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Bountiful Hearts

Westzeit Review

Wonderful print review of Keep It Wild from Westzeit. Read the translation below and watch the video for the song here

“Keep It Wild” is an EP, but also a ‘Best of Album’. Not a ‘best of’ album, mind you, but a selection of songs from a record that should have been released in 2009. Nathaniel Fregoso, frontman of The Blood Arm, had so much on his plate with his band that the half-finished album disappeared into producer David Newton‘s drawer. In the lockdown of 2020, Berlin-based Fregoso rediscovered the songs and decided to compile some of them into an EP. In view of the original time of its creation, the result logically exudes the charm of the noughties: the title track sounds like a rough version of Franz Ferdinand, “Belarus” has the pop appeal of the Kaiser Chiefs, while “Out Of Key” is more in the The Strokes notch. Also included, at least on the promo: A beautiful cover of “Cuando calienta el sol”, originally published in 1961.

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Music

Congratulations, Dyan!

Congratulations to my longtime creative partner, Dyan Valdés , on her debut as a solo artist! If you haven’t heard it yet, please listen to her magnificent new single “Fade Away” via R.I.P. Ben Lee Records. It’s fantastic!

Here we are, a few years back, at a Stereo Total concert. Scroll through to see a bit of our music-loving and music-making history: The Strokes, Nick Cave, The Blood Arm and Mexican Radio. It’s been a wild ride and I’m happy she’s rocking on her own now!

Photos by Maurice de la Falaise, Joe Dilworth, Nora Heinisch, Andrea Augustin, Petra Valdimarsdóttir

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Thee Nathaniel Fregoso & the Bountiful Hearts

Zitty Berlin

Our self-titled album comes out this Friday via RIP Ben Lee Records. You’ll find links to our videos here and here and a pre-order on Bandcamp right here. zitty Berlin gave it three-out-of-four Zs and said:

“That Fregoso likes risking a thick lip, you know the biggest hit of his band The Blood Arm: “I love all the girls and all the girls love me.” Also, the solo debut of the Berliner-by-choice starts with fanfare and the song title “I’m a Star”. But Fregoso 60s-70s-infected Indie-Glam Rock is fun and sometimes sounds like the Strokes in a show suit.”