Client Press

No Depression reviews Nero, the new debut LP from Ian Fisher

Today marks the release of Ian Fisher’s debut country record on Snowstar records simply titled,Nero. Simple is such a breath of fresh air. Fisher crafts simple, yet emotionally complex meanderings straight from a place as tender as a newborn’s bottom. His voice a hoarser Jim Croce, with pen ready to strike a’la Billy Bragg meets an old Johnny Cash notebook.

Heartland drenched in pendulous pedal steel fills from Ollie Samland and scrumptious backing vocals from Alexia Peniquel, Nero is a quaint, quality country album from a man thousands of miles away from his home country. The record captured in a few studios, two bedrooms, and at least one basement whilst Fisher has been living in Berlin, Germany yet is as Middle American as a boy could possibly get, raised on a farm in Missouri. Fisher turned to country music to hopefully jumpstart some of that fleeting Patriotism, we’re glad he did. READ MORE…

by Baby Robot Media

New interview with KONCEPT & J57 at HYPETRAK

“Ten beats a day for ten years, go ‘head and do the math. Gave up on a social life, sharpening my swords…” rapper/producer J57 expresses in a track from his 2014 released Wax Aesthetic EP.

Fast forward one year later, to this moment right now, and J57 and his business partner, Koncept, have found their artistry at an undeniably exciting and favorable crossroads. When reflecting on their work from the past couple of years, as created together as Koncept & J57, both musicians are at a place of passion and conviction, while looking limitlessly ahead.

Save for their collective work as members of New York City’s The Brown Bag AllStars, the story of Koncept and J57, as a duo, is technically still being written. Both artists have proclaimed and showcased the way this specific release is changing, and has changed, their lives thus far and through their music, listeners can see it, believe it and most importantly, feel true motivation from The Fuel’s message and mission, in order to be able to adapt it to their own lives. READ MORE…

by Baby Robot Media

Impose features Shepherds’ debut LP Exit Youth at their Week in Pop column

Shepherds, masterminded by Jonathan Merenivitch, just released their album Exit Youth today and presented us with the super courteous and super-charged single “Courtesy”. Merenivitch’s musical resume checks his work with Janelle Monae, Dog Bite, Del Venicci, and more, where Shepherds finds him playing with Peter Cauthorn from Mood Rings on bass, George Bataille Battle Cry’s Adrian Switon on drums, with further rumbling bass rhythm considerations courtesy of Canivores and Del Venicci’s Ross Politi. Their debut album toast to rites of passage and the road to adulthood tackles the challenges and changes with a memorable motorik driving jam that is not your parents’ post-punk/kraut/prog/album rock/whatever.

“Courtesy” is noise-reared in a way where every controlled instrumental item (or implementation of audio chaos) is sharpened finally to use every iota of sound to wrap melodic textures around a state of constant, rapid percussive locomotion. From here Merenivitch and the gang serve up sections of reigned roars and primal yells that all abide on accord of harmonic-percussion principles. Nothing stops the roll that “Courtesy” coasts on where sequences of sea-sawing electric metal strings spring up like brontosaurus sized Lochness sized leviathans from the depths of lakes and oceans. LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

KONCEPT & J57’s new single “The Fuel”—the title track from their debut EP—premieres today at Paste Magazine

NYC’s Koncept & J57 are gearing up to release The Fuel, their debut EP as a duo, but the two are already scene veterans. Having made their reputation with indie hip-hop collective Brown Bag AllStars, they’ve also worked with heavy hitters such as Joey Bada$$, Wu-Tang’s Method Man & Raekwon, Doomtree, The Roots, DJ Premier and dozens of other influential and critically acclaimed artists.

The title track—and second single—from The Fuel (out Nov. 20 on KON57 Records) premieres today at Paste. It’s a feel-good, organ-driven anthem that finds Koncept riding high over J57’s persistent beat, his flow gruff and urgent, the voice of experience pondering what drives us to greatness. For good measure, the duo’s frequent Brown Bag AllStars collaborator Akie Bermiss contributes an instantly memorable chorus hook. Like several other tracks on the new EP, “The Fuel” has a massive sound that wouldn’t feel out of place echoing off the walls of Madison Square Garden. WATCH HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

American Standard Time reviews Ian Fisher’s new debut LP, Nero

Ian Fisher‘s got a way with words only a traveled man can grasp. What began for him in Missouri, USA has carried him all the way to Berlin in search of songs, and there’s humor, humility, and a sense of gravitas to watermark his latest album as official symbols of his wandering. In the album opener “Nero,“ Fisher reflects on a relationship lost with all the tyranny and dissonance of the same emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned,” singing “If I was king of this town I’d burn it down,” and “If I were king of this town I’d run you around.” He’s not absent of sentimentality, though. On the next track Fisher opens with spoken word, an anecdote his grandpa used about opinions: “Opinions are like guns, just ’cause you have one doesn’t mean you gotta shoot it.” He lays into a finger-picked track over steel guitar with a nasally sneer about firing off his own opinions, called “Too Bad.”

In the press release it’s noted that Fisher’s Nero is “shaped by a tasteful, no-frills German production approach,” and bless the Germans for that. The backing instrumentation serves only to accent Fisher’s wry observational lyrics with light drumming and wailing steel licks. He cuts loose strumming on “Constant Vacation” about a life on the lam from the responsibility of relationships, and all the burdens dodging them entails. READ MORE…

by Baby Robot Media

PureVolume streams Shepherds new LP, Exit Youth

In recent years, Atlanta has been fertile ground for musical experimentation. On top of innovative bands like Deerhunter, the Black Lips, not to mention the slew of hip hop acts to emerge from the ATL is Shepherds. Combining a tantalizing mix of postpunk, soul and alt rock, the trio have the chops and a diverse sound that makes them one of the more interesting bands to emerge in 2015. Conceived over a three-year period in singer/guitarist Jonathan Merenivitch’s life, when he battled an internal push-and-pull over his decision to make music his full time career, Exit Youth show great promise from the band.

“Exit Youth is all about the wreckage of your late 20s when you pursue a career in the arts,” Merenivitch explains. “Dealing with self-loathing, poverty, useless knowledge, nepotism, entitlement, procrastination and the idea that your dreams aren’t going to come true. I believe the idea of broken dreams is a healthy one. Acceptance of this allows you to get rid of the adolescent nonsense that may be holding you back. Basically, you gotta grow up sometime and pay attention to things that are more important—more important than music, photography, film, etc. Gettin’ your shit together.” LISTEN HERE…