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Sour Blood Delivers Masterful Debut Album ‘Suas’

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Sour Blood, the brainchild of Tipperary-born artist Kevin Gleeson, offers a captivating exploration of musical landscapes with the release of their debut album, Suas. Known for his unique blend of theatre and music, Gleeson has crafted an album that seamlessly merges rich orchestration with deeply introspective themes, setting a high bar for his burgeoning project.

Suas is a symphonic journey, composed of eight tracks that ebb and flow with nocturnal balladry and sweeping orchestration. Gleeson’s talent for sound design shines through as he weaves together a tapestry of lush arrangements and haunting melodies. The album feels like a carefully curated voyage through waking dreams and reflective reveries, offering listeners a profound auditory experience.

The project, which began with a sold-out debut at the Dublin Dance Festival in 2019, has evolved significantly since then. Gleeson’s previous EP, Good Nevers, introduced his innovative sonic language, characterized by a fusion of varied influences and a penchant for stirring song structures. However, Suas marks a monumental leap in both artistic breadth and execution.

Written and recorded between Gothenburg and Dublin from 2022 to 2023, Suas benefits from the collaborative efforts of Brendan Jenkinson, known for his work with Villagers and Aoife Nessa Francis. The album’s production imbues it with a wintery warmth, creating a soundscape that is both pastoral and otherworldly. Gleeson’s vocal versatility is a standout feature, adding depth and emotion to each track.

Highlights of the album include the R&B-inflected “Mysterious Creature,” which combines forlorn lyrics with a boom-bap rhythm, and “Bruise,” a piano-driven ballad where Gleeson’s voice takes center stage. In tracks like “The Devil” and “Clot,” his vocals are cleverly manipulated, blending seamlessly with the instrumental layers to create a euphoric harmony. The closing track, “Overgrowing,” features delicate acoustic guitar and faint organ strains, offering a haunting and open-ended conclusion to the album.

Suas is a complex and beautiful exploration of sound, positioning Sour Blood as a noteworthy and gifted artist. The album not only showcases Gleeson’s meticulous artistry but also his ability to craft music that resonates on an emotional and intellectual level. It stands as a testament to his vision, blending introspective lyrics with grandiose compositions to create a work that is as thought-provoking as it is sonically pleasing.

In conclusion, Suas is a stunning debut that solidifies Sour Blood’s place in the contemporary music scene. Available on all major streaming platforms, this album is a must-listen for anyone looking to explore new musical territories.

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Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

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Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.


About the track, Michele says, I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.

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