legendary Bill Laswell, ‘New Future’ also features three dub remixes he created. Their third long-player additionally features a vocal contribution by Garrison Hawk, long-term collaborator of Tricky and Sly & Robbie, among others.
Loud Apartment-NYC music group-Original funk fusion
OUT TODAY: ‘NeverReady.’ the debut single from WILDERMAN, timeless vocals delivered on a timeless subject. Sexual energy from past and present crackles throughout two minutes and 13 seconds of vital rock and roll.
Wïlderman is the alias of Bobby Anderson and not just any old Anderson, but born into a family tree of musical royalty being the son of Young Disciples singer and composer Carleen Anderson and grandson to James Brown’s right-hand man Bobby Byrd and backing singer Vicki Anderson.
An intrinsic part of the fabric of Bristol’s live music scene, including stints fronting cult band Fortune Drive and touring with friends Idles in 2020, he is known for distinctively raw, soulful vocals.
“In my head I wanted ‘NeverReady’ to sound like a mad mix of Queens of The Stone Age, Screaming Jay Hawkins and The Streets. Raw in places but with enough weight to hold it all together,” he said.
‘During lockdown I built a home studio and began writing. NeverReady started off as an experimental tuning riff and it put me in the mind of something dark and sex driven. Once the recording was done, I took it to producer Stu Jackson [Massive Attack, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Damon Albarn] and he helped iron out the creases and added stardust to it! Stu has been a big part of getting me to actually do all this.’
LABEL: Colorama Records
FORMAT: Digital
OUT NOW the 4-track ‘Memory Box’ maxi-single from London-based retro-loving synthpop artist RODNEY CROMWELL which includes the original version, an ambient track and remixes by Düsseldorf / Shanghai krautrock band MOOD and Retrosynth Records artist AUW.
Rodney Cromwell is the nom de plume of Adam Cresswell, founding member of 1990s-2000s indie-folktronica band Saloon (who had four entries in John Peel’s Festive 50, recorded three Peel Sessions and had top 10 album of the year in The Sunday Times) and one half of electronic two-piece Arthur & Martha.
With minimal percussion, Rodney Cromwell’s lyrics float over a bed of vintage synthesizers and effected guitar. Shunning a clean ’80s synth sound, the song is almost psychedelic in outlook, reminiscent of the minimal synth of acts such as Broadcast, Pram or Silver Apples. The video, an atmospheric montage of heavily effected and distorted shots of rural Britain, was inspired by film auteurs such as Stan Brakhage and Chris Marker.
Writing and recording in his home studio in Catford, South London, Cromwell employs an old-school approach using predominantly vintage hardware. Mixed and co-produced by Richard Bennett at Acme Hall Studios (New York) and mastered by Pete Maher (U2, Goldfrapp, Paul Weller, Pixies, The Alarm), Martin J Langthorne, who also designed the album artwork, contributes guitar.
“It was one of the first songs written for the new album. At the time I was still disorientated from illness. I turned on the TV and there was Boris Johnson’s lackey, Dominic Cummings, spinning some yarn. In my post-fever state, he came across like Wormtongue from Tolkein, talking about riverbanks, woods and castles while literally sitting in a perfumed rose garden like in Alice in Wonderland. I wouldn’t say that influenced me directly, but certainly my own state of brain-fog sent my writing off in a more heady and fantastical direction,” explains Cromwell.
“I wanted the song to have the feel of a marching clockwork toy, so the beat is really simple and metronomic with the synths doing the talking by enveloping the song.”
This single is the title track of the forthcoming ‘Memory Box’ album, A mixture of electronic hauntological excursions, dreampop and European coldwave that is scheduled for release in early 2022. Using analogue synths, drum machines with parts played almost entirely live (with minimal computer sequencing) and vocals recorded without autotune, this record conjures up an organic, albeit dream-like, world that is inspired as much by Alice in Wonderland, Franz Kafka and Anna Kavan as it is by its sonic influences such as Kraftwerk, The Cure and Stereolab. The sonic pallet of ‘Memory Box’ is both reassuringly familiar and completely distinctive.
Rodney will be playing a handful of live dates to support the album’s release. His debut festival appearance at Indietracks 2015, described as ‘a spiritual experience”, led to further festival appearances in the UK and in Spain, in addition to supporting artists such as Pram, Marsheaux, Death & Vanilla, Rowetta and Steve Davis. In 2020, he also performed as part of Damo Suzuki’s backing band.
The ‘Memory Box’ maxi-single is available digitally, including on Spotify, Apple Music and directly from the artist via Bandcamp.
Keep up with Rodney Cromwell
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