Sat, 01/27/2018 - 2:33 pm

Irish-born, and now Glasgow based singer-songwriter Martha Ffion has announced her eagerly anticipated debut LP entitled 'Sunday Best’ which is released 9th March 2018 on Turnstile Music.

'Sunday Best' is by far her most adventurous and accomplished work to-date, the lush instrumentation bringing her detailed lyrical vision to life through a series of gleaming guitar-pop songs that drift between soft-centered balladry and something altogether more cutting and forceful.

It’s perhaps true to say that our relationship with music is steered solely by connection. Sometimes that’s a very direct thing; the words we sing along to relatable to our own desires and experiences. Occasionally, however, it manifests itself in other ways, a captivation drawn from something we can’t conveniently place or pigeon-hole; songs and sentiments we watch from afar, trying to find a way inside.

Martha Ffion’s work has always flourished within the latter of these two paths. While her Irish roots and current home city of Glasgow have undoubtedly informed her work, so many of her songs resonate all the more for feeling wildly devoid of time and place, an alluring cast of characters drifting in and out of focus, each one examining Ffion’s own thoughts on what it means to be “good” in a society that has such determined expectations.

Initially breaking through with a ‘postcard single’ on Scotland’s flourishing Lost Map label, Ffion’s reputation soared with last year’s ‘Trip’ EP, a swooning five-track collection that was released by Turnstile Music (Cate Le Bon, Gruff Rhys, Charlotte Church, Emmy the Great etc.) and championed by Gold Flake Paint for its “beautifully melodic sway”.

Written entirely in Glasgow since her move from a distinct Catholic upbringing in small-town Ireland, and recorded with her full live band by Jamie Savage at Glasgow’s Chem 19 Studio (King Creosote, The Twilight Sad, Emma Pollock).

Ffion’s debut album, ‘Sunday Best’, spans the first songs she properly wrote to her most recent compositions, and is by far her most adventurous and accomplished work to-date, the lush instrumentation bringing her detailed lyrical vision to life through a series of gleaming guitar-pop songs that drift between soft-centred balladry and something altogether more cutting and forceful.

Opening track ‘Missing You’, with its glass of milk and “half smoked pack of Lucky Strike” plunges the listener in to 1950s American suburbia, all dimly lit rooms and crushing quietude; the previously-heard ‘No Applause’remains a glowing stand-out, its crunchy guitars and radiant hooks as captivating as ever before, while ‘Record Sleeves’ feels like a more personal snap-shot of Ffion’s own life; talk of “burning diaries” and the devil painted on record sleevestypical of her enchanting eye-for-detail that plays out as a variety of cryptically vague melodramas; soft, sultry, and scintillating.

Recalling the work of Sharon Van Etten and Jenny Lewis, while still sounding thrillingly distinct, ‘Sunday Best’ is a formidable coming-of-age record, and one that stands as a truly accomplished debut.

It’s released on Turnstile Music on the 9th March 2018.

Live Dates - March 2018

Wednesday 7th - Cardiff - Clwb Ifor Bach  Tickets

Thursday 8th - London - The Waiting Room  Tickets 

Friday 9th - Edinburgh - Sneaky Pete's  Tickets

Saturday 10th - Glasgow - Mono  Tickets

Sunday 11th - Newcastle - Think Tank  Tickets

Wed, 03/22/2023 - 7:09 am

Hollowing Out, the debut album from Cardiff-based five-piece Red Telephone will be released on 31st March 2023. The dystopia-tinged album deals with themes of alienation, identity and monotony, as well as exploring contemporary social dilemmas such as the trappings of ambition in a saturated pop culture age, the pervasive nature of modern media and social media fatigue. Sonically, the band draw from an array of influences; ranging from Berlin-era Bowie, brooding synth-led film soundtracks such as Blade Runner and Uncut Gems, the art rock of Kate Bush and St Vincent, as well as modern electronic pop artists such as MGMT, Mitski and Tame Impala.
 
Speaking about the upcoming album, singer Declan Andrews said;
 
While putting together ‘Hollowing Out’ we were really getting into synths; drawing quite a bit on brooding, synth-led film soundtracks like Blade Runner, Scarface and Uncut Gems. Part of this was out of necessity - it was the initial 2020 lockdown when I wrote most of the songs in my bedroom and I’d got my hands on emulations of classic synths which gave me free reign to really explore this territory of sounds. I also had the free time to watch and rewatch a lot of movies such as those just mentioned. All of this definitely crossed over with the band’s prior love of film, Bowie’s Berlin-era sound, his work with Iggy and albums like Little Dark Age by MGMT too. Basically, those dystopian soundscapes that evoke a lot of mood and imagery. As a band we’ve been drawn to them for a while, especially since visiting Berlin and exploring Bowie’s stomping ground (quite run down and not very touristy areas) but also after playing Tallinn Music Week in 2019. The post-Soviet landscape was pretty striking in parts of Tallinn and we discovered bands like Molchat Doma for the first time, who were using synths and electronic elements in ways that got us excited and has definitely rubbed off on our approach since.
 
We really wanted to integrate these sounds and influences into a modern sounding record rather than just looking back though, so we spent a lot of time getting the bass and low end sounding as big and distinctive as possible - we were really influenced by the likes of Kendrick Lamar in this respect. Similarly, dystopian themes seem as relevant as ever; with the saturated and pervasive nature of modern media which the album explores lyrically, as well as topics like social media fatigue and alienation.
There’s also a big guitar aspect to the sound so it’s not just a synth album. We grew up listening to guitar bands like Arctic Monkeys, so that’s part of our DNA, but while making this we were delving into a lot of R&B, which influenced the use of phased guitar lines and seemed to accentuate the dark and cinematic sound we were after. The most recent Strokes album The New Abnormal had also just come out when we started work on this album and we were listening to it a lot, so no doubt some of those guitar approaches found their way into the sound.
 
About Red Telephone
 
Formed in 2018 and hailing from Cardiff, Red Telephone’s richly layered alt-rock could have emanated from a club in Blade Runner's dystopian LA - combining angular guitars, Krautrock-inspired rhythms and New Wave-tinged synths with infectious pop sensibilities. Drawing on post punk, synth pop and industrial rock influences the band has been catching the attention of DJs across BBC 6 Music, BBC R1, Amazing Radio and Radio X; with comparisons to the likes of MGMT, Mitski and Berlin-era Bowie being drawn. With previous single releases on Welsh-based labels Libertino Records and the Popty-Ping Recording Company, the band's highly anticipated debut album is set to be released early 2023.
 
'Hollowing Out' Album Tracklisting
 
1.Hollowing Out
2.Happy Man
3.Wanna Sleep Tonight
4.Orange Lights
5.Wake Me
6.Normal Life
7.We All Look So Nice
8.I'm Broken
9.The Machine That Changes Itself
10.Waiting For Your Good Days