In our latest edition of LeftLion's Latest Listens, our music team reviews a selection of recent new releases. This time it's the turn of ROB.GREEN, Dead Mint, Drew Thomas, Sam Oakley and Stuart Pearce...
Single: ROB.GREEN - Jungle Child
Released today, Notts’ favourite soul-pop sensation ROB.GREEN is finally back with brand-new music in the form of his exhilarating new single, Jungle Child. Propelled by a typically powerful vocal performance from Rob, some prowling rhythms and polished production from the Ivor Novello Award-winning Cassell The Beatmaker, it’s Rob’s biggest and boldest track yet. @robgreenmusic (Karl Blakesley)
Book your tickets for Rob’s Saltbox show here
Read our recent interview with ROB.GREEN on the Jungle Child single and tour here.
Single: Drew Thomas - Gemini
Top class storytelling meets powerful, regenerated rock in Gemini. Here, Drew does what he does best: producing powerful, soaring emotive rock based on personal experience and it’s a blast from start to end. The track opens with buzzy guitar before the ominous chugging riffs take over and all is revealed. Drew’s voice is packed with snarl and fervour as he tells it how it is – a classic tale of relationship trauma and finding realisation and strength, and he leads us through it with confidence.
Drew was recently selected to appear at YNOT Festival - a very well-deserved booking for one of our city’s most hard-working and honest artists. @drewthomasmusic (Phil Taylor)
EP: Sam Oakley - bedroom
A former Future Sound of Nottingham finalist, producer Sam Oakley moved to a small one-bedroom flat in East Asia with just a £10 microphone and laptop in hand. Out of that confined space has emerged blissful new project bedroom, detailing six months of Sam’s life filled with heartbreak, uncertainty and summer romance.
Dreamy opener bored begins with a superb sample of So Here We Are by Bloc Party, before Notts hip-hop mainstays Exchecker join Sam for the sunshine-tinged beats of adVice. Written on a balcony in Vietnam, blush beams through some rifftastic guitar work, which then leads into the chilled sounds and soaring strings of sweet. There’s then some nostalgic doo-wop on earworm pluto before the uplifting finale of the title track.
Overall a fantastic shortplayer from Sam and one that is sure to go down well with fans of artists such as Frank Ocean and Mac DeMarco. @samoakley99 (Karl Blakesley)
Single: Stuart Pearce - Rope
Stuart Pearce comes back with a relentless beat throughout this new single. Sharp guitar work in complete contrast to the vocals which whilst following their own route, fit in perfectly despite their more considered tempo. But then again there is real fire in the lyrics. Is this a refection on the chaos of the mid 2020's, or a fantasy of past revolutions? A rallying cry for change or just a dream, lone voices in the swell of society's apathetic mediocrity.
My heart hopes this sets the pulse racing for a new generation, looking for a New Utopia, free from the billionaires who only create hell. @thebandstuartpearce (Michael Prince)
Album: Dead Mint - Dead Mint
Coming from dark and stormy origins, Dead Mint wanted to demonstrate their unrestrained ability to create a melting pot of heavy, fuzzy and furious music on this, their debut LP. The foursome have only been playing for two years but it feels more like 22. The core rhythm section (lead singer/bassist Amy Bean and partner and drummer Tim Maddison) packs a huge punch as though you have taken the form of a meat carcass being pelted by Rocky Balboa’s jabs. The stings hurt and leave you staggering around the room.
The fusion of genres makes this a debut album to admire, from heavy psych, bluesy rock-n-roll to 60s inspired garage.
On the floor-stomping Dreamers, raucous shuffling drums and thunderous, fuzzy rhythm section are the main driving force. The psychedelic elements are first felt on opening number Songlines with riffs that growl and hum; transporting you to a barren wilderness depicting a landscape of urban decay in addition to Amy’s distinctive vocal style that adds a layer of surreal unorthodoxy.
Towards the end of the album are the highlights of the album, Weir and Bulwell Bogs, the latter playing on the picturesque ugliness of a wilderness and undergoing a two-minute Tolkeinesque metamorphosis from a modern-day Mordor to something rather pleasant.
This debut effort is a nod to all that is rich and descriptive in music, both lyrically and in audibility. The intensity in which it is presented before us provides a shot in the arm that, for just 27 minutes, gives us both the energy to truly appreciate the phenomenon of rock-n-roll. @dead_mint_band (Lewis Oxley)
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