Latido

Honey Gentry weaves magic with Dreamlover

Honey is smooth, honey is sweet, so it stands to reason that Honey Gentry’s Dreamlover EP is exactly that. Gently dripping tracks out over the last couple of years, her body of work is a melancholic journey that has, or will likely see the protagonist in every story meet tragedy.

Dreamlover represents another strong cornerstone in what Honey is building. Her music is in general, very easy to listen to. The gentle sounds & melancholic, smooth singing style effortlessly glide into your ears and swim around your brain. The stillest of nights & calmest of oceans are poured into her craft.

Each track is a unique sonic journey, with the simplicity of their construction adding to the beauty. Instrumentals aren’t overblown, everything is softly played, from the gentle plucking of a guitar to the faint rolling of drums. Standout tracks are easily Daydream Baby and Heart Of Gold, for their melancholic approaches to songwriting, and the instrumental arrangements contribute to the pseudo-tragic narrative of the song.

To compare Honey to anyone would be unfair, she is her own artist with her own sonic blueprint, but to listen to Dreamlover and say you do not feel airs of del Rey and flashes of Buckley would be false. With that, it’s also unfair to say that she can’t reach the same heights as her inspirations with her melancholic, easily listenable sound.

Releases come steadily from Honey, and every one solidifies her status as one of the best new artists out there. Weaving magic into her craft, the only wish from outside is for her to continue growing and growing as an artist.

The New Consistent Pens An Ode To The Big Man With Rude Boys

Sometimes, it’s hard to open up, and turn the camera back on ourselves, forensically investigating the numerous facets of our lives. For Ben Ramsay though, he’s taken inspiration from within to release music as The New Consistent, with Rude Boys taking a look at, and providing an honest commentary on his relationship with his dad.

This follows his blueprint of providing an honest commentary on modern life, filmed through the lens of a 19-year-old rapscallion, a ragamuffin… a rude boy, if you will. His debut EP, Individual Social Accounts and Commentary earlier this year provided silky smooth beats and a running commentary of modern life. Think Sleaford Mods after a valium, or, more seriously, one of his personal inspirations, fellow Brummie Mike Skinner.

Rude Boys is an incredibly easy listen, the beat has a slick, relaxed, lounge-ish feel to it. Sit back, relax and enjoy as Ramsay gently and eloquently writes an aural love letter to his old man. The video even features his old man, the big man, quite literally, as The New Consistent Snr. stands at a mighty 6″7.

Ben is just 19 years old and is bursting with enthusiasm, ideas, positivity and optimism for the future. After working with another Brummie musician… a vocalist called Ozzy… or Austin Williams from Swim Deep, Ben produced Rude Boys by himself, and clearly has the knack for the production that he does for vocal delivery and storytelling.

Whilst Rude Boys is thoroughly enjoyable, it’s the future that gets you more excited. A few more production tricks here, a few more paths wandered here, and Ramsay’s output will just continue to get better and better. He has a lot of confidence in his abilities, which counts for a lot when you’re just getting started, and with more to come before the year’s out, you just know he’s got another story to tell. Instead of interviewing him in Paris’ most expensive hotels, you’ll be sat in the pub with a smattering of empty pints, as he commentates on modern life through his lens.

Foals Get Beefy With Black Bull

With four months left in a long, tumultuous and rapidly deteriorating decade, you’d be churlish not to look back and consider which bands and artists have made the biggest impact in The Tens.

If you want to talk bands of the decade, you can’t possibly avoid talking about Foals. Our favourite Mathletes set an early artistic benchmark with 2008’s Antidotes, and have gone to smash that benchmark with every album that followed. And if their activity in 2019 is anything to go by, they will absolutely be roaring well into the twenties.

With the release of Black Bull, the lead single from their second album of 2019, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Pt.2, the followup to Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, er, Pt.1, Foals are showing they have the audacity and the brass neck to release two solid albums in the space of one calendar year.

The standout theme in Black Bull is that it’s much heavier than the fare from Pt. 1. Pt. 1 was incredibly dance-y, and the overall chilled-out feel to it made it a fantastic album, and the perfect summertime record. Yes, you can dance to Black Bull, but you might find the dance floor being turned into a moshpit before too long. Whilst Pt.1 was no slouch, Pt.2 will no doubt bring a substantially larger amount of beef than its predecessor.

Black Bull rolls like thunder. The intro is gently plucked, but you can feel the atmosphere thicken with every beat. Storm’s a comin’, and Foals will rain down upon you. At this point, your best hope is to get the washing in and strap in as the song kicks in, and comes in like a bull in the china shop. The colour of said bull? Impossible to say.

The riff is classic Foals, fuzz dripping like the first spots of rain, coming as if thunder was made from fine silk. Though unique in its sound, Black Bull comes from the same blueprint as tracks like Providence and What Went Down from albums of days gone by. A snarling attack on the senses, layer upon layer of heavy guitar, filling the air.

Lyrically, it’s what you expect from Foals, total sense and complete ambiguity at the same time. The chorus leaves the biggest mark and sounds out the message for the next phase: “We’re not playing around // The black bull is in town”. With Pt.2 set to come out in October, just months after Pt. 1 came out, Foals aren’t here to play around; they’re here to run through the musical China shop and leave nothing behind.

– (@notoliverbutler)