NEW MUSIC: FT. Harve, Star.One, Pryma & The Shadracks
New tracks from the most musically productive county in the country right now, writes Rob Hakimian
We have added all tracks to the ‘cene #KeepitKent Spotify Playlist HERE
Harve - Other Side of the Room
Instagram: @callmeharve
With last year’s honest and innovative debut EP, Harve already staked their position as a vital voice in the UK’s music scene, and this week’s new single Other Side of the Room re-affirms that. They say that the song is “about checking in with yourself, it's about knowing when to let go, it's about stopping yourself from being left behind, and finding yourself in your loneliness.” To render this delicate interiority, Other Side of the Room is spectral; grey-blue synths shifting like ghosts over a minimal beat, while echoes of voices and guitar are scattered around the amosphere.
Harve’s voice is quiet but wracked with soulfulness. They sing-speak in the confessional verses, admitting that they need to get in touch with themselves again. This opens up to a gorgeously delicate croon in the chorus, the passion they feel both for themselves and their partner pulling them in multiple directions. It’s a stirring track that concludes with Harve realising they’re just at the beginning of this quest for life balance.
The Shadracks - Barefoot on the Pavement
Instagram: @the_shadracks
This Medway trio have their new Billy Childish-produced album From Human Like Forms arriving in mid-August, and this week have given us a glimpse into its goods with the single Barefoot on the Pavement. If you think the title has hippy-ish connotations, well you might be on to something, as they say Barefoot on the Pavement is “about alien abduction, ignorance and bliss.”
With a Bob Dylan-esque lilt to both the guitar and Huddie Shadrack’s voice, we’re swept into a narrative about the many manias that might descend on a person in the modern day. The Shadracks play it cool, keeping the song at a swaggering pace, Huddie’s voice decidedly monotone despite the angst he’s expressing – it just makes you want to lean in closer.
Star.One - Won’t Hold Back, Pt 2 (feat. Jords & SOULSTATE)
Instagram: @staroneuk
While Ashford production duo Star.One’s original Won’t Hold Back was featured on Love Island this week, which is sure to bring them some much-deserved attention, it’s the new and improved Pt 2, which dropped earlier this month, that we want to spotlight.
This time around they furnish the song with a classic UK garage-esque beat, and modernise it with slick and tasteful production choices. It might not be the easiest rhythm to rap over, but Croydon talent Jords hops in and fuses his flow to the beat in a technical and characterful showcase. “Dash out my condoms / bash on a rom com / old school flex like Love Actually,” is an odd but somehow affable boast, but his later assertion that he’s “peng but nasty / G but classy” is a bit more convincing – and a tight summation of Won’t Hold Back Pt 2.
Pryma - Righteous Liar
Instagram: @pryma_uk
Hailing from Herne Bay and hoving into view with a hell of a howl come Pryma. That howl comes in the form of their python-like riffing, but more pointedly from the lungs of their vocalist Gabrielle George. For most it would be hard to compete with the torrential playing that this band put on display, but she has both the pipes and the poise to grasp control of the song and channel it into a fireball performance.
Righteous Liar fuses classic rock melodies and hard rock’s heft, building a sonic plinth on which Gabrielle stands and puts the world to rights with her snarling vocal and unimpressed lyricism. Whoever she’s got in her sights on this one, Righteous Liar is enough to turn them into a snivelling, shuddering wreck. It’s a thrill ride from the first second, and capped off with a white lightning guitar solo from Max Raven.