Yet within a few weeks after the release of their debut EP the Chelmsford group were becoming a phenomenon, their material going viral online.
A series of packed out gigs followed, with Radio 1's Annie Mac showing her support by playing the band relentlessly on her show.
Closing the year in style, Tigress have shot a video for new cut 'Power Lines'.
Awesome sludge-rock with a taut, visceral vibe, its a nasty sound but an infectious one - think Queens Of The Stone Age with an English edge and you'd be close.
A singer, composer, and producer, she maintains complete agency over her art, obeying her own appetites and passions.
New album 'Tempo' - her third - is out now, and it sluices together an awareness of drag culture, Beat poetry, and her own alt-pop impulses.
A heady brew, the album has been followed by a series of international tour dates, with Olga Bell seeming to blossom with each passing show.
Somehow in between all this, though, she has also managed to craft a new video. 'Zone' was partly inspired by the classic Pharcyde clip 'Drop', and just like its forebear Olga Bell had to learn her song backwards for 'Zone' to work.
Shot in the streets, 'Zone' also has the feel of a catwalk show, itself a key component of American vogue balls.
Nouvelle Vague's charming depiction of post-punk aesthetic has spread far from their French shores.
A cult success internationally, the band have been rather silent since 2010, concentrating on touring and extra-curricular activities.
Well, they're back. New album 'I Could Be Happy' drops on November 4th (pre-order HERE), with the project steering themselves into fresh creative waters.
Vivid is able to unveil the video for 'La Pluie Et Le Beau Temps', and it's a soothing yet highly intriguing work.
Easy on the ear but difficult to digest, Nouvelle Vague seem eager to explore hidden depths, with an odd sense of darkness lingering on the horizon.
The rising musician seems to view each song as an act in itself, a chapter building up to a larger whole.
Inspired by the greats - he's supported everyone from Fleet Foxes to Mumford & Sons - it took a show from Paul McCartney to unlock 'Love'.
In Tom's own words: "I wanted to write something people could really sing along with, something that was universal and instant. I liked the idea of song starting off small and building to something huge! I lived in Liverpool at the time of writing this song with my flatmate Mike from Clean Cut Kid we would stay up late listening to everything from the Beatles to Youth Lagoon. When it came to writing the song it pretty much wrote itself in a hour the tricky part was figuring how to turn a six minute live song onto record. I feel like Chris Bond found the perfect balance from our live performances to translating that to record."
Featuring rapturous guest vocals from Lydia Clowes, you can check out 'Love' below.
Catch Tom Speight at the following shows:
October 20 London The Borderline 21 Birmingham Ort Café 22 Cardiff All Saints Church 25 Aberdeen The Tunnels 26 Inverness Madhatters 27 Aviemore Old Bridge Inn 28 Stornoway The Woodlands Centre 29 Ullapool The Arch 30 Elgin The Drouthy Cobbler 31 Edinburgh Sofar Sounds
November 2 Newcastle Upon Tyne Cluny 2 3 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
It's the middle of Autumn, and the year has already begun its slow descent.
There's something in the air - no wonder our ancestors thought that the dead would rise on October 31st...
With that in mind, Honeyblood's strange, and rather eerie, new clip couldn't come at a better time.
Stripped from new album 'Babes Never Die', the clip seems to draw on themes that recur throughout the full length. Stina Tweeddale explains:
"We wanted to make something that ties in with the whole aesthetic story of the 'Babes Never Die' album. So we were lucky enough to be able to get Thomas James and his wonderful team onboard again. He took ideas from the song and transformed them into this amazing narrative. It was captivating to watch the sea witch come to life through the talent of the lead dancers and crazy costume prosthetics."
The Pop Group's name has only become more ironic as time goes on.
As the band's path through music's left field continues, pop itself seems to become more and more closed off - a repeating loop of beige noise, purposefully excluding the problems of everyday life.
The Bristol institution are close to completing a new album, featuring guest production from dub icon Dennis Bovell, and Hank Shocklee (famed for his role in Public Enemy's Bomb Squad).
Vivid is able to premiere new cut 'Zipperface', a dystopian fusion of post-punk, dub, and techno's outer limits that features Mark Stewart's whispered incantations:
Dangerous Days The War For Tomorrow Has Begun Death To Distraction
The accompanying visuals are steeped in horror movie imagery, uncovering the nightmare that lurks beneath the mundane.
A haircut gone spectacularly wrong, Mark Stewart explains: “An alien encounter scratch video creates a temporary autonomous zone, an illegal Bristol broadcast from St. Paul’s pirate tv channel. Max is a cinematic heretic.”
The video was directed by Bristol's Max Kelan, who has collaborated with the likes of Bristol’s Young Echo collective, working on projects for the likes of Asda, Giant Swan, Jabu and O$VMV$M. Known for his degraded, damaged style, the visuals are the perfect counterpoint to the music. Tune in below.
The Pop Group's new album will be released on October 28th - LINK.
Beat Market hail from Montreal, a city that has always stood apart.
A French-speaking hub on a continent dominated by Anglophone culture, the port-city has always sought to absorb influences outside the norm.
Perhaps that's why it's so creative. Beat Market craft electronic music with an artful flair, re-drafting disco's legacy for a 21st century audience.
New album 'Sun Machine' drops on November 11th (order LINK), with the duo explaining: “We want to create a music that makes people move, dance and have fun. An instrumental journey easy to understand and feel. If they feel good when they listen, that's the right path…”
Vivid is able to premiere sultry new cut 'Doors', a full collaboration with noted vocalist (and one-person creative hub) Malika.
Rippling electronics are set against an ice-cool groove, with Beat Market nailing that Quebecois atmosphere.
There's always been an inherently visual quality to Lindstrøm's music.
The Norwegian producer veers from avant electronics to glistening disco, painting strange landscapes in exuberant colour.
New EP 'Windings' is out now, with the impeccable 'Closing Shot' now receiving full visual treatment.
The stunning clip was steered by Oliver Clegg, and it's every bit as mind-expanding as the Norwegian producer's music.
As Clegg describes it: "I wanted to make something that could stand alone as a piece of work aside from the context of just listening to the music. So whilst the video strives to respect the cosmic nature of the music, there is also a more subtle twist at the end that suggests a wider commentary - something one would never get from just hearing the music without the visuals. It’s simultaneously serious and respectful with hopefully some splashes of humour!"
The New Up is a two-piece from San Francisco, a duo who seem to compliment one another perfectly.
Hazy soundscapes and dreamy pop melodies, the pair seem to sculpt aural pathways that led down sonic rabbit-holes.
New album 'Tiny Mirrors' - their first in the UK - was recorded at their lair in Northern California, and it's redolent of perpetual heat and sunshine.
Lyrically, though, The New Up are unafraid to go a little deeper. New cut 'Future Is Now' airs on Clash, and it's a wonderfully evocative piece of songwriting, with a slight sting in the tail.
Guitarist Noah Reid says that the song is "about people not being willing to stick with what they know is right when everyone else is trying to influence them otherwise".
The clip avoids any real-life appearance from the rappers, instead focusing on vivid stop motion animation. There are appearances from Doom's iconic mask and Keith's plastic wig, as well as nods to The Shining and Twin Peaks.
*VIVID RADIO is on the air*
Having garnered a wild reputation for their live shows and recordings alike, Ottawa punks New Swears recently inked a deal with Dine Alone. The first release from their new label home will arrive as a 7-inch single next month, and Vivid is giving you the first listen to B-side "Sugar Heavy Metal."
The track serves as the accompaniment to the previously shared A-side, "Brand New Spot" and despite the song's title, it's neither syrupy sweet nor overly aggressive. Crunchy, twanged-out guitars get mixed with peppy percussion and bop-along vocal melodies. The accompanying visuals aren't quite so easy to stomach, as band practice quickly devolves into shenanigans that involve tearing apart pillows, cruising the streets in a cape on a moped, and some projectile vomit that clocks serious numbers in both volume and velocity.
"Making this video for us was kind of like harvesting fruit," the band's Sammy J. Scorpion tells Exclaim! "It's tempting to eat that juicy berry on the spot but you'll never taste the sweetness of pie unless you mash things up a bit."
Witness it all go down in the video for "Sugar Heavy Metal" below. The Brand New Spot/Sugar Heavy Metal 7-inch is officially out on November 4.
*VIVID RADIO is on the air*
In addition to releasing a new LP titled Revolution Radio, plotting a world tour with Against Me! and serving as the backdrop to marriage proposals at Hot Topic, Green Day have still managed to find the time to crank out a video for "Say Goodbye." The track appears on the aforementioned new record, and the video was directed by OH YEAH WOW. It follows (both literally and aesthetically) previously shared clips for "Bang Bang," the album's title track and "Still Breathing," mashing up DIY zine-style imagery and grim illustrations with the song's lyrics — this time using a dramatic black-and-white palette.
Watch the lyric video for "Say Goodbye" in the player below. Revolution Radio is out now on Reprise, and you can catch up on the pop-punk trio's storied career by checking out Vivid's Essential Guide to Green Day right over here.
The collaboration from Shauf and VanGaalen takes viewers into a meta world of awkward parties. Bizarre-looking "party mutants" roam through rooms interacting with each other — controlled, we learn, by zoned-out gamers on couches. At the heart of it, though, there's a totally endearing alien love story.
"Andy's story was really easy to get inside of and hang out for a while, so I just sat right here in my drawing chair and decided what type of fashion the party mutants would be wearing," VanGaalen said in a statement. "Tennis ball pedestal helmets will obviously be available soon-ish."
"I'm a big fan of everything Chad makes, so I was really glad we could work with him on this video," Shauf added. "We gave him free reign and he knocked it outta the park. I also didn't realize an alien party could be so emotional."
Scroll past Shauf's upcoming live shows to watch the clip for "Quite Like You" in the player below. Tour dates:
10/20 San Francisco, CA - Swedish American Hall 10/21 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex 11/22 Toronto, ON - The Mod Club * 11/23 Hamilton, ON – Mill's Hardware * 11/24 Waterloo, ON – Starlight 11/25 Toronto, ON – The Mod Club * 11/26 Peterborough, ON – Gordon Best Theatre * 11/29 Chicago, IL – Schubas 11/30 Madison, WI – The Frequency 12/01 Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi Lounge 12/02 Nashville, TN – The Basement 12/03 Asheville, NC – The Mothlight 12/04 Charleston, WV – NPR Mountain Stage 12/05 Washington, DC – DC9 Nightclub 12/06 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle 12/07 Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade 12/08 Ottawa, ON – National Arts Centre * 12/09 Montreal, QC – Le National * 12/10 Quebec City, QC – L'Anti *
