Category: Reviews

We open up with three absolute bangers this week, firstly from house favourites Benefits taking on the flag-shagging now of this septic isle, and it goes from there really. We work our way to a new one from Sir Robert Orange Peel and Ford Foster via the usual array of stuff. Speaking of arrays, our friends Birds & Beasts’ new one is all about hedgehogs. It’s all good. Dive on in.

Benefits – Flag
The Sexy Wild East – Banksy Moon
TV Priest (pictured) – Press Gang
Arrows To Fire – I’m Supersonic
Seasurfer – Zombies
Silver Synthetic – In The Beginning
Senses – Drop Your Arms
Iceage – Vendetta
The Magic Sponge – You’re The One To Blame
FM Towns – Goddess Of The Season
Birds & Beasts – Silver Moon Array
For Those I Love – Birthday/The Pain
Post Coal Prom Queen – Salt
Tom Furse – A Journey In Ecstasy
Sir Robert Orange Peel – Le Sex
Ford Foster – The Question

Highlight of the week is a remix by one of our favourites of a track by one of our favourites. What could go wrong there? Nothing, as it turns out, as Vessels work their magic on I Like Trains. I’m indebted to Sports Almanac and Blokeacola for getting in touch with new releases – find the contact page on here if you’ve got anything you think I might like. They did. The Godfather, Steve Cobby, continues to put out some great stuff and everything else in here is worth your time as we continue the search for your next favourite band.

Tamar Aphek – Russian Winter
IDestroy (pictured) – Petting Zoo
Cherym – Kisses On My Cards
LUMER – The Sheets
Potty Mouth – Let Go
Tash – Crybaby
The Mudd Club – I Don’t Want To Go To Bed
The Weather Station – Parking Lot
Sports Almanac – Breathe In
Distant Voices – Lights Of The City
3d, Gang Of Four ft. Nova Twins – Where The Nightingale Sings
Blokeacola – Capital On The Prowl
I Like Trains – The Truth (Vessels remix)
Steve Cobby – Plutus Maximus
OCOSI – This Year’s Hex
Ex Lover – Each Time My Heart Is Broken

The documentary about Robert Lloyd and The Nightingales, King Rocker, got it’s premiere at the weekend and (spoiler alert) ends with a new video for the track Gales Doc, off the 2015 LP Mind Over Matter. That’s as good an excuse as we need. The film is great, by the way. Seek it out. We implore you.
Onto new stuff then, and if you fancy something in the Comet Is Coming/Melt Yourself Down bracket, then Vipertime will be up your alley. New Sugar Horse will give your ears the pounding they’ve missed since we all stopped going to gigs. Ezra Furman and Beth Jeans Houghton were seemingly made to play together and do so on the new Du Blonde single. And check out that Cha:dy record. Superb stuff. As is the rest, so dig in.

Nightingales – Gales Doc
Killer Kin – Sonic Love
The Stools – Hedge Witch
Sugar Horse – Slam Dancing In A Burning Building
Årabrot – The Lie
Du Blonde – I’m Glad That We Broke Up ft. Ezra Furman
Mush – Hazmat Suits
Blaney – Faith In Nature
Holy Monitor – Naked In The Rain
Ġenn – Feel
Vipertime – Limbs
Misled Convoy x Kat Five – Apply The Pressure
Cha:dy – Lazy
Benin City – Freaking You Out
Vex – Don’t Change Me
Ritual Cloak – Opaque Crater
Kaouenn – Immaterial Jungle

You need to get on Sister Wives. Best thing we’ve heard this year so far, even if it came out last year. You know what we mean. Anyway, other things you need to hear are all here. Du Blonde, King Gizzard, Billy Nomates, Squid… Look, it’s all good. Listen. Remember. Buy.

The Cavemen – Am I A Monster?
Idles – Carcinogenic
Du Blonde – Medicated
Chicken Snake – Chicken Shit
Muck & The Mires – I’m Your Man
Goat Girl – The Crack
Lola Wild – Sand
Sister Wives (pictured) – Wandering Along/Rwy’n Crwydro
Lauren Moon – Edge Of The Moon
Billy Nomates – Heel
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – O.N.E
Bear Of Bombay – Something Stranger
Venus Furs – New Inspiration
Squid – Narrator
Teenage Fanclub – More Inclined
Leddie MC ft. Eve Conway – They Don’t Make ‘Em Like You

Having cleared up the backlog from the festive period, it’s back to normal this week, i.e. new stuff all the way. Rum Lad opens us up with a non-too-subtle appraisal of our current overlords that’s pretty hard to argue with. Yard Act have a new one and is equally as good as all their other releases to date. We like them. There’s a track off the new Virginia Wing LP, and cracking remix of Fontaines DC from Soulwax, one off the new Bicep LP, something a bit weirder from Stony Sugarskull and that Nerve Quakes one is great.

Rum Lad – Tory Boy
The Shop Window – Out Of Reach
Davey Woodward & The Winter Orphans – Bad Day
Bradford – My Wet Face
Blood Wizard – Carcrash
Deep Vally – Look Away
Sugar Fitz – You Should Have Seen His Apartment
Yard Act – Dark Days
Umbrella Assassins – Hilarious Precarious
Virginia Wing – I’m Holding Out For Something
Syvdoh – Bullet Tongue
Stony Sugarskull – Turtles
Nerve Quakes (pictured) – Dive Wreck
Fontaines DC – A Hero’s Death (Soulwax remix)
Blank & Jones with Rachel Lloyd – Take Me Back
Bicep – Rever feat. Julia Kent

Two LPs out last week that are on constant rotation – Spare Ribs from Sleaford Mods and Drunk Tank Pink by Shame. The latest singles off those kick us off this week. Elsewhere, we have Brazilian post-punk from Herzegovina, some very Monks-esque stuff from NASDAQ, a new one from Gary Numan which we like a lot, our favourites Nervous Twitch with another track from the forthcoming LP, new ones from Mush and Home Counties – the latter sounding quite like the Diagram Brothers, and a stunner from Murderers. Closing us off is a stunning cover of a massive Massive Attack record from Def Neon.

Sleaford Mods – Nudge It feat. Amy Taylor
Shame – Human, For A Minute
DEW – endstation eskalation
Heckel & Jeckel – This Is War
Idles – Reigns
Herzegovina – Emergency
NASDAQ – Profit Margin
Nervous Twitch (pictured) – Alright Lads
Swansea Sound – I Sold My Soul On Ebay
Home Counties – Modern Yuppies
Mush – Seven Trumpets
Julia Bardo – It’s Okay (To Not Be Okay)
Murderers – Sleep
Gary Numan – Intruder
Metasota – Situations
Blaktrix – Square One
International Teachers Of Pop – Flood The Club
Night Giants – Twist & Drop (Paper Street Soul remix)
Benin City – Hold Them Close
Def Neon – Teardrop

Couple of weeks off, but back with an extended episode as we clear up the end of last year and grab some new stuff off the shelf. We didn’t know Ozric Tentacles could sound like that, Divide & Dissolve are absolutely essential now, there’s a new EP from Those Fucking Snowflakes. The Spray track is our pick for a new national anthem.
Still loads in the backlog, so probably more of the same next week while we get back to something like normal service.

Ozric Tentacles – Stripey Clouds
Divide & Dissolve (pictured) – Prove It
Cower – Proto-Lion Tamer
Those Fucking Snowflakes – By The Power Of Barnard Castle
Indica Blues – We Are Doomed
Horsemeat – Jibber Jabber
Milford Place – Chemistry
No Deal Disco – Nationalism Is A Gateway Drug
Dragged Up – Neighbourhood Watch
Ishani – Perfect Life
Steve Cobby feat. Emma Fee – Captivated
Novyi Lef – Part Of The Bigger Thing
Emanative & Liz Elensky – Tea Leaf Dancers feat. Vince Vella
Spray – You’ll Never be Forgiven
Anzahlung – Standing Still
Radioactive Man & Ben Pest – Old Tight Selektah
Nkisi – Blackbox
Jasss – Turbo Olé
Drew Five – Endless Ocean
Trislanda – With You

Ho ho ho. We nearly made it, everyone. OK, so we’re in tier n+1 where n is a large number, we may not be able to see who we thought we were going to….
Forget that. Christmas innit. So here’s the annual festive edition of the show. There’s a lot of ‘lonely christmas’ vibes out there for obvious reasons, but we’ve tried not to go too strong on that and have some diversity of thought. Picks this year are from The Sinclairs – Rat Scabies’ new(ish) band – and our chum Faithful Johannes, while we have two tracks from Fightmilk’s festive EP which other than these two original tracks features a bunch of covers. Speaking of which, Talkboy have a cover in here too, just before we end in the traditional manner, with a dodgy transformer.

The Sinclairs – Pillow Fight Skies feat. Jane Horrocks
Jetstream Pony – Grief Of A (Frozen) Sailor
Arrest! Charlie Tipper – Xmas=Consume
Fightmilk – Happy Christmas (I Guess I’ll See You Next Year)
Dream Nails – Lonely Star
The Hannah Barberas – Can You Hear The Snowfall?
Oh Peas! – Feeling Terrible This Christmas
Faithful Johannes – It’s OK To Be Alone
Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer – I’m Getting The Blame For Christmas
Minimal Schlager – Fireworks feat. Eddie Argos and Laura Lee
Fightmilk – I’m Dreaming Of A Christmas (Where You Just Explode)
Porridge Radio – The Last Time I Saw You (O Christmas)
Police Dog Hogan – First Christmas Alone
Slow Club – It’s Christmas And You’re Boring Me
Talkboy – White Christmas
Half Man Half Biscuit – All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit

Be safe, be well. We’ll have our end-of-year round up later in the week, but other than that, we’re off until the new year. Good luck everyone.

Last regular show of this absolute arse of a year. But hey, if you’re reading this, that means you got through it! Go you! And so did we, with a lot of help from seeking out your next favourite band to keep us sane. This week, a new one from The Avalanches who have a new album out. Another one from Ghostpoet’s magnificent LP I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep, one of the records of the year. The Comet Is Coming are the acceptable face of saxophones, while Samuum and Anzahlung (featuring The Shend from The Cravats) are filed in this weeks experimental segment. Look, it’s all good. Just try it out.

The Sexy Wild East – A Statue Of Paddington Bear
Those Fucking Snowflakes – Due Some Terrible End
Talkboy – Sky Is Falling
The Baggios – Mantrayam
Mystic Peach – Wanna Be My Daddy
Dan O’Farrell & The Difference Engine (pictured) – I Am Afraid
Flor And The Sea – Kings & Queens
Modern Studies – The Failing Light
Dogma – Austerity
Anzahlung – You’re My Friend
Dark Time Sunshine – 7 Knots/Ayemen
Knomad Spock – Papillon
Ghostpoet – Bruised Fruit
The Comet Is Coming – Imminent feat. Joshua Idehen
Samuum – Moranam
The Avalanches – Insterstellar Love feat. Leon Bridges
Makoto Nagata – Depth

Christmas special next week then a couple of weeks off. Thanks for listening.

Highlights this week are a new one off the forthcoming long-players from Sleaford Mods and Shame. Sweden’s Viagra Boys also have a new one due and there’s another single off that. David Shrigley’s latest spoken word collaboration came out last month and we like it a lot – as expected really. Gary, Indiana and The Byker Grove Fan Club are new ones to us. Sir Robert Orange Peel sums up the year on his new one, Ceiling Demons have a 7″ out, we open with new stuff from Russians JARS and work through until we get to Strega Beata, the new name for Lana Del Rabies. Get it down you.

JARS – Заебало (Sick)
The Byker Grove Fan Club – Cake Shop
shame – Snow Day
Swine Tax – Johnny
Viagra Boys – Creatures
Gary, Indiana – Nike Of Samothrace
David Shrigley & Regis Laugier – Hey You
A Bunch Of Jerks – Chad
Night Beats – That’s All You Got feat. Robert Levon Been
Magic Wands – Angel Dust
Cornershop – I’m A Wooden Soldier
Charlotte Clark – Drive On
Ceiling Demons – Soul Within A Storm
Sleaford Mods – Shortcummings
Sir Robert Orange Peel – Baby Shower
Strega Beata (pictured) – Grace The Teacher