There’e an insistent and completely hypnotic twitch and neck snap to this track from Irish post-punk group Sprints. The tension is briefly alleviated with burst of distorted guitar before the declamatory vocal of Karla Chubb resumes her megaphone stance centre stage. Like New Zealand trio Wax Chattels, Sprints revel and excel in a mix of monolithic precision and sonic chaos theory and it works beautifully. … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Sprints – Drones
On the back of a wistful, Krautrock beginning, with a spoken word introduction, ‘001‘ swells and swerves into full view with a shoegaze surge. London duo Wings Of Desire blend the sound of early New Order with a noisier textures and a grand, widescreen melodic sound. A great anthemic, swinging-from-the-rafters, post-punk track. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Wings Of Desire – 001
The Aotearoa/New Zealand trio Wax Chattels release the final single from their new album Clot, out September 25 via Flying Nun and Captured Tracks. The vitriolic choruses of ‘Cede’ are in Amanda Cheng’s (bass/vocals) native language — Taiwanese Hokkien — and are an indignant confrontation about Cross-Strait relations and self-determination. Amanda Cheng on ‘Cede’ — “I am angry. Saying “you don’t know who I am” in Taiwanese Hokkien is to say “you don’t get to … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Wax Chattels – Cede
Melbourne band Sunny Disposition have that certain Australian indie rock of the 00s sound in their veins. That mix of jangly guitars, angular shapes on the fretboard, jerky, curious rhythm section explorations and a fine balance between raw emotion and intellectual musings in the lyrics and vocal delivery. ‘Rain On Your Parade‘ twists and sonically wrestles with itself quite wonderfully and brings to mind Antipodean … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Sunny Disposition – Rain On Your Parade
Synchronised guitar and vocal melodies are the winning tickets on this new track from Chateau Chateau out of Tucson, AZ. There’s an indie pop sound at play but with just enough melancholy and post-punk depth to the rhythm section to make it stand out above the plethora of other indie pop acts plying their trade in 2020. This song in particular sounds like a cross … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Chateau Chateau – I Saw Your Face
IDLES drop another single from their forthcoming new LP Ultra Mono – out Friday 25 September via Partisan Records/Liberator Music. Frontman Joe Talbot elaborates on the song’s meaning: “I hated growing up in a city that was really a town that was really a fishbowl. I left as soon as I could, only to realise the fishbowl didn’t exist…just the fish, and they’re everywhere.” The song is … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: IDLES – Model Village
Protomartyr Ultimate Success Today Domino Once more Protomartyr take the four elements of rock ’n’ roll – guitar bass drums and vocals, and twist, caress and mangle them into a new version of the band’s ever-evolving sound. On their fifth album that sound is more urgent, disillusioned and anxious amid the record’s dystopian assessment of modern America. There’s a desperate, pleading quality to singer Joe … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today
Sydney band Golden Fang announce the release of ‘Don’t Take Your God To Town’, the first single from their fourth studio album, Here. Now Here. (produced by Jay Whalley of Frenzal Rhomb), due out on August 7th, 2020. Golden Fang, a melodic guitar band that captures the joys and contradictions of life in Sydney’s Inner West, are an indie rock group in the truest sense – independently releasing their own unique blend … Continue reading NEWS: Golden Fang release the first single from their new album
Straight outta the gates come The Earnest Spears with four-to-the-floor drums, wired, frantic, distorted and heavily reverbed guitar that flails and hammers in equal amounts. The vocals are pretty much indeciperable but hey, it’s all about the energy and the post-hardcore, psych-punk riff and pummel on ‘Liar‘, the first of a run of singles the Worcester, UK group have got coming in 2020. Last year … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: The Earnest Spears – Liar
There’s a wonderfully deadpan, stylised quality to this new single from Oakland CA duo Abracadabra (duo Hannah Skelton and Chris Niles). It’s pure 80s synth pop – the good kind where robots and fashion were the future, Kraftwerk were kings and neon was a colour. There’s also a playfulness to the music of ‘Dirty Pan’, a day-glo utopian sound built on lush washes of keyboards such … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Abracadabra – Dirty Pan
IDLES have released ‘A Hymn’, a new single and accompanying video clip from their forthcoming new album Ultra Mono, set for release on 25 September 2020 on Partisan Records. The music video features the band driving with their parents through their hometown streets to the shops, providing a grey window into suburban English life that matches the song’s heavyhearted churn. Frontman Joe Talbot says of … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: IDLES – A Hymn
Sydney songwriter Buddy Glass (Bruno from Peabody) is back with a brand new single and video, his first since he released his self-titled solo album in 2014. ‘Wasted Habit’ comes from his forthcoming new album Wow & Flutter, due out September 4th on Glass Half Empty Records. ‘Wasted Habit’ is a hard-strummed acoustic and densely fuzzed out electric shakedown. There’s desperation and anxiety in the … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Buddy Glass – Wasted Habit
Doubtful Sounds 