What: Come together in sweet harmony Where: UK Why: The London-based duo of Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville have steadily grown their reputation with a series of singles and a debut EP since forming in early 2016. Bringing together folk intimacy, vocal harmonies that sound like whispered takes of London Grammar’s Hannah Reid with electronic-made textures, IDER’s music is at once pastoral and pop, sliding into the zeitgeist alongside Maggie Rogers.
On the 2017 Gut Me Like An Animal EP track Nevermind, the duo display some Jai Paul-esque wonky synth-pop tendencies and on their three million-streams-and-counting 2016 hit Pulse, there's a lustful sweetness at play. Shura liked what she heard enough to produce one track from that release.
Since signing to Glassnote Records and playing Electric Picnic this summer, IDER's two singles have jumped up a notch in the resonance stakes. Learn To Let Go is a song about self-acceptance that revels in the act of spinning carefree in a yellow dress while the newest song Body Love continues that theme by taking solace in heartbreak with lilting chords and two voices in unison.
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The Staves and yMusic - Trouble on my Mind
yMusic are a Brooklyn-based chamber ensemble who have often collaborated with artists of an indie nature such as Ben Folds, St Vincent, José González, Son Lux and Bon Iver. It's Justin Vernon's fault that the UK folk sisters and yMusic initially collaborated live at the Eaux Claires Festival in Wisconsin recently. A full-length collaborative album, The Way Is Read, is out on Nonesuch on November 24th, proceeded by this harmonic orchestral synthesis.
Wyvern Lingo – Out Of My Hands
The Wicklow trio’s new one is inspired by Karen Cowley’s experience in a pub the night of the Home Sweet Home demonstration when she met a man who had no time for activism. “She wouldn’t give it a break, crying inequality/ Oh the 8th and the state, she’s never happy/ Then she said I had ‘no empathy’ towards those refugees / I said that I just can’t see them as a priority.”
