Katie Hawthorne

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Katie Hawthorne

Listening to The Foel Tower feels like tuning a weathered old radio – you’ll be rewarded for applying patience and concentration. On this second album, experimental Bristol four-piece Quade make a virtue of the slow build; Barney Matthews’ bassy, cryptic vocals are buried beneath shivering cymbals, gut-rumbling bass and blasts of static, with most of the lyricism left to multi-instrumentalist Tom Connolly’s twisting, agonised, beatific violin.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Katie Hawthorne

‘I’ve forgotten how I used to write my name,” Hope Tala winces, in the diaristic opening bars to her debut album. Seeking clarity through her pen, the soulful west Londoner is wrestling with growing pains and writer’s block – but then it all flows out. Over a honeyed mix of bossa nova, R&B and pop, and in her gorgeous, breathy voice, Tala ruminates on heartbreak, self-confidence, faith, family and friendship.

2 months ago | ca.news.yahoo.com | Katie Hawthorne

Satin bomber jacket slipping from her shoulders, Biig Piig is going all out – she’s shimmying left, shimmying right, flipping her hair, pogoing at the mic stand. Opening track 4AM, with its muted, just-left-the-club vibe, doesn’t really call for such a full-throttle show, but the Irish alt-pop musician – AKA Jessica Smyth – is selling it as a floor-filler. “I know you don’t want to be alone,” she croons, her voice featherlight, pumping a fist in the air. It is a night of mixed messages.

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Katie Hawthorne

Satin bomber jacket slipping from her shoulders, Biig Piig is going all out – she’s shimmying left, shimmying right, flipping her hair, pogoing at the mic stand. Opening track 4AM, with its muted, just-left-the-club vibe, doesn’t really call for such a full-throttle show, but the Irish alt-pop musician – AKA Jessica Smyth – is selling it as a floor-filler. “I know you don’t want to be alone,” she croons, her voice featherlight, pumping a fist in the air. It is a night of mixed messages.

Jan 24, 2025 | theguardian.com | Katie Hawthorne

Inspired by the heartbeat of a hibernating bear – a mere 9bpm – Wardruna use grand, lumbering drones, played on traditional stringed instruments such as the talharpa, to evoke a cinematic sense of centuries passing. Birna (“she-bear” in Old Norse) follows the Nordic-folk group’s previous Kvitravn (white raven) in centring a symbolic creature within animist traditions – and it’s stirring stuff.