ABOUT: Happyness

Chilled out, lo-fi vocals and lyrics of the non-conventional variety are what spring to mind when asked to describe South London trio Happyness. Their only album, Weird Little Birthday, showcases this beautifully; the light grunge, for example in the brilliant Great Minds Think Alike, All Brains Taste The Same, and ridiculously relaxed vibes in tracks such as Orange Luz create something that sounds like it's come from across the pond via a summer breeze. There is a moment of madness in there though, in the form of 1:18min long Refrigerate Her, a short but sweet break from the calm with riffs and cymbals that make you move.


Observational humour is a big part of Happyness' lyrics, as can be seen in album track Naked Patients with the line "There's something so funny about a sick body / and the things that it does that it shouldn't do" amongst others. My favourite lyric, however, comes from Montreal Rock Band Somewhere from their self titled EP. Here, they imagine scalping the frontman from Arcade Fire and fashioning the product into a wig. "I'm wearing Win Butler's hair / There's a scalpless singer in a Montreal rock band somewhere / And he's alright". Well, that's good to know.

Catch them live! View their tour dates on their Facebook here
Get Weird Little Birthday here
Written by Molly McGrath

ABOUT: MONEY

The Money shot, as it were.

Shadow of Heaven album art.

Hailing from Manchester, MONEY are a four-piece band consisting of frontman Jamie Lee, guitarist/keyboardist Charlie Cocksedge, bassist/keyboardist Scott Beaman and drummer Billy Byron. Lee's poetic nature is his music personified; with Wu Lyf style euphoria coated in pained vocals that sound like they want to sing to the entire world, their album Shadow of Heaven is a masterpiece. Just looking at the artwork (my personal favourite album art ever) gives you a rough idea of their sound - an oxymoron in itself, melancholic happiness runs through the record - so much so that if you went to one of their gigs, you'd expect to walk into the room and be immediately transformed into black and white. 

Single Hold Me Forever is their most played song on Spotify by quite a way. It consists of layers of carefully chosen sighs of sound on top of twinkling guitar and incredibly emotion-soaked vocals exclaiming "and it's true that I love everybody, as it's true I love no-one". The song finishes with cries of "heaven is real", an example of the continuous religious motif throughout the album (see tracks entitled So Long (God is Dead) and Cruelty of Godliness for proof). 

If there was ever a band you'd want to listen to in the event of being stood atop a high building, wearing denim and outstretching your arms to the world (like Lee on the album artwork), then MONEY is it. Before listening to them, I had never heard so much emotion being put into not only the vocals, but every inch of every song they've created. They are wonderful, and frankly deserve more attention than they currently get. 

Listen for yourself, and see:



Written by Molly McGrath

ABOUT: In The Valley Below

In The Valley Below are a dark yet romantic duo from Los Angeles, made up of Jeffrey Jacob and Angela Gail, who describe themselves as 'indie dusk, post ghost, sex prog, dark duet', which I believe can be summarised simply as 'synth-rock'. They currently have two EPs (Hymnal and Peaches, both named after their opening tracks), and a single (Stand Up), all of which were released last year. Unfortunately, it appears that currently Stand Up is the only one available to buy on UK iTunes.

The Hymnal EP is possibly the darkest of them all, particularly its title track; all swirling synth and deep harmonies with sharp, staggered guitar coming near the end. Second track Last Soul builds on this, with Jeffrey and Angela seemingly singing to each other, until the chorus when their layers of vocals smother a rhythmic drum beat and yet more hypnotic synthesisers. Finally is Palm Tree Fire, the same style as the rest of the EP but with a slightly more dance-based feel to it and with a synth solo somewhere in the middle.

Their second EP features their most popular song yet: its title track, the wonderfully melodic Peaches - a perfect balance of sweet harmonies, catchy synth and a beat which is hard not to clap along to. The lyrics have a bittersweet quality to them; "we won't live too long, so let's love for one song" the duo croon in the chorus. This EP also features latest single Stand Up, more towards the rock end of synth-rock than the previous tracks and featuring powerful vocals, the opening verse shocks but entices you to listen to the rest (which you should).

I saw In The Valley Below at Leeds festival last year and, although their audience in the Festival Republic tent wasn't huge, they put on a good show. I suppose some would say it was a bit strange when Angela started rattling chains at us like a woman possessed, but it was interesting, it got them talked about and that's all that matters. Written by Molly McGrath

Listen to Hymnal, Peaches and Stand Up below: