intro.
Maybe it's because Aldi, and they are not alone, have already got half an aisle devoted to Christmas, that somehow it's beginning to feel a lot like, the high quality record releases have begun to slow down to be supplanted by, well, mass market material that will make for great gifts for dad and co. Wait, that's the demographic of most of our readers.... That it ain't even Halloween, that we ain't even headed out to even one Witchy-Disco yet, speaks so sadly of UK shopping culture. Lee Paul (2), Ancient Champion (4), LamontPaul (4), David O'Byrne (1), Alan Rider (9), Ogglypoogly (1)
singles.
by Ancient Champion
Is it okay to ask, can anyone make a record on their own any more? LIke seriously, I could have made this one by myself and that in so many respects makes it good. I mean, there's things of minimal concern happening here. And it in the Steve Gunn and John Truscinski restore your sense of wonder in the guitar and stuff. Superb. But yeah. Wondering why can't people just do shit on their own anymore.
by Alan Rider
Jesus on Extasy have a Marilyn Manson vibe going on here. Having taken a few years out, they decided to re-start operations just in time for pandemic lockdown to stop them in their tracks, so this is a delayed release. Cue the usual moaning about isolation, not being able to tour or record etc. We know, guys, we were all there as well! Band founder Dorian Deveraux is a miserable looking bloke too. Not someone to be stuck next to on a long trip then, but he and his band make a decent enough noise on this track, and Metropolis have pushed the boat out on the video, with a director, film crew, big cameras on tripods, set, lighting, people with clipboards, everything! Dorian is so proud of that, there is a lengthy 'behind the scenes' section at the end showing clever film folk doing their stuff with their clipboards and winking at the camera in that knowing way they always do. Aw, bless!
by Alan Rider
The Dear Boys are the brainchild of podcaster, author, former head honcho of Jamming magazine and Jamming Records, member of mid 80's pop/punk act Apocalypse, occasional contributor to Outsideleft, and all round busy person, Tony Fletcher, and writer and former Apocalypse bandmate Tony Page. As such, this double A side single (remember those?) is a polished affair, brimming with what still sounds like teenage vim and vigour (though these days the teenager is on the inside), shot through with a punky insouciance. ‘Gone Viral’ and ‘Scan Me’ reflect noisily on the state of the world we all inhabit, where we are slaves to technology and our phones, viruses threaten us both online and off, and AI looms as the next existential threat. Engineered to be a radio friendly 3 minutes apiece, this also comes as a physical CD(previous Dear Boys singles were released on old school 7’ vinyl,) , complete with a couple of extra tracks they describe as ‘Easter Eggs', despite Easter being some way off! I won't spoil the surprise, but lets just say you may well have read about one of the 'eggs' in Outsideleft before. On Bandcamp here
by Lee Paul
Ahead of heading over to see him next week in Wolverhampton along with Lzee I've been just reminding myself that Dizzee Rascal is truly a national treasure now. Whether he's still a musician I don't know. His streams are in the billions. Meanwhile Lzee, Lzee is the future I don't know anything, but only lazy thinkers don't know that.
ENDORSED
UNCLE DADDY - Blood (Dash The Henge)by Ogglypoogly
I wasn’t expecting anything this filthy to land in my inbox, after too many years of techno revivalism, this snarling debut from Uncle Daddy ( Nathan Saoudi, Richard Wilson and Joseph Pancucci) is a panacea for those ears, oh so weary of waiting for something to tingle it’s way down their spine. Arriving just as the nights are drawing in, the air turns cold and our dreams of dancing shift from the fields toward sweaty, grimy warehouses and basements, this synapse tickling symphony of breakbeats and eye wobbling bass pulls you in more efficiently than the pied Piper. Even the vocals that are blended into the mix with such subtlety they aren’t triggering my ‘god I wish the vocals didn’t exist they ruin the track’ response that has made me wish I could reverse engineer a very lot of tracks over the years. Go forth, listen, over and over and over to this, it’s just, gorgeous.
by Alan Rider
Although heralded as their first new material for 30 years from 80's Leeds post-punk pioneers RLYL ( everyone calls them that to save time) , this track came out originally 2004 on the 'Black Tracks' EP, although that was effectively a demo version. This sounds a whole lot better, thanks to a remix by the band’s bassist and producer, Simon ‘Ding’ Archer, who in the intervening period has formed part of The Fall, Pixies, PJ Harvey, and 1919. Although RLYL suspended operations in the mid 90s, members have always kept working with others, so this is more of a re-visit than a re-formation. This single is taken off the EP that shares the same name, featuring non-album tracks alongside new mixes of songs from the forthcoming album ' Strange Kind of Paradise' (due out February 2025, so we will keep an eye out for that). RLYL always felt like they didn't really fit comfortably into either Goth or post-punk/Indie, so fell somewhere inbetween and missed out on the cult status afforded to similar acts like The Psychedelic Furs. Listening back to this burst of energy, though, you can hear the lasting influence that they had, particularly on US post punk and the new album will be worth the wait. This is great.
by Alan Rider
To me, singer and solo artist Méa Fisher looks like a fantasy dominatrix, with all her writhing around in front of the mirror and on her chaise. The early 90s were awash with these sort of Goth fetish club dance tracks. The Torture Garden club used to put out compilations of near identical sounding tracks that this would have slotted seamlessly into. However, it is not the 90s, the Torture Garden is long gone, and therefore this feels very much like last weeks cold left over dinner. Add this to the enormous pile of songs talking about the Devil, who lost his shock value around the same time Hammer Horror studios wound up, and you haven't got a lot left. Call me a cynic, but when you see the same old stuff coming round over and again, it gets to you a bit.
by Lee Paul
Daryl Johns is apparently a charismatic of some sort. That cool because somehow he mesmerised a record label into issuing Happy, which has the distinct hastily arranged mid-season replacement theme tune vibe. And you can imaghine how much I love that. A lot.
ep's.
by Ancient Champion
OL's Tim London has written and is still writing I think, ("TRUST, BUT VERIFY "- RR) a series of hard-hitting noir—very, thrillers with a borderline, eponymous, lead-character, Smith. Background Noise #2 comes from the music to read the book by, an EP on Bandcamp called Smith. Soundtracks to books is an idea I like and would happily see applied to my Six Stories About Motoring Nowhere collection of stories. Probably more jaunty though, and less melodic than Timothy London provides for Smith here. He's the most accomplished writer and producer. He sees it as music to accompany reading, I use it as music for writing to. You might too. Ace.
long plays.
by Ancient Champion
Duo Falak is a project comprising of guitarist Denis Sorokin and percussionist Shohin Qurbon... Tira-Tira is a an effortlessly and thoughtfully sprawling live recording, guitars and drums, wending it's way, through one 30 minute track. It's ultimately mesmerising. Grab this thing from Bandcamp, the cover art is made from Pamir cloth. Each CD has its own unique flap of textile. Limited edition. Ships from Uzbekistan.
by Alan Rider
Alan Rider is enamoured it is fair to say, read a full review over here
by David O'Byrne
Harry Beckett was a Barbados born trumpet player active on the London Music scene for over 50 years until his death in 2010. Although primarily a jazz player his immense list of recording credits includes appearances on albums by Small Faces, Faces, Jack Bruce, David Sylvian, Eddy Grant, Charlie Watts, Robert Wyatt, and 13 albums by Jah Wobble as well as more obvious Jazz collaborators such as John Surman, Courtney Pine, Archie Shepp. An infrequent solo artist, "The Modern Sound of.." released in 2008 was his last album, and his only solo release by On-U-Sound, who have just re-issued it for the first time on 12" vinyl. It's a fitting swansong for a player whose recording career saw him adding his mellifluous tones to such a diverse range of music. Produced by Adrian Sherwood, the album sees Beckett improvising sparkling melodies over a selection of backing tracks that shift from free jazz through reggae to spaced out dub, even within the same track. Stand out numbers are the clearly Studio One inspired "Out of the Blue", and "The Forgotten Man" - which sounds like it could have been the theme music for long forgotten US cop show. At least until Sherwood gave it the On-U treatment.
by Alan Rider
Gazelle Twin seems determined to wring the most from last years 'Black Dog' album, first with a live EP, and now this seven track album, 'Shadow Dogs', comprising reworkings and reinterpretations of tracks from that album by luminaries such as Keeley Forsyth, Gary Numan, Mark Jenkin, Marta Salogni, Penelope Trappes, Sealionwoman and BEAK> (whose take on ‘Fear Keeps Us Alive’ we reviewed here). Opening with the Gary Numan's remix of the title track 'Black Dog', its a strong start, with Numan overlaying his vocals on top of hers, over a sonorous and throbbing beat that drives the track along. Each of the tracks that follows provides a genuinely different take on the original - the only reason for doing an album of re-mixes surely? Hence, Keeley Forsyth's treatment of 'Two Worlds' is a marked contrast to the opener, retaining the nightmarish quality of the original, but cranking it up a gear. BEAK>'s take on 'Fear Keeps Us Alive' opts for more of a dance beat, which sort of works, but can't mesmerise. Mark Jenkin goes completely the other way on 'Sweet Dream' which comes out as a distorted, radio static-y version, that has you checking your speaker leads for a broken connection. Sealionwoman pumps the vocals up loud on 'This House' Too loud actually. Balance is important. Thigs get back on track with the unsettling Marta Salogni's dissection of 'A Door Opens', before the album closes with Penelope Trappes masterful re-shaping of 'Author Of You', which imbues it with a hymn like quality, building in intensity until it evaporates like smoke. So, a mixed bag, some of which work better than others, with Numan's track being the clear stand out. Whether there will be more alternative versions of the album we will have to wait and see, but if you have to get one of the three 'Black Dog' aternatives on offer, I would still opt for the original, though this makes a worthy runner up.
by Alan Rider
This second album from Orgeon alternative metal act Warm Gadget (though the boundaries between alternative rock, metal, thrash, industrial and so on get ever more blurred) is a corker. There are a lot of acts competing for your attention in this genre, too many really, and most are not great, but Warm Gadget have managed to buck that trend by not distorting the fuck out of their vocals, and actually creating light and dark tones with tracks like 'With Bats'. Its a combination that works, allowing some subtlety into the songs. That is usually painfully absent in any alt metal or genres whose name ends in '..core'. The understated use of cut ups and FX give a sense of space rather than the cloying claustrophobia other acts go for. This is where their experience of crafting film soundtracks pays off, as they are focussed on effect, not volume. Nice job, boys!
so, have you got anything else.
by LamontPaul
Still in the Handsworth Wellbeing Centre waiting area and this comes on. Ten now. Ten years of loving this band. Loving the LP this is from (Nervous Like Me). Why do they go and leave me? As Cateyana did in 2019. Gotta get a real job I presume. Of course Hot Dad Calendar should win an award every week for greatest song title. The intense electric guitars make it and Augusta Koch's could almost be Frances Quinlan's kid sister when she gets mad... Oh it all says so, so very much to me. Play it again and again I say. Loud though.
by LamontPaul
I'm writing this review leaning against a radiator in the Handsworth Wellbeing Centre waiting area and it is making me wonder if this couldn't be louder coming over the stereo. Massive groups of kids are streaming in for swimming lessons. The doors are propped open, like I am invisible. This music is red hot though. From the acclaimed 'African Scream Contest' series; Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo 70s... Gabo Brown knew what he was doing. It's all on Bandcamp check it over there.
by Alan Rider
This excerpt from a multimedia concert in 1994 in Paris, Elysée-Montmartre by French artist and musician, Philippe Laurent, illustrates perfectly the marriage between music and technology. Through the VR headset Phillippe could see and, I think, control the two virtual guitarists, digital images created by artist Farrah Diod. The audience watched them on a screen. This from a time when technological advance in the arts was something to embrace, rather than fear.
by Ancient Champion
I am not even sure whether we have seen this here before. But beautiful it is and essential listening. Alias seems to have lef the tv on, on the permanent spaghetti western channel, got his pal Rico over with the old trombone and hung a mic out of the window, to catch the kids choir rehearsing in the school hall next door... + a little light dub. OMG What is not to love?
by LamontPaul
Been getting some dance practice in for a trip to see national treasure, Dizzee Rascal in Wolvo next week. Where's a better place to begin than with LG (Team Genius)? I Got That Juice is pretty irresistible. From the 'I Mean Business' EP that came out a couple of years ago—the EP's title track is wild and astonishing too. Meanwhile, I Got That Juice, has all samples in all the right spots. Relentless bitg beat two step fun. “At the age of 12 my mother bought me Protools’ Digi Design Box and a [Apple] G5 tower so I could record my own songs. At the point I realized music was what I wanted to do in life. I would record sometimes 8 songs a day.” Rapping at 4, ProTools at 12, this is what she has ended up doing with it. Wow! Philadelphia's finest.
by LamontPaul
On becoming the Writer in Residence for Handsworth Wellbeing Centre... Waitress is from Hop Along's immensely huge Painted Shut LP, and expertly interrogates that moment that feels like this is the moment that is going to be right up there with the most embarrassing moment you have ever lived. I lived this one more than once...
by Alan Rider
There was a time (1986 to be precise) where every other band seemed to be a Goth band. Some rose to the top of the pile, most did not. Authors of the recent rash of Goth history books have forgotten the majority of them, preferring to focus on featuring better known names that will sell the book, or making unlikely claims that clearly non Goth bands like Joy Division, Killing Joke, and Crass were Goths really, honest Guv! They weren't of course. Passion of Ice were, but no one remembers them, as they only played a handful of gigs, pushed out a few demo cassettes, appeared in the odd fanzine, and released this split 7" single with another, equally forgotten band, Four Came Home. At one point I actually had discussions with them myself about doing a split single with my synth Goth band Dance Naked, but they split themselves before that ever happened. Musically, they were largely unremarkable Death Cult/Ritual copyists, so its not surprising they haven't made it onto misty eyed nostalgia re-issues yet, but after this, who knows?
Essential Info
Main image Harry Beckett from Wikimedia
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