Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

Canadian trio Half Moon Run are pleased to announce details of their debut single. ‘Full Circle’ which was released through Communion on the 8th April 2013. Fronted by Devon Portielje, Half Moon Run arrive from their Montreal rehearsal rooms with a debut album, local adoration, and endless links of hefty blog praise across the globe. Full Circle is a teasing example of why this acclaim has already become an tangible response. It’s the sound of hazy 60’s folk, imbued with three-part harmonies and warm, psychedelic undertones. Canadians rely on their finest musical exports to deliver the complex, the dynamic, and the interesting (Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, The Band, Metric), and Half Moon Run infuse their music with some of the finer points of all four. Percussive, rhythmic, and mightily impressive, Half Moon Run are a beguiling listen from their opening notes, but with a hugely impressive album due imminently, ‘Full Circle’ barely scratches the surface of what to expect. ...

Earlier this year Somebody That I Used To Know was a worldwide smash, now Gotye returns with his new single I Feel Better on the 3rd September . Somebody That I Used To Know, which was released in the UK in February, has been a universal hit; to date it has sold over 10 million, topped the charts in 18 countries (iTunes #1 over 40 countries) including the UK where it has sold over 1 million and still sits in the Top 20. Somebody That I Used T0 Know spent 8 weeks at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and broke the record for a No.1 hit across four Billboard charts in the same week. The video has tallied up an astonishing 281 million YouTube hits and is still averaging over a million hits a day. I Feel Better is the contrasting new single that showcases Gotye's keen genre-hopping ability and remarkable vocal range. It is a joyous, up tempo track that revisits the Motown sound of Learnalilgivinanlovin, which was the breakthrough single from Gotye’s first album Like Drawing Bl...

Dubbed “the UK’s answer to John Legend”, South Londoner Josh Osho is a naturally gifted singer-songwriter with one of the finest pop/soul voices to come out of the UK in years and a life-story packed full of the stuff that films are made of. Born to a half Northern Irish, half Nigerian mother and Nigerian father, Josh Osho, has not only experienced more than your average 20 year old, but more than many people may do in a lifetime. Following an unconventional and often tempestuous childhood, Josh went from being in and out of home at the age of 16 and dealing drugs from notorious half-way house Ebenezer hotel at 17, to signing a record deal at 18, and finding himself recording in a studio with two members of the Wu Tang Clan at 19. It may be a universal cliché to say someone has been saved from a darker route in life by music, but when it comes to Josh Osho this really is the case. He is a young man and artist who has come up the hard way and it is there for everyone to h...

The Third World’s first superstar and arguably the most recognizable human being on the planet, reggae giant BOB MARLEY is celebrated this year in a film by award-winning director Kevin MacDonald (‘One Day In September’, ‘State Of Play’, ‘The Last King Of Scotland’, ‘Touching The Void’ and ‘Life In A Day’). ‘MARLEY’, which received a rapturous reception at its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on Feb 12th, will be released in the UK on 20th April ’12 through Universal Picture s and features stunning live performances, intimate interviews with friends and family, and rare documentary footage, which tells the definitive story of the superstar who rose from the ghetto to become one of the greats of popular music before dying tragically young at the height of his fame. BOB MARLEY was born February 6, 1945 in rural St. Ann’s Parish, Jamaica, leaving home at 14 to pursue a music career in Kingston. A naturally gifted musician and singer he recorded his first track in 1962. In ’72 findi...

Having already topped the charts in 5 countries and with nearly 40 million hits and counting on YouTube, Gotye will release the much anticipated single ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ in the UK on 6th February via Communion / Island Records. 2012 looks set to be a very exciting year for hotly tipped Belgium born Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist and producer, Gotye. Following two sold out London shows in October, his album launch show at Wiltons Music Hall has sold out and his newly announced show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire looks set to do the same, proving that the current swell of worldwide support has its sights set firmly on the UK. Upon its online release in June the video for the stunning track Somebody That I Used To Know triggered an overwhelming worldwide response. Just three weeks after Gotye posted it on YouTube the song had received nearly four million hits (this number has now nearly reached 40 million, currently averaging more than 1 million hits a day), topped the cha...

Hotly tipped Belgium born Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist and producer, Gotye, releases Easy Way Out, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming album Making Mirrors. 2012 looks set to be a very exciting year for Gotye (pronounced Gaulthier). As a worldwide swell of support heads towards the UK, Gotye will release, via Communion / Island Records, a 7” for lead single Easy Way Out – a short, sharp blast of acid-rock and the first single to be taken from the album Making Mirrors. Upon its online release in June, it was the video for the stunning track Somebody That I Used To Know that triggered an overwhelming response to this particular song worldwide. Just three weeks after Gotye posted the video on YouTube the song had received nearly four million hits (this number has now exceeded 11 million), topped the charts in 4 countries (Australia, Holland, Belgium and New Zealand) and made it to No.1 on the Hype Machine Twitter chart. Hear it once and you’ll be haunted by it for ...