Stella Donnelly is a proud, self-proclaimed shit-stirrer. On lead single "Old Man," the biting opener of her electrifying debut album, Beware of the Dogs, she targets the song's titular creep, "Oh are you scared of me old man or are you scared of what I’ll do? You grabbed me with an open hand. The world is grabbing back at you." When something needs to be said, whether it's to an abusive man, a terrible boss, or a clueless significant other, the 26-year old Fremantle, Western Australia-based musician is fearless in telling it like it is. Delivered entirely with a sarcastic wink and a full heart, Beware of the Dogs proves across 13 life-affirming songs the power in sticking up for yourself, your friends, and what's right.
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The album showcases an artist totally in command of her voice, able to wield her inviting charm and razor-sharp wit into authentically raw songs. It’s a resounding statement of purpose in recent memory and most importantly, it’s a portrait of Donnelly taking charge. She says, “this album made me feel like I was back in the driver's seat. It was really liberating and grounding to realize that no one can fuck with this except me.”
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“Hyaline” (released 27 May 2022) is the debut album from Ohio-born, Oakland, CA based artist and songwriter, Maria BC. Following last year’s debut EP “Devil’s Rain” which received critical praise from Pitchfork, BBC Radio 6 Music, KEXP and more, Maria created “Hyaline” across their untreated Brooklyn apartment in Summer 2021, like a wandering spirit gaining energy from different spaces.

Their classically-trained mezzo-soprano voice soars over raw, etherial guitars; audio samples from Prospect Park – now almost unrecognizable – dapple across minimal percussion; organ, played by Maria BC’s dad at his church in Ohio, settle alongside tender, transformative harmonies. Mixing together different sessions, tracks recorded directly into their phone and samples collected over the years, Maria BC likens Hyaline to a “sonic collage.” It’s a project of patience, and trusting the process.

“Hyaline”, the album title, describes something that is clear and translucent like glass, especially a smooth sea. For Maria, song-writing is a stretched blank canvas awaiting the strokes of an exhale, and it’s this slow-moving process that rewards us the ease of a crystalline sky, without forgetting the clouds that may have come before it. A knife's-edge balance of intimacy and ambiguity, “Hyaline” accesses snapshots of grief, anxiety and wonder through a miscellany of specters: these are ghost stories, but not as we know them.

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Stella Donnelly

Stella Donnelly - Beware of the Dogs

Maria BC

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Washington D.C.

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Stella Donnelly

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