Swim
Edition #99 features the new tracks by Am Tae, Midweek, Vanita, oaielup, and Boris Brejcha.
reLISTEN #18: Cover Songs
Cover songs can easily be flawed. But we're recommending five examples that add something new to the originals.
Cover songs may have a worse reputation than they deserve: Sometimes, they're considered lazy grifts by musicians less talented than the original artist. Or they fail to come anywhere close to the original's quality.
And we've certainly heard our fair share of great songs getting abysmally butchered in cover versions. Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is a prime candidate for bad takes. It's probably human to distinctly remember the negatives.
However, cover versions used to be much more popular and less frowned upon in the past. It was even more likely that a cover song surpassed the original, and today, many people wouldn't even recognize that it's a cover. Jimi Hendrix's cover of Dylan's All Along the Watchtower is one of the most famous examples, but also Aretha Franklin's Respect, originally by Otis Redding, or Ike & Tina Turner's take on CCR's Proud Mary.
Exclusive Premiere: Laddermen – Programmed for Pleasure
The Swiss band Laddermen return with their new single «Programmed for Pleasure», celebrating its premiere today alongside a stunning video.
With Programmed for Pleasure, the Lucerne-based trio Laddermen ends its silence and makes a dramatic return with their evocative sound. At the same time, the single is already a promise of the intrigue we can expect in the near future.
The new song is a hauntingly atmospheric composition driven by a playful guitar, significant for classic indie rock. However, the monotonous delivery of the verses by Texan-native singer and guitarist Leopold Oakes contrasts the melodic sound and adds to the darker ambience felt throughout Programmed for Pleasure.
Today, Negative White exclusively presents Laddermen's Programmed for Pleasure alongside a stunning and spooky music video directed by Zabalik:
Despite what the gruesome video might suggest, Programmed for Pleasure isn't about murder—it's simply a narrative device. Laddermen explore the hopeless attempts to save a crumbling relationship—perfectly described by the song's first line:
Solving the murder with the killer in the room.
These few words are enough for the sobering realisation that there's no solution when the people, their programmed mechanism killing love, are around. The band doesn't sugarcoat it: Programmed for Pleasure is a despairing song, fooling you with a beautifully melodic sound, an indie rock siren that drags you overboard in the dark depths. And you drown.
A Refined, Melodic Sound
In 2021, Laddermen released their debut album, Special Kind of Violence, featuring eleven songs with a raw energy reminiscent of acts like Fontaines D.C.
Alice Teeple wrote about the single The Huntress Obeyed for post-punk.com: «The nostalgic swoon of Laddermen's sound, bolstered by unconventional singing, deviant progressions, and articulate urgency, has a dark post-punk indie vibe, comparable to Editors, with the passion of Frank Black fronting Interpol.»
With Programmed for Pleasure, Laddemen depart for these rough soundscapes, travelling to more melodic and intricate songs that will be steadily released next year.
Make It Home Alive
Edition #98 recommends fresh tracks by IAMTHELIVING, Nina West, Edwin Rosen, Theo Bleak, and ÄTNA. Get your dose of new music right here.
How To Best Support Your Favourite Musicians
Streaming is not a viable business for most indie artists. Here are four ways you can actually support your favourite musicians.
By now, it should hardly surprise anyone that streaming services are not a viable business model for most artists, especially if they're walking outside the big mainstream path.
While streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music have made it easier for consumers to access new music, the revenue model doesn't work for the majority of musicians.
Suppose you're paying a premium subscription for any of the services. In that case, the money goes into a pool—and you're financing the big labels and streaming giants like Ed Sheeran or Talyor Swift, whether you're actually listening to them or not.
While it is completely understandable not to want to ditch the convenience of streaming, every music fan should know that simply paying for a premium service does not support their favourite artists.
However, there are five easy ways alongside streaming you can use to actually (financially) support your beloved musicians and enable them to keep doing what they do best.
Buy Their Music
Okay, this should be obvious: Buying is better than streaming. When you buy an album or single physically or digitally, the artists get a fixed amount of money.
There are even two main advantages for you as the buyer: If you purchase a physical product like a vinyl record, you have a piece of art to decorate your home (provided the cover art is outstanding).
And if you buy a digital download, the music is protected, and you actually own a copy of the file. Streaming services often remove songs from their platforms, or the artists themselves delete them for various reasons.
Buy Tickets Early
Concerts are great to support your favourite musicians. They not only earn money from ticket sales but shows provide an easy opportunity for them to sell merchandise (see next point).
However, since the pandemic, pre-sales have been struggling, sometimes even leading to cancelled shows because the financial risk was too high.
So if you really want to see your favourite artist live, buy a ticket early. And keep this also in mind: You're simultaneously supporting your local concert venue. What a great feeling!
Buy Their Merchandise
As mentioned above, merchandise aside from physical music has become an essential revenue stream for artists. While certain genres like metal have engrained it into their culture with band shirts and patches, it isn't as common in other scenes.
So purchasing merchandise like shirts, stickers, or other bits and pieces is an effective way to help artists make ends meet—especially because compared to the music itself, there are fewer stakeholders like labels, publishers, or distributors involved.
Support Them On Creator Platforms
Some musicians take advantage of newer opportunities to gain the support of their fans. They might be present on creator platforms like Patreon or Fanklub, where you pay a small monthly subscription. These platforms provide them with a steady income, often trading the money for exclusive content for their paying supporters.
Other artists seek funding for their next album on a crowdfunding platform. Also, there, you can directly support the musicians in their creative endeavours.
Spread The Word
Well aware that all of these support approaches require a certain disposable income in a time when life, in general, gets more expensive, it's also worth considering that the same is true for musicians.
It is important to remember that music, despite all the contrary signs, is not just a commodity but art created with passion and inspiration. It brings us relief, channels emotions, and sparks joy.
However, there's one thing that helps and is completely free: Spread the word! Recommend artists to your friends and multiply their reach through social media.
reLISTEN #17: Goosebumps II
In the following edition of reLISTEN, we uncover four classic studio recordings that provoke goosebumps. However, the last track deviates from the norm.
In one of the first reLISTEN editions, we already presented five goosebump-provoking songs from artists like Adna or Louis Dunford.
It was one of the most popular issues of this format, where we recommend older songs—mainly around a specific subject. So, it's definitely time for a follow-up.
Today's edition consists again of five songs; however, only four of them were recorded in a studio. The last song adds a bit of a twist but arguably has one of the highest «chills factor» amongst today's selection.
The Beauty of Gemina – When We Know
Released in 2014 as part of their album Ghost Prayers, The Beauty of Gemina's When We Know is undoubtedly one of their most hauntingly beautiful songs. The acoustic guitar reverbs in the dark, accompanied by singer Michael Sele's deep voice. Faint strings appear in the background.
When We Know builds up slowly, the guitar gains energy, and the bass adds depth. But the knife that pierces right into your heart is the chorus with its cello melody and some of the best lyrics Sele has ever written:
Artificial Flame
Edition #97 recommends the new tracks by Tusks, HOME, ill peach, Stainwasher, and A Certain Someone. Discover here.
Angie McMahon – Light, Dark, Light Again
Australian singer-songwriter Angie McMahon demonstrates artistic and emotional sophistication in her sophomore album.
It was the song Missing Me that introduced me to Angie McMahon in 2019. The single's raw and reduced composition felt like a long-awaited return to rock music's essence.
With Salt, the Melbourne-born artist delivered a highly praised debut album, even shooting up to 5th place in Australia's charts. Eddy Lim, reviewer at the Beat Magazine, wrote: «While Salt is primarily driven by deft guitar work and a tight rhythm section, it's McMahon's stunning vocal performance that unequivocally captures the spotlight.»
Four years passed, and finally, Angie McMahon released her sophomore work: Light, Dark, Light Again. And it sounds significantly different from Salt—already anticipated with the first single release, Saturn Returning—yet arguably even better.
I have been listening to Light, Dark, Light Again for weeks at this point, yet I still struggle to fully grasp the album and put my thoughts into sentences that pay justice.
There are obvious observations like the piano replacing the guitar as the main character in most compositions—a development that originated in the 2020 compilation of Salt songs in piano versions.
Or that, suppose Salt was a raw blueprint of blues-infused rock music, the new album seems like a natural evolution: Its compositions are more complex and refined, sophisticated gems of singer-songwriter brilliance, encompassing all from rock, folk, blues, and country music.
Or the connection to nature as a facilitator of healing with references in the lyrics and soundbites introduced in songs like the opener, Saturn Returning.
However, none of these facts scratches the depth of the brilliance Angie McMahon displays in the 13 songs of Light, Dark, Light Again. There is more to unpack here, maybe too much for a single review.
