A bit of a lull this month, but Wolverhampton’s FITZROY HOLT makes his debut with Kelly, a strummed Dylanish slow summery waltz drawn from his experiences of working with the Wolverhampton-based women’s homeless charity, Haven, and an ode to all the forgotten, misjudged and neglected homeless Kellys in his hometown. The blurb likens him to Damon Albarn, Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker and Richard Hawley, the latter at least being an influence you might hear.
Shifting from Wolverhampton to Dudley, I Met A Girl is the first taster from the upcoming album by Kate’s Hillbillies, a duo comprising Christopher Nott and Dave Low, the album being a collection of songs in celebration of their hometown. The bouncy, melodic single recalls the old night club in Dudley Zoo (the Zoo Bar, as I recall) in a musical mood that mingles Northern Soul with the 80s pop of bands like The Bluebells and Lightning Seeds.
THE SILVER LINES revive late 60s British garage rock a la the early Stones with new single Alive featuring a throbbing bass solo while Quentin Francis are, it says here, a Midlands-based supergroup, featuring Matty George of The Sunset Beach Hut, with Luke McCrohon (TSBH) on bass, Ross Carley of Echo Beach! on lead guitar and James Morris of La Dharma on drums. Debut single Molly is another injection of summer bounce into proceedings, again trailing retro clouds (well as retro as The Strokes), about a girl who, having gone through a break up, heads off to Paris to be an actress , written from a friend’s perspective.
Mentored by Dan Whitehouse as part of his lecturing job with BIMM, ELASTIC release Scatterbrain, written by Adam Murphy, featuring Joshua Reece on vocals and Dan providing the inspiration for the string outro. A lush, dreamy pop ballad with touches of vintage McCartney, as well as Whitehouse himself, it marks the pair as names to keep an eye out for (https://soundcloud.com/admurf/elastic-scatterbrain-official).
