Category: Reviews

Having relocated to a new House of Lies over the last couple of weeks, we are back with a bumper 21 tracks as we attempt to clear out the backlog that grew while we were off.
Main thing this week is new Working Men’s Club. The first album was a belter and whenever a new one emerges, it looks set to be a must-have on the basis of X. Other highlights are new Beak> and The Surfing Magazines. Milk Bottle Sympathy deserve your ears, there’s a new one from the highly-rated Murderers and old friends Eli Hermit and Faithful Johannes are back. Everything here is excellent so give yourself a treat.

Space Cadet – Start Running Away
The Routes – Broken Goods
Suzi Moon – Special Place In Hell
Gabe Is A Unit – Stressful Evening
Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg
The Surfing Magazines – Sports Bar
Milk Bottle Sympathy – Critical Blinking
Shade – Jump Into Heaven
Harker – Adulthood
Laundromat – Milky
Blokeacola – Canopy
Murderers – Save Yourself
James P Honey – I Want To Kill Bill Callahan
Eli Hermit – Sick
Faithful Johannes – Rearrange The Rearranged
LV – Ancestors
Chiedu Oraka – Foot Off The Gas
Tennis System – Truth Hurts
Beak> – Oh Know
Working Men’s Club (pictured) – X
Gazelle Twin – The Well

Double mirror ball references this week and 13-year old Alex Spencer embarrasses us all by being that good that young. We’re very much on board with new Home Counties and Blanketman’s suggestion to leave the south. William Doyle is back, this time not as East India Youth. There is an inherent problem with having the word youth in your band name and there’s an essay to be had about that for anyone who has the time. We mean you, Thurston Moore. Digression….
Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke has a new long player out which is very good and this week we have two neo-classical pieces to close us out. Really getting into that vibe.

Ohmme – We Human
Alex Spencer (pictured) – Things Just Come And Go
Knoxville Girls – That’s Alright With Me
Frau Blucher & The Drunken Horses – Smile… And Shut Your Mouth
Fightmilk – Overbite
The Catenary Wires – Mirrorball
Home Counties – White Shirt/Clean Shirt
Blanketman – Leave The South
Play Dead – Shaun
Terminal – Deadline
X-Ray Ted – Mirror Ballin’
Dope Sagittarius – Define Love
William Doyle – Nothing At All
Mt. Mountain – Two Minds
Kele – The Heart Of The Wave
Reza Safinia – Within
Christine Ott – Landscape

Probably going to have a couple of weeks off because, y’know, life. Back soon.

Highlights this week: All of it. New one from Vukovar, from friend of the show Paul Foster in his Night Programme guise. A remix of Pariis Opera House which hasn’t seen light of day before. And following from last week’s neo-classical stuff, some more of that kind of thing, this time from Neil Cowley.

Fresh – Girl Clout
The Heat Inc. – Raptors
Rundown Kreeps – Held Down
The Lotts – Out Of it
ZoZo Ginsberg – Filthy Morning
Total Wkts – Odermatt
Lazy Queen – Bid Geal
Trigger Cut – YESSSS Brother
Gabe Is A Unit – Dinas Vawr
Inner Terrestrials – The Enemy Within
William The Conqueror – Move On
Vukovar – When Rome Falls
Pariis Opera House (pictured) – Dragndrop (Club mix)
The Workday Release – Say A Lot With Light
League Of Lights – Modern Living
The Night Programme – Boredom Shop
Neil Cowley – She Lives In Golden Sands

We open this week with a polished version of a shed-based noodle from the estimable Boothby Graffoe, originally made in lockdown (remember them? Oh) and now available to purchase as a single. And you should. We also fucking hate banana bread.
We work through to some neo-classical from Rutger Hoedemaekers who had been working with the late Johann Johannsson, an artist through whom we got into that kind of thing, and you can really pick up the cues there. In between, Blokeacola, Faithful Johannes and Sir Robert Orange Peel continue to make innovative stuff and we’re indebted for their emails this week alerting us to new material. The latter has a new LP out soon, we’ve had a cheeky preview and we’re fully on board with it.
We’ve got Chiedu Oraka and Leddie MC from up here in the frozen north, a big hello to Eli Hermit who we love. And friend of the show Rob Crisp, in his Rib Corps guise, has some timely advice for us all. It’s been tough, we’re getting there. Just hang on in there.

Boothby Graffoe – #TFAYCD
The Trudy – Dear Sancho
The Gary – Info
The Gold Needles – What’s Tomorrow Ever Done For You?
Unschooling – Social Chameleon
Blokeacola – Laser Beans
Sea Fever – Crossed Wires
Nywvre – Manifes
Sir Robert Orange Peel – Eurofix
Faithful Johannes – Different
Wu-Lu – South ft. Lex Amor
Chiedu Oraka – The Trials & Tribulations of CEO ft. Tawanda
Leddie MC (pictured) – Just The One ft. Rick Fury and Seek the Northerner
Eli Hermit – Birds
Kaouenn – Psychic Nomad
Rib Corps – Toil On
Rutger Hoedemaekers – Goodbye, Donald

We kick off this week with another one from Billy Childish in his William Loveday Intention guise and works through to something quite special from Knomad Spock via a number of different stops. Tubgoat sees the bassist from house favourites The St Pierre Snake Invasion striking out, Italian psych from a/lpaca, new ones from The Horrors, Laundromat and Personal Trainer. It’s the usual sort of mix, so get it in your ears.

The William Loveday Intention – To Sing The Blues You Gotta Be Blue
Dr Orange – Chinatown
Tubgoat – IHNMAIMS
The Horrors – Lout
HotWax – Stay Cool
Plants and Animals – House On Fire
Personal Trainer – Politics
a/lpaca – Make It Better
Violet – Fade
Laundromat (pictured) – Flat Planet
Barbarossa – Hide
Bad Colours – Get U Off
Slowe – WLTKY
Ceschi and Siul Hughes – Poltergeist
Wheelchair Sports Camp – YESS I’m A MESS
Knomad Spock – Ballad

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