Youtube (here)
and on Soundcloud (here)
The aptly named I Want This marks Mishkin Fitzgerald's pursual of a solo album, breaking away from the Birdeatsbaby sound.
Follow Mishkin on twitter: @mishkinbird
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Mishkin Fitzgerald
The stunning lead-singer of Birdeatsbaby who wowed us with her hauntingly beautiful voice, will now entrap us in a realm of mystery and eerily wonderful piano with her new album, Present Company, out May 1st. Produced by Forbes Coleman (Stereophonics, Clare Maguire), with Dead Round Eyes Records, the first single of the album is ready to listen below, or at:
Youtube (here)
and on Soundcloud (here)
The aptly named I Want This marks Mishkin Fitzgerald's pursual of a solo album, breaking away from the Birdeatsbaby sound.
Listen, re-listen, and listen again, and share with all your wonderful music lover friends!
Follow Mishkin on twitter: @mishkinbird
Youtube (here)
and on Soundcloud (here)
The aptly named I Want This marks Mishkin Fitzgerald's pursual of a solo album, breaking away from the Birdeatsbaby sound.
Follow Mishkin on twitter: @mishkinbird
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Jenna Kass: Illustrator
First being attracted by Tristan and Isolde, a work building on the operatic drama of the same name by Richard Wagner, Kass' demonstrates a technique that allows her work to be reminiscent of pre-20th century art, with a modern twist: a focus on fantasy. She is, by all means, the embodiment of classic and neo-classic, as demonstrated in her work.However, it was Kass' blog that really highlighted her skill, as she speaks about her six-month drawing-a-day project, her process, the progress she makes, her anger and frustrations, and drive. It is inspiring, and truthful, and a wonderful read for any young aspiring artist finding it hard to get going.
To browse, please see Arty Visual Stuff.
To learn more about Kass and her blog, read here.
Saturday, 16 March 2013
Dark Hearts and Sophie James
"The sun, as so often happens in the Congo, flicked a last orange sneer to the jungle it prepared to leave.
It was typical, thought Burton, glancing again at his watch in the gathering gloom, that a meeting which had taken months to plan, should go wrong in the last minutes. It was his master plan, his inspiration.
‘Come on…’ he muttered, checking the pygmy natives as they hovered in the dark bush murmuring a foreign chorus. Was he going mad after all?
And then suddenly they were there - his friends, bursting through the jungle into the clearing where the pygmies had promised all the action would be. Cornelius greeted him first, a slim man though never handsome, for years his skin pocked by eczema, soft spoken but a sting in every sentence.
‘You’re a crazy fucker Burton Alexander,’ he said, ‘I’ll shake your hand but I’m not staying long. I've been asking my own questions. It’s a myth, a legend, a tall story on legs. A lizard at best…’ "
It was typical, thought Burton, glancing again at his watch in the gathering gloom, that a meeting which had taken months to plan, should go wrong in the last minutes. It was his master plan, his inspiration.
‘Come on…’ he muttered, checking the pygmy natives as they hovered in the dark bush murmuring a foreign chorus. Was he going mad after all?
And then suddenly they were there - his friends, bursting through the jungle into the clearing where the pygmies had promised all the action would be. Cornelius greeted him first, a slim man though never handsome, for years his skin pocked by eczema, soft spoken but a sting in every sentence.
‘You’re a crazy fucker Burton Alexander,’ he said, ‘I’ll shake your hand but I’m not staying long. I've been asking my own questions. It’s a myth, a legend, a tall story on legs. A lizard at best…’ "
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| Sophie James, documenting life in India |
Travelling the world and penning articles for The Independent on Sunday, such as Wanton Seduction in Paradise and Love Among the Ruins, writer, Sophie James launches the much awaited website sophiejames.com, archiving her articles and allowing readers the chance to explore her novels and short stories. James - daughter of broadcaster and journalist, Walter James - calls on her experience travelling and living in India in her exotic shorts stories, and the magically wound words of her novels, Susan, Love Hate Jaipur, and The Tea Jungle.
The incredibly talented James also demonstrates her photography skills - the gallery online captures the colours, politics and life in India with a clarity that is somewhat lost in today's more easily accessible images.
Read James' fiction and articles here.
Flick through the gallery here.
And, learn more about the writer through her biography and interviews here.
Thursday, 28 February 2013
A Band called Birdeatsbaby
Music and Musicians.
They've been called "dark, sexual, vulnerable yet strong..." (Ben Graham, The Quietus), their music labelled "hauntingly original and delicate..."
Well, I must say, I agree. Something about this rock-orchestral-quartet screams a dark kind of magic, whilst whispering in your ear at the same time - imagine red lips, red wine, and red bloodstains dripping down your mouth, down your chest, hitting the floor, slow. Imagine you are hand-in-hand with the person of your dreams, suited and dressed in black tulle, the both of you, running from an unknown terror, through some large stately home. Well, Birdeatsbaby make it extremely easy.
Their music is a unique blend of theatrical, extravagant, rock, classical, with a pinch of pop, amongst other styles, and one may find themselves playing certain songs in their minds as the soundtrack to their day, making a normal moment exciting and electrically charged.
Perhaps you would care to listen and create Tim Burton-esque scenes of your day by downloading the band's free two-track EP here.
Learn more about the Brighton quartet here.
They've been called "dark, sexual, vulnerable yet strong..." (Ben Graham, The Quietus), their music labelled "hauntingly original and delicate..."
Well, I must say, I agree. Something about this rock-orchestral-quartet screams a dark kind of magic, whilst whispering in your ear at the same time - imagine red lips, red wine, and red bloodstains dripping down your mouth, down your chest, hitting the floor, slow. Imagine you are hand-in-hand with the person of your dreams, suited and dressed in black tulle, the both of you, running from an unknown terror, through some large stately home. Well, Birdeatsbaby make it extremely easy.
Their music is a unique blend of theatrical, extravagant, rock, classical, with a pinch of pop, amongst other styles, and one may find themselves playing certain songs in their minds as the soundtrack to their day, making a normal moment exciting and electrically charged.
Perhaps you would care to listen and create Tim Burton-esque scenes of your day by downloading the band's free two-track EP here.
Learn more about the Brighton quartet here.
Friday, 8 February 2013
A Conspiracy of Alchemists. A Review.
With a name like ‘Chance’ expect magic to happen.
A Conspiracy of Alchemists: Chronicles of Light and Shadow marks the first of Liesel Schwarz’ steampunk trilogy, set to take the world by storm. Schwarz’ debut novel, set in 1903, as the very first line imposes, immediately transports the reader to the Victorian era. Yet, there is something magical in the air: that strange kind of uncanny that is both familiar and excitingly new. This isn’t just the turn of the century we read about in History, but a world that we wish existed, where supernatural creatures walk among us.
As the title suggests, there is a split between Light and Shadow, good and evil. Scientific and technological advance takes society into a new golden age through utilizing magical energy. However, this light threatens the supernatural, and, out of the dark rises the Alchemists and the Nightwalkers, preparing to take back control and submerge the world, once again, into darkness.
Original and refreshing, the story is a wonderful combination of the nineteenth century novel and quirky twenty-first century humour and language. The protagonist is a female lead to be admired: she is inventive, strong and intelligent, yet has a vulnerability about her – the perfect modern day woman who does not allow a male-dominated society to limit her potential or constrict her. Opposite her stands Marsh, and immediately women swoon. He is the Rochester-like male lead that every good novel should have: he is, at times, condescending and somewhat arrogant, but, like a force of nature, is irresistible and appealing. Like getting to know the love of your life, the more his character evolves, the more the readers take a shine to him. Inevitably, Marsh will be the first literary love of female readers of younger generations, just as Darcy and Rochester have been the first love of many female readers today.
Despite, two wonderfully created leads, the author does not fall into the trap of two-dimensional secondary characters. The ‘supporting cast’ are equally as thought-out, and original. Still, the author does not give away all secrets to supernatural creatures, but allows us to see they are something complex, and we will have to discover them the same way we do with other characters. However, many readers will be happy to know that Vampires are not portrayed in the same way as recent popular fiction/television/film would have us believe, and the author does not deviate back to the original Bram Stoker-style Vamp either. Instead, she creates, what seems natural and logical for Vampires to be. And faeries too.
Schwarz does not over-do the world she has created, but allows us to be pulled in, and excited by the opportunity of exploring. She is subtle in building up characters and the Shadow, but keeps something back to amaze us with as the series continues. The novel is accessible, and appealing. The use of language is good, and should be a pointer to some other popular writers: you can be original and compelling, without lowering standards of language. The author is humorous, and forces the reader to keep re-reading until the next installment is published.
Five stars.
A Conspiracy of Alchemists: Chronicles of Light and Shadow marks the first of Liesel Schwarz’ steampunk trilogy, set to take the world by storm. Schwarz’ debut novel, set in 1903, as the very first line imposes, immediately transports the reader to the Victorian era. Yet, there is something magical in the air: that strange kind of uncanny that is both familiar and excitingly new. This isn’t just the turn of the century we read about in History, but a world that we wish existed, where supernatural creatures walk among us.
As the title suggests, there is a split between Light and Shadow, good and evil. Scientific and technological advance takes society into a new golden age through utilizing magical energy. However, this light threatens the supernatural, and, out of the dark rises the Alchemists and the Nightwalkers, preparing to take back control and submerge the world, once again, into darkness.
Original and refreshing, the story is a wonderful combination of the nineteenth century novel and quirky twenty-first century humour and language. The protagonist is a female lead to be admired: she is inventive, strong and intelligent, yet has a vulnerability about her – the perfect modern day woman who does not allow a male-dominated society to limit her potential or constrict her. Opposite her stands Marsh, and immediately women swoon. He is the Rochester-like male lead that every good novel should have: he is, at times, condescending and somewhat arrogant, but, like a force of nature, is irresistible and appealing. Like getting to know the love of your life, the more his character evolves, the more the readers take a shine to him. Inevitably, Marsh will be the first literary love of female readers of younger generations, just as Darcy and Rochester have been the first love of many female readers today.
Despite, two wonderfully created leads, the author does not fall into the trap of two-dimensional secondary characters. The ‘supporting cast’ are equally as thought-out, and original. Still, the author does not give away all secrets to supernatural creatures, but allows us to see they are something complex, and we will have to discover them the same way we do with other characters. However, many readers will be happy to know that Vampires are not portrayed in the same way as recent popular fiction/television/film would have us believe, and the author does not deviate back to the original Bram Stoker-style Vamp either. Instead, she creates, what seems natural and logical for Vampires to be. And faeries too.
Schwarz does not over-do the world she has created, but allows us to be pulled in, and excited by the opportunity of exploring. She is subtle in building up characters and the Shadow, but keeps something back to amaze us with as the series continues. The novel is accessible, and appealing. The use of language is good, and should be a pointer to some other popular writers: you can be original and compelling, without lowering standards of language. The author is humorous, and forces the reader to keep re-reading until the next installment is published.
Five stars.
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
One to Watch
Being an arts and fiction blog, we don't spend as much time talking about television and film as we should, so let me re-direct you to someone who does...Not only is he a talented young London writer, but Alex Straker's reviews have reached further than his blog, and graced the netty-webby pages of The Independent arts blog. But this is not the only reason we should be watching this one. Straker's commentary on popular culture, television and film is digestible and fresh, and the twenty-something scribe spends his time penning screenplays and working on his debut novel. Already making his name known to those in the industry, he will be a household name in the years to come, so why not start following the works of this scribe now?
Plus, he was the wonderful Wonder Wounder who coined the fan term of thewonderwound blog, so we kind of love him! Check out www.snakeskinscribe.blogspot.com for a contemporary commentary of all thing popular.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
A Band called the Bedroom Hour
They're called the Bedroom Hour, and damn, they're sexy.
With the mission statement, "Putting credible into incredible music" the five-piece band, self-styled as psychedelic guitar-meets-synth, match up beautifully moving melodies with their longing voices to create something nostalgic and wonderful.
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