Saturday 31 October 2020

Monthly Playlist : October 2020

 

Here’s a short monthly post to alert you to the fact that the latest Breaking More Waves new music monthly playlist has been uploaded to Spotify. Full tracklisting below. You can find it on Spotify by searching for New Music Monthly (Breaking More Waves 2020) or clicking here

Next year I’m thinking of making this playlist weekly. I’ve always resisted this as it seems to be what every other new music playlist does, but the trouble with doing just a monthly one whilst trying to keep it to a reasonable length is that I end up missing off a lot of stuff that I’d really like to share.

So, after the inevitable Christmas lull, I’ll be transferring to weekly playlists, published on a Saturday which will be in the region of about 1 hour long.

Here’s October’s best of:

Spa – Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker

Haunted Sea – The Budos Band

Acting Normal – Blackstarkids

Meal Deal – King Hannah

Bureau de Fatigue – Laundromat

Monsterpiece (Joe Goddard Remix) – Raf Rundell

Boy Bye – Lauran Hibberd

Faith Healer – Julien Baker

Swear – Bruch

Headfirst – Megan Lara Mae

Bad B*tch Energy – Stay Home Sound Machine

Apricots – Bicep

Altitude – Avec Sans

Block Your Number – Maude Latour

Cut You With A Kiss – Salt Ashes

Mork n Mindy – Sleaford Mods & Billy Nomates

Revolution – Greentea Peng 

Really OK On My Own – Coach Party

Just Move – Pixey

Dry Fantasy – Mogwai

Mary Lattimore – Til A Mermaid Drags You Under

Here are three choice cuts from the full playlist; one of the bangers of the year, a beautifully epic and intricate ballad plus some fruit related electronic dance.

Spa – Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker


Swear – Bruch


Apricots – Bicep

Sunday 4 October 2020

24 Hour Blogathon - The End


This is the end.

It is now 9.15am on Sunday.

I started this challenge at 6.15am on Saturday running 10 miles in a time of 1 hour 30 minutes. It was surprisingly OK – the wet weather helped keep me cool although by the end I was absolutely saturated and my running shoes are still soaked now.

Then after a break I sat down and began to blog. The first few hours were easy – I quickly put together a list of tracks I wanted to post and a couple of other articles about mental health and running, as the challenge was related to both of those.

However, as the day went on and into evening the blog became hard work. I ran out of things to write about. My body began to tire from lack of sleep and the run. And staring at the screen for most of the day caused my vision to blur and give me a headache. Over the course of the 24 hours I also lost WiFi 3 times. So I wrote less posts than I hoped. But at least I managed to go through the 24 hours.

But if a challenge didn’t involve some form of pain, there wouldn’t be any gain. And I’m very pleased to confirm that at the current time I have raised £745 for Solent Mind. My original target was £150 and even when I hit that early on I never expected to get above £300.

Before I sign off I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has donated, offered words of support or spread the message about what I was doing using social media. It’s been wonderful to see everyone being positive in a year that hasn’t had much to cheer about.

If you haven’t donated and fancy doing so now I’ve finished the challenge, just click here.

The blog will now go back to being dormant except for an end of month playlist each month.

I really hope I don't have to do this again and that next year we can put on Dials Festival and raise even more money for Solent Mind that way. 

That's all folks. Over and out. I'll leave you with the band that would have headlined this years Dials Festival and got the room dancing like loons.

Robin @ Breaking More Waves

International Teachers Of Pop - I Stole Yer Plimsoles

24 Hour Blogathon: Introducing - Cat & Camell

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link.

In this post I’m introducing a new pop duo from Sydney who probably won’t be getting much play on the radio for their debut single. Not because it’s not good (it is) but because of its title; dumbshit. If it wasn’t for that this could easily be all over the airwaves, particularly because of its anthem-like gang chorus.

The song celebrates the invincible feelings you have when you’re young; not treating anything seriously and just taking things on the chin when they go wrong and come back to bite you. "We'll burn all our bridges, still young and reckless." The visuals for the song also take on board the fun and stupidity of teenage years matching the lyrics perfectly. 

Both in their early 20s, Cat spent her childhood in China and moved to Sydney as a young teenager. Calmell was born and raised there. If they have more songs in the bag as good as dumbshit then their stars could easily rise.

Cat & Camell - dumbshit

24 Hour Blogathon - Zig Zag - Do Better

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link. 


As I’ve now been awake for 25 hours and have also done a 10 mile run in that time period I’ve reached the stage where I’m not really sure about anything anymore. But what I do know is that to keep me going I need something hell-raising, rowdy and loud. 

Which is where this Australian band called Zig Zag fit in. Are they any good? Right now I really don’t know. I think they probably are, but everything seems a little off centre in my sleep deprived brain so I can’t fully trust my judgement. Press play and make your own mind up, but they’re certainly helping wake me up.

Zig Zag - Do Better

24 Hour Blogathon - Romy - Lifetime

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link


As I get towards the end of this 24 hour Blogathon it’s becoming quite a struggle. Not to stay awake, but to find new music that I can stand behind and post with full support.

It’s why the posts are slowing down.

However, I’ve only just realised that an obvious banger that I wanted to post has somehow slipped through the net. But better late than never, here’s the new solo single from Romy Madley Croft from The XX - now going just by the name of Romy. There’s an important distinction here. Romy’s positioning herself in the same arena as Kylie, Adele, Beyonce etc – those artists that are big enough to not need a surname because we the lowly public still know who they are.

And guess what? With Lifetime Romy absolutely justifies it. This could have so easily been a step back, a sub rate version of The XX – all gloomy minimalism but without Jamie XX’s beats. Instead Romy heads straight for the dance floor and smashes it with 100% confidence, with just the right amount of euphoria without it ever turning into a cliché. Forget the black clothes and shy furtive looks, this is all strobes, lasers, flashing lights and glittery covered smiling faces shimmying and swaying to the bass and beats. 

Romy - Lifetime

24 Hour Blogathon - Stay Home Sound Machine - Bad B*tch Energy

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would sponsor me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link

As the world went into lockdown earlier this year, you might have thought that it probably wasn’t the best time to form a new band. Enter Stay Home Sound Machine. Kieran Jones, Sandy Buglass and Andrei L’vov-Basirov formed the collective as a way to stay creative in socially distant times. Together they wrote and recorded an EP remotely which brought together artists from a number of continents.

Taken from the EP is lead track Bad B*tch Energy which mashes up a collage of influences that collide to provide a vibrant and exciting pop tune that clocks in at less than 2 minutes long. Imagine the Go Team having a dance off with Sofi Tukker whilst some hip-hop DJ’s hang around in the background and you’ll be getting somewhere close to Stay Home Sound Machine’s sound on this track.

A full EP was released to streaming services on Friday.

Stay Home Sound Machine - Bad B*tch Energy

24 Hour Blogathon - G Flip - You & I

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link.

Australia’s G-Flip arrived in a whirlwind of excitement a couple of years ago and in her homeland, she’s done pretty nicely thank you with a top 10 album in 2019. Yet in the UK she still very much sits in that ‘underground pop artist’ category.

This week she’s shared a brand new track. You & I is a love song. When she wrote it, to quote Beyonce, she was crazy in love, but alas since then there’s been a break up. It must be strange to put your heart publicly on its sleeve with lyrics such as “now I can’t see life apart,” and then have to explain that the situation has changed. 

Like all of G-Flip’s songs You & I is an easily memorable, hooky pop tune. It would be nice to hear it on UK radio one day.

G Flip - You & I

24 Hour Blogathon - Drew Citron - Summertime

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link.

It’s that point on this 24 Blogathon when everyone has gone to bed and it feels like I’m posting this for absolutely nobody. Which is a shame. Because this song is a dreamily beautiful. 

You might know Brooklyn's Drew Citron from Public Practice who released the album Gentle Grip this May. But now she has a solo record and this song, Summertime, will be on it. 

“I don’t want to feel you say goodbye,” Drew sings and you’ll probably find your heart fluttering just a little with the sadness of it all. 

Watch the video below which takes reference to the 90’s film King Of New York.

Drew Citron - Summertime

24 Hour Blogathon - Here Are Some Really Good Albums From 2020 So Far

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link

Everything I’ve posted so far in this 24 Hour Blogathon has been relatively new – released either this week or in the last few weeks. All the songs have also been singles. However, I’d like to press pause for just a moment and draw to your attention 5 albums that I’m pretty damn sure will end up on my end of year list. The records that I really think deserve a listen from start to finish.

For this post I’m providing no commentary, just the name of the artist, a song title and the album it is drawn from in brackets.

Another Sky – Brave Face (I Slept On The Floor)

 

 Hazel English - Shaking - (Wake UP!)

 

 Other Lives - Lost Day (For Their Love)

 

 Charli XCX - forever (How I'm Feeling Now)

 

Erland Cooper - Longhope (Hether Blether) 

24 Hour Blogathon - Bull - Bonzo Please

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link

York's Bull made a fleeting previous appearance on Breaking More Waves on the August monthly playlist, so with more posts in a day than ever before, now seems a good opportunity to introduce them a bit further with their third song. Bonzo Please follows up previous releases Disco Living and Green. Whilst this song is supposedly their third, if you do a quick internet search you'll find that Bonzo Please has actually been kicking round for years. There's an earlier version on Soundcloud from 5 years ago!

When I first read that Bonzo Please was ‘a song about writing songs’ I almost switched off. There is nothing that I find more boring in music than a writer talking about writing a song. In 99.9% of the cases it always falls into the same tired old cliches. If you had a musicians buzzword bingo card you’d just be waiting for the words ‘journey’ and ‘inspiration’ to crop up I can assure you. I mean does anybody care for instance if the music came before the lyrics or vice versa? It still forms a song doesn’t it? Yet artists and interviewers seem to find this stuff really interesting. 

Thankfully Bonzo Please is an enjoyable effort. It’s a wind the windows down, feel the breeze flow through, we’re going on a road trip, type of song. Apparently it’s also inspired (see there’s that word you can’t get away from it) by the modern day preoccupation with staring at your phone/ and TV constantly watching other people.

Bull - Bonzo Please

Saturday 3 October 2020

24 Hour Blogathon - Chai - Donuts Mind If I Do

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link


If I was to write a ‘Top 10 bands that are just a whole lot of fun to see live’ list (which I could easily have done over the last three quarters of an hour whilst my Wi-Fi was down), then Japanese pop band Chai would undoubtedly be on that list. With one of best song titles so far of 2020 Donuts Mind If Do isn’t what you’d normally expect from Chai. This is chill-Chai rather than party-Chai. This is languid as you get, verging on easy listening Chai. It’s all ready for a lazy summer evening. The statement that accompanies the video is still very much what you would expect from the band though: “When you’re feeling vigorous, when you’re feeling sick, You like what you like! No changing that! Even if what I like is as simple as a donut.”

OK. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the weird sugary cake things myself. But I still recommend that if you go and get the chance you should go and see Chai live. They’re guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

The song is from Chai’s forthcoming Donuts Mind If I Do / Plastic Love double A-side single. The second track will be available on November 6th. Both songs will also be released together as a limited edition 7”.

Chai - Donuts Mind If I Do

24 Hour Blogathon - Griff ft Honne - 1,000,000 x Better

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link


"You make me feel a million times better when I'm with you."

It's such a simple sentiment but in these weird screwed up times it can really help telling someone how important they are to you. Here half-Chinese and half-Jamaican Londoner and relatively new pop starlet in the making Griff teams up with Honne to sing of that love for another human being. The music is perfectly matched – uplifting, picking you back up, making life seem better again. When you're not even meant to be hugging your friends at least tell them this.

Griff ft Honne - 1,000,000 x Better

24 Hour Blogathon - Lia Lia - Night Call

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link.


Lia Lia has been drip feeding singles since 2017, but Night Call is the first time I’ve featured her on Breaking More Waves.

With a video inspired by Chinese fairy tales and Japanese anime, we find Lia Lia stuck at school alone (there are shades of Britney Spears  Baby One More Time here) and conjuring forth Ryū — a water dragon spirit in human form from her loneliness. 

The song is full of deep synth electronic pulses - fans of the likes of Grimes and Chvrches may well find much to satisfy them here. The song was mixed and mastered by Geoff Swan (Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek, Ashnikko) and both the song and the video are undoubtedly Lia Lia’s strongest work to date.

Lia Lia - Night Call

24 Hour Blogathon - 12 Hours In

 

12 hours in. 12 hours to go. I’ve had a bit of a break.

This is where it gets hard.

Having got out of bed at 5.30am, run ten miles and then sat at a laptop and PC virtually all day (a few technical problems meant I had to switch IT earlier today) has left my body feeling rather strange – hazy almost.

The biggest issue right now though is the music. Earlier today I wrote a list of tracks that had been released in the last few days / weeks that I wanted to feature. That list is now complete. For the next 12 hours I have to go searching and researching.

That means the posts are going to slow. But I’m still here. This is all part of blogging.

And the money that people have donated is massively spurring me on.

Let’s do this!

24 Hour Blogathon - Maude Latour - Block Your Number

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can donate by clicking here.


Sometime student and sometime pop-person Maude Latour returned recently with Block Your Number - a track that sounds a lot like Lorde having had one too many sugary drinks, a tiny bit of Taylor Swift and (in places) a tiny bit like The Strokes. Which is odd, but weirdly brilliant. It’s also the sound of Maude’s head with the floodgates down – there’s not just one idea or thought here but a whole flood of them. “There is so much packed into this song, it’s all straight from my life, my heart, my existence. I have nothing other than this,” she says. Let’s hope she has some more because if not that’s her pop career over, and as for her university education? Well that hasn’t really worked for her if everything she knows can be condensed into a four minute pop song.

Maude Latour - Block Your Number

24 Hour Blogathon - Ider - Saturday

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link


There have been an awful lot of songs created during the Covid-19 pandemic that are frankly pretty awful. Come on artists; it’s not good enough to just sing or rap some basic lyrics about being in lockdown without adding some context, depth or an interesting story. 

Thankfully the  new song from Ider created in lockdown is way more interesting, albeit quite sad and despondent sounding – although there’s a real beauty in the chorus.

 “The world is sick and so are we,” they sing on a video that perfectly fits the sheer heaviness of it all. Megan and Lily both caught the virus and were pretty ill – but out of it has come quite possibly one of the best quarantine songs. They make being downcast sound haunting.

Ider - Saturday

24 Hour Blogathon - Lydiah - I Eden

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

 You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link


This is rather lovely. 

I first posted about Liverpool's Lydiah on Breaking More Waves back in May after confirming her as one of this year’s artists for Dials Festival 2020. Lydiah was due to open the whole thing in a slot that the previous two years had found alternative rock beasts LibraLibra and under-rated synth pop singer Megan Lara Mae perform; upstairs in The Loft on Albert Road. I’ve always thought that this is an excellent slot at the festival; whereas at many festivals the first band on struggles for an audience, the Dials punters tend to be music hungry connoisseurs – turning up early and listening and watching intently. 

Lydiah’s music is a gorgeous blend of alt-folk and soul – although on this new song there’s what sounds like a whole orchestra. Quite how we would have fitted them in the Loft with its relatively small stage and floor space would have been quite a challenge. It might have been a capacity of 1 audience!

I Eden is a song that Lydiah describes as “all about Mother Nature taking back her own.” The work has already been a success with Lydiah winning a £1,000 grant to support her music from winning a competition with the song run by Yorkshire Sculpture Park called the Tune Into Nature Music Prize.

Take a listen and revel in the beauty.

Lydiah - I Eden

24 Hour Blogathon - Keep Dancing Inc - No Milkshakes In Hell

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link.


“It’s about a psychopath who has an addiction for milkshake,” say Keep Dancing Inc.

And really that is enough words – because if that statement don’t convince you to press play nothing else I say will. Except perhaps that one of Keep Dancing Inc is wearing a Kraftwerk t-shirt. That's also quite important.

Keep Dancing Inc - No Milkshakes In Hell

24 Hour Blogathon - Running and Music

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link.

I wanted to post something as part of this Blogathon about running and music – after all they are the two things I’m using to raise funds for Solent Mind today. I’ve already written about how running can be great for mental health, acting as a reset for the brain and linked readers to a really worthwhile long read about why running is a unique therapy for depression and anxiety.

However, I also wanted to write about the very act of running and listening to music whilst doing so. But the point I want to make in the article is so singular that it doesn’t make for a particularly great blog post. Then I thought, sod it, these posts don’t have to be great anyway, I could (and have / will) write gibberish and it doesn’t really matter. What we’re doing here is raising funds for a local mental health charity. That’s what’s important.

So, here’s the point. The one thing that I wanted to write and tell you all.

When I run I never listen to music.

That’s it. Great huh? What a deep and insightful person I am.

OK here’s another point.

I hate ‘running’ playlists. 

Here’s why. When I run it’s an opportunity to really appreciate the environment. I want to feel the wind my on my face, breathe and taste the fresh sea air, see the sun rise or set in glorious beauty over the sea, hear the sound of waves, birds, even the thud of my heavy feet and the differences in sound as they run over concrete, tarmac, cobbles or grass.

Headphones act as a barrier to all of that. They create a shield of no purpose between me and the reality of the environment. I can listen to music all the time at home or in the car, where the sounds rarely change – but when I’m out running, losing my thoughts into the air, feeling more positive about life, the last thing I want to do is block everything out. I want to let the world in to my brain when often it’s at its clearest.

And honestly. Why on earth if I was going to listen to music whilst running would I want to listen to something Ellie Goulding had chosen for me? If I was going to have a running playlist I’d make my own thank you very much. It would probably just be Eye of the Tiger by Survivor on repeat.

But I never will. For me running is about the freedom and immersing myself in the environment.

Now, if you haven’t done yet, how about sponsoring me for the 10 mile run I did this morning and this 24 hour blog posting session. I thought I would raise about £150. I've done £700 so far. Now I'm getting greedy and want more, All the details can be found by clicking here.


24 Hour Blogathon - Baby Queen - Pretty Girl Lie

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link

I’ve banged on about Baby Queen earlier this year (in this post) and here I am again suggesting, no TELLING YOU in a shouty way, that Bella Lathum is one of the best new pop people out there right now.

Here she is again with a lyrical  follow up to her tune Internet Religion. Once again Pretty Girl Lie deals with the more unfortunate side of social media and finds Bella singing about how she hates the egomaniac she’s becoming: “We don’t really care about the message we send, if we look perfect when we play pretend – I get more likes when I don’t look like me; I hate that life.” Like many of the best songs in pop, despite the seriousness of the message, the music is a big sphere of bubblegum fun. 

If music was like football Baby Queen has just been promoted to the Championship and if she keeps her form this season could even be a possibility for promotion to the Premier League at the end of next season.

Baby Queen - Pretty Girl Lie

24 Hour Blogathon - What Is A Socially Distanced Music Festival Like?

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link

It’s not that common for me to really enjoy something but never want to do it again.

But that was the impression that I came away with after attending Wild Fields, one of the UK’s only music festivals to take place in 2020.

Held at Norwich’s Norfolk Showgrounds, Wild Fields was a two day (I attended just one of them) ‘socially distanced’ festival held this September. There was no camping, no big queues for the toilets (in fact the toilets were a permanent bricks and mortar toilet block on site) and no big-name headliners to pull in huge crowds. In fact the crowd was conspicuous by its absence – the event only looked half full at best. But for the several hundred people who attended it gave them the opportunity to at least a chance of watching live music outside on a decent sized stage with a good quality sound system once in 2020.

Wild Fields was very well organised. Each group of punters (a maximum of 6) purchased tickets for their own ‘pod’ – an area marked out by rope barriers measuring approximately 3m x 3m. Surrounding each pod was a gridded walkway system approximately 1.5m wide, ensuring that each group was able to keep at least 2m apart. Within each pod was a table and some bench seating, although you could bring your own chairs. 

There was no requirement to remain seated, but you had to remain in your pod unless you were going to the bars, for food or the toilets. Many punters did remain on their bums though until later in the evening, giving the place the atmosphere of watching bands in a pub garden rather than a typical festival. As Lauran Hibberd commented from stage: “This reminds me of my uncle’s 50th birthday”. 

There was certainly an element of novelty to proceedings and perhaps everybody had to try that little bit harder to make it seem anything less than odd – but for those of us who hadn’t seen a band since March it was a welcome relief to just be doing this again. "We haven't done this for a while," became almost the standard band comment to the audience for the day.

Wild Fields was a very civilised event. The only moment of real rock n roll behaviour was when some somewhat drunken girls broke out of their pod and started dancing in the aisles, but they are reasonably quickly escorted back to their area by security. There was no crowd surfing or getting on shoulders. By just after 9.30pm a hot chocolate seemed like the most appropriate drink.

In terms of music half the day was made up of local bands of various quality – my favourite being Mega Emotion in their smocks and flower hair bands playing what I can best describe as out there indie electronica with treble drumming. But it wasn’t until evening though that the quality rose up a notch. 

Another Sky provided the undoubted highlight. They might have been second from top on the bill but they played like headliners. Widescreen, cinematic, full of quiet tenderness and cacophonous noise their songs delivered goosebump after goosebump. They were the one band of the day that managed to fill the (socially distant) space. Technical problems spoilt Gengahr’s slot meaning that they started 20 minutes late and had to cut their set short just as they were finding their flow. They threw in a surprise cover of Underworld and managed to get people grooving a little but it felt a little too late. The hot chocolate had more appeal at that stage. 

Earlier on in the day Lauran Hibberd amused everyone with her banter and threw out some new rough and ready indie guitar bops whilst Indoor Pets got some small groups bouncing as they invested what looked like a whole year’s energy into one show - but ultimately the lack of punters on the barrier and the spacing of the crowd did take something away from their performances.

Ultimately Wild Fields was a very well organised event, and as good as it could be – but whilst social distancing kept us safe, and everyone could see all the bands play without someone taller than them blocking their view, it meant the event lacked the human connection we all want from live music, particularly festivals.

Let’s hope that in 2021 we can all be shoulder to shoulder on the barrier together again.



24 Hour Blogathon - deep tan - Deepfake

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link

From the band called deep tan (who I first featured back in 2019) comes a song called Deepfake. No the tan and fake elements aren’t anything to do with Donald Trump, but instead a deepfake is the very weird and disturbing idea of someone’s image being used in porn videos even although they were not part of the shoot. Apparently 96% of deepfakes involve porn videos where female celebrities are imposed onto the video without their consent. At the time the band was writing the track, their friend Jessica Winter (who has been featured numerous times through the years on Breaking More Waves in various guises, most recently here) had just discovered that her image had been used in a deepfake porn video. 

The song itself is a comment on consent, the music brooding and strutting with a sense of indie aloofness and features both French and English lyrics. The internet can be a wonderful thing but it can also be a place where people have no thought or regard for others and utterly horrible. 

deep tan - Deepfake


24 Hour Blogathon - Millie Turner - Eye Of The Storm

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link  https://justgiving.com/fundraising/dials-blog-run

We’ve already had a track called Before The Storm Hits on the blog today, so it seems appropriate to feature the new one from Millie Turner which is titled Eye of the Storm. You might remember Millie from the rather spiffing pop tune Jungle or the equally good She Was A Dancer a couple of years ago?

Apparently there’s a mixtape in the works, which in an ideal world I’d like to be an actual mixtape sen t to us all by 2nd class mail or purchased from Our Price or Woolworths, but I think what we’ll get in reality is a bunch of tracks that aren’t quite an album on streaming services which isn’t really a mix tape at all; but that’s the way language evolves I guess.

Eye of the Storm is a propulsive little thing – a pop tune that sounds like it’s building to a big drop or an explosion but never quite does. This is a good thing. It keeps us wanting more yet gives us enough. That includes a hooky little earworm of a melody.

Millie Turner - Eye Of The Storm

24 Hour Blogathon - Avec Sans - Altitude

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link


F*cking hell. This is brilliant.

I’ve been a long standing fan of Avec Sans and their left of centre edgy and scissor sharp electronic pop and Altitude, their first new track in some time, reminds me exactly why. A futuristic slab of stuttering hacked up computerisations stitched together by what sounds like the maddest of music professors,it’s bonkers, but brilliant. It was written in the direct aftermath of an earthquake experienced from the 16th floor of a Tokyo hotel, subsequent landslides and emergency evacuations the band encountered as they travelled across Japan and it certainly makes the ground at Breaking More Waves HQ tremble.

There’s perhaps some similarity to the Mercury nominated Charli XCX album How I’m Feeling Now insofar as this is the sort of stuff that the dreaded ‘real music’ fans (who essentially define real music as anything played with a guitar) will stick daggers in their ears if they have to listen to it – and that’s fine with me.

For the rest of us, Altitude sounds even better loud on headphones, so try it like that.

Since I last featured Avec Sans on the blog they’ve morphed into a three piece, with Alice and Jack now joined by the interestingly named Willow Sellers. There is a new album coming and all being well a London show is scheduled for next May 21st at The Grace

More of this please Avec Sans. This is how I'd like all pop music to sound like in the future.

Avec Sans - Altitude

24 Hour Blogathon - Introducing: Pixey

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link https://justgiving.com/fundraising/dials-blog-run



Grabbing the sound of Madchester-era baggy beats and a guitar riff that could quite easily have shuffled out from a Stone Roses album, Liverpool newcomer Pixey (real name Lizzie Hillesdon) will probably make you want to throw your arms in the air and shout something like: “Top one, sorted; nice one geezer,” to her song Just Move, her debut through Chess Club Records. It’s an ode to dancing and it is almost guaranteed to make you do just that. 

Those early 90’s grooves and references to the capital of the north don’t stop there either. Her debut self-released EP Colours from 2019 finds a jangle-pop anthem called Supersonic Love – Noel and Liam may well find this of interest. Elsewhere the title track of the EP manages to mix elements of psychedelia, pop and folk to produce something rather lovely. 

But before I go to far and start referencing The Charlatans, The Inspiral Carpets or Happy Mondays (all of which would be very wrong points of reference) instead let’s tell you that the blurb I’ve been sent says that Pixey grew up listening to the likes of Kate Bush, Björk, and George Harrison, whose classic songwriting struck a chord with her before she turned to The Verve, The Prodigy and De La Soul for sonic inspiration. She adds: “I particularly like the idea of using samples/making my own riffs sound like samples which was heavily inspired by the De La Soul album 3 Feet High and Rising. Starting out initially though Grimes was a huge catalyst when I realized she wrote, recorded & produced herself.”

I can certainly imagine dropping Just Move in a DJ set somewhere between De La Soul and Deee-Lite’s Groove Is In The Heart and it working well. There's something retro and classic about Just Move, and I like it a lot. I suspect you are going to hear a lot more of Pixey in the future – just don’t get her confused with Pixie Lott.

Pixey - Just Move

24 Hour Blogathon - Some Thoughts on Missing Live Music And Mental Health

This post is part of a 24 hour blogathon (conducted after a 10 mile run) in support of Solent Mind, a mental health support charity. I would be really grateful if you would help by sponsoring me and help raise some funds for the charity. 

You can find my sponsorship page by clicking this link 


“I bet you really must miss gigs and festivals?”

It’s not a surprising question considering how many hours I spent travelling to, attending, documenting and talking about live music in pre-Covid times. 

So, it probably surprises quite a number of people when I answer with a shrug: “Not as much as you think I do.”

I feel pretty bad about this answer. It makes it seem like my passion for live music is false. I begin to feel guilty; surely I should miss live music more than I actually have done? 

Now please don’t get me wrong. I love live music. I absolutely adore it. And I’m really concerned about the effect this bloody virus is having on venues, staff, musicians and the like – especially those whose livelihoods depend on it to keep a roof over their head or feed their families. And I really hope that in 2021 it will return bowling head over heels into our ears and lives again.

But deep inside I’ve been shocked and surprised how little I’ve pined for the rush of adrenalin, the goosebumps, the joy, the discovery, the feeling of togetherness that live music at its best brings.

So why is this?

I’m sure some psychologist could offer me some sort of theory and explanation; but here’s mine; it’s much harder to miss something if you have plenty of other things to keep you occupied.

Throughout this global pandemic I’ve been incredibly fortunate to keep busy. My job (in local government) has probably never been busier. Then outside of work all that time spent journeying between mosh-pits, half empty halls watching support bands, standing in beer soaked clubs and fields full of dancing revellers has quickly been adapted to new passions; namely long distance running and cooking (don’t worry I’m not going to be posting any You Tube cooking videos on this blog). 

On the Dials Festival website there is a blog where a small number of artists and Dials Team members have shared their stories about their own mental health. I’ve never volunteered to write anything on that blog because it would feel a little bit false; my mental health has generally always been pretty good – a couple of minor blips along the journey perhaps but nothing too serious.

But I wanted in this slightly awkward roundabout way to write something today about mental health. And this is all I could really offer – an explanation of why my own headspace feels relatively healthy and hence why I’ve coped well with missing music. This is of course just my experience and I fully understand that for others its different.

I feel that my brain is wired to get on and do things rather than be overwhelmed with anything but fairly low levels of stress or anxiety. But it’s that doing things that helps. More importantly the types of things I do help. Music distracts from the pressures of the world. But so does running. 

There’s a brilliant piece (click here) on how running gives you a feeling of hitting reset and being able to better handle the rest of the day – and the reasons behind it. Yes, this is a music blog, but if you struggle with mental health I would 100% recommend giving running a go. During these weird times of the global pandemic running has been a godsend for me.

These are my experiences. I know it’s hardly the most comprehensive blog post on mental health but on what would have been ‘Dials Day’ – a day where a bunch of volunteers including me put on a music festival and help support a mental health charity I wanted to share something. I really do recommend the post on running I linked to though.

This pandemic won’t last forever and I am excited for the day that I can get back to gigs, but until then my running will give me that “yes” moment that keeps me going.