Gareth Koch Releases ‘A Christmas Album’

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"Gareth Koch Releases ‘A Christmas Album’"

Imagine timeless European Christmas music played instrumentally, as if upon a choir of lutes. Ancient & exquisite songs, deep within the human psyche, are now newly arranged by ARIA Award winning guitarist Gareth Koch. The interpretations reveal his signature blend of contemporary flair laced with medieval sensibilities.

The arrangements are both elegant & appealing, sidestepping any notion of commercialised Christmas clichés. Re-imagined as troubadour-like ballads or tender Austrian folk songs, each carol receives a unique treatment. The listener is invited into an array of soundworlds, ranging from the early medieval to English folk-revival.

The music of this album leads us away from the bustle of many modern realities. Instead, we are drawn into a gentler universe, filled with subtlety & nuance. In any year, at any time, this album presents a Christmas message we all need to hear.

Song Description
Little Drummer Boy
This timeless mid-tempo classic Christmas carol is dealt with not just using multiple classical guitar parts but with hand percussion and rice shakers.

Ding Dong Merrily On High
An up-tempo and superbly played Christmas piece dating right back to the 1800’s. Even some 12 string electric features in Gareth’s new arrangement.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
A very old piece, dated to the 16th century and referred to in Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’. Gareth recreates the vocal melody perfectly and becomes a terrific hum along piece. Bass guitar rounds out the arrangement featuring multiple guitars: acoustic, nylon string and electric creating a lush sonic tapestry.

About Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & song writing. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects. Over the past two years he has released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church). Earlier this year a third collaboration with Steve saw the release of double album ‘The Hall of Counterfeits’.

A Christmas Album is OUT TODAY November 26th – via MGM
Order CD’s from official store and Stream/ download below

xmasfull

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The Insufferable Paul Scott – Tea and Medals

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"The Insufferable Paul Scott – Tea and Medals"

Paul Scott unleashes his ‘Insufferable’ Persona on the airwaves once again this time with a long play album Tea and Medals created in and out of the 2  big Aussie lockdowns

When we asked the ‘Insufferable’ Paul Scott to send us an update to his bio below we got some straight to the point words such as: “Well it is simple really I am Inedible, Incorrigible , Indescribable , Incredible, Incoherent , Indigestible, Intellectual , Indistinguishable , Intractable.”

And when asked to comment on the new album he said – “you can take the album any way you like but to me it’s Inscrutable , Insoluble , International  , Incorruptible, Inspirational , Instructional,  Industrial ,Invaluable, Intangible and Individual”

Working with a host of collaborators/producers and mixers including: Steve Melville (The Tea Party, Paolo Nutini, Regurgitator), Tim Powles (The Church), a team based in Los Angeles and many others ‘Tea and Medals’ was born from a set of home demo’s written during lockdown in 2020.  With the brief hiatus between the two NSW lockdowns, studio time was booked at various facilities including Damien Gerard’s on the Central Coast where a specific Re Amp procedure was added to some of tracks prior to final mixing.  The overall finished album was then mastered by Grammy Winner William Bowden (Gotye, You Am I) at his hi-end luxury suite in Tasmania.

Paul Scott began his career in music, writing and playing bass in angular NZ group Pop Mechanix.  Despite court cases, a revolving cast of singers and multiple record labels, their single ‘Jumping Out A Window’ became a staple of New Zealand pop culture.

Relocating to Australia, Paul formed Montana with Ken Stewart (Mr Blonde), Michelle Margherita and Steve Melville.  Their first release featured ‘Koolest Band’ which received national airplay and high rotation on JJJ.  A brief tour of the USA and a performance at SXSW, led to ‘Koolest Band’ being included in the Hollywood movie ‘You Drive Me Crazy’.  The subsequent album ‘Bubblegum Love’ was released in Australia, Spain, France and the USA.

Scott has since plied bass for various Australian acts, playing everywhere from community halls and malls in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to the Sydney Opera House.  More recently Scott has released ‘Surrender to Robots’ also under his ‘Insufferable’ moniker which found wide response and positive reviews which led to the creation of the new album Tea and Medals.
Latest Video

The Insufferable Paul Scott – Tea and Medals is out NOW

Download or stream:

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Steve Williams – Surrey Road

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"Steve Williams – Surrey Road"

Steve Williams
Surrey Road
Collaborative Album
OUT NOW

Surrey Road is the culmination of over 20 years song writing and came from Steve’s desire to do an album of his own songs with various great singers that he knew or had worked with previously.  Shelter Me was written by Steve and  Pat Powell and features the smooth vocals of young up and coming Melbourne singer, Nic MC. Many of the other songs on the album are sung by Pat Powel himself, lending his legendary voice to the mix and pat also co write a number of the tunes.
Steve Played all instruments on the album himself  other than guest appearances by Victor rounds on bass and John prior on drums (selected songs). Steve produced, engineered and mixed the album at his studio in Melbourne with the exception of “when I see you dancing” which was mixed by John Prior at Unity Gain studios in Sydney.


Steve Williams came to prominence as the lead guitarist in the 80’s pop group Wa Wa Nee, who had top 5 hits and ARIA Nominations in Australia and chart action in Europe and the USA. This prompted Steve to relocate to Europe after working with James Freud and Richard Clapton following Wa wa Nee’s breakup. After working as a session musician in the UK and Europe he returned to Australia in 2005 and continued session and production work including musical theatre and television appearances.  He has played in bands alongside Jon Lord from Deep Purple, Choirboys, Matt Finish, Ray Parker Jr, Real Life, and many more.

The Surry Road album was recorded in Steve’s Melbourne studio.  Steve co-wrote all the tracks with musicians that he has worked with over many years of touring and recording :

Tracks feature guest vocals from Pat Powell(Melbourne Ska Orchestra and many more) and other well known vocalists such as: John Kenny (Rockmelons), Tim Watson(Taxiride), Vince Contarino, Terry Slesser(UK) and Louise Person as well up-coming Melbourne singer Nic MC.

The songs were co written with a host of writers including Mark Gable(Choriboys), Scott Smith and many of the singers above.

With the worldwide release of Surrey Road marking off this long span of writing and recording Steve’s new album for 2022 is already underway with a much more personalized and singular approach.

Checkout the Album

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Jack Nolan Releases Album Gabriel

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"Jack Nolan Releases Album Gabriel"

Soundslikecafe Presents The Album ‘Gabriel’ Aussie Americana by Jack Nolan 

Gabriel is Jack Nolan’s fifth solo album, and the first album he’s yielded to someone he trusted enough to produce: This is an album that mines its own carefully sculpted acoustic world with a profoundly atmospheric sense of place, and a depth of self-knowledge that speaks of arrival after a lifetime of sometimes hard, sometimes tender experience.

The genesis, Gabriel came to Jack a few years ago, sat at his side on a long desert drive that he wasn’t sure he’d come back from. The title track, in its own unhurried and roundabout way, eventually found itself in Nashville, USA, on an album completed just before COVID-19 wrought its havoc on the world.

Atonement is upfront in titles like The Hopeless Son and Restitution Song. Others — Tomorrow Came, Faster Than the Speed of Change, A Fool Would Follow Me — are deeper stocktakes, songs from life’s rear view mirror. Ghosts of people and places and other, maybe darker things, receding for sure, but too close to ignore.

Produced by Justin Weaver and captured on two-inch tape in the aptly named ‘Welcome to 1979’ Studios by engineer Chris Mara, the assembled band included drummer Jimmy Paxson, bassist Chris Autry, keys player Phil Towns and pedal steel player David Spires who were joined by backup singers Terri Lynn Weaver & Siobhan Maher Kennedy. Justin himself applied the deeply textured lead and electric guitars.

Gabriel, is a record offering up evocative, ethereal stories, perhaps best signalled on the album’s title track, with Nolan singing “Endless lanes /endless cars // In the absence /of stars” reminding us of this new world, turned on its axis in 2020/21.

Jack Nolan is a singer songwriter based in Sydney, Australia, who’s been performing and releasing music and albums since the mid 90’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows of the time.

Within Nolan’s music, mysterious and shimmering chords unite his sound with that of the Americana genre, once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’, uniting elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

With three children entering their teens, it was post these releases that family and fatherhood took centre stage. Playing, performing and writing as much as possible, along with getting a ‘real’ job, Jack’s intention was to get back to the music. So it was that Jack finally assembled his band again and took to Electric Avenue Studios in Sydney for the initial sessions of what was to become his next album.

When listening to the playbacks mid recording, a manager friend listening along was impressed and made a chance comment, ‘why not take this to the States to finish and mix it there?’ It was the spark that eventuated in Jack hunting down a favourite Nashville native Mike Poole, an American producer engineer renowned for his work with artists like Robert Plant, Patty Griffins and Buddy Miller. With tracking and mixing completed with Mike, the album ‘Our Waverley Star’ was released in 2018.

Having caught the Tennessee bug while finishing his 2018 album ‘Our Waverley Star’, Jack returned to Nashville in February 2020 for two weeks of recording and mixing with his friend and multi-instrumentalist Justin Weaver, known best as the Dixie Chicks’ guitarist. After the most intense and enjoyable fortnight possible, Jack headed home in March 2020, a day before a hurricane wiped out Nashville, and less than a week before the world changed forever, if the word Wuhan rings a bell.

And so it is, Jack’s latest album, Gabriel, releasing October 2021, keeps the wheels moving on the meaningful passion of this writer and performer.

Singles

Hold Your Horses
Taken from Sydney singer songwriter Jack Nolan’s 2021 album, Gabriel. Recorded for a friend, supporting them, to tell them they’re worth it, to stay the course.

Gabriel
Gabriel, the title track from Sydney singer songwriter Jack Nolan’s 2021 album. Recorded originally as a demo that was almost released, Jack reconstructed the whole demo process again in Nashville with the band, with drummer Jimmy Paxson on the trash can drum.

Video

jn-yt-gab

Credits:
Written by Jack Nolan
Recorded at ‘Welcome to 1979’ in Nashville TN 2020
Produced by Justin Weaver
Engineered by Chris Mara
Mixed by Chris Mara & Justin Weaver
Mastered by Ryan Smith, Sterling Sound Nashville TN
Jack Nolan – Vocals & guitars
Justin Weaver – Electric Guitars, slide, banjo & backing vocals
Jimmy Paxson – Drums
Chris Autry – Bass

Gabriel is OUT NOW Quay Records/MGM. 

Stream or Download:

JAN_GAB ALB

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Grander Things release new EP Supermoon

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"Grander Things release new EP Supermoon"

Following on from the release of their first ep MASH in 2020 and unable to play live with the sporadic Sydney shutdowns for the better part of the year, Grander Things went back into their burrow and got busy.
From a riff here or there, the lads played around with some ideas in the rehearsal room and started sending recordings for vocalist, Liz Clear to find the ones that inspired the lyrics and melodies to fall onto the page. After some months of blending music and lyrics, Grander Things had five tracks to put down.
Recorded at Damien Gerard Studios on the Central Coast, you can tell Grander Things love wearing their pop-rock hearts firmly on their sleeves. This ep has gentle moments of angst and vulnerability but then surprises you by colliding into epic rock. Keys were added post recording by Gino Campagnaro to the opening track You Said, but the band have stayed true to their roots with guitars that soar.

Liz  Clear / Brent Williams / Bruce Thomas / Rhys Lewis-Smith

Supermoon is OUT NOW – September 24th via MGM
All DSP’s

Watch Video

GT-Vid-Liz-Grab

Streaming:

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Julie-Anne Marshall releases positive and uplifting single Good Feeling

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"Julie-Anne Marshall releases positive and uplifting single Good Feeling"

A feel good song can lift the spirits and that is exactly what the latest song from singer-songwriter Julie-Anne Marshall does.

Its light, bright and breezy sunshine pop.

It makes you feel like you are driving along a country road with the window down, friends in the car on a warm afternoon heading to the beach or doing a road trip.

Its about the sun being higher in the sky as summer approaches and winter is left behind as a distant memory.

Its about moving through challenging times and coming out the other side still hopeful.

Just added to playlist as track 1 cause we love it!!

jampr

Check Out Good feeling right now and get the positive vibes

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CJ Shaw releases new album All Sorts

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"CJ Shaw releases new album All Sorts"

 Soundslikecafe presents All Sorts –  the latest album from ARIA nominated educator and musician CJ Shaw.

Since ‘ANZAC Biscuits’ gained over 30,000 views on social media in 2019, and an ARIA nomination for Music Teacher of the Year, CJ has been busily recording this album. The collection of ten songs affirms Shaw’s position as a creative and dynamic storytelling songwriter for children and adults.

Having spent over twenty years as a songwriter and performer, ‘All Sorts’ draws on the catalogue that Shaw has been performing at folk clubs and festivals. It is an album for the modern eclectic times, containing poignant storytelling, songs of fatherhood, hip-hop, satire and traditional folk. “I wanted an album that could connect people of different ages,” states CJ, “Everyone should be able to enjoy the music”.

‘Terminator Shades’ is Shaw’s hip hop ode to primary school playgrounds and the chaos and characters that it presents. As a teacher Shaw wrote the song to draw his students into the world of hip hop and show the validity of their own experiences in song. “There’s no point in them singing about fast cars in Las Vegas”, says Shaw, “The students have embraced the song and challenge each other to see who can rap the fastest.”

Shaw collected some excellent players to help with the recording. The line-up includes: Allyson Newman who brings her emotive arrangement to the song ‘Lonely Road’ and features Canberra Symphony Orchestra players Steven Fitzgerald, Alex Voorhoeve and Timothy Wickham bringing depth and precision to the record.

A collection of the best songs in CJ Shaw’s repertoire, ‘All Sorts’ is brimming with life and vitality, drawing in audiences of all ages. Dubbed the ‘ultimate family album’ for a reason, ‘All Sorts’ is destined to be a family favourite on long car trips in the foreseeable future.

Armed with a guitar and a swag full of harmonicas, singer-songwriter CJ Shaw’s intricate finger-picking, word play and storytelling never fails to captivate his audiences.  CJ Shaw’s music is distinctly Australian in style, influenced by Paul Kelly and Slim Dusty. His lyrical storytelling and musicality lends itself to audiences of all ages.

In 2020, CJ Shaw was nominated for an ARIA Award for ‘Music Teacher of the Year’ with Jimmy Barnes as his official ambassador presenting him with the nomination.  This prestigious music industry acknowledgement recognised his dynamic and poignant songwriting for primary-aged children. These celebrated songs are woven through his performances and albums, played alongside satirical and storytelling Australiana folk songs.

With over a decade experience touring and performing at music festivals in Australia and Timor-Leste, CJ Shaw is an exciting Canberra musician at the top of his game.

CJ Shaw – All Sorts is out NOW September 17th through Foghorn/MGM

Download or stream: 

cj FULL SALES

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Jack Nolan releases title track single Gabriel from forthcoming album

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"Jack Nolan releases title track single Gabriel from forthcoming album"

Jut added to our playlist Gabriel is the title track single from Sydney singer songwriter Jack Nolan’s upcoming 2021 Americana album, Gabriel. 

We were on the road, from heaving LA freeways and into Death Valley, a most peculiar place, an unknown place. When your mind is elsewhere, irretrievable, like mine at the time, the valley’s a parallel universe, perdition. We were in the midst of a three-day dream. I fell upon a crossroad, landing eighty-six metres below sea level in the Californian Desert at a place, Badwater Basin, where an androgynous guardian appears, Gabriel, kind, gentle yet hard-lived and furrowed, who gave and left me with hope that all would be well.

“The original version, the demo, had that magic, which I thought about releasing it as it was, having gone into the old Damien Gerrard studio in Sydney, to bang down some ideas. I played everything, guitars, shakers, lead, the vocal and I also sang the harmonies. It worked, but my belief in the song told me to give it the environment it deserved. Arriving in Nashville I briefed producer Justin Weaver, who went about recreating the demo perfectly from the ground up. I still handled the guitars, the lead vocal and all harmonies but was smart enough to hand off the rest to the boys!.’’ Listen for Jimmy Paxson on the trash can drum, swinging around the harmonies and Justin Weavers banjo, that is the optimism and the final outcome.

Jack Nolan is a singer songwriter based in Sydney, Australia, who’s been performing and releasing music and albums since the mid 90’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus, along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst, and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows of the time.

Within Nolan’s music, mysterious and shimmering chords unite his sound with that of the Americana genre, once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’ uniting elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

Gabriel
The title track single from forthcoming album GABRIEL

Release dates

September 8 – Gabriel – Single – Digital
October 8 – Gabriel LP (Vinyl, CD, Digital)

Credits:
Written by Jack Nolan
Recorded at ‘Welcome to 1979’ in Nashville TN 2020
Produced by Justin Weaver
Engineered by Chris Mara
Mixed by Chris Mara & Justin Weaver
Mastered by Ryan Smith, Sterling Sound Nashville TN
Jack Nolan – Vocals & guitars
Justin Weaver – Electric Guitars, slide, banjo & backing vocals
Jimmy Paxson – Drums
Chris Autry – Bass

Gabriel is OUT NOW Quay Records/MGM. 

Stream or Download:

JN-Gab_sing

Scents Video Premiere:

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GARETH KOCH RELEASES THE ELIZABETHAN JANGLE EP

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"GARETH KOCH RELEASES THE ELIZABETHAN JANGLE EP"

GARETH KOCH RELEASES THE ELIZABETHAN JANGLE EP

Release Date:  September 3rd  (Foghorn/MGM) Digital Platforms
and CD in Store.
Genre- World/Classical

Imagine music from the time of Shakespeare colliding with the Byrds & the 60’s jangle of 12-string guitars.  A fanciful scenario, yet one of the many wonders art & music can perform.

During the reign of Elizabeth I the lute was the king of instruments.  Its chief exponent, John Dowland, was England’s star musician.  He wrote music for Shakespeare’s plays & was lauded across Europe.

Fast forward some 400 years to classically-trained Gareth Koch who re-contextualises Elizabethan music in a contemporary framework.  The lutes are replaced by flamenco, classical & steel-string guitars, while the viols give way to Hofner & Rickenbacker basses.

This brand new musical endeavour embraces both informed historical performance practise & pop sensibilities.  Add to this an over-arching aesthetic derived from shimmering guitar pop & we have a new sound, the sound of Elizabethan Jangle.

gk-pr

Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & song writing.  He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects.  Over the past two years he has released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).  Earlier this year a third collaboration with Steve saw the release of double album ‘The Hall of Counterfeits’.

Song Descriptions
Can She Excuse
The opening track to this fascinating step back in time to the world of troubadours and courtiers and palace commissioned concerts.  Koch’s mastery of the Classical Guitar is augmented by his skills at percussion and arrangement to create a world music element as well.

The Hags of Gloucester
The title alone is intriguing and sure enough the track doesn’t disappoint with soaring peaks of guitar arpeggios and subtle percussion and jangling backing guitars.

Praetorian Jangle
Maybe if classical guitar had been around in Roman times you would have heard this in Caesar’s court or in The Forum.  With a bit of a military backbeat and some other percussion the guitars layered on top tell the whole story.

Fun Fact
The unique original oil portrait was painted by Steve Kilbey.

Elizabethan Jangle is OUT TODAY September 3rd – via MGM
All DSP’s and CD’s from official store below

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