Nitrada here, caught questioning his recent dietary choices while also finding his blossom under the greenhouse roof, is emitting a mesmerizing and beautiful new single today, titled Music. It comes as a mighty two parter at almost 8 minutes – spreading out like a Morricone score to a Coppola film, gathering evidence, story lines and characters, only to conclude in a big hoo-rah down the road.

Music is a lovely piece of recording and also a precious canary in the coal mine of more to come. He concludes an almost two decade spanning process with this release and a new album to be out in June. The album came to be after years of improvisations, experiments and just doing it, that have been arranged into distinct shape in the misty hills of rural Italy. Music is attached below, and buckle up for the release of Everything That Is Not Counted Will Be Lost, at the end of June, via Hamburg’s finest 2nd rec.

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Team Poule loves a good compilation – and the mesmerizing Evripidis and his Tragedies out of Barcelona just released not a single but a double vinyl called Alegre Persona Triste: a compilation celebrating 20 years of his musical career by giving a physical format to songs that have not been properly released before. At 90 mins runtime it comes in with some gravitas, but is slick and slender around the waistline with Evri and his Tunes effortlessly floating and stinging in between vast synth scapes, healthy reverb and his touching vocals.

Attached below is It Is Happening Again, a somewhat mysterious atmospheric synth pop piece, inspired by a famous phrase of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Evripidis provided the songwriting and Odil the arrangements and productions back in 2012, but the song remained an unreleased gem until now and arguably sounds as timeless as the rest of the record. Beautiful songs, that connect decades and showcase the amazing journey and talent of Evripidis and his Tragedies.

He will be playing Barcelona (May 15) and Paris (May 17) this week, and San Sebastian/Donostia’s fine Dabadaba on July 11. All dates here.

Title photo by Spyros Rennt.

There are no confirmed connections to the Spice Girls at the time of writing, but Switzerland’s Mel D not only extrapolates their alphabetic trend line, but also seems ready to spice things up, at the sleight of hand. Her latest single is smoothly titled Where Do You Look When It Hurts? and it’s attached below, showcasing her musical perception of more than three dimensions.

She is currently touring relevant parts of continental Europe with her new songs, playing to the hungry audiences of a fading Euro winter. Her train calls in Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne this week, then Switzerland and alpine France as well as Paris all the way through April. All dates, here.

Title photo by Noémi Ottilia Szabo, and Noémi Ottilia Szabo only.

Team Poule’s love for Ten Fé, this charming outfit from England here, dates back almost a decade. Last week then, to high anticipation, they released their third studio album Still in Love via Some Kinda Love/PIAS: a wonderful record telling their story from the London Underground through to Berlin, Oslo, Ireland and France, all the way back into North London. All wrapped into warm riffs and carried by mellow vocals: first class songs that run down as smooth as a penguin on a water slide. Find the title track attached below, at your convenience.

Meanwhile, if you enjoy this tune and like reading city names: they just started their European tour today, kicking off in Dublin. Next up are Glasgow and Manchester, then London’s The Dome on Saturday, Feb 1. Next week, they will start in Amsterdam on Monday night, then travel through Hamburg, Berlin and Köln to Paris on Saturday. Quite the itinerary! Find all dates and relevant ticket options here, nicely listed in order of appearance.

All credit for the title photo goes to The Collective You.

2024 has arguably been the year of the female mega stars: Taylor Swift finished her record-breaking Eras Tour, netting revenues north of 2 billion USD, Beyoncé took her career to the next level with a Country album, Adele played a very successful residency in Munich for the full month of August and finished/paused her Las Vegas show which allegedly paid her more than 1 million USD per show. Meanwhile at the Grammy’s Phoebe Bridgers, Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish won big time.

Naturally though, Team Poule keeps an eye on the somewhat less commercial sides of the musical ecosystem. With our chicken ears, we listened to Fontaines DC great new album, we gave a spin to a Cigarettes After Sex album that sounded just like a Cigarettes After Sex album, we spent a lot of time with our brothers Hermanos Gutiérrez, and we were in awe of The Smile manifesting yet another but maybe best Radiohead offspring.

Also, with the dedication and focus that only a chicken’s head can exercise, we consulted the year-end lists of major outlets including Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, our friends at HighClouds and even Brooklyn Vegan. While we felt that Kendrick Lamar, Cindy Lee and Cassandra Jenkins released wonderful albums, there were some of the finest recordings of 2024 that deserved more attention.

So, here goes at list of our favorite albums of the year 2024, in absolutely no particular order.

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Peter Cat Recording Company -BETA | Muddy Water Records | New Dehli, India | August 2024

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