The RGM Inbox: May 2023
Welcome to our regular deep dive into quality music released by artists operating in a disparate range of genres. The goal of the RGM Inbox is to highlight artists you might not know, sending you, the listener, on a voyage of discovery to find new and exciting talents you might otherwise have missed. In this edition, we’ve a folk duo from NYC, an 80s hitmaker reinventing a classic, a striking Toronto-born singer/songwriter who found her muse in London and a Swiss-Ecuadorian duo who recorded their album in Nashville with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.
photo by Jen Painter
Feel a little like you’re stuck in a rut? Spending far too much time swiping left, right, up, down when the real world is passing you by? You’re not alone. Luckily, NYC folk duo Robinson & Rohe have an action plan for you and your significant other by way of ‘Off Track’ a sweet little ditty from their upcoming album 'Into The Night' set for release May 26 via Righteous Babe Records
Those of us of a certain age, or just fans of 80s pop, might remember H2O. The Scottish act enjoyed chart success with ‘I Dream To Sleep’, which made the UK top twenty, and the band also appeared on Top Of The Pops. H2O frontman Ian Donaldson has reimagined the song to mark its fortieth anniversary and it’s just the beginning of a busy 2023 for Ian with new music and gigs on the way.
“It would be a shame not to celebrate I Dream to Sleep’s birthday. The song has become an old friend, not only to me, but to many other people over the last 40 years. A re-release or remix would have been the easy options. I felt it deserved more. A new recording using different colours. So ... I experimented with harps, acoustic guitar, piano, cello and a fresh vocal. I’m happy with how it turned out. I hope listeners old and new will like it too”
BELLE SCAR | photo by Ben Wilkin
Striking musically and visually, ‘I’ve Been Here Before’ is taken from the debut album by Belle Scar ‘Atoms’ set for release 09.06.23 (digital) | 28.07.23 (LP & CD). Belle is joined by long-time collaborator, multi-instrumentalist and producer Marc Olivier resulting in a quite gorgeous track with strings that would make a John Barry fan swoon. To quote the press release “Belle Scar gravitated towards grander instrumentation and more complex arrangements for her new songs. Writing the music, lyrics and vocal arrangements, with Olivier adding orchestration and production, the duo have created a mesmerizing album about finding meaning in life's beauty and darkness while navigating a path towards its unknowable future”. Belle Scar holds nothing in achieving her creative vision, as evidenced by the most recent of her live shows with a fourteen-piece band (including strings and choir) at a sold-out Sadler's Wells last autumn, so we can expect the album launch for ‘Atoms’ at Hoxton Hall, London on the 7th June 2023 to be an equally impressive event.
The term cinematic is often bandied about when discussing music, but in the case of Swiss-Ecuadorian duo Hermanos Gutiérrez, it's seemingly the only way to describe their wonderfully widescreen El Bueno Y El Malo album. The album, recorded with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, has amassed 23 million streams in just a few short months. A video for ‘Thunderbird’ from the album is available now, embracing those cinematic vistas of wide open spaces and the American West, which many viewers will naturally associate with the classic Western film genre. The brothers Gutiérrez (Estevan and Alejandro) will be appearing at the Cross The Tracks Festival in London on Sunday, May 28th 2023.
Welcome to the latest edition of Sounds on Sunday, an occasional series where we showcase new and upcoming releases perfect for a relaxing Sunday (or any other day, for that matter). For this episode, our musical choices seem to be centred in Canada, with a nod to Norway and the Middle East. So join us as we listen to, and hopefully learn more about, Justine Giles, Drea Lake, Marthe Halvorsen, and Tenise Marie.