Any WOOM fan will know that loving them is an exercise in patience: since playing their very first set at Brainchild Festival 2017, we have waited 4 long years for any WOOM recordings that we can hear from home. That is, until now… as they have just released their debut EP ~ Into the Rest.
This is huge news for us, and well and truly worth the wait. The EP is a heady mix of songs they’ve written themselves, I Built You & Walk, nestled next to covers of timeless gems from Outkast, James Blake and Angel Olsen, which WOOM sculpt anew through their haunting and often surprising harmonies.
Four voices make up WOOM: Isobel Risk, Ella Rimmer, Lara Laeverenz and Alice Barlow, and together they are an entity unto themselves. Their live performances leave you utterly transfixed; they’ll steal your soul and heal your heart. We can’t recommend immersing yourself in Into The Rest enough, which you can find on Bandcamp here.
You can watch WOOM’s performance of I Built You & Frank Ocean Medley in Brainchild’s very own woods from the 2019 festival here.
But for now, get to know their Essential Remedies for life –>>
One (or two) books
Julia Cameron ‘The Artist’s Way‘ (TarcherPerigee)
In a moment when artists have had creative workspaces, communities, meetings and projects put on hold whilst simultaneously feeling a lot of pressure from the world to be productive it has been a weird and hard time to find an inner resolve or balance. This Book/course offers an alternative way to explore one’s own creativity again, to look into how you create your own process and how to unblock and channel your creativity in some fun and interesting ways. It’s a nice way to experiment with yourself.
You can buy Cameron’s book here.
Other important reads that have opened our eyes in lockdown:
Bessel Van Der Kolk ‘The Body Keeps The Score’ (Penguin Publishing Group)
Layla F Saad ‘Me and White Supremacy‘
Gretel Ehrlich ‘The Solace of Open Spaces’
Records
Linda Perhacs ‘Parallelograms‘ (ODL).
Linda Perhacs has an extraordinary way of creating vocal arrangements and harmonies. The whole album ‘Parallelograms’ is one we take a lot of sonic reference and inspiration from particularly. Perhacs creates something unusual, a soundscape of moods that are both playful whilst also brave and honest. One of our favourite songs is ‘Chimacum Rain’ which we cover on our EP.
Bobby Caldwell ‘Open your Eyes‘ and ‘Down for the Third Time‘. New Year’s Eve with housemates – all of us stuck inside, but this song came on and we all started dancing. It’s been played a lot and got us through some duller, harder days. They’re sweet happy tunes.
Adrianne Lenker – Songs. A record that has brought solace in this strange year and a vessel through which to experience our own emotions.
Other Things –
Singing! Not necessarily well or with any technique but there are surprisingly so many benefits to singing for the body and mind. Singing in a comfortable way (for example in the shower or singing along to music) releases endorphins, strengthens your immune system, calms the body (whilst lowering stress levels), stimulates your vagus nerve (which is the nerve in our bodies that connects your brain to your gut and has a huge effect on mood), improves mental alertness and memory (by delivering more oxygenated blood to the brain) and lastly it can even aid emotional pain.
Walks and meanderings – It’s so simple but so easy to not do and to stay inside most of the day. It’s a really nice thing to do to start the day, even before breakfast. Breathing in some outside air and just to have a look at the world. I like to take my mug of coffee or tea out with me and just do a short stroll around the block, finding new and random benches to sit on for a bit and watch people. Walking gives you a different kind of tiredness at the end of the day and a rhythm.
Cullen Skink / Fish Chowder
It just feels good, it’s a hearty, comforting broth that is relatively easy to make. If you add green veg, lots of dill, chives and parsley it gives you extra healthy nutrients too. (Issy)
Check out this recipe on BBC Good Food.
Homemade harissa recipe from Moro
A gorgeous spicy and illuminating flavour to allow a rich taste and experience at the end of a day of lockdown: spice up your life! (Amazing at enriching simple and easy roasted vegetables and couscous). (Lara). See the full recipe here, but this is what you’ll need:
9 oz fresh red chiles (I used red hot chili peppers)
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Sea salt
3 heaped teaspoons coarsely ground caraway seeds
3 heaped teaspoons coarsely ground cumin seeds
1 large red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, and seeded
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato purée or tomato paste blended with a little water
1 1/2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar
2 level teaspoons sweet smoked Spanish paprika/pimentón de la vera
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
WOOM at Brainchild 2017
