Lately, we’ve come across or received a batch of fresh dope songs from DIY artists and bands from overseas locales around the world.
There are some fire tracks down below that you’ll (probably) only hear on IRC. Keeping it real! Please share if you enjoy this post. The full, continuous streaming playlist of all songs in this post is found at the end of the post.
Andes Fellas – Bandung, Indonesia
Bee Bee Sea – Castel Goffredo, Italy
Black Midi – London, England
Corniglia – Perth, Australia
Pure Assassins – Bournemouth, England
Sandmoon – Beirut, Lebanon
These kids really sparked our attention with their recently dropped track, “Flick Away,” from the debut album, Spread The Love.
They are Andes Fellas an unlikely indie-pop trio from all the way in Bandung, Indonesia – half a world afar.
The trio was created last summer. Interestingly, they refer to themselves as “a pack of boys from Andes Cluster” – a neighborhood of Bandung.
The band members are somewhat mysterious: guitarist and vocalist Tama and drummer Octy are only known by their nicknames, while the bassist’s real name apparently is Roy Rexter.
The music is just DIY-good enough, and the locale from which it comes is just ‘exotic’ enough, that it added up to a must-include for this playlist.
Boy Pablo and Mac Demarco are big musical influences according to the band. They recommend their songs for “people who’ve been broken-hearted.”
The explosive Italian punk trio Bee Bee Sea have made their mark in recent years dropping slick singles and opening for bands like Thee Oh Sees, Black Lips and King Khan & The Shrines.
Bee Bee Sea’s newest single is the throwback-sounding and uninhibited track, “Be Bop Palooza.” It’s a brilliantly deranged song that you might have on repeat for days.
Mixing genres like punk, garage and glam rock with a little bit of The Cramps’ psycho-surf and some of Can’s hypno-funk, this punchy, three-minute romp will definitely get your attention. The band members are Wilson Wilson, Giacomo Parisio, and Andrea Onofrio.
High school friends, they hail from the historic northern Italian town of Castel Goffredo.
London’s young four-piece guitar band Black Midi was one of SXSW 2019’s “it” bands that had music industry insiders buzzing and music lovers swarming to their Austin shows.
They’d gained a rep in London and abroad for their direct, harsh, and dazzling live shows.
Their long-awaited debut album, Schlagenheim, dropped last Friday. The first single from the album is the trippy and raucous, “Ducter,” which has an accompanying anime music video.
Black Midi creates amazing post-punk experimental music that sounds nostalgic and yet feels refreshingly new, with a vocalist, frontman Geordie Greep, that stands out like few other frontmen, plus an award-winning drummer Morgan Simpson, and two brilliant string men – guitarist Cameron Picton and bassist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin.
Just a few days ago, the U.K. Guardian newspaper tagged Black Midi as the “most exciting new guitar band in Britain.” The band’s name is derived from the Japanese music genre Black MIDI.
Corniglia is the moniker of Australian musician Matthew Irwin who weaves shoegaze, dream pop, and psych into richly-textured, dark textures.
The Perth musician’s newest single is the bliss-heavy psych track, “A Lost Forgotten Dream,” from the album, On/Off, which drops on July 5, 2019.
The track oozes with melodies, hypnotizing guitar parts and reverb-laden vocals. According to Irwin: “It’s a rolling psych song. It’s dark dream pop…A dream of nature and of man – Conjoined twins long separated – both reunited and at war.”
“It’s the undulating, pulsing flow of surreal lyrics over rolling drums and guitars that drive and release like the rise and fall of the ocean…It’s waking in a primordial land. It’s waking from a dream.”
In the past, Irwin worked with his partner-in-music, Chloe De Paoli. However, this time around, he decided to go it alone.
The U.K. outfit Pure Assassins’ new anthemic single, “Get Down Stay Down” sports a syncopated groove stabbed and punctured by distorted guitars, drum and bass-like synths and standout vocals and chorus.
The one-man band behind Bournemouth’s Pure Assassins is songwriter and producer Chris Rush, formerly of the drum-n-bass duo Calyx.
Calyx achieved global radio play, including multiple airings on BBC’s Radio One for their unique styling of techno-step and neuro-funk that put Rush into a position where he could take more liberty to explore as an artist.
Now Rush returns to his musical roots on his latest recordings after working as a producer with a number of record labels.
In the studio, Rush gets help from a collective of musicians, including Terl Bryant (John Paul Jones), Chris Mears (New Volunteer), Simon Jeffery, and drummer Tom Hooper.
The abstract lyrics describe, Rush says, “the push and pull of wanting to take the harder things in life on but subconsciously wanting to avoid them.”
The hooky chorus is one of the main hallmarks of the song; one that you might find yourself humming hours later. Rush has created his own mini summer hit.
Rush is influenced by bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Beck, BRMC, The Black Keys, Radiohead, and Supergrass.
The new music video, “Fiery Observation,” from Beirut musical project Sandmoon, is more like a mini road trip movie set to an exciting and eclectic soundtrack.
In fact, it was inspired by Agatha Christie’s adventures and was filmed in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, reflecting, the band says “the emotional and raw vision they have for the [upcoming] album.”
Sandmoon is songwriter, vocalist, and musician Sandra Arslanian and a collective of revolving musicians. Arslanian is a multi-instrumentalist and plays instruments such as the ukulele and piano.
After a number of revamps, the band is now made up of guitarist Sam Wehbi, cellist Ribal Kallab, bassist Georgy Flouty, drummer Dani Shukri, and Arslanian.
In 2016 she wrote and recorded the soundtrack for director Philippe Aractingi’s film, Listen. As a result, Sandmoon received the award for best soundtrack at the Lebanese Movie Awards.
Additionally, their EP, Beirut-Berlin Session, was produced by renowned producer Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, PJ Harvey). Additional releases like Home and In The End also received radio play and blog coverage in the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S.
Arslanian’s influences include David Bowie, Feist, PJ Harvey, Beth Gibbons, and Radiohead.