New Music: Florence + The Machine, 'What The Water Gave Me'.

South Londoner Florence Welch burst onto the music scene following her chart-topping breakthrough debut album, ‘Lungs’ back in 2009. Since then she has become a household name and a must-have on every festival’s lineup across Europe. Yesterday she gave fans and critics alike something to talk about when she released ‘What The Water Gave Me’, the first single from her up-coming and much anticipated followup to her first album.

Florence Welch.

New Music: †††(Crosses) EP †

          Deftones and Far fans were and continue to be pleasantly surprised with Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez's new side project, strangely and somewhat pretentiously entitled †††(Crosses), the reasoning behind which can be attributed to the genre of music it's been associated and branded as, Witch house, who's artists more often than not opt to include typographical elements in their name/work for both aesthetic purposes and to make it harder for people to find on the Internet, ensuring the genre's underground and downplayed status.

          †††'s free digital EP † was released via crossesmusic.com yesterday evening to the delight of avid fans and the dismay of many hardcore witch house enthusiasts, who claim that the typographical ambiguity is the only feature ††† and the Witch house genre share.
          The age old genre debate aside, the EP †, composed of five synth driven songs, allowed Moreno's softer melodic vocals to come into play, a vocal range and style that I feel isn't truly explored with Deftones.
          Moreno's vocals with Deftones could be compared to a deadly weapon, that slices and rips through the instruments, creating a chaotic,violent sound with brief moments of melodic interludes. Whereas on †††, Moreno's soft tenor voice takes on the role of one of the only true instruments amongst the drum machines, synths and samplers.

          The opening track, †his Is A †rick's shifty beat and catchy chorus make it the strongest song on the EP with †hholyghs† being the weakest, in my opinion, for no real reason other than it's slightly bland, hollow nature. Generally, I think the EP's composition is spot on, it's innovative, interesting and completely FREE HERE so if you're in any way industrial, noise pop or shoegaze inclined, I would strongly recommend you invest a mere forty seconds of your time into downloading and importing this EP.

Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez pictured together above.