New Wave band Fischer-Z have launched a podcast to tie in with their 50th anniversary. In Episode 3 John Watts discusses the aftermath of the release of the Red Skies Over Paradise album, and going solo with One More Twist in 1982. He had to do all of the band stuff himself around that time anyway, so going out on his own made perfect sense then.
When Dutch-Swiss composer Ella van der Woude got the job to write the music for Charlie Kaufman's short movie How to Shoot a Ghost, the director told her that she should not hold back and write music that is not content with purring gently in the background. The lead single from the album, short but sweet Is Beauty Enough?, is proof that she rose to the challenge, with sax player Hristo Goleminov setting up a conversation with himself by playing tenor and alto.
Composer and guitarist Gabriel Vicéns has unveiled a video for Niebla, the title track from his forthcoming new album: "[It} is a conversation between all the participants, although his guitar and Roman Filiú's alto saxophone dominate the proceedings, before the percussionists bring it home safely, setting up the stage for a final repeat of the melody."
A little over five years have passed since Dutch dream pop duo ISLE released their debut album A Siren's Call, but they have been working on their sound and new material ever since. The first sign was the unveiling of the Sad Song single in October 2024, followed a couple months later by the announcement of a couple shows that would focus on the material of a new album, Equilibrium. Three more singles followed in quick succession, but now it all comes together on a full album.
Multi-instrumentalist Arjan de Wit and vocalist with Lise Low go for a richer sound, with Robbert Deurloo (drums) and Ardie van der Knijff (cello) adding extra colour to their intimate take on dreampop and triphop. The main task of the more orchestrated feel of the songs is to put the spotlight on the vocals. Low offers a guided tour to her inner world, where beauty appears to reign supreme (Indian Summer Breeze, The Melody Love Sings), but as ever there is trouble in paradise well, when depression comes knocking in Jaded. Finding a proper balance is key and by capturing the mixed emotions in a tug-of-war acted out in slow motion Equilibrium shows that passion and pain can be equal partners.
Two Motörhead releases this year for Record Store Day (April 18). Steven Wilson will surely have done a fine job when he remixed the band's earliest recordings, which were released on the On Parole album in 1979.
