Digvalley (Norway) – Only You (single)
Digvalley (Eirik Bøen Gravdal) hasn’t passed this way for a while; in fact it’s almost two years.
Previously he’s offered 1980’s-period sounding songs in an original style that falls somewhere between electro pop, dream pop and R&B, and enjoys collaborations with other artists.
This time the collaborator is an Estonian, ANYLIA, and the single is produced by another one, Steven Ilves who has amassed the majority of hits currently doing the rounds on the radio in that country.
Her speciality is Indie Pop and R&B and it seems to have rubbed off on Digvalley on ‘Only you’, which is about surviving an on/off relationship. Or ‘With (or) Without you’ as Harry Nilsson and U2 lectured us.
At just over two minutes, it’s a relationship that couldn’t find its feet quick enough. You’d think that might give it any go!
To be honest I prefer Digvalley in-full on explosive anthemic mode. The first song of his I came across, ‘Dance with me’, was just that, and one of the songs of 2022 in my book, a sultry Human League/ABC-like concoction with a killer hook.
That isn’t to decry ‘Only you’ in any way. It’s fresh, snappy and danceable – and stands in contrast to its first six seconds which sound like it might be the product of Brian Eno or another electronic experimentalist.
I haven’t yet figured out if that is just an instrumental glottal stop that intervenes or if it means something but it’s definitely something that catches your attention.
Find Digvalley on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digvalley
Twitter: https://twitter.com/digvalley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digvalley/
Fallulah (Denmark) – Smoked Honey Butter (lead single from the EP Live at Dreamland) + video
Fallulah was last here 18 months ago with a modest little ditty called ‘Tits of Steel’ – a no holds barred bold, brash, barnstorming song of feminist empowerment that was identified as a 2023 update on Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’.
It’s easy to form an impression of an artist from one song so I was pleasantly surprised to learn of this new EP, the variety of tracks on it (live sessions), a hint of Americana, and especially this track, ‘Smoked Honey Butter’, all of which were recorded in Woodstock, New York (yes, that one) and in what looks like a particularly fetching wooden church with remarkable acoustics.
I don’t know what the congregation would have made of ‘Tits of Steel’ but ‘Smoked Honey Butter’ ticks all the right boxes for me.
It’s soulful, sultry, sensuous and even downright sexy. It whips up similar emotions in me as Fiona Apple’s ‘Hot Butter’ while the musicianship is spot on. I was particularly impressed with the drummer, who knows exactly what ‘less is more’ means.
You can find the full EP, ‘Live at Dreamland’ on Bandcamp and YouTube. She sacked Spotify last year on her ‘Celeste’ album as a reaction to a rigid system designed for major labels and not indie artists like her.
I was critical of her for not making her recordings sufficiently accessible but she seems to have put that right.
The full EP is here:
Find Fallulah on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fallulahmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fallulah/
