Hi Gigantic Gang,
Sure is warm out, isn’t it? Well not as hot as these blistering new releases – they are sheer fire! Gigantic is always the best place to discover the latest tunes and with our weekly #NewMusicFriday blog and playlist you can hear all the latest vital tracks plus get your hands on tickets to hear them being played live.
Stay hydrated and we will see you at the front x
EP
JULIA MICHAELS – ‘Inner Monologue Part 2’
Young songwriter Julia Michaels certainly impressed the critics with the release of her ‘Nervous System’ EP in 2017. This year has already seen the release of ‘Inner Monologue Part 1’ in January. She now completes the project with the release of its second half to complete what she sees as a full record.
‘Inner Monologue Part 2’ is eight tracks which combines bright and breezy pop with elements of dance to great effect, perfect for summer 2019.
“I see it as one whole album. I don’t think there’ll be a part three, but I might put out a couple more songs and really make it an album. I haven’t decided yet. But yeah, originally I was going to do all love songs [on Part One], and then all heartbreak songs [on Part Two], like a where I am versus where I was. Then I got my heart broken again, so I was just like, “Fuck it,” and I scrambled them all up. Now it is what it is. It’s a mixture of just love and heartbreak and, again, self-image and mental health, and all of the things that I think and feel on a daily basis.”
Julia Michaels will be showing off her new material at major gigs in autumn including Albert Hall at Manchester and O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in London during September. Get your tickets with Gigantic right now!
Julia Michaels tickets are currently available.
Album
JADEN SMITH – ‘ERYS’
Jaden Smith is certainly not shy of trying new things, and on his new album ‘ERYS’ he has certainly pushed the experimentation to the limits. From the first four tracks named a single letter to spell ‘P’ ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘K’, to the wide range of influences including soundscape samples, oriental instrumental, baroque pop and punk, Smith has shown a huge willing to embrace disparate sounds and the knowledge of how to use them best.
As expected, Smith has gathered a glittering cast of artists who all appear on ‘ERYS’ including long term partner Kid Cudi; “Something that people don’t know is me and Cudi have been making songs together since before I released my first project. He’s kind of been mentoring me my entire exploration through music”, his sister Willow, A$AP Rocky and Tyler, the Creator who only just got involved at the last second: “I got Tyler’s verse so last minute, like right at the deadline of the album”
Make sure you see Jaden Smith smash it at O2 Forum in London on Sunday 18th of August 2019.
Jaden Smith tickets are currently available.
MACHINE GUN KELLY – 'Hotel Diablo'
The long wait for Machine Gun Kelly fans is finally over as his highly anticipated fourth studio album 'Hotel Diablo' has finally dropped. Recruiting a truly epic cast of producers and collaborators, including hip hop ace Ronny J, the legendary Honorable C.N.O.T.E. and Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, Machine Gun Kelly AKA Colson Baker has created a true masterpiece.
The excitement has been rapidly building, thanks to well timed teasers in social media posts plus the killer lead single 'I Think I'm OKAY'. Thankfully, Baker has not disappointed as 'Hotel Diablo' is a gritty and mature album which displays impeccable lyrical flow dealing with issues of anger and addiction accompanied to expertly produced moody tracks.
Machine Gun Kelly tickets are currently available.
THE SOFT CAVALRY – ‘Self-Titled’
The Soft Calvary is the new project of husband and wife shoegaze legends Rachel Goswell and Steve Clarke of Slowdive fame. Acting almost as a form of couples’ therapy, this album is a shared discovery of a new means of conversation between the married couple and how to resolve conflict and engage with life.
“I’d always had ideas but never felt that anything I had to say was worthy of anyone’s attention, let alone my own. I wish that I could have done this fifteen years ago but, in reality, I simply couldn’t have. But I’m not one to overly wallow. I’d rather plough the various levels of confusion into songs.” – Steve Clarke
Recruiting drummer Stuart Wilkinson who has worked with the likes of Lissie, Dum Dums and Razorlight, guitarist Tom Livermore and Jesse Chandler who you likely know as the keyboardist from Midlake and Mercury Rev, Goswell and Clarke were able to explore their anxieties and frustrations – both shared and as individuals and put them into the music.
“If the album has a theme, it’s recovery versus new doubt. I’m there, in the middle. The word that kept coming back to me was ‘resilience’. With the right mentality and people around you, especially family, we get through, and find a level of hope.” – Steve Clarke
These wrought emotions has shaped the album into an atmospheric expanse which shimmers and echoes into the darkness. The Soft Calvary is a celebration of being first being insecure and the catharsis which comes about through expression and communication. A real triumph.
The Soft Cavalry tickets are currently available.
BABII – ‘HiiDE’
Having seemingly come out of no-where to explode at SXSW this year, many wondered if electronic artist BABii was nothing more than a creation of the music industry set on a familiar story of a steep trajectory due to media hype only to crash and burn just as fast. However, on debut album HiiDE’, BABii proves there is real substance in her work, hinting that the best is yet to come.
Co-produced by Adrian Sherwood (Cabaret Voltaire, Nine Inch Nails, Einstürzende Neubauten) and BABii herself, ‘HiiDE’ accelerates the recent rise of alternative pop far into the future. Drawing on elements of R&B, trap and electro, the nine-track album is deceptively complex, allowing for nuanced layering of sugary sweet vocals with menacing levels of bass, hypnotic synths and nods to the nasty industrial experimentation of the acts Sherwood has previously worked with. The result is a compelling LP which draws you in with the pop hooks and keeps hold of you with the sheer level of ingenuity which is rarely heard on an act’s first album and surely hints at true greatness.
“All of the tracks are fragments of the same theme and capture the album as a whole. It’s such a diverse set of emotions that all bleed into one another, and also reflect each other, and at times can even contradict each other. They only make sense as a whole.”
‘HiiDE’ is released on MP3, vinyl and a limited Dinked Edition of 450 copies on 180g clear with white splatter vinyl accompanied with a holographic card with white typography and debossed illustration, sticker sheet, tracing paper obi strip and insert.