Bill Cutbill has just released a brand new music video for Land of the Fireflies; a track taken from the full-length album AMAZONAS.

The video features previously unseen footage from Bill's trip in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. Join him as his native guide, Nonato, paddles deeper and deeper into the darkness in a simple wooden boat with limited provisions.

The release of this video marks the second anniversary of AMAZONAS on vinyl, which was released by Safe Sounds with a very special show at the Cameron House.

Speaking of Land of the Fireflies, Cutbill told us:

"I was privileged to spend a week in the Amazon, some of which we spent camped in the middle of the bush sleeping in hammocks with only mosquito nets for protection. It felt dangerous but at times it was also surprisingly peaceful!

"We didn't have much with us, so our guides had to do some spear fishing at night in the shallows for our dinner. The fish were sleeping in the water and Nonato and Gilmar shone a torch down and speared them. In the music video, you can see some of the footage from that moment.

"That's what the poem is about in the middle of the track which is read by my brother Ryan, because one of the fish was a stone fish and it was a crazy ugly thing with a really hard shell-like skin.

"After we had been fishing, my guides then took me down to an area where there were millions of fireflies nesting in the banks of the river. It was crazy, because everything is so dark when the sun goes down in the Amazon, but suddenly it was like being in Disneyland – so many lights, such a unique sound.

"I actually recorded the sounds of the fireflies, which I cleaned up and included as part of the Amazonas Sound Library, which is a free resource of natural Amazon sounds... so you can listen to that here if you want to be transported there.

"I loved being in the Amazon rainforest so much. It really does feel like a dream now looking back.

"I was checking my files recently looking for something else when I came across this music video. After writing, recording and promoting the album so intensely, I think I was just burnt out at the end of it all and didn't end up putting this out originally.

"I would love to go back and I hope my two trusty guides (Nonato and Gilmar) are doing well again after the pandemic put a stop to tourism."

There are limited copies of the Safe Sounds AMAZONAS vinyl left, which can be purchased on Bandcamp or directly by emailing us for more information.

You can alternatively create your own unique version of the artwork and download AMAZONAS for free (with a recommended donation to the Rainforest Trust) here.

Time flies when you're having fun.

It's now been a whole week since we released 💐 In The Room 💐 [SS124], a World News single so hot... okay, you get the picture.

The single arrives alongside a bunch of remixes that go hard, exploring the sonic space of World News.

But who are Eschaton Crises, MOONBEAN, Personal Data, A.G. Murtagh and Josh Korody? People, for sure. Unique people in this people-centric existence.

Some of them are more peopley than others.

Eschaton Crises

Eschaton Crises (London, UK) is the final event in the divine plan, a socio-historical circumstance.

Emanating from somewhere ye olde London (UK) this musical anomaly, when perceived, is often a harbinger of breakbeats, acid-rave, and the damned rowdy.

Known in the underground as an organizer of DJ-focused community events, Eschaton Crises brings the party to the end of the world and back.

MOONBEAN

MOONBEAN (Toronto, CA) is a queer, Ontario-based electronic duo who lace their live, synth hardware sets with lush vocals.

Their experimental synth-pop weaves in psychedelia, acid-house, techno, and disco, while their performance style gives off punk energy.

Their musical inspirations align with Little Dragon, Peaches, Metric and Eurythmics. In the past 2 years, they released their debut EP and played festivals around Ontario, Germany, and toured Europe twice.

Listen to MOONBEAN.

Personal Data

Personal Data (Hamilton, CA) is a dude who makes beats and twists knobs to weave an ever-evolving musical landscape.

You may know him better as a founding father of WORLD NEWS.

Personal Data is a deep listener of electronic music who combines his love with an often improvised approach, using an arsenal of synths, drum machines, modular and whatever else he can get his hands on.

A.G. Murtagh

Asher Gould-Murtagh (Montreal, CA) is a musician, producer and mix engineer who has worked with artists such as Born Ruffians, Mother Tongues and Kali Horse.

Asher G.M. has seen his work released on labels such as Sub Pop, Yep Roc, Telephone Explosion, Safe Sounds, and many more.

Asher is currently based out of Studio Toute Garnie in Montreal’s Mile End, a fully-equipped recording and mixing space operated by members of the Montreal trio BRAIDS, and built by producer / engineer Damian Taylor (Björk, The Prodigy, Lido Pimienta).

Josh Korody

Josh Korody is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and mixing engineer who has worked on a plethora of award-winning records with award-winning artists.

Korody can be found running the electronic label, Nodding Heads.

A man of many talents, Korody also fronts Breeze, which is a 90s inspired group that has released multi-albums via HDD and performed sessions with the likes of KEXP and ourselves.

He also produced and mastered the single for In The Room.

Oh jeez, is that really the time?

Wold News have just released a music video for the single, In The Room.

Directed and edited by filmmaker Danny Alexander, join World News for an epic squash match – it really is life and death.

Learn more via Exclaim!

A special thanks must go to Colin Harrington for his creative production support, Cam Alford and Skyline Restaurant for their wonderful location, Gabe Parniak and @gleranonna.

Alexander is also known for the documentary film about the Toronto music scene, No Tickets At The Door.

Yeah yeah, we know... it's confusing. When you give your band a name like Not A Band it's like calling yourself Special Guest or Event Cancelled... it's gonna cause some confusion... especially when you end up on a festival poster.

I guess with this bunch, they're hoping people will turn up to the show expecting anything other than a band, only to be shocked when *poof* a band arrives. Let's just hope the audience didn't come because they specifically don't like bands, eh?

I thought about calling this post, 'Don't Read This'. It's this kind of viral genius that helps 15 second clips of gorillas at the zoo, frantically waving for some idiot to throw another biscuit into the enclosure, go viral.

It's hard to predict what is going to be a success these days. Sometimes it's the opposite of what you might think. And when you think about it even more, it's only a matter of time until we get smart phones to wild gorillas so they can film short clips of each other and upload it to the cloud for all species to enjoy.

Mark Zuckerburg would love that. Just like he loved to encourage musicians to create band pages on his cutting-edge social network, so that he could encourage fans to waste their time following the bands they like. Once all that information was gathered, Zuck executed his 'Kill Culture Make Money Plan'.

To execute said plan, all you have to do is gather a bunch of data and sell it to anyone who will buy. At the same time, you charge the bands to show their content to their own fans who follow. That way, the majority of fans don't see what they want and the bands have to pay for advertising.

"We've got your data baby" - Zuckerburg whispers to himself as he pretends to shave his child-like face in the mirror (despite not a single hair having ever grown on his cyborg chin).

And don't get me started on Spotify, in their emerald castle eating all manner of green themed sliders. Although, when I think about it, given 10 second clips of cars running red lights is our new preferred form of entertainment, I kind of agree with Spotify that musicians deserve to be paid nothing. In fact, musicians should have to pay Spotify a "creation" fee to even consider picking up an instrument.

Don't get me wrong, I am 100% ranting here and it is all rather incoherent. Mainly, I just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention. Sometimes when the winter is on your shoulders, the only thing you can do is bury yourself in art. And that's exactly what we've done here...

Frivol is a banging new track from Not A Band. Yes, getting back on the Not A Band train, we've got a little glitter for your afternoon coffee.

So shut out the rest of the internet for at least four minutes and fifty-nine seconds... if you can indeed go that long without seeing someone react to a burrito being assembled.

So who are Not A Band?

"What started as a carpe diem home-recording project for a duo in quarantine, quickly grew into a cast of friends from different disciplines and perspectives, building on a communal spirit of we’ll try everything once."

We're so stoked to have captured Frivol live from our little bank vault studio in downtown Toronto. We're sure you'll agree that the energy from Not A Band is electric.

There will be another live video from the group coming soon, so if you Subscribe on YouTube they might notify you when the next one is released.

Oh, and you can catch Not A Band LIVE at The Garrison very soon on March 2nd. If you didn't know, The Garrison is now Toronto's undisputed premiere venue, now every other spot in the city has been "cancelled" for various nefarious reasons.

It's a killer lineup that also includes Leona Hell, who will be releasing a new EP, plus Only God Forgives. Don't miss it.

Thanks a bunch for reading.

I'm fine, I promise. Send me memes.

Bill Cutbill has returned with Resolution Remastered - a New Year's resolution for 2024 that starts today and will either be kept or broken.

Many years ago Bill set himself the task to write, record, mix and master one new song with accompanying video every month for the whole year.

The rule was: each video had to be released before the end of the month. It was quite ambitious, and spoiler alert, there are 12 videos on the internet you could watch immediately if you have the right detective skills.

Speaking of the January track entitled, Treat Yourself, Bill Cutbill said -

“Here we are once again dealing with the January winter blues. Personally, I find a lot of comfort in sleep and that’s what this song is about.

Back in yesteryear when I was struggling with harsher mood instabilities, I found that by committing to a good sleep pattern I was able to start days with a better mindset.

I also find that tea helps… not with sleep necessarily cos of the caffeine, but a good cup of tea helps with every stress; any difficult moment life throws at you.

So yeah, brew yourself a mug and take this time of year to relax and recuperate. There’s a reason why animals hibernate.” - 💙 Bill Cutbill

Bill will be revisiting each track to give it a fresh burst of instrumentation/ mix/ whatever the hell he want.

Just like with the original RESOLUTION project, these REMASTERED songs will be released once a month with a fresh cut of the original video, formatted for the mobile phone age.

The real question is, will Bill be able to keep his Resolution?!

Only time will tell.