Listening Post – April 2024

Words: Andy Hughes

I can’t quite Adam-and-beliEve-it that we’re already easing into spring. No, this isn’t an April Fools (particularly as that was a few days ago), but rather the year zooming ahead as per. 

Alongside our bumper playlist for the year (cataloguing everything we’ve been loving from January through to now), the ‘Listening Post’ returns this month and it’s full of choice cuts, 20 of them – old and new!

It’s a crisp 60 minutes, so you can bosh this one out in snappy fashion – be sure to tell your friends / family / pets too!

Whilst you’re here, can we quickly draw your attention to the new podcast that we launched at the start of the year? ’60 Minutes or less’ has been up and running for over three months now, featuring interesting chats with Joe Casey (Protomartyr), Paul Hanley (The Fall), Philip Frobos (Omni), Jonathan Higgs (Everything Everything), Peter Brewis (Field Music) and Steve Davis OBE (The Utopia Strong)! When you’re done here, get yourself listening to the new episodes and give it a rating on your favourite streaming service!

Patio – Inheritance
(Collection)

Cooler than the other side of the pillow stuff here from NYC formed trio Patio. From their second album ‘Collection’, out September last year on tastemaker label Fire Talk, ‘Inheritance’ is as groovy as it is moody and calls to mind the brilliant Lithics. Love those machine-gun fire drum bursts.

Parsnip – The Light
(Behold)

On our radar ever since their 2017 EP ‘Health’, Aussie lot Parsnip return in 2024 with their forthcoming second album (on the way this month via Upset The Rhythm). Kicking things off with bright and breezy lead single ‘The Light’, it’s an offering that sounds like it’s been zapped forward in time from the swinging sixties. 

Bench Press – Respite
(Not The Past, Can’t Be The Future)

From their 2019 album ‘Not The Past, Can’t Be The Future’, Melbourne’s Bench Press have a motto we can get behind – ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus’. Mastered by Mikey Young, naturally, this is a snarling post-punk number that sinks its teeth in from the off.

Bingo Fury – Leather Sky
(Bats Feet For A Widow)

It was a trip seeing Bingo Fury at hipster hotspot YES in Manchester recently, given that the cover photo for his new album ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ captures the songwriter in the restaurant across the street, literally taken from the very same room we were stood. ‘Leather Sky’ is something else, a proper stop you in your tracks affair from the young crooner, one that’s drawn comparisons to songwriting greats like Scott Walker.

Saint Saviour – Be Gentle
(Sunseeker)

It’s fitting that we move into spring with this sun-soaked delight from London based singer-songwriter Becky Jones a.k.a. Saint Saviour (though it is pissing it down in Manchester as I write this…) From a new album out now – the aptly titled ‘Sunseeker’ – elsewhere on the record you’ll find a guest collaboration from Bill Ryder Jones.

Non La – Hurtful
(Like Before)

Mega S/T ‘blue’ album Weezer vibes aplenty on the fist-pumping ‘Hurtful’, one of the big hitters from ‘Like Before’, the new record from queer Chinese-Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Non La (whose name sounds like what a scouser might say when you’ve asked them for something they’ve just run out of…) Dig that fuzz!

Ting Tang Tina – Hair
(Honeybee)

Texan quartet Ting Tang Tina first started playing shows in 2017, but listening to the infectious ‘Hair’, you’d think they’d have been at it for decades. Hardly letting up across its near three minutes, this from their debut album ‘Honeybee’ sounds like it’d be sitting pretty on the soundtrack of any coming of age teen film. 

Grazia – Stupid Paradise
(In Poor Taste)

Featuring ex-Sauna Youth bod Lindsay Corstorphine, London based duo Grazia put out a killer EP at the start of the year (another winning release from the team at Feel It Records). ‘Stupid Paradise’ is a total ear worm of the slacker variety.

VR Sex – Real Doll Time
(Hard Copy)

I’ve been flirting with disaster of late, listening to loads of VR Sex on my work laptop (that name!), but I can’t help it – I’m hooked on their new record, ’Hard Copy’! Spearheaded by Noel Skum (a.k.a. Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty), ‘Real Doll Time’ is a mega infectious bit of moody post-punk from a record that well and truly has its hooks in us.

The Chico Hamilton Quintet – The Morning After
(Chico Hamilton Quintet featuring Buddy Collette)

An absolutely delightful piece here from American jazz drummer and bandleader, Chico Hamilton, a completely cinematic jazz affair that would perfectly soundtrack any time of day (not just ‘The Morning After‘…)

Folly Group – East Flat Crows
(Down There!)

Sometimes seeing a band live can really take their record to another level. Following an appearance in Manchester last month, I’ve been hammering the debut album from Londoners Folly Group. ‘East Flat Crows’ is a particularly cool number from the quartet, the dual vocal and hypnotising rhythm section taking hold.

Modema – Running Back

A regular in The Orielles live band (as well as behind the counter of Manchester institution Piccadilly Records), last year saw the release of a debut single from Scottish artist Modema, a slick pop number that doesn’t sound too dissimilar to the synth-pop stylings found on the latest Everything Everything record.  

SLAP RASH – Photo Fit
(Catherine Special)

Local lot SLAP RASH put out their debut EP ‘Catherine Special’ at the tail end of last year and from it, ‘Photo Fit’ is a frantic post punk shoulder-shuffler of the Drahla variety. Thumping drums, killer bass and a captivating vocal attack that keeps you on your toes, this is solid!

Holiday Ghosts – Big Congratulations
(Coat Of Arms)

The ever prolific Holiday Ghosts swiftly follow up their 2023 record ‘Absolute Reality’ with yet another slab of wax to be devoured. Latest single ‘Big Congratulations’ is a total pop treat – a joyous, breezy single to welcome in the brighter months of the year.

(Photo Credit: Atiba Jefferson)

Dehd – Mood Ring
(Poetry)

Starting off as a thumping, Nine Inch Nails type industrial assault, ‘Mood Ring’ switches gears dramatically and becomes such a pop bop. From a new record out this May, ‘Mood Ring’ is insanely catchy and a total heart-sweller from the Chicago trio.

Mannequin Pussy – Aching
(I Got Heaven)

You know we love a 90 second ripper at Birthday Cake For Breakfast, so we were stoked when we heard this on the latest Mannequin Pussy record. A hardcore rush that sounds like the gnarliness of early Turnstile, you’ll want to stick ‘Aching’ on again and again.

Lambrini Girls – God’s Country

Very much in the vein of early Sleaford Mods – dog-dirt bass and engrossing, corner-you-in-the-pub stream of consciousness vocals (both a compliment, trust us) – ‘God’s Country’ is the latest attack from killer trio Lambrini Girls. Known for a notorious live show and with records to match, they can’t seem to put a foot wrong!

Rosali – Bite Down
(Bite Down)

From a new record out last month via Merge Records, North Carolina’s Rosali conjures up a real vibe on title track ‘Bite Down’. Guided by the warmth of the vocals and the instrumentation, it’s the type of track you can completely lose yourself in, allowing your mind to float off along a lazy river. 

Alison Cotton – The Letter Burning
(Engelchen)

From a new record out this year on Rocket Recordings and Feeding Tube Records, ‘The Letter Burning’ is a haunting, thought provoking piece from London based viola player / vocalist Alison Cotton. The record ‘Engelchen’ – meaning “little angel” in German – is a tribute to Ida & Louise Cook, two opera fans who rescued 29 Jewish people from Nazi-occupied Europe in the 30s.

Cowtown – Thru Being Zuul
(Fear Of…)

A commemorative pen in the post for Leeds formed Cowtown, the trio now celebrating twenty years in the game! To mark the occasion, the trio have just announced a new album is on the way this May via Gringo Records – their first new album in eight years! New single ‘Thru Being Zuul’ is the Cowtown sound we’ve come to love, an energetic burst of DEVO styled synth-punk to get the body moving.

(Photo Credit: Vincent-Lee)

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Listening Post – November 2023

Words: Andy Hughes

What’s been tickling your fancy of late? Well we can tell you what’s been ticking ours – something we’ve been doing for the past 10 years (an occasion we’re celebrating throughout 2023!) Every month we focus on twenty tunes as part of our ‘Listening Post‘, compiling a list of the very tracks that have had us all shook up throughout the month.

This month: Uplifting jazz to anthemic hardcore, sharp Aussie punk to shiny mirrorball disco and loads more! Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog – give it a wee share!

Dumbo Gets Mad – Cosmic Bloom
(Thank You Neil)

Ease into the playlist this month via cosmic instrumental loveliness from Italian duo Dumbo Gets Mad, a wee ditty taken from their brilliantly titled ‘Thank You Neil‘ record from 2015 – named after Neil deGrasse Tyson, the album being a concept piece inspired by the astrophysicist and the 2014 documentary series ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey‘.

Aja Monet – Why My Love?
(When the Poems Do What They Do)

Dig the captivating poetry here from Brooklyn’s Aja Monet, spoken in a stream of consciousness style that keeps you on your toes and welcomes deep pondering, touching on everything from popping pimples to wet dreams and the male gaze. Spellbinding jazz compliments the strong delivery of her words.

Media Puzzle – On The Piss
(Jockey)

The gnarly ‘On The Piss‘ is a burst of scuzzy, down the barrel Aussie punk that thrashes through its 90 seconds without a second wasted. From the debut Media Puzzle album, the outfit took their name from an Irish horse that scored a victory in the 2002 Melbourne Cup (naturally). Rager.

Beige Palace – Distant Fizz
(Making Sounds For Andy)

Finally – ten years into it and I’ve got an outfit making sounds just for me! Off the back of a split 7″ with our pals from Chipping Norton earlier in the year, Leeds based trio Beige Palace get horrid on the solid ‘Distant Fizz‘. A head-spinning, smell-the-shit riff to get that head banging. Taken from their forthcoming second album – on the way this month via Human Worth, with a portion of all sales proceeds donated to local Leeds charity PAFRAS.

Sauna Youth – False Jesii Pt. II

I think I’d likely crumble in a Desert Island Discs type scenario, but put me on the spot and ‘False Jesii, Part 2‘ just might squeak into it. The early Pissed Jeans staple is one I return to often and, occasionally, I’ll get reacquainted with this fuzzy, poppier cover version from much missed Londoners Sauna Youth. Taken from a 7″ on Static Shock Records from 2013, it strips the menace in favour of aiming for heart-swelling highs.

Say She She – Astral Plane
(Silver)

Get the flares out, lads – we’re going disco! NYC trio Say She She go all the way on this cinematic, soulful piece from their newest record ‘Silver‘, out at the tail end of September. The joyful ‘Astral Plane‘ stirs up imagery of driving in a soft-top car through some sun-soaked landscape on the way to a 70s party in the hills, a far cry from the piss-wet South Manchester suburbs from where this is being written. One can dream.

DEADLETTER – The Snitching Hour

Following the release of their ‘Heat!‘ EP in late 2022, Londoners DEADLETTER kicked off 2023 with ‘The Snitching Hour‘ – a pulsating, energising post-punk romp that’s parts ‘Start!‘ by The Jam and ‘Parklife‘ era Blur. Really top stuff from the box-fresh sextet.

Lost Map presents Weird Wave – Unrecognise!
(Lost Map presents Weird Wave)

What is it about 2013 and makings things happen?! In the same year we cooked up Birthday Cake For Breakfast, Pictish Trail launched his label Lost Map Records, based out of the Hebridean Isle of Eigg. To commemorate the milestone, Pictish Trail has gathered a gang of players from across the roster (including members of Tuff Love, Savage Mansion and Kid Canaveral) for a special release, ‘Unrecognise!‘ being a spiffing dance-a-thon of the Holodrum variety. Impossible to sit still whilst this is on!

The Klittens – Universal Experience

Dutch quintet The Klittens describe themselves as “untrained but unbothered“, which is a motto we can fully get behind. Their latest single ‘Universal Experience‘ is a total joy, packing one hell of a pop-bop chorus and some heart-melting vocal flourishes. Mastered by Mikey Young – the seal of approval in our eyes.

Babehoven – Chariot

New out last month on Double Double Whammy, the fuzzy blanket of ‘Chariot‘ is hypnotising, a real stop-you-in-your-tracks affair that calls to mind the lump in the throat heights so often reached by Big Thief and the like. Really lovely.

Rumer – The Same Old Tears on a New Background
(Boys Don’t Cry)

Heavenly turn here from British singer-songwriter Rumer – a really warm rendition of ‘The Same Old Tears on a New Background‘ from her album of 70s covers. New to us this month, but it makes sense that it would grab hold of us, given it originally featured on Art Garfunkel’s ‘Breakaway‘ album, which features the beautiful ‘Waters of March‘.

Hey Colossus – TV Alone
(In Blood)

It’s only taken us twenty years, but we finally saw Hey Colossus live last month! They’ve been on the road this fall to commemorate their two decades wrecking ears and on the night in Salford, we were totally gassed by the raucous ‘TV Alone‘, taken from their latest release, ‘In Blood‘. That heavy, driving chorus puts hairs on your chest, make no mistake.

The Tammys – Egyptian Shumba

The Tammys, the Pennsylvania girl group of the 60s, are a totally new discovery for us, but we’re head over heels for their big hitter, ‘Egyptian Shumba‘. We first heard it via an energetic encore at the Sweeping Promises show in Manchester last month – the band covering it on record earlier this year as part of a Girlsville benefit for Feline Rescue Inc. Sugar-sweet verses make way for almost unhinged shouts and screams.

Ife Ogunjobi – Still Riding
(STAY TRUE)

Bringing various musical influences to the table, taken from his Nigerian heritage and his London upbringing, as well as from the likes of Fela Kuti and Erykah Badu, Ife Ogunjobi makes up 1/5 of Ezra Collective, the outfit on everyone’s lips following their 2023 Mercury Prize winning album ‘Where I’m Meant to Be‘. From his recently released debut EP as a solo artist, ‘Still Riding‘ is a vibrant and absorbing jazz workout.

Brorlab – Shitty Oven
(Working Out In Heaven)

You know you’re in good hands when something comes out on the LA VIDA ES UN MUS DISCOS label. Calling to mind fellow punk speed-freaks Snooper, on the frantic ‘Shitty Oven‘, Belgium’s Brorlab hurtle out of the gate with an ear-splitting vocal and drums to turn your brain to mush, but all in the nicest possible way.

Canned Pineapple – Turkey Sandwiches

Dinosaur Jr. x The Presidents of the USA, but it’s a bunch of young guys from Brighton? Yeah go on then. Complimented by artwork that very much does what it says on the tin, the sun-soaked ‘Turkey Sandwiches‘ is a ripper of a good time, one that sounds like it would’ve frequented the soundtracks of many an early noughties teen film (the period which – dare I say it – is likely when these lads were born…)

W. H. Lung – High Pressure Days

Local lot W. H. Lung follow in the footsteps of fellow Manchester wonk-pop aficionados Dutch Uncles with nostalgic sounding gems to shuffle your feet to. A preview of sorts from a forthcoming, yet to be announced third full-length LP, ‘High Pressure Days‘ sees them covering 70s San Fran synth-punks The Units with real gusto.

Wandering Monster – Cowboy
(Zenna)

We’ve always been champions of the healthy musical scenes in Leeds, though full disclosure – we’d not encountered much contemporary jazz until just lately (having slept on that side of the city, it must be said). Led by double bass player and main composer Sam Quintana, Wandering Monster could very well be just the ticket however, as we’re hooked on this – ‘Cowboy‘ being their soothing interpretation of a piece originally composed by Randy Newman.

Fiddlehead – Sullenboy
(Death Is Nothing To Us)

Taken from the third Fiddlehead album, ‘Death Is Nothing To Us‘, out this August on Run For Cover Records, ‘Sullenboy‘ captures that anthemic blend of hardcore and 90s alt-rock the quartet have embraced for nearly a decade, sounding not too dissimilar to Leeds luminaries Eagulls. Serious ripper territory, it makes you want to punch the air in unison.

Takeshi’s Cashew – Full, Half, New
(Enter J’s Chamber)

Listening to this on the dog walk the other day (where all the best listening is done), I was convinced it was LA Priest or maybe even King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, hooked in by the mind-melting psych-trance that was actually being conjured up by Takeshi’s Cashew. A truly blissful instrumental, it’s easy to let this just wash over you – but make sure you hold on tightly to that dog lead, right?

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Live Review: Snapped Ankles at The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge 12 October 2019

Words: Andy Hughes

As I tried my hardest to drown out the din of pissed up Saturday evening commuters on the train up from Manchester, my mind was cast back to Sauna Youth supporting Protomartyr at The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge. Their on stage shrubbery game was at maximum , the stage lit up very much like the cover of their latest album ‘Deaths‘, with plants big and small surrounding the band. As I was off to see Snapped Ankles in the very same venue – a band who originally came to our attention because they actually dress up as trees – I was intrigued as to what foliage might be used as set decoration.

As it happens, Sauna Youth won this one. Saturday night instead saw Snapped Ankles slightly more stripped back (the bassist topless even, revealing he’s not a tree at all!) The band did however wear all their shrubbery on their heads, arriving on stage with it dreadlock-esque – the drummer having it fetchingly tied up in pigtails. Even Adelle Stripe – who’d been DJ’ing before their arrival – had her head encased in shrubbery.

“We’re gonna play some logs.” Came the opening announcement – completely normal – with sticks seemingly handed out as the front row clicked and clacked away at the log (mic stand) that had been placed in front of the stage by the vocalist.

Thumping immediately from the off, once it kicked in and the drummer started giving it some welly, the floor felt like a bouncy castle – something we’d soon get used to as the room did not stop bouncing from that point forward. The vocalist was out dancing up front with the audience, something he’d end up doing continuously throughout the evening, soon moving back on stage and directing traffic with a drumstick. The manic ‘Tailpipe‘, from this year’s ‘Stunning Luxury‘, sees someone bounce up to the front dressed head to toe in the old Snapped Ankles gear, joining the throng as the whole front of the room came unglued for the manic conclusion.

“Everyone does yoga in Hebden Bridge.” Observed the frontman (quite correctly I’d imagine). To his right, the button presser/keys player is a sight with antlers atop his head, glowing red via a headlamp accessory. He whips out a cowbell and clonks away for ‘Pestisound (Moving Out)‘. Just before it kicked in, another tree person barged past me and made their way on stage to join in on percussion (later mindlessly drumming on their own head). Following all this, the drummer got a thumbs up from the bassist at its rapid conclusion

On the raging ‘Letter from Hampi Mountain‘, the mic stand log is placed out near our position, stationed atop a table for an unwilling punter to attack with a stick. Whilst all this is going on, everyone on stage batters whatever their chosen instrument may be, the crowd up front moving about and glistening under the lights. A proper 70’s doom effort brings up hypnotising single ‘Rechargeable‘. The vocalist talks of conserving energy (in the woodlands and in our imagination), the song soon ramping up notch after notch as a buzz built amongst the crowd and it tipped over into near euphoria.

As we experienced earlier this year at BBC Radio 6 Music Festival, there comes a time when the room must be measured – a task undertaken by the vocalist and his giant tape measure as he disappeared into the crowd. Later on he gets everyone in the room to sit down (helped on by the tree person roaming the crowd). A bloke prematurely stands up and is soon summoned back down. When it kicked back in, everyone jumped to their feet and the room returned back to excitement central.

As I sadly had to leave prematurely to catch the last train, I was made to feel even better as I overheard someone behind also leaving in a hurry suggesting they’ve become “one of those dickheads who leaves early“…

(Photo Credit: Mark Bowers)

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Album Review: Lunch Lady – Angel

Words: Patrick Glen

There is a track on a compilation that I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to google it, the song was by Pressler-Morgan One Plus One and the opening line is ‘I met Jean today’. It’s one of those rare and fetishized 7” records that seems about as likely to exist in reality as much as a fictional novel in a Borges short story. (Fuck, I couldn’t have written that when I wrote for Loud & Quiet, thanks Editor Andy.) Lunch Lady’s singer, Rachel Birke, sounds like my memory of the forgotten singer of Pressler-Morgan One Plus One with the added breathiness of Lydia Lunch (when singing rather than talking/shouting). The other Lunch lady, Birke, is more proficient in the conventional sense, but the feeling evoked and lyrical content is similarly arresting. How amazing? A contemporary album that expands, at least in the musical imagination of one listener, a long-lost and much-loved song into a (really good) contemporary album. The magic and mystery of music…

It’s another album from Upset the Rhythm that is sicker than a dog that ate a king-sized Dairy Milk bar; who’d have expected any less from the folks who pressed up Sauna Youth, Vital Idles, Constant Mongrel, Rattle, Terry and – with an assist from Goner – NOTS? Now they bring an offering from the L.A. DIY scene to our attention.

Juan Velasquez (guitar), Victor Herrera (bass) and Robert Wolfe (drums), back up Birke with tones, rhythms and textures that would not be out of place in the 1980s post-punk canon. However, they do so – and explain this themselves in a very handy press release – while exploring ideas of kitsch. This is clearly a creatively fertile approach that prevents the album veering into the po-faced seriousness that can afflict the sub-genre without getting daft. The feel of the album is generally detached and vague. Half-remembered and not quite explained memories sit alongside slightly saturated overdriven guitars. The guitars are frequently dialled back from fuzzy chords into chorus-laden arpeggios – recorded in a warmer way than the Killing Joke or Cure variety. It had an L.A.-ness like that Hockney painting of the fella jumping into a swimming pool. It is commercial but clever and inviting, healthy but tasty.

‘Angel’ and ‘Sweet One’ start the album with the classic post-punk meets power pop chug and chime. Birke ‘saw you and you were smiling.’ They take you through perfect slices of mid-1980s MTV-ready post-punk (I guess what the Americans would sometimes call New Wave due to its distance from the experimental aspect of post-punk) with beefy drums, wet chorus (or some similar modulation effect) on guitar, slight licks of synth and bass in the Steve Hanley tradition. ‘Sweet One’ has the melody of a song that, in a perfect world, would not just be a hit but would dominate the radio – particularly when the fuzzy oscillating outro kicks in to keep those listeners straining when some radio DJ rudely interrupts. ‘Window’ repeats the trick. There, Velsaquez’s guitar flickers around Birke’s considered phrasing. She creeps into a near falsetto until, at the end, it buzzes out into a fug of delay/digital feedback fuzz.

‘My Dead Dog’ and ‘Pardon Me Miss’ don’t deviate too far from the formula but by this point of the album that is by-the-by. You’re invested in listening to someone who is trying to wrestle with ambiguous situations without revealing or resolving much. It’s a pretty novelistic trick and placing it within the context of breezy, summery post-punk it is really subversive. If we’re going to continue with Latin American literary references from the first paragraph, the trick a little reminiscent of Roberto Bolaño writing. In the song ‘Dolores’ the line ‘they saw him killing in a heartbeat’, the internal monologue recorded in ‘Preacher Man’, and the fear of male company (and the suggestion of abuse) in ‘Young Bride’, if transplanted the four or five-hundred miles from L.A. to the Sonoran Desert (perhaps in the burning pink Cadillac on the album cover), could be asides from ‘2666′. All longing and death. A woman’s perspective against male power and violence. These themes, resolutely feminist and real in spite of the claims to kitsch, are sensitively backed up and unpretentiously embellished by the music.

‘Deeper Variation‘ and ‘Deeper’ rounds the back end of the album off with a statement of bored desire. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but as they say in L.A., ‘yeah, well that’s just your opinion, man.’ (If the band read this, sorry, I hate it when idiots make clichéd pop cultural references about Manchester and now I’ve clocked up two.) WHY NOT HAVE A LISTEN AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF?

(Photo Credit: Dan Monick)

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What’s On Michael Portillo’s iPod: Upset The Rhythm 15th Anniversary Special!

Here at Birthday Cake For Breakfast, we like to get to the heart of what an artist is all about. We feel the music they listen to is just as important as the music they make.

In the past, we’ve had the likes of Sweet Baboo and SHOPPING in the hot seat talking inspirations, but for this edition we’ve reached out to the folks at one of our favourite indies – LDN label UPSET THE RHYTHM – who are celebrating their 15th Birthday this month! To coincide with this big-boy birthday, they’ve had a week’s worth of shows up and down the country, culminating in two big shows this weekend in Salford and Cardiff! Details of these can be found here.

Across these shows they’ve been showcasing their diverse roster, so we got to thinking – what’ve been their favourite releases from these artists over the years? Label man Chris was happy to tell us!

Words: Andy Hughes

DOG CHOCOLATE – ‘Tesco Flag’ (Moody Balloon Baby, 2018)

“A timely anthem questioning notions of national identity done that classic Dog Chocolate way with humour and waywardly wonky panache. Every Dog Chocolate song is saturated with the concerns of life on ‘planet what’s next?’ and their wry take on this really marks them out, thoughtful, considered and often important insights hidden within some of the truly most laugh-out-loud dollops of song imaginable.”

ROBERT SOTELO – ‘Brother You’re Complicated’ (Cusp, 2017)

“Andrew Doig is a genius when it comes to abstracting songs into new dimensions, his arrangements for rock group, brass/woodwind trio and electronics are as welcoming and diverse as his take on everyday existence. I just love this song, I listen to it on repeat all the time, it’s so simple and catchy and true in sentiment, which is a lot harder to do than it seems. Serene pop of the highest calibre from one of the UK’s real-deal, next level auteurs of sound and sensibility. So excited for his next record this summer too, ‘Infinite Sprawling’, his cat Raspberry is also a legend! The company they keep!”

RATTLE – ‘Disco’ (Sequence, 2018)

“Rattle are a duo from Nottingham, Katy and Tez, seeing how they’ve developed their practice over the last few years has been one of the most rewarding and inspiring things to witness, they are masters of the low and highs, percussion turned into landscape, turned into impulse. ‘Disco’ is a great example of how they’ve pushed their approach of duelling drums and vocalisations into vast vistas of experimental dance sensation and primal lift. Total Euphorics, tension and release. Quite simply they make music that’s unique and celebratory of intuition, just magic music / music magic. Also, here’s a special shout out to Mark Spivey, what a wizard of the dub delay, a third member for the third eye even.”

TRASH KIT – ‘Medicine’ (Confidence, 2014)

“Trash Kit make me proud to be a record label, to get to work with these three, deeply creative and endlessly awesome individuals is the stuff of dreams. With each record they bound into the future with all the charm and musicality of their debut record intact. Now the focus for them has edged towards a perfect construct of the personal politic and the profound, quiet, almost unnoticed observations that we all make through each day without realising their true significance. ‘Medicine’ marks a magnificent turning point for them, as the band started to tangle with longer-form songwriting and stretched the fabric of their compositions into smart new shapes, they began to run away with refrains and unlocked the dancefoor. Everything Trash Kit do is astounding to me and forthcoming record ‘Horizon’ is no exception, look out for that in July!”

SAUNA YOUTH – ‘The Bridge’ (Distractions, 2015)

“Sauna Youth are modernist punks from London, book-smart heroes of the underground in all its varied multitude of forms. ‘The Bridge’ is one of my favourite tracks we’ve ever worked on and the video is a remarkable distillation of everything they excel in. A clever, pointed, abstract and ultimately natural expression of the human experience. They bring it live like a comet soaring through the stratosphere, the room crackles with energy, it makes you come alive, become, truly connect.”

GUTTERSNIPE – ‘Loaded From Vector Trap’ (My Mother The Vent, 2018)

“Put simply, Guttersnipe rip a hole in the very reality of time, space and sound. I could have chosen any song by the Leeds duo as they all 100% deliver you into their chasm of chaotic splendour. Seeing them embraced by a world often wary of the word WEIRD makes me feel like there’s a new hope for the multiverse. Turn it up, flip out, step through the portal, magnify and disintegrate.”

VITAL IDLES – ‘Careful Extracts’ (S/T, 2019)

“Careful Extracts is what great music really should be, it occupies, confounds, surprises and opens you up to dimensions previously un-wondered at. I think Vital Idles are one of the most essential bands out there, they speak into thought process, they deconstruct the very nature of song. The music reigns/rains hard, Jess’ lyrics are nothing short of stunning muses on the poetic verse of now. Consciousness spills from this song, beyond excellent, excelling.”

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Hey, have you heard about…Vital Idles

(Photo Credit: Edwin Stevens)

Whilst you might think you gain cool points from catching a band just as they’ve put out their initial demo or limited run cassette, the real musos start paying attention well after the release of the debut LP. Or rather that’s what i’ve been telling myself, having only just discovered Glaswegian outfit Vital Idles.

Their brand new EP, out this week on Upset The Rhythm – An LDN label we’ve become quite fond of these past 12 months – follows a sold out debut 7”, two self-released demos and last year’s ‘Left Hand‘ LP. In and out in just under 10 minutes, it’s very much an attention grabber from the off.

‘Careful Extracts‘ brings to mind the racier, fast-paced moments of their Aussie label-mates Terry, whilst opener ‘Break A’ captivates with its building tension and striking yelps from vocalist Jessica Higgins.

MANCS – Catch them up this way at The White Hotel in Salford for the Upset The Rhythm birthday party to celebrate 15 years in business. They’ll be joined by the likes of Sauna Youth, Dog Chocolate and Trash Kit – tickets here!

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to go and search through their back catalogue…

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Top 50 of 2K18… End of Year – #20 – 11: From Ought to D.U.D.S.

Following on from our Top 50 list released earlier this year, we’ve had our thinking caps on and put together another 50 favourites that have had us hooked for the remainder of 2018!

Don’t be daft – Keep an eye on our lists to come and make sure you don’t miss out on some of the year’s biggest bangers!

Full list here and a handy Spotify Playlist can be found here!

Words: Andy Hughes

Ought – ‘Disgraced In America’
(Room Inside The World, Merge Records)

One of our favourite discoveries towards the end of the year, ‘Room Inside The World’ has been on regular rotation over the past month. Love the line of “I was like a dentist, rooting for pain” from the peculiar accented vocalist Tim Darcy. Fully on board with their enticing yet curious sound.

Viagra Boys – ‘Down In The Basement’
(Street Worms, Year0001)

Wild and unhinged dirt-punk, the opener from Viagra Boys’ debut album deals in secret shames and hidden sexual fancies. Sax blasts and danceable grooves flesh this out as frontman Sebastian Murphy seemingly loses his mind throughout.

Flasher – ‘Material’
(Constant Image, Domino)

Slick as you like post-punk from Washington, D.C. trio Flasher, they’ve got a knack for writing super infectious, euphoric, heart-throbbing bangers. The closing section of ‘Material’ shows this off with great success.

Sauna Youth – ‘Percentages’
(Deaths, Upset The Rhythm)

Hard as nails, in your face deadpan punk from LDN outfit Sauna Youth. In and out within a minute and a half, ‘Percentages’ packs a noisy wallop and does the trick of leaving you wanting more.

Sleaford Mods – ‘Flipside’
(Eton Alive, Extreme Eating)

Earlier in our ‘Top 50 of 2K18… End of Year’, we talked up previous Sleaford Mods single as having the ‘Sleaford Mods’ blueprint. In ‘Flipside’, it’s the other side of that blueprint, showcasing the passion from vocalist Williamson and highlight their knack of cracking on. The real star here is beatmaker Fearn, who’s played a blinder.

Oh Sees – ‘Sentient Oona’
(Smote Reverser, Castle Face Records)

It wouldn’t be one of our lists without JPD and the lads! Opener from their latest extravaganza ‘Smote Reverser’, the ridiculous ‘Sentient Oona’ is all hushed vocals and breathy passages one minute, before crunching, honking choruses make way for sirens and a ripper of a double-drumming crescendo.

Lewsberg – ‘Terrible’
(Lewsberg, Cargo Records Distribution)

Rotterdam represent! Lewsberg bring to mind American friends Parquet Courts and Television on this sun soaked wicked single from their debut S/T album. That scratchy guitar towards its close is perfect.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – ‘Talking Straight’
(Hope Downs, Sub Pop)

Our second favourite Aussie indie band across this list, from the opening lyrics to its heart-swelling chorus and ripper of a guitar solo, this BIG single from Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is forever raising hairs on the back of my neck. There’s something about this lot…

IDLES – Television
(Joy as an Act of Resistance, Partisan Records)

“If someone talked to you the way you do to you, I’d put their teeth through – Love yourself”.

Simple as that really, eh? You already know the rest… But you could read our interview with IDLES here!

D.U.D.S. – ‘Humour & Friction’
(Immediate, Opal Tapes)

One of the most exciting bands out of Manchester, D.U.D.S. followed up their Castle Face Records debut with ‘Immediate’ – more invigorating, inventive off the wall post-punk with lots of bite.

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Top 50 of 2K18… End of Year – #50 – 41: From Demob Happy to Sauna Youth

Following on from our Top 50 list released earlier this year, we’ve had our thinking caps on and put together another 50 favourites that have had us hooked for the remainder of 2018!

Don’t be daft – Keep an eye on our lists to come and make sure you don’t miss out on some of the year’s biggest bangers!

Words: Andy Hughes

Demob Happy – ‘Loosen It’
(Holy Doom, SO Recordings)

A proper sexy affair this – from their latest record ‘Holy Doom’, a comparison I once heard put it that they’re full on ‘Era Vulgaris’ Queens of the Stone Age, which I think gets you in the right frame of mind. Dirt riffs and a whopper of a chorus – The latter half of the year since its release has seen Demob Happy out on tour with that lad out of The White Stripes (!) and it’s 100% deserved. Massive fan.

Sleaford Mods – ‘Stick In A Five and Go’ 
(Sleaford Mods, Rough Trade)

Very much the Sleaford Mods blueprint (no bad thing), this packs stellar beats from Andrew Fearn (him behind the laptop) and a piss-funny, sing-song tale from vocalist Jason Williamson (him up front). Humorous little tale about Twitter beefs (with someone he doesn’t know – from Leeds) and confrontations thereafter – in disguise as a postman.

International Teachers Of Pop – ‘Age of the Train’

 

Debut single from new (self-described) ‘Nerd Disco’ project, featuring Adrian Flanagan + Dean Honer (The Moonlandingz, Eccentronic Research Council) and Leonore Wheatley (Whyte Horses), which brings to mind than Indian ‘Thriller’ knockoff from the 80’s in terms of that hard hitting, punchy beat.

Bas Jan – ‘Instant Nostalgia’ 
(Instant Nostalgia EP, Lost Map)

Love the quirks of Bas Jan – Offbeat pop coupled with the captivating and often anxious vocal of multi-instrumentalist and composer Serafina Steer, seemingly mostly off the cuff and improvised. Elsewhere the EP humorously deals in the horrors of acceptance through social media in ‘Profile Picture’, which is well worth a listen.

Ty Segall – ‘I’m A Man’ 
(Fudge Sandwich, In the Red Records)

Trust Ty to never, ever stop. One of his many releases this year, this time he’s got an LP full of covers but boy – doesn’t he just make them his own? The first single from ‘Fudge Sandwich’ is a ripping cover of The Spencer Davis Group staple ‘I’m A Man’. Groovy as you like.

Terry – ‘Carpe Diem’ 
(I’m Terry, Upset The Rhythm)

‘C’est la vie, don’t I know it’

Described by our lass as having an intro that sounds like ‘the theme tune for a podcast’ (harsh), I had a minor obsession with this a few months back following a minor obsession with Australian comedy shows Dreamland and Kath & Kim. Oddball pop – C’est la vie, don’t I know it.

Black Midi – ‘Bmbmbm‘
(speedywunderground)

The talk of London town this year (at least that’s what we’ve heard from up here in the North), Black Midi have built up a bit of a reputation through word of mouth via blistering live shows. Their first single is this driving, head-fuck of a single with a frantic, gibberish vocal that makes you feel like you’re stuck in a toilet cubicle with someone off their nut. Big things expected.

Drahla – ‘Twelve Divisions of the Day’
(Captured Tracks)

Big year for Drahla, who’ve just signed to Brooklyn based tastemaker label Captured Tracks. ‘Twelve Divisions Of The Day’ follows a number of single releases they’ve had these past few years, bringing out more of their frantic, teetering on a knife-edge, post-punk sound.

TVAM – ‘Psychic Data’
(Psychic Data)

Local lad TVAM has been doing the rounds with many an End of Year list on debut LP ‘Psychic Data’ and it’s the title track from said album that gripped us when putting this list together. With a little help in the mixing department from Dean Honer (The Moonlandingz, Eccentronic Research Council), the opener from his impressive debut is a throbbing, shoegaze-y thrill.

Sauna Youth – ‘Unreal City’ 
(Deaths, Upset The Rhythm)

Two minutes of riveting, head-nodding punk from cucumber cool LDN quartet Sauna Youth. From their latest record ‘Deaths’, the last in a trilogy of albums, the dual deadpan vocals really hit the spot.

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Album Review: Sauna Youth – Deaths

Review from Jay Stansfield

Straight in like a relentless spike into your brain, ‘Percentages’ has a pure, raw punk feel to it, mixed with Bananarama somehow. Banging guitars, a throbbing bass and it’s over in a flash. ‘Unreal City’ has a pinch of Devo about it, slapping Violent Femmes about with a distorted XTC Record. It’s simple, no nonsense driving guitar music with attitude and enough chord changes to keep it interesting. It leads into the Sonic Youth meets Bis track ‘Distracted’, which sounds like some hellish perspective of modern life with an ending of the ambience of someone typing on a keyboard.

‘In Flux’ is a real grinder, with its rock n roll thrusting, twiddly synth solos and crunching, distorted guitars. The drums drive along like a machine for less than two minutes and it’s over and onto ‘Problems’. In an alternative universe, this album would be hitting far and wide and with most of the tracks averaging around the two and a half minute mark, it’s a brief trip into the insane creative world of SAUNA YOUTH.

‘No Personal Space’ uses distortion to great effect and really mucks about with your ears. It’s hardcore listening. ‘The Patio’ sounds like the last track, but has a sparkly keyboard solo underneath a spoken monologue about some kind of murder in a garden. ‘Laura’ is like some futuristic fusion of early Blur, Groundhogs and The Ex, with strong London vocals chugging along over it all. ‘Swerve’ breaks the flow with some spoken poetry over what sounds like a gamelan and ‘Theatre 83’ ends the album with the almost 90’s sounding X-Ray Spex meets Rocket From The Crypt. It’s face mangling punk goodness, ending with a solo voice ahhing in a church somewhere.

Here we have an album, a band, who grind out hardcore punk tunes relentlessly until your brain explodes and your ears melt, but throw in little surprises along the way and aren’t afraid not to give a fuck about what you think. If you don’t jump around to this and smash up your living room while trying to drink a big bottle of White Lightning cider then you’re never gonna appreciate this album to its fullest. Get to a show and jump around with some people.

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