Nice Swan Picks – 30th November 2020

Posted by: Phoebe Webb
Categories: Blog • News • Nice Swan Picks
30 Nov
0

We have updated our Nice Swan Picks playlist over on Spotify featuring tracks from Mandrake Handshake, Malady, Sprints, Courting, PVA, Yard Act, The Rills, Julia Bardo and many more!

 

 

Mandrake Handshake

Mandrake Handshake’s have caused quite a stir on arrival this summer, the indie-stonery outfit have already drawn a slew of acclaim from key indie press champions in their short time together. Including NME, DIY, Clash, So Young Loud & Quiet. Incorporating influences of krautrock, funk, Japanese animation and Latin pastoral poetry to create a unique brand of ‘Flowerkraut’. Amidst a sprawling barrage of psychedelia. Produced by Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay, Mandrake Handshake’s ‘Gonkulator’ is available on all digital platforms.

Malady

Malady was birthed as a result of Percy Junior Cobbinah (vocals/guitar) and Charlie Clark (guitar/synth) getting to know one another from turning up at the same gigs. Cobbinah and Ertan Cimen (drums) frequented all the same uni house parties. While Clark met bassist Khaleem Mitchell-Patterson at college. Fusing musical elements from dub, post-rave, early dubstep and IDM with formative indie guitar music. The band draws inspiration from day-to-day living, focussing on conversations and social observations.

Sprints

Dublin-based four piece, Sprints are the latest new act to emerge from the city fast becoming one of the most prolific places for hot new bands. Similarly with the recent success of other locals Fontaines DC, Girl Band & Silverbacks – Sprints are set to be the latest in line ready to burst out of the city.

Their creative process is very much rooted to the everyday goings on around them. And just like a true garage band, write and rehearse in their village home’s back garden shed. Taking things to the next level, they were quick to team up with Girl Band’s Daniel Fox who has been producing them in his studio. Drawing influence from the likes of Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem. There is a fun, energetic and retro feel to what they do. But very much sounding as fresh and exciting as their local peers.

 

Courting

Liverpool-based four piece, Courting are the latest new act to emerge from the city steeped in such fantastic and diverse musical heritage. The band, who write and rehearse in the basement of a city restaurant. Find inspiration from the creative melting pot of Merseyside. And with fellow locals The Mysterines making waves. This could be the dawn for another exciting wave of scouse bands.

 

 

 

Malady drop new Video for ‘London, I Love You But…’ and announce pre-order for limited 7″ vinyl

Posted by: alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
25 Nov
0

Malady drop new Video for ‘London, I Love You But…’ and announce pre-order for limited 7″ vinyl

 

Track List

A. London, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
B. London, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Dub (Remix)

Delivery Date:
28th January 2020

NSWNi005

Limited Run

ORDER HERE
Only 100 Available.

Malady was birthed as a result of Percy Junior Cobbinah (vocals/guitar) and Charlie Clark (guitar/synth) getting to know one another from turning up at the same gigs; Cobbinah and Ertan Cimen (drums) frequented all the same uni house parties; while Clark met bassist Khaleem Mitchell-Patterson at college. Fusing musical elements from dub, post-rave, early dubstep and IDM with formative indie guitar music, the band draws inspiration from day-to-day living, focussing on conversations and social observations.

Produced by Eduardo De La Paz and the band’s own Charlie Clark, ‘London I Love You But…’ explores the band’s complicated relationship with the capital. Frontman Cobbinah explains: “I must’ve heard LCD Soundsystem’s ‘New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’ and thought the love-hate sentiment behind the tune mirrored the feelings I had, and still have, with London. The topic of the tune isn’t news to anyone but it felt necessary to document the confusion and sadness felt by how inaccessible and hostile the city is becoming to live in for most ordinary people who have most, if not all, of their lives here.”

 

Mandrake Handshake launch ‘Gonkulator’ & announce signing to Nice Swan Records on 20th November

Posted by: alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
20 Nov
0

The final release of 2020 for us will be wrapped up with the brilliant Mandrake Handshake via our Introduces Series. Their single ‘Gonkulator’ lands this Friday. Numbered NSWNi006.

Primed for release on November 20th, the hypnotic group mark the latest addition to Nice Swan’s monthly ‘Nice Swan Introduces…’ series (in partnership with RIP Records), having already discovered and released debut tracks from some of the finest talent in recent years including Blossoms, Sports Team, Pip Blom, FUR, Hotel Lux and countless others.

Causing quite a stir on arrival this summer, the indie-stonery outfit have already drawn a slew of acclaim from key indie press champions (NME, DIY, Clash, So Young Loud & Quiet) in their short time together, incorporating influences of krautrock, funk, Japanese animation and Latin pastoral poetry to create a unique brand of ‘Flowerkraut’ amidst a sprawling barrage of psychedelia.
 
Detailing the second offering from their debut EP out in 2021, the band revealed: “This is our 3-minute party tune, but in swung 5/4 ‘cause who doesn’t love a good 5/4 groove!? It’s a song about sheer joy, happiness and freedom for two-and-a-half minutes – can’t be any longer because it’s too much otherwise!”
Produced by Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay, Mandrake Handshake’s ‘Gonkulator’ is released November 20th via Nice Swan Records and will be available on all digital platforms.

 

  

Sprints share brand new track ‘Manifesto’

Posted by: alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
13 Nov
0

Sprints

Sprints’ return with the second single lifted from the highly anticipated debut EP of the same, that is set for release next year. ‘Manifesto’ is the post-punk band’s best single to date as they’ve refined the more industrial elements of their sound and head into a more tense yet exhilarating chapter.

‘Manifesto’ is the latest single to be released from the rapidly growing Dublin 4 piece. Further cementing their place as one of Ireland’s most exciting new acts. Sonically, SPRINTS sound like an arena-slaying band who could bring their darkly theatrical performances to the biggest stages. Daniel Fox of Girl Band has been working with them since their inception in early 2020 and is credited as producer for each track on this beautifully crafted EP.

The full track listing for the EP is as follows:
1. Manifesto 2. Drones 3. Swimming 4. Ashley

The band manifested their relationship with Daniel Fox after being fans of the noise, garage and punk scene in Dublin for years. Before edging their way in with brilliant songwriting.

Karla Chubb, lead singer and songwriter, started bedroom singing and songwriting in her late teens. By her early 20’s Karla met current bandmates Colm O’Reilly (guitar) and Jack Callan (drums) and they had a short-lived indie project together. In 2018, Colm and Jack’s childhood friend – Sam McCann (bass); prolific on the fuzz pedal – joined them to bring that maelstrom that would edge them into the hallowed Dublin scene (think Silverbacks, Fontaines DC), and SPRINTS was born.

Sprints’ clarity in what they wanted to achieve stems also from needing to orchestrate a sound that would be a fit for Karla’s emotive lyrics, which tackle some brutal issues fearlessly and articulately.

Speaking of ‘Manifesto’, she says:

“Manifesto is all about control, and the seeming lack of it we have sometimes – control over our own lives, our own bodies, our own societies. Written during the time of the Repeal the 8th referendum in Ireland, it’s a call for equality.

Life can feel like it’s unravelling around you. We see our countries fall in and out of economic crisis, we see the homeless crisis worsen by the day, we see the rapid rise of addiction and drug problems, and nothing is being done about it, yet when it comes to telling women what they can do with their own bodies, that’s when people (the bigots) step in and show up? It baffled me.

Manifesto is about turning your cheek to the critics and bigots and those who judge and doubt. To try shake the shackles of everyday existence and mundanity and go carve your own path. “

Meanwhile, the EP’s other three tracks don’t disappoint. The unhinged chaos of preceding single; ‘Drones’, ‘Swimming’ a leather-clad BRMC-esque tale of alienation and poverty, and ‘Ashley’ a philosophical banger dealing with simulation and obsession, will greet you when the EP drops next year.

Nice Swan Records started their relationship with SPRINTS for their second single: the raw, raucous bass-fuelled ‘The Cheek’. A track centred around Karla’s “own experience of sexual assault, unsolicited advances and sexuality as a whole.”

It ushered them into the limelight and they’ve earned acclaim from Steve Lamacq, who put them as his Spotlight Artist,;and they landed Next Wave on BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders’ indie show. With ATC booking also taking them under their wing last month, this new EP, SPRINTS look set to take the guitar world by storm in coming months. Watch this space.

Nice Swan Records roster can be found here

Alongside Liverpool Sound City, Sprints will play the following headline dates:
April 23rd – The Grand Social, Dublin
April 30th – Liverpool Sound City
1st May – Surf Cafe, Newcastle
3rd May – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
6th May – The Castle Hotel, Manchester
7th May – The Waiting Room, London
9th May – Rough Trade, Bristol
11th May – Heartbreakers, Southampton
12th May – Sidney and Matilda, Sheffield
COURTING SHARE BRAND NEW TRACK ‘POPSHOP!’ OUT NOW ON NICESWAN RECORDS
Posted by:  alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
 05 Nov
 0
Courting share brand new track ‘Popshop!’ out now on Nice Swan Records
Liverpool four-piece Courting are set to follow up breakthrough singles ‘Football’, ‘David Byrne’s Badside’ and ‘Not Yr Man’ with a new EP via renowned indie label Nice Swan Records. ‘Popshop!’, a short, fast paced song, with lyrics offering wry bemusement about the commodification of music, is the instant grat track and streaming here  
Sharp-witted frontman Sean Murphy-O’Neill — who, remarkably, is still in college; the band are all 18 or 19-years-old — offers his break down of the track:
 “​Popshop is about the music industry, the idea of selling out and consumerism. The name is derived from Keith Haring’s store of the same name, and the idea that it is positive for your art to be consumed by a larger audience rather than only seen as something for upper class art collectors or something to buy for its future resale value. We’re also poking fun at bands writing the same song over and over again, and wishing that we could sell our bathwater like Belle Delphine.”
The guitar-driven music underpinning the lyrics, meanwhile, benefits from the tightness you get when a band is living out of each other’s pockets. Just as adept at belligerently shreddy wig-outs reminiscent of Parquet Courts’ crankier bits as they are at ramming the hook home with an unforgettable riff – there’s a lot to endear to.
With their releases now becoming more substantial and their live reputation catching on through word of mouth, the future is looking even brighter for Liverpool’s most exciting new band. Courting, like Sports Team before them, are well on their way to the forefront of this new wave of Britpop and set to gatecrash the charts. Watch out Lady GaGa.
Courting are:
 Sean Murphy-O’Neill (Guitar/Vocals/Cowbell) Sean Thomas (Drums/Vocals)
 Michael Downes (Guitar)
 Sam Brennan (Bass)
Nice Swan Records roster can be found ​here
MALADY SHARE DEBUT SINGLE ‘LONDON I LOVE YOU BUT YOU’RE BRINGING ME DOWN’ – OUT NOW
Posted by:  alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
 30 Oct
 0
Photo credit: Anna Lowry
Nice Swan Records have joined forces with the team from RIP Records with the monthly Nice Swan Introduces… series. The two labels have discovered and released debut tracks from some of the finest talent over the past few years including Blossoms, Sports Team, Pip Blom, FUR, Courting, Phobophobes, Peluché, Dark Bells (Haai) & Black Manila (Mellah), Hotel Lux and many more. The series will introduce a new and exciting talent on a monthly basis – spanning genres – and present a stepping stone for acts yet to have any sort of team around them. Following on from releases with Jelly Cleaver, Courting, Hallan, and Sprints, next up are London four-piece Malady who today shared their debut single ‘London I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’.
Malady was birthed as a result of Percy Junior Cobbinah (vocals/guitar) and Charlie Clark (guitar/synth) getting to know one another from turning up at the same gigs; Cobbinah and Ertan Cimen (drums) frequented all the same uni house parties; while Clark met bassist Khaleem Mitchell-Patterson at college. Fusing musical elements from dub, post-rave, early dubstep and IDM with formative indie guitar music, the band draws inspiration from day-to-day living, focussing on conversations and social observations.
Produced by Eduardo De La Paz and the band’s own Charlie Clark, ‘London I Love You But…’ explores the band’s complicated relationship with the capital. Frontman Cobbinah explains: “I must’ve heard LCD Soundsystem’s ‘New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’ and thought the love-hate sentiment behind the tune mirrored the feelings I had, and still have, with London. The topic of the tune isn’t news to anyone but it felt necessary to document the confusion and sadness felt by how inaccessible and hostile the city is becoming to live in for most ordinary people who have most, if not all, of their lives here.”
***
Malady – London I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down – out 30/10/2020 on Nice Swan Records
1. London I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
For more information on Malady, please contact: liv@they-do.com and dan@they-do.com
Sprints shares brand new track ‘Drones’
Posted by:  alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
 08 Oct
 0
Sprints shares brand new track ‘Drones’
 The new single from upcoming debut EP, ‘Manifesto’
 out October 9th 2020 
 
Today marks the news of Dublin four-piece SPRINTS’ debut EP and the release of its first single. ‘Drones’ is the post-punk band’s best single to date as they’ve refined the more industrial elements of their sound and head into a more tense yet exhilarating chapter.
‘Drones’ sounds on the verge of erupting into unhinged chaos with crushingly loud volumes and swarms of feedback — and it does so at points brilliantly. You can imagine risking a broken rib in the mosphit for this one. Sonically, SPRINTS sound like an arena-slaying band who could bring their darkly theatrical performances to the biggest stages. Daniel Fox of Girl Band has been working with them since their inception in early 2020 and is credited as producer for each track on this beautifully crafted EP. ​The full track listing for the EP is as follows:
1. Manifesto
 2. Drones
 3. Swimming
 4. Ashley
The band manifested their relationship with Daniel Fox after being fans of the noise, garage and punk scene in Dublin for years, before edging their way in with brilliant songwriting.
Karla Chubb, lead singer and songwriter, started bedroom singing and songwriting in her late teens. By her early 20’s Karla met current bandmates Colm O’Reilly (guitar) and Jack Callan (drums) and they had a short-lived indie project together. In 2018, Colm and Jack’s childhood friend – Sam McCann (bass); prolific on the fuzz pedal – joined them to bring that maelstrom that would edge them into the hallowed Dublin scene (think Silverbacks, Fontaines DC), and SPRINTS was born.
Sprints’ clarity in what they wanted to achieve stems also from needing to orchestrate a sound that would be a fit for Karla’s emotive lyrics, which tackle some brutal issues fearlessly and articulately.
Speaking of ‘Drones’, she says:
 “Drones is very literally about my struggles with imposter syndrome. I think being a female in music, I struggle a lot with feeling like I have something to prove. It’s not okay for me to just be good, I have to be great. I have to prove constantly why I am deserving to be on the stage, or holding that guitar or that microphone. That pressure can be very difficult to deal with, and I think a lot of the times you doubt yourself then, am I actually able to write? Or is this all shit? Drones is about my experiences with dealing with this pressure, but realising that a lot of people have these struggles. The bars fill, the car parks fill, life seems to go on and on, and we can become so focused internally on our issues that you don’t realise that maybe while I was wishing I was someone else, they’re also wishing the same thing.”
Meanwhile, the EP’s other three tracks don’t disappoint. When it drops next month (enter date), you’ll be greeted by one of the catchiest choruses in rock n’ roll on ‘Manifesto’; ‘Swimming’ is a leather-clad BRMC-esque tale of alienation and poverty, and ‘Ashley’ is a philosophical banger dealing with simulation and obsession.
Nice Swan Records started their relationship with SPRINTS for their second single: the raw, raucous bass-fuelled ‘The Cheek’. It’s a track centreered around Karla’s “own experience of sexual assault, unsolicited advances and sexuality as a whole.”
It ushered them into the limelight and they’ve earned acclaim from Steve Lamacq, who put them as his Spotlight Artist,;and they landed Next Wave on BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders’ indie show. With ATC booking also taking them under their wing last month, this new EP, SPRINTS look set to take the guitar world by storm in coming months. Watch this space.
PHIL MADELEY  ANNOUNCES DEBUT EP ’21ST CENTURY WITCH HUNT’
Posted by:  alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
 04 Sep
 0
PHIL MADELEY ANNOUNCES DEBUT EP ’21ST CENTURY WITCH HUNT’
OUT 4TH SEPTEMBER VIA NICE SWAN RECORDS
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR THE THE TITLE TRACK HERE
Phil Madeley has announced his highly anticipated debut EP huge new single 21st Century Witch Hunt, set for release 4th September via Nice Swan Records.
21st Century Witch Hunt is a remarkable collection of work that seamlessly encapsulates Madeley’s musical journey so far, with the Birmingham troubadour effortlessly amalgamating a wealth of genres, from dark forboding production to an almost spaghetti western take on alternative classics, all underpinned by his signature vocals and lyrical craft.
Speaking about the debut EP, Phil Madeley said: “‘The EP questions the current state of play. It’s about alienation, division, redemption, and largely myself. It’s questioning the soul of our actions. I’m a bit obsessed with finding meaning in everything. At times this is a flaw, but it has its moment in the sun when it comes to songwriting. We recorded it within a day earlier this year at RAK Studios, which suits the sound of it. It ended up being an outpour of my experiences over the past year and feels like a great base to introduce myself as a songwriter’.
The EP features the huge title track ’21st Century Witch Hunt’, which was released in spring to critical acclaim and was accompanied by stunning, cult-like visuals, as well as debut single ‘Same Skies’ and forthcoming hit ‘Lay Across’.
HOTEL LUX SHARE VIDEO FOR ‘BALLAD OF YOU & I’ STARRING THOMAS BRODIE-SANGSTER
Posted by:  alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
 03 Sep
 0
HOTEL LUX SHARE FINAL SINGLE ‘BALLAD OF YOU & I’ FROM DEBUT EP ‘BARSTOOL PREACHING’ WITH VISUALS STARRING THOMAS BRODIE-SANGSTER (LOVE ACTUALLY, GAME OF THRONES, STAR WARS) AND PRODUCED BY KRIS R (SPORTS TEAM, JOHNNY MARR).
HOTEL LUX RELEASED THEIR DEBUT EP ‘BARSTOOL PREACHING’ VIA NICE SWAN RECORDS FOLLOWING A COVID-19 DODGING SOLD OUT UK TOUR AND PARIS DEBUT. TODAY THE BAND SHARE THEIR FINAL OFFERING FROM THE EP ‘BALLAD OF YOU & I’ ACCOMPANIED BY SOME SPECIAL VISUALS FILMED ON THE ESSEX COAST. THE TRACK HAS BECOME AN INSTANT FAVOURITE FOR THE BAND AND  KEEN TO GIVE IT THE RIGHT TREATMENT THEY CALLED IN A FAVOUR FROM FRIENDS GZI WISDOM AND PARTNER, THOMAS BRODIE-SANGSTER. FRONTMAN, LEWIS DUFFIN ADDS:
“The Ballad of You & I seemed to be the moment that crowned the EP for us. A step in a different direction away from our comfort zone, our best attempt at a pop tune. We thought it was important that it didn’t get lost within the turmoil of Covid and because it’s so vivid of a tune, putting a video to it seemed perfect.”
BARSTOOL PREACHING IS OUT NOW via NICE SWAN RECORDS
VINYL: https://niceswanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hotel-lux-barstool-preaching
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/0HYwkvtYC7sTzVCr08tWiE?si=TpVWF391SUyJxkW_oKuJMA 
PRESS HIGHLIGHTS:
“a compelling listen no matter the headache in the morning.” NME
“killer stuff” – Iggy Pop on 6Music
“Lewis Duffin is still the sharpened tack in the side of modern day British inertia” – So Young
“sizzling “pub rock” gems” – DIY
“Many a band try and fail to create this sense of postmodernism, but it’s Hotel Lux’s actual relatable schisms that makes it work for them” – Line of Best Fit
“I really like that!” – Huw Stephens, Radio 1
NSWNi004: Hallan – Modern England – Out on August 8th 2020
Posted by:  alexedwards
Categories: Blog • News
 06 Aug
 1
NSWNi004: Hallan – Modern England
 
Portsmouth-based four piece, Hallan write and rehearse in an 18th-century fortification built into the side of a hill and surrounded by a forest. It’s within these dramatic surroundings that frontman, Conor Clements channels the frustrations, insecurities and events of early adulthood into his lyrics, which are littered with observational poetry and messages of reassurance that you’re not alone in this overwhelming world.
Drawing influences from the people you cross every day – in the supermarket aisles, on your Facebook feed, next door neighbours – Hallan observe and commentate on British life via an Orwell-influenced bleak vision of the future and the cut-up style of Burroughs and other beat generationers. Heavily influenced by the classic post-punk sounds of Joy Division and The Fall, ‘Modern England’ is a hard-hitting social commentary on England today, from the housing crisis and plummeting employment rates to Brexit and uninspiring modern indie music, that Connor wrote over the top of an instrumental demo.
He says of the track: “It’s the characters in our town, the conversations they have and what we see on our television sets. We want to reflect what’s going on in the here. We don’t want to make a one-sided political message or talk for a generation. The song is exactly what it sounds like. A condensed England if you will. With so many strange and vapid trends gripping the nation sometimes you have to take it all in and find some humour beneath the surface. Pugs and face changing apps. What’s that all about? And how could we forget Brexit? It’s a good job we all have our red passports. But then again does anyone in the country have a clue what’s ever going on? Maybe it’ll all blow over if I stick to my microwave dinner and keep my eyes on the screen.”
 
Hallan have already started to build an army of local fans, their last headline show sold out so quickly in advance that the support acts weren’t allowed any guests and having supported the likes of Porridge Radio and Sports Team, the future looks bright for the seaside town’s exciting, young act.
Hallan are: Conor Clements – Lead Vocals
Josh Ransley – Guitar
Joshua Tweedale – Bass Guitar
Adam Mills – Drums