Sonic vibes that thrill us in a way we want to scream out loud…
13 February 2018
Canadian singer/songwriter DANIELLE DUVAL released her sophomore album ‘LOSE IT‘ last January. An ecstatic work of big electro-pop beats and catchy sing-along earworms. Exalting vibes that will stimulate you to jump out of your bed in the morning and to go for it with a big smile on your face. One of the rapturous tracks on the LP is ‘WHENEVER YOU WANT IT’. “It’s a song about no fear, being open, ready, and up for anything. The quest to find, cash in, and go for what or who you’re after. It’s a song about the recognition of love when it comes, and to go for it no holds barred, no reservations, no apologies” says the artist.
“Whenever You Want It’ feels like sonic caffeine. It’s uplifting, sexy,
euphoric and screams ‘just do it’. Watch/hear the delight right here…
AUTOBAHN – Kinky Star – Ghent, Belgium – 11 February 2018
I know it’s early in the year, but this rip-roaring post-punk fireball out of Leeds will, without a shadow of a doubt, end up way high in my end-of-the-year-2018 list of most impressive concerts. AUTOBAHN is a 5-headed unit formed back in 2015. They released their second, self-produced, mind-bending LP THE MORAL CROSSING last November. A dark colored and gloominess filled triumph, inspired here and there by ideas charismatic frontman Craig Johnson got after seeing the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra doing Beethoven’s Ninth. Regarding the band’s state of mind on the new record, Johnson stated earlier that “our negative episodes don’t last long. Actually, as a band, we’re more optimists. I don’t mind talking about stuff people don’t usually want to talk about: execution, rising from the dead, depression,
feeling utterly lost and unsure where to go.” Fascinating stuff, I hear you think. Absolutely! Something like this…
.
And live, this thunderous squad turns into a whizz-bang turbojet as they demonstrated brilliantly in my hometown Ghent yesterday. The decibels go up, the intensity goes up
and the pace goes up. In the middle there’s Craig Johson, with a natural born scary stare Liam Gallagher would pay hard cash for. The man bites blusteringly like a haunted man
who just escaped from reality’s horror. Like a boiling volcano that can explode any time while his ear-splitting complices provide the matching soundtrack. A vivid avalanche of hyperkinetic riff salvos and rambunctious drums/bass energy to pump it all up. You hear agitated echoes of early Joy Division paranoia (circa ‘Digital’: I feel it closing in / Day in / Day out ) and monumental goth flashes. No stops, no unnecessary blah-blah stories between two eruptions, no bullshit. Just forty rabid minutes of sonic neurism and hair-raising fury.
A trance-like Erlebnis created by a blazing British collective that loves to perform in Europe (5th time in Belgium) in order to escape the narrow-mindedness of the UK music business. Thanks for coming! Any time! This footage will give you an idea of their startling impact…
You can stream/purchase newest album THE MORAL CROSSING right here…
I can’t remember a band changing so drastically in sound after one album as Belgian
5-piece Tubelight does right now. As much I loved their debut albumHeliosphere, an eminent work of dazzling psychedelia pop, their brand new single PERFECT ROUTINE
hits new sonic territory that makes you long for the band’s future and not its past. Here’s
a totally different animal shaking things up tremendously as the late, great Mark E Smith did non-stop all his troubled life. What you get here are ramshackle guitar drones doing your poor head in, cracking garage drum beats pumping up your adrenalin and spitting sneers by frontman Lee Swinnen daring you to throw your widescreen televion through the bloody window. This is a wayward high-quality smack! Imagine The Velvet Underground on tons of acid instead of brain-killing heroin. The Fall is dead! Long Live Tubelight! Capture the nasty fever right here…
Here’s Australian/Iranian electronic duo VOWWS with a second taster titled ESSEFF
off their upcoming LP UNDER THE WORLD, out 2 March via Anti-Language Records.
The pair says the song is “like James Bond spy music updated for the modern world. We wanted to create a sound that felt like you were being chased by something scary, but enticing… like a tornado, or drugs. We embrace menacing intent in our music, but that’s not everything – even the bleakest shit has light in it… so we turn up the contrast and make both sides of
the coin shine.”
Turn Up The Volume says: here’s a mighty electro-glam drone that activates all muscles
in your body instantly, a sturdy hammer that has an immediate effect on your lustful senses. A powerful banger with a head-spinning impact while the accompanying clip emphasizes the scary undertone of this energetic discharge. Press the button right here…
Sonic havoc that thrills us in a way we want to scream out loud…
11 February 2018
The alternative music scene in my hometown Ghent, Belgium is just exploding the last few years. It feels like thousands among us are in a band. Not only to get free drinks, not only to seduce adoring company and not only to scream their heart out without being arrested. No, I’m talking about some really quality gangs that will mess up your head, your brain and the rest of your hungry body the way you like it 24/7. Like this loud 3-piece named SKISKA SKOOPER. I never heard of this high-voltage noiseniks until yesterday when they played one of Ghent‘s cool bars, called De Kleine Kunst (‘The Small Art‘ in English). These havoc junks delivered a smashing set that almost blew the roof of the place and with new single ‘PINK HARLOT’ they prove that their sonic ambition is to break the sound barrier on their upcoming debut album. Discover here why my head is still buzzing…
TRAMPOLENE – De Kleine Kunst, Ghent, Belgium – Friday, 9 February 218
Ladies en gents, all the way from Wales please welcome TRAMPOLENE…
A flamboyant bolide sounding like a new romantic Libertines generation, like a hungry
wolf with an unstoppable appetite for ROCK AND ROLL. A 3-headed turbo with a big human heart and an honest soul. A bang-up band with dreams so rich, producing
glowing crackers like this red-hot injection…
Frontman Jack Jones is the eye-catching dynamo who knows all the thrilling tricks to get the spectators involved, who visits almost every corner of the place, who constantly interacts with the euphoric crowd (singing along, word by word, from start to finish) while raising the excitement to a steamy hot sauna level. This is what party music, made by people for the people, is all about. A turbulent melting pot of rockin’ ecstasy with a high dose of all
for one atmosphere and many alcohol kisses. This is raw power, this is poetry in motion, this is it! And when Jack ask if today is Friday everybody knows that their firework punk version of that massive The Cure hit will follow. Talking about a smashing, sweaty night
out! In return I will finally forgive the Welsh football team for beating us, Belgians, back
in 2016 in the quarter-final of Euro 2016.
Picture this…
Catch if you can…
Bass love from Wales…
… and in the corner, the drummer…
A threesome…
A room with a view…
The light shone on Jack all night long…
One more very important thing. Last October the band released their debut album SWANSEA TO HORNSEY with a front cover photo of the band’s leader Jack Jones and
his sister as little kids having a laugh while Jack‘s already posing as a rock and roll star. Many record stores refused to sell the album because of the so-called ‘offensive‘ picture. The almighty Facebook imposed the band to delete the LP’s cover picture on their FB-account and even threatened to shut down the account completely. Here is what Turn Up The Volume’s thinks on the subject. One: if you find this totally innocent and
funny image offensive than you, yourself is the problem, not the image itself. Two: the photo is part of a musical project about youth, about life, about being human and all related emotions, not about what the offended people think it is. Three: why is it that soldiers of terroristic killers army IS are still chatting with each other via Facebook, why
is it that the porn industry still uses Facebook (and actually the whole of the internet) to
sell their highly degrading ‘gear’. Four: why is it that fascist orientated politicians may offend the people, every single day… etc. Conclusion: it’s a sad case of hypocrite perception and a violation of the right of freedom of speech…
GAUSS is a Belgian electro pop duo producing dreamy sonic waves for the late night
hours. Their brand debut new debut album BIOMETRICAL LOVE feels like a trance like symphony colored beautifully with enchanting singer Mati Le Dee‘s angelic voice – floating somewhere between Björk and Florence Welch – and Emile Sertyn“s electronic explorations. A relaxing experience for your mind’s imagination. A tribal trip that will elevate you to a higher level, to a place called phantasy. If you never heard of this vibrant Brussels based tandem I propose to start right here with the graceful beauty of the title track…
You can stream/purchase longplayer BIOMETRICAL LOVE on iTunes
L7, the all-female kick-ass turbine from sunny Los Angeles split at the end of the ’90s,
but returned in 2015 to work on the 2016 Trump-baiting hammer ‘Dispatch From Mar-A-Lago’. Now, after the recent released band’s documentary, the outspoken loudmouths
are back again and obviously on a loud and clear mission. I CAME BACK TO BITCH is a red-hot sledgehammer with massive guitars, bloody loud drums, lots of sneering and
raging, and a matching ‘fuck you’ clip…
Striking video’s that will impress your eyes and your ears…
9 February 2018
2018 is a key year for Belgium‘s daydreamers THE SPECTORS fronted by the utterly charismatic Marieke. At the end of next month the band will release their debut album titled somehow orgastically ‘OOH AAH AAH’. Until then you can go eight miles high with the first track/clip ‘BORDERLINE‘. Not easy to write a song about such a confusing and
soul harming mental disorder (I know, I’m very familiar with it), but the band deals with
it perfectly, even with a grin on this line ‘London is a bitch, the same shit is here to bite me
in the ass’ Sonically this shiny spark sounds like a multi-guitar layered pop rainbow that
will activate your ears, eyes and hungry mind. Powerful, melodic and sticky as glue. Enter The Spectors psychedelic phantasy right here…
Today Swiss 4-headed turbo ANNIE TAYLOR drops their brand new ripper ‘TEACH ME ROCK ‘N ROLL’. A steaming groove from start to finish, pushed by a mighty droning riff and a ferocious glam beat. Fueled with a vigorously incisive swagger and dead cool vocals all over it. Just imagine trash rock icons New York Dolls fronted by Joan Jett. Yes, indeed, no silly special effects nor arty farty bullshit. This cracker is about ROCK BLOODY HELL ROLL…
