Midweek Mixtape #4

Daisy Victoria - Heart Full of Beef

When this song landed in my inbox, accompanied with a long-winded and (quite frankly) lovely message, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting the record to quite sound as it does. Yet in Heart Full of Beef, Daisy Victoria evokes immediate comparisons with Anna Calvi, her powerful voice and harsh guitars making it a thrilling listen - and showing that you should never come to any early preconceptions about an artist. A dark, powerful and intense record.

Little Dove - Into The Ground

It's difficult to avoid thinking of The White Stripes when you first hear Little Dove. Yet Jack and Meg's influence was such that almost any two-piece blues rock band is bound to do the same. That shouldn't take anything away from Into The Ground, a stomping blues assault packing a mega riff and an incessant, pounding drum beat. Don't write this LA duo off as White Stripes imitators - their self-titled debut album does more than enough to suggest they're a fearsome proposition in their own right.

Yellow Ostrich - Neon Fists

The folk rock stylings of Neon Fist starts off innocently enough, but as the tempo and noise is gradually ramped up and up it becomes a more captivating listen with each passing second. In the end, the steady acoustic guitar lick is the calm epicentre of the hurricane that slowly starts to encircle it, distorted guitars and increasingly strained, almost desperate vocals pleading for the song to reach its thrilling climax.

Wye Oak - Glory

Though Wye Oak's lead singer Jenn Wasner was said to have suffered severe writer's block in the run-up to latest album Shriek, you would never have guessed it after listening to this majestic slice of electro dream pop. Her ghostly vocals take Glory by the scruff of the neck, and even as the glitchy electronic solo is taking shape, you're always hoping it will eventually find its way back to her stunning vocal hook. Which, thankfully, it does.

Oliver Wilde - Night In Time Lapse


Bristol-based bedroom musician Oliver Wilde is beginning to make waves with his brand of 'downer pop, glitch tinsel, dad rock and sit down classics' (his words, not mine). In B-Side (B-SIDE!!) Night In Time Lapse, his blissful vocals are barely audible above the dreamy guitars and cracked-out electronic sounds, yet it all comes together perfectly to form, well, top quality downer pop, I suppose. This writing lark is easy sometimes...

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