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Enjoying established acts | Championing new and independent artists | Event promotions | Press kits, demos, EPKs, press passes, tickets etc. welcome: therealmusicobserver (at) gmail (dot) com

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Wet Leg: Chaise Longue

on June 27, 2021

alternative indie Isle of Wight IWD pop punk Wet Leg

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Nick Cave: Carnage [Album]

on June 16, 2021

Album alternative Nick Cave Warren Ellis

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Joe, Chloe and Mark: The Met Lounge, Peterborough [Live]

on June 15, 2021

acoustic Chloe Lorentzen Joseph Porter-Bolger live music Mark Stevens Met Lounge Peterborough singer-songwriter

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Greysha: Troublemaker

on May 25, 2021

alt-pop alternative cover Greysha indie IWD

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William Doyle: I Need to Keep You in My Life

on May 20, 2021

alternative singer-songwriter William Doyle

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MEMES: So What

on May 18, 2021

alternative MEMES rock Scotland

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Big Thief: Shark Smile

on May 17, 2021

alternative American Big Thief rock

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Kathleen Edwards: Glenfern

on May 05, 2021

American IWD Kathleen Edwards roots singer-songwriter

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Katherine Priddy: Indigo

on May 03, 2021

folk IWD Katherine Priddy singer-songwriter

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William The Conqueror: Move On

on April 20, 2021

alternative blues rock William The Conqueror

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New release horizon scanner:

11/1/25 - Rosie Gault: Dim lights
29/1/25 - Dictator: Middle of the road (EP)
7/2/25 - Arliston: Disappointment machine (Album)
28/2/25 - Hachiku: The joys of being pure at heart (Album(

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Popular Posts

Music Observer Friday highlights - 03.06.22

I haven't done one of these posts for a while and this is a bit of a hybrid, mopping up some music I've heard in the past couple of weeks but haven't had chance to write about yet. Hope you enjoy. Remember, a ll of the songs I write about (as well as lots of others) feature on my May 2022 and June 2022 playlists. Frances Gein - All I've Loved A song released today (3rd June) but which I've been listening to for a few weeks (thank you for the early preview Frances!). This is a slow paced, minor key folk tune, with a simple, calming and strangely comforting beauty. The song is centred around a picked-out guitar riff, which - couple with Frances' muted and mysterious vocals - gives it a satisfying grungy feel. But there's also some great use of strings, which start as a barely-there backing and build into something a little unsettling (matching closely to the lyrical progression). The ending is brilliantly done thanks to a surprise, low piano note which pu...

Grace Calver: My Life and Its Disasters [EP]

It’s just over a year since Grace Calver released arguably one of the best ever songs related to the undead - her debut single, ‘Zombie Conversations’ - pivoting from popular music blogger to accomplished artist in a way which felt natural and preordained. And now, here’s her debut EP, building on the success and catchiness of that first release. The brilliantly named 'My Life and Its Disasters' is five tracks of Grace Calver's well polished, finely honed brand of dream-pop-meets-grunge, sugar-coated angst rock. It’s an infectious, deceptively innocent style of writing - like a rainbow with a pot of boiling oil at the end. And let's also not forget that Grace plays all the tuned instruments, too, leaving only the drums to be outsourced (in this case to Oscar Liddiard). Two of the tracks on this EP are brand new, and perhaps best represent where Grace is now as an artist. She’s come a long way in a very short time, playing countless live shows, including several festiva...

Hannah Grae: Need Me Now

Welsh singer-songwriter Hannah Grae writes some ludicrously catchy songs, the kind that can drill themselves into my conscious and subconscious and obsess me for days on end. Just under a year ago, I felt compelled to write about 'I Missed The Joke' (a song from Hannah's debut album), which I described as "just about the perfect indie angst-rock ballad." This year, Hannah has released a sub-30 minute "mini-album", 'Nothing Lasts Forever'. Its main features are her recent singles, 'Better Now You're Gone', 'It Could've Been You', 'Screw Loose' and 'Who Dunnit?', all powerful songs making full use of her remarkable vocal talents. They've received a lot of attention. But there's also new material on the record, and the new and older songs combine to create something varied and really interesting, and which feels like a lot more than 28 minutes. The song which struck me and has stuck with me is the fo...

Amber Saqladi: Becoming a modern-day Siren [Interview]

Amber Saqladi began her journey as a song-writer scribbling poetry at age seven, before graduating to writing songs with a felt-tipped pen on sheets of A3 paper. But it took some time for this pastime to evolve into a way of life. "It's always been something I've done but it was never anything I really took seriously growing up. I was a very academic kid, so that's what I expected to do," Amber explains. By 15, though, she had started writing music more seriously, and gigging. "Since then, it's become undeniable that that's the thing I enjoy the most - being able to be creative, and be academic at the same time," she says. Amber quickly established herself as a familiar name on the music scene in her home town of Leicester, where she also recorded her first three singles at HQ Studios . "The music scene in Leicester is absolutely lovely - it's very community based. I can always count on the other musicians there to support me, and I...

Holly Humberstone: Paint My Bedroom Black [Album]

(Note: Now updated to reflect that the album has now been released!) Holly Humberstone just keeps on climbing. Last year, I wrote about her Glastonbury set, and how she winningly pushed through a spell of nerves. This year, she's elevated herself to regular Radio 1 playlist status, made her first headline festival appearance (at Barn on the Farm ), and successfully completed an intense headline tour of the U.S. All of this while the anticipation built for her second album. That second album dropped on Friday, 13th October, and for this one I broke my self-imposed rule of not writing about music until at least its release date. I just had to share some thoughts in advance. My first impression of the record: it's more direct, more mature, and more determinedly poppy in many places. There's a feeling that Holly is now freer and more confident to play with different vibes and rhythms: in places things are dark, soft and cinematic, but in others Holly has found the confidence ...

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