best new music Archive - Golden Glades

I don’t remember how I actually came across The Late Pioneers. I downloaded the We All Knew Biscuits E.P (2018) from Bandcamp a while ago. But somehow the songs slipped through my daily business and got lost in my ever-expanding music library. Until I received a notice the other day that there’s a new release from The Late Pioneers. And this time, the band immediately got my full attention.
It’s easy to connect with this new collection of songs released under the title Close Enough: there are plenty of splendid melodies and the way they harmonise sound very familiar. All topped up with chiming guitars and a neat lo-fi approach. Also, there are different singers and songwriters in the band, each bringing in a distinctive style and approach into the band. We all know about the benefits of having three singer/songwriters in a guitar band, right?

<a href="http://thelatepioneers.bandcamp.com/album/close-enough">Close Enough by The Late Pioneers</a>

The Late Pioneers are four long-time friends, originally from the Manchester area. Because they ended up living in various parts of England, they only get together once or twice a year to record some music at someone’s home. It’s clearly a labour of love. You can hear they are having fun getting together, swapping instruments all the time while recording all sorts of songs. Thankfully, they share this music straight away on Bandcamp (occasionally accompanied by a quick video for YouTube) for everyone to enjoy this creative outcome. Of course The Late Pioneers are no leading innovators in the field of hand-made indie guitar music. They are clearly influenced from a broad range of musical directions. Not in a contrived or copied manner, but with fresh authenticity.

From the past five years, there are numerous releases to check out on Bandcamp. And further more to dig into: several side-projects like Autopia, Combo Ribs and The Separates. I’d recommend to start with The Pinetop Sauna because they also have a knack for three-part harmonies and classic guitars. It’s less lo-fi and sounds more American influenced to me. Yes, there’s loads to discover. Hope you enjoy!

<a href="http://pinetopsauna.bandcamp.com/album/pinetop-sauna">Pinetop Sauna by Pinetop Sauna</a>

11th November 2019

UPDATE

Less than three months later, and The Late Pioneers are now having a CD compilation out via the wonderful people from Subjangle. The album consists of the Close Enough EP from 2019 (tracks 1-7), the Bin Wang album from 2016 (tracks 8-16) and four tracks (17-20) specifically chosen by Julie Fowler (editor of the Colours Through The Air Blog and also one of the co-founders of Subjangle). It’s well deserved, that this great music finally gets a proper physical release!

<a href="http://thelatepioneers.bandcamp.com/album/the-late-pioneers">The Late Pioneers by The Late Pioneers</a>

31st January 2020

Oh well, I’ve been caught up by too many things and completely neglected my blog – sorry for that! It’s not dead yet. All I needed was a good reason for getting back into the writing business again and here it is, thanks to Shy Boys and their outstanding new album Bell House.

My colleagues at ByteFM already described its brilliance in a top-notch review in German. But I have to express my own excitement about this record here for you and for the music geek in all of us. So here we go: Shy Boys are a quintet from Kansas City and I know there are some very fine bands hailing from this area like The ACBs or Ghosty and also The Coctails were once founded at the Kansas City Art Institute before moving to Chicago.

And now we have Shy Boys, five guys singing sweet little, affirmative songs in perfect harmonies and I’m not at all surprised to see, that two bandmembers also play with The ACBs: there’s a similar feel to it in terms of sound and shape. But here on their second album, Shy Boys are taking the notorious indie-pop to a higher level and created nothing but a little masterpiece. It’s all good, from start to finish filled with musically nimble songs.

Of course, it’s easy to pin down some glorious influences: The Beach Boys moments, the sense of harmonic structures from singing in the church – but all this put together in a very gentle, upright and beautiful intimate way – it’s simply hard not to fall for this. While lead songwriter Collin Rausch sings about childhood memories and reflects on mundane things in life, the band creates an atmosphere of creativity and faithfulness, all in the sake of the unspoiled pop experience. I’d say you can hear there’s a quality in all this which only evolves over time when there’s a special connection between all band members. And indeed: Shy Boys is the product of five best friends (two of them brothers) who manage to combine all the soul-feeding harmonies and strong songwriting with an almost natural, effortless touch. It’s a very special thing, please check it out!

<a href="http://shyboys.bandcamp.com/album/bell-house">Bell House by Shy Boys</a>

23th August 2018