Category: Reviews

Highlights for the week are a new single off what is probably going to be our album of the year by Working Men’s Club, an email from our chums Night Giants with news of their banging new EP and also from Faithful Johannes with more of his unique stylings. New stuff from old giffers corner sees Half Japanese and Teenage Fanclub come back with new material. This one was a joy to put together and it bangs, so have a listen and maybe you’ll find your next favourite band in there.

Ed Dowie – Robot Joy Army
Working Men’s Club – John Cooper Clarke
Lalalar – Hiç Mutlu Olmam Daha İyi
Night Giants (pictured) – Selector
Faithful Johannes – Dust
Cavernzz – Heartbreak For England
Radio Europa – Lick The Shadow
Jesu – When I Was Small
Chiedu Oraka – Serve You A Taster
Fat Earthers – Like Like Like
Half Japanese – Undisputed Champions
Head Noise – Age Of Content
The Fuckin’ Glorious – Another Mess
Kiwi Jr – Cooler Returns
Teenage Fanclub – Home
Van Houten – You And Me

Lockdown 2, though lockdown 1 never really went away in terms of getting in to the studio, so this series of shows sans commentary continues. And we start with New Zealand’s Cavemen, pop to Milan for Bear Of Bombay, Belgrade for Repetitor as well as more local stuff. Yard Act have long established themselves as a house favourite and their new track features along with another from the new Eli Hermit EP and some poppier stuff in the middle.

The Cavemen – Euthanise Me
Adulkt Life – Whistle/Country
Repetitor – Kost I Koža
Swine Tax – Relax
Bear Of Bombay – Night Tree
tunng – A Million Colours
Speedboat – bigboy123
Baby Queen – Want Me
Hayley Mary – The Chain
Xup – Disconnect
Yard Act – Peanuts
Loud Apartment – No Justification
Dead Sheeran – Flytippin’
BBXO – Money (Can’t Buy Me Love)
Eli Hermit – Madmen
Conscious Route & True Note (pictured) – Needles

New Sleaford Mods is the headline this week, with a new LP to come early next year. Eli Hermit has long been a favourite here and there’s a new EP out shortly. John MOuse’s lockdown (the first lockdown, that is) LP The Goat has a physical release now, so we mark that with a track from it. And our chums UkePunk are back. And there’s a load of other great stuff too so dig in.

Spectres – Idolise Us!
Mourn – This Feeling Is Disgusting
Eat Your Own Head – Poltergeist
Kate Clover (pictured) – Channel Zero
Real(s) – Radiation
UkePunk – Overspill
Micko & The Mellotronics – Psychedelic Shirt
Laundromat – Bureau De Fatigue
Lazy Queen – Last Call
Культодиночества – Тени
Modem – Incarceration
John MOuse – A Well Planned Party
Yiğit Bülbül – Mulhouse
Sleaford Mods – Mork n Mindy feat. Billy Nomates
Eli Hermit – Daze
Riz Ahmed – Once Kings

We open this week with an off-the-cuff bit from Andy Falkous in his Christian Fitness guise, taking the whack-ass ramblings of Ian Brown (from his mate’s phone, presumably) and setting them to music. It’s 2020, so why not. We end with a more thoughtful poem from Riz Ahmed. In between times, there’s a new one from Viagra Boys, veterans Alan Jenkins and Jello Biafra, before veering into the electronic with Paula, Povoa and Jerge – a Franco-Brazilian outfit – and the Colombian Ela Minus.

Christian Fitness – Granny Killaz (Ian Brown cover)
Viagra Boys – Ain’t Nice
Primitive Ignorant – Beautiful Scum feat. Daisy Coburn
Fuzz – Returning
Muck & The Mires – I’m Your Man
Stepford Wives – Living In The Shadows
Alan Jenkins & The Kettering Vampires – Observation Balloons
The Dead Freights – Stray Dogs
Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School Of Medicine (pictured) – Tea Party Revenge Porn
USA Nails – Character Stop
The Sunny Smiles Three – God’s Empty Chair
Shards – 2020 (I Want To Go Home)
Les Flaneurs – Dark Souls
Easy – Radical Innocence
Strawberry Pills – The Voyeur
Paula, Povoa & Jerge – Primavera
Ela Minus – They Told Us It Was Hard, But They Were Wrong
Riz Ahmed – I Miss You

Some astonishingly good and different sounds this week. Space-funk from Little Barrie, a cover of a Louis Armstrong staple like only Black Needle Noise can do, no idea how you describe Smurphy. It’s all good – go have a listen.

Froggy & The Ringes – Soft G Theme
Twisted Ankle – Landlord Laughs
Nervous Twitch – Something To Look Forward To
Liines – On & On
Flesh Tetris (pictured) – AI
Ben Wood & The Bad Ideas – You’re The Crash I Needed
The Spyrals – There’s A Feeling
David Shrigley & Lord Stornoway – Don’t Worry
Tugboat Captain – No Plans (For This Year)
Bull – Disco Living
Tokky Horror – Simulate Me
Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto – After After
Pete Rock & The Soul Brothers – Say It Again
Black Needle Noise with Tom Berger – What A Wonderful World
Cestra – Monument
Smurphy – Intuition

Back after a week off with a bunch of new stuff as we continue the search for your next favourite band. New singles from Pellethead, the brilliant Nervous Twitch and Brynovsky kick us off. Dave Gedge and friends have put an LP of Bond tunes together to raise money for CALM and we’ve a track off that. Stuff from Barnsley’s After Nature who we like a lot, from Canadians Population II who are in The Oh Sees stable, a cheery little ditty from Bunkerpop, new stuff from Emanative and ending on a slice of funk from Roisin Murphy. So get stuck in while it’s fresh.

Pellethead – Fjord Blues
Nervous Twitch – Keeping Faith In Something
Brynovsky – Ain’t Gonna Work
Samh – This Town
The Strangerz – Straight Gay Brother
Voodoo Bandits – Backyard Wrestling
After Nature – This Little England
Vukovar – Here Are Lions
Fatty Acid – Eco-Anxiety
Fax Machine – Motorbike
Population II – Il Eut Un Silence Dans Le Ciel
Sleeper & Dave Gedge – Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
INEGO – Phoenix Arizona
Bunkerpop – C’est Comme Des Robots N’est Pas
Emanative & Bex Burch – Disrupt #4
Roisin Murphy (pictured) – Narcissus

What we got for you this week? Red Eye with a Bond theme of a song to a film that hasn’t been made yet, some fine instrumental work from The Roogs, bit late to some new Jean Jacques Smoothie and Asian Dub Foundation work in some Stewart Lee stand-up material on a track from the new LP Access Denied.

The Roogs – It’s Own Good
Lelee – Izvan Sebe
Ginnel – Blueprint
Krause – Vague Outlines Of Almost Recognisable Shapes
Panic Shack – Jiu Jits You
Deh-Yey – I Am Result
Talkboy – Stupid Luck
Red Eye – A Girl Too Far
Colin Clyne – Where The Ships Go To Die
David Devant & His Spirit Wife – Sublime
The Cowls – Should It Feel Like This?
Rats On Rafts – Tokyo Music Experience
The Nix – The Drop feat. Khloe Anna
Jean Jacques Smoothie – Night Jet
Asian Dub Foundation – Comin’ Over Here
David Shrigley & Lord Stornoway – No Vacancies

Having a break next week. Back in a fortnight.

Headlines this week are the John Dwyer’s name-changing outfit have yet another new LP out – their 23rd in what feels like about three years – this time under the name Osees. And that there’s a fourth release from the mysterious SAULT, which we learned is an acronym though not what for. Untitled (Rise) is absolutely brilliant, picking up exactly where Untitled (Black Is) left off. It is totally essential to your catalogue.
As usual, everything else is dead good too. Go find out more and buy stuff off em if you can because we ain’t getting back to gigs any time soon.

Benefits – Spit Fire
A Swayze & The Ghosts – Mess Of Me
Lady Di – Peanut Cup
Dream Nails – Kiss My Fist
Broken Baby x Tummyache – Ctrl+Alt+Delete
The Persian Leaps – Lost Cause
Osees (pictured) – Dreary Artwork
SAULT – Free
Surprise Chef – Deadlines
Maximo Park – Child Of The Flatlands
Modem – Equal
Le Junk – Level 3
Flor & The Sea – A Candid Lie
I Like Trains – A Steady Hand
Dub Pistols – Dark Days, Dark Times
Blokeacola – Tsunami
Machynlleth Sound Machine – Detroit, Chicago, New York, Machynlleth

Double Benefits top and tail us this week with Kingsley Chapman riffing on the state of things. Not to say they aren’t making music, just that this format allows comment in the immediacy of the next pile of shite to emerge from this godforsaken year. In between, new stuff from the always exciting Shame, the return of Django Django and more from A Certain Ratio’s forthcoming new LP. There’s a new New Order track which certainly sounds like a New Order track which is fine if you like New Order tracks. Disclosure have another banger of an LP out and there’s a bunch of other stuff you might quite like. So have a listen, eh?

Benefits (pictured) – The Last Orders
Shame – Alphabet
Mudd Club – TV Girl
Bee Bee Sea – Daily Jobs
Pleasure Leftists – Elephant Men
Benjamin Belinska – Dancing On The Southside
Sweet Benfica – Queen Of The Hornets
Aldous RH – Reply
She Robot – Obsessed With You
The Sexy Wild East – You Can’t Change People’s Minds Anymore
Luke Wright & Cobbler – Back At The End Again
New Order – Be A Rebel
Django Django – Spirals
A Certain Ratio – Berlin
Confidence Man – First Class Bitch
Disclosure – Lavender
Karenn – On Request
Benefits – Adequate Distance

New stuff from Arab Strap is the big headline this week. As is yet another band formed by Wild Billy Childish, this time The William Loveday Intention. And everything else featured here this week is also really good, so give it a spin.

Benefits – Back To Work
Percy – Will Of the People
Rabies Babies – Rape Is Rape, Even If The Rapist Is In A Band That You Like
Wife Patrol – Valentine Citrus
Fightmilk – If You Had A Sister…
The William Loveday Intention – My Love For You
The Long Ryders – Down To The Well
Samh – Love To Share
Arab Strap – The Turning Of Our Bones
Ghostlawns – Ffoi
Baby Jane – Ski Mask
Keleketla! – International Love Affair
Mera Bhai – Mañana Groove
The Moods – Rise And Fall Of America
Tokyo Cigar x Odd Nosdam – Kobra Kaizen
Yiğit Bülbül – Alo

Bank Holiday bangers throughout today. No waffle, just get on with it.

Idles – Helter Skelter (live at Abbey Road)
Pill Fangs – Rock N Roll Is Non-Negotiable
Tokky Horror – Girlracer
Pit Pony – Opportunity Went
Dense – Calcium
Dream Nails – This Is Summer
Man Of Moon – When We Were Young
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Mr Prism
mylittlebrother – Janey
Benjamin Belinska – Disappearing
Tom Sanders – Little Human
Such Small Hands – Carousel
Kitten Heel – Needs To Go
31hours – drip-drop
Moscoman – Myths Still Exist ft. Niki Kini
Ky Vöss (pictured) – Masochism
Surprise Chef – New Ferrari