Go The Rodeo put the pop in pop-rock with debut album “Lekker Chilled.”

Go The Rodeo’s debut album “Lekker Chilled” is a rollicking tour-de-force that ebbs and flows with single-minded focus as it brings the worlds of pop and rock together.

From the jump you get the sense that this is going to be an experience. The album opens with ‘Introduction,’ a song that starts with Charles Bukowski contemplating the nature of love before being catapulted into the 21st century by a minute and a half of club-worthy, anticipation building EDM before segueing into the dynamic, intense ‘Lost Poet’ which sets the scene for the rest of the album.

Despite its title, “Lekker Chilled” is a turbulent conversation about the dark side of love. Every song is an intense, emotional journey that demands to be listened to with your fullest attention.

‘Devil on My Shoulder’ is an expansive number that finds intensity in its minimalism while in ‘Vultures’ Corne van Niekerk begs to be set free from the clutches of abuse.

The second half of the album has a darker feel to it which is epitomised by the sinister ‘Give Me Black,’ an ode to the coping mechanisms of someone wrapped up in turmoil. The penultimate track, ‘Never C Ur Face Again,’ takes a page out of Queens of the Stone Age’s playbook with its manic, up-tempo beat adding another level of menace to the lyrics.

“Lekker Chilled” is a masterful blend of pop and rock which proves that Go The Rodeo are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with on the local music scene.

Give it a listen here:

Women of the Night’s double EP ‘Pastel Colors’ is a trippy exploration of the heart and mind.

Women of the Night, hailing from the streets and alleys of New York, have released ‘Pastel Colors,’ an EP split in two, one side reflecting struggles of the heart and the other the struggles of the mind.

Their aural aesthetic takes us back to a time where Lou Reed stumbled through the early morning streets and Mick Jagger made parents worry about their children’s sanity. Apart from the Nick Cave-esque ‘Bad Tee Vee,’ the rest of the songs exist in the same opioid-haze as The Velvet Underground with just a dash of Iggy Pop aggression.

‘Pastel Colors 1’ is a journey through the messy world of love that opens with the hard-hitting ‘I Am Well and Missing You,’ a frenetic, almost unhinged song about obsession and what it can drive a person to do. Things slow down after that as we move through the different stages of love before coming to a stop with the strung-out, acid-tinged ‘Brighton Beach.’

‘Pastel Colors 2’ takes a different direction. Rather than introspection and emotional self-indulgence we’re looking at the world through a lens of disillusionment. ‘I Couldn’t Fool Them’ is a groovy attack on feeling like you’re on the outskirts in the big city. Lead singer Jordan D’Arsie takes on a menacing tone as he says “In the city/ they only tell you what you want to hear,” summing up what it’s like to be forced on to the fringe in one simple line.

Drawing on influences that shaped rock music as we know it Women of the Night bring the external and the internal together with infallible consistency.

Take a listen below: