Category: Reviews

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

New to us this week are Mrs Piss and their EP Self-Surgery which came out in May and TV Priest from London who we’ll definitely be keeping an ear out for in future. Mint have a track about our favourite sub-marathon length motorway. New stuff from the Skints is always welcome, as is Mush and Beach Riot, old chum DXIII, Johnno Casson alter-ego Walken400 and oh just give it a spin and find something you didn’t know you liked.

Plague Songs – Let’s All Go Dunkirking
Idles – Model Village
Dead Kennedys – Nazi Punks Fuck Off (ill.Gates x RIP Kenny remix)
Hurtsfall – Revelator
Kent Valley – Longing ft. Manon Poudat
Walken400 – Run Away And Join The Circus
Future Islands – Thrill
Beach Riot – Wrong Impression
Mrs Piss (pictured) – You Took Everything
TV Priest – This Island
Palm Reader – Hold/Release
Mint – M180
Mush – Dead Beat
Lence – Loved
The Skints – Love Is The Devil ft. Jesse Royal
DXIII – Proverb (Early Vocal mix)

Bit late to the latest Ghostpoet release, but it’s magnificent. Sault have been dominating the office turntable of late and while the track we feature here isn’t off the latest one – Untitled (Black Is) – still worth a spin. The new one is terrific too. New Working Men’s Club which sounds fab, Circe is new to us but that’s a great sound, similarly Gemma Dunleavy we are totally on board with, and we hope Chiedu Oraka goes places as we like the cut of his gib. Tuck in.

Ghostpoet – I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep
Gemma Dunleavy – Up De Flats
Sault – Why Why Why Why Why
Working Men’s Club – Valleys
Julian Shah-Tayler – Evolution ft. MGT
Vast Asteroid – Champagne Ambassadors
Kicked In The Teeth – Death Adventure
Sugar Fïtz – Skin Sparks
Palm Ghosts – Press Animals
The Hannah Barberas – W.Y.E.
c l y n – I Don’t Know You
Emily Breeze – Hey Kidz
Circe – Ten Girls
Blokeacola – Heavy Fruit
Chiedu Oraka (pictured) – Bianca
Dan Wainwright – Om Nama Shivaya (Rude Audio Fresh remix)

There’s a new LP from Eight Rounds Rapid in the offing. Be excited. We have another new track from them. Wesdaruler isn’t holding back as we head toward a general election in the US. That’s a killer track. Luke Wright finally has some poetry set to music. About time.
Oh, it’s all good. Dive in, give your ears a treat. Stay well.

Bull – Green
Pynch – Somebody Else
Tiña – Golden Rope
Wesdaruler (pictured) – Fuck Trump America
The Wolfhounds – …And Electric Music
Eight Rounds Rapid – Tricks
Kid Dad – What You Call A Dream
You Will Flood The River – Evil Frank Is Dead
Blue Stragglers – She
Cherry Pickles – Out Of This World
Oxymorrons – Justice
Pan Amsterdam – Carrot Cake
Luke Wright & Cobbler – Monster
Drew Five – The Meeting Place
Shit And Shine – Hillbilly Moonshine
Whirling Hall Of Knives – Those Tracers

We really like I Like Trains and another cut from their forthcoming and eagerly anticipated LP opens us up. Eight Rounds Rapid have been a bit quiet, but there’s a new one from them and they pick up just where they left off. Two of our favourite songwriters feature in Johny Nocash and Faithful Johannes, the latter with the feel good hit of the summer. So you’d probably best listen.

I Like Trains – A Steady Hand
The Velvet Hands – When This Is Over
Thee Dirty Rats – Bacterial Bop
Ben Wood & The Bad Ideas – Dig
Eight Rounds Rapid – Eating
Gaygirl – Killing It
Johny Nocash – The Art Of Positive Thinking
Beat Hotel – Feel It
Limón Limón – Frozen Lemonade
Scissorgun – Terminal Velocity
Shishi – Hush
Silverbacks – Muted Gold
Faithful Johannes – Feel Good Hit Of The Summer
Big Black Delta – Vessel
Isanna – 1998
Peakes – We’ll Talk