Collectively Sophie-Rose, Anna and Kristy have found their way onto Breaking More Waves through a number of projects over the years, from Sophie’s solo output, together as part of The Night VI and Kristy’s individual effort called Silk Cinema. More recently they grabbed my attention again using the name Paradisia, with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark, one of those rare reworks that manages to transport the song and the listener to a totally different, dare I say it, improved place. So with reintroductions out of the way, now we get to hear something new from the trio. Sadly Silent Lover isn’t a cover of the Boney M groovy disco classic, but that’s OK, because instead there’s a beguiling piece of timeless folk pop to listen to. Full of serene maturity and depth the song tells the tale of an experience of being swept away by someone after just a very short experience. Paradisia recently performed their first live gig at The Waiting Room in London, which was a sell-out. More dates are to follow. Paradisia - Silent Lover
“Whatever happened to xxxxxxx?” It’s one of those questions I tend to ask when an artist I’ve written about falls off my radar. I almost got round to asking that about Welsh singer Casi. After posting about her in March 2015 on Breaking More Waves and catching a live set in May 2015 things seemed to go very quiet. Had she given up music to go on a spiritual journey to Goa to find herself? Or maybe she’d invested in a property portfolio in London and made her millions before retiring to the Bahamas? It seems it was none of these, because now she’s back, with a new song called Lion. Not only that it’s on a proper record label (Chess Club) which means that the song has already had a radio exclusive and a music website premiere because that’s how these things tend to work in the music industry. So what’s Lion like? Well, you can probably decide for yourself by just pressing play, but if you want some words, I’d suggest it’s a weird mix of the ethereal combined with the heavy hitting. A sort of modern day synthy Clannad perhaps? I can certainly imagine a video that features clouds of mist, lots of eerie blue light, wind machines, an icy lake and some muscular looking warrior lords from the north.
Following on from the Soundcloud stream of Shura’s truly excellent What’s It Gonna Be, now there’s an equally excellent video. It takes all the classic elements and clichés of the teen high school drama and then plays around with them a little – rather like a 2016 remake of a 1986 movie. It’s a lovely little story, shot with a wonderful colour palette (how have they made high school look so great?) and if you don’t feel a little better about the world after watching it then please check your pulse. Oh and apparently the main male character in the video is Shura’s twin brother, which makes it even better! Shura was of course nominated for the BBC Sound of 2015, but with this song and an album to follow in July it seems that her star is still rising in 2016. She plays London's Koko tonight, with a slot at Glastonbury also just announced. Shura - What's It Gonna Be? (Video)
If Suffocate by Night Games seems familiar to you then it’s probably because this song has lurked in the shadows of the past – in fact a quick check on Hype Machine reveals that a couple of sites (including the ever reliable Just Music I Like - the blog where I first discovered Night Games) wrote about the song in 2014 and 2015. However, it appears somewhere along the line Suffocate disappeared and has now resurfaced, giving a second opportunity for those (most) of us who missed it first time round. Suffocate isn’t a simple pop song by any stretch of the imagination. It’s way deeper and out there than that. Its closest cousin would probably be something from FKA Twigs, although Suffocate sounds less disconnected, the sounds are less scattered and there’s a more of an understandable structure to what’s going on. In fact Suffocate is a little less try hard than Twigs, but it’s still full of wonderful mystery and oddness, Constance's voice going from a breathy whisper to stretching for the stars over its duration. Like all of my favourite pop music right now, you’re not going to find Suffocate storming up the Radio 1 playlist, it’s way too leftfield and experimental for that; and it’s all the better for it. Night Games - Suffocate
