We Speak Music
Award-winning Aussie Americana artist HELEN TOWNSEND asks ‘Is This Love’ with new single!
Australian Americana artist Helen Townsend is that rare artist who can make large venues feel like lounge rooms. Get comfy and lean into her richly lyrical songs, get up and dance, sing along because she’s singing about you, fall in love with the stagecraft — whatever your desire, it’s all good because it’s just you and Helen. When the lights go up no one will ever know.
Townsend’s new single, ‘Is This Love’, asks the age-old question, the one we’ve all wanted answered sometime or another. Dressed up in irresistible honky tonk blues, ‘Is This Love’ is an instant dance-floor filler and the first leg of a musical oeuvre that has Townsend at the peak of her powers and will have audiences beaming and calling out for more.
Helen Townsend may have been late in picking up the tools of her trade but in a short time she has shown herself to be a master craftsman in a field too often crowded with cowboy-booted jacks and jills of all trades. Her sweet voice and tender picking rubs against songs that are filled with characters living with the costly results of impulsive choices and memories that just won’t let go. Her music takes you on a journey through beautiful valleys, coastal plains and soaring over mountains with a few deep, dark tunnels to keep you grounded.
She has carved out a reputation for edgy Americana music – one that has pushed the genre’s boundaries from roots-rock through blues and country to folk – with her upcoming album, Helen has broadened her style and flair even more so with catchy new melodies, tight harmonies and personal stories and lyrics that hook into your heart and tear up your soul. The new album builds from her previous 2 EP’s and her debut album, which scored her multiple awards and nominations including winner of WA Country Music Award for Best Emerging Artist and Song of the year.
Townsend has continued to extend her musical influence with her recent US shows and was part of the Sounds Australia Showcase at the coveted Americanafest in Nashville. All this on top of the US launch of her EP “Love, Lies ‘n’ Leaving” which found its way into the FAI top 10 Folk albums chart in the US for September 2022 has increased Helens popularity in Australia and abroad.
With ‘Is This Love’, Townsend is making her first exploration into UK territory, with plans for a UK tour and new album release to come next year. The video for the single is pure Americana nostalgia with Townsend and band arriving via a classic car to tear things up at a swinging rock ‘n’ roll bar. Through out it, we see Townsend question ‘Is This Love’ with her partner and fellow Australian musician Shannon Smith, as they share a dance, cocktails and eventually make plans to meet again. Much of Townsend’s forthcoming new album has been inspired by her new relationship with Shannon Smith, who has also channelled their love for each other in his own upcoming music project, both albums being written respectively from their different sides of the relationship, as these two musicians forged their bond.
This October, Hip-hop inna yardie style (old school fusion between reggae and hip-hop) collective L’Entourloop are set to rock UK stages, with shows in Liverpool, London & Bristol. Their Bristol date at The Trinity Center and their first London date at Village Underground are already SOLD OUT, leading to a second London date being added to deal with the high demand that L’Entourloop’s unforgettable shows create.
The dates will see L’entourloop hitting higher than ever as they perform tracks from their huge back catalogue, as well as their latest 20 track album “La clarté dans la confusion” (“Clarity in Confusion”).
Produced in their now legendary Bandulu Studio, the new album is a result of a patient production process, carried out with care and passion. Throughout the album, L’Entourloop testifies in its own way via a puzzle of film samples, of this strange period that we have just gone through collectively, using all its savoir faire when it comes to make the people dance.
Since 1964, when the song “My Boy Lollipop” flooded the European radio airwaves, L’Entourloop’s love for reggae and its culture has never stopped growing. With this third album, they wanted to pay tribute to the legendary pioneers of this incredible movement – artists and producers such as Tom Wong, Count Machuki, Prince Buster and Lee “Scratch” Perry. An album which is a true declaration of love for soundsystem culture and its children – reggae, dancehall and hip-hop.
The success of their previous albums “Chickens in Your Town” (2015) and “Le Savoir Faire” (2017), with their famous “Banging Hip-Hop Inna Yardie Style” quickly brought L’Entourloop into the spotlight, along with their hundreds of shows performed all over Europe. The mysterious collective continues to bring together an ever-growing audience around the world, as proved by their hundreds of millions of plays on music platforms.
True lovers of vinyl and old cinema, in their perpetual quest for the ultimate sample, the insatiable diggers kept their fans waiting by first dropping the excellent DJ-Mix “Start From Scratch” in the summer of 2021, followed by a series of 3 official remixes, including the Reunion Island anthem “Li Sem”.
Another striking characteristic of L’Entourloop is the great ability of King James and Sir Johnny to gather incredible guests from around the world. Whether with Skarra Mucci and their now classic “Dreader Than Dread” or their excellent EP “Golden Nuggets” (2019), Capleton for the extravagant remix of “Burn Dem Down”, producer Panda Dub they collaborated with on “Le Bonheur” or French singer Biga Ranx for their hit “Push The Limits”, L’Entourloop has the gift of giving birth to collaborations that mark the spirits.
With no less than 32 guests from all over the world, MCs fling lyrics like guns like in a western movie and the new album is no exception!
On the reggae side, Jamaican legends such as Ken Boothe and Bounty Killer meet new generation stars such as Alborosie, Kabaka Pyramid, Queen Omega and Marcus Gad. On the hip-hop side Chali 2Na from legendary US group Jurassic 5, Swedish MC Promoe from Looptroop Rockers, US rapper Rêverie, the excellent JuJu Rogers, French beatmaker Degiheugi and the irresistible South African female rapper Dope St Jude all make appearances.
The UK vibe can also be felt with features from jungle and dancehall pioneers General Levy and Tippa Irie as well as heavyweights of the grime scene Flowdan, Lady Chann and Killa P. Fellow French artists are also in the spotlight with guests such as Big Red, O.B.F and Manudigital. To complete this amazing cast, L’Entourloop has once again called on the incomparable Troy Berkley from Bermuda and the talented trumpeter N’Zeng, formerly of Le Peuple de l’Herbe, to accompany the collective on the road alongwith a new addition – excellent Dutch rapper BlabberMouf, who has just joined the killer new live show.
L’Entourloop UK Tour 2024
05/10/2024- Liverpool (UK)- Hangar 34
06/10/2024- London (UK)- Village Underground – SOLD OUT
07/10/2024- London (UK)- Village Underground
08/10/2024- Bristol (UK)- Trinity Center- SOLD OUT
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