Angus Rogers: “Here is our song, rock and roll music for the empty and stunning.
A song about contempt, appetite, impotence and self-preservation through gyration.
Enjoy superficially with your body and send the reeling mind on to hell! “
TUTV: Wham Bam! Yeah Yeah! Go Go! Oh my Oh My! Razzle Dazzle!
This is the kind of adrenalizing tunes I wait impatiently for every single day.
Tunes that put a big smile on my face, tunes that make all of my limbs go nuts,
tunes that go straight to my best-tracks-of-the-year list. Funky buzz, vocal fuzz.
Isaac Stroud-Allen (frontman): “It’s about power, corruption and how people
are happy to watch the world burn if they’re the ones sitting on a rooftop bar sipping
on a Sex On The Beach.”
TUTV: Believe the hype. These young wolves bulldoze their way through the daily
bullshit we have to endure with a knife between their teeth. Sippy Cup is a bruising,
full of vim and vigor uppercut hitting where it hurts. If this is your first time that you
hear these rabble-rousers, you’ll be gobsmacked. Bring it on, rascals.
TUTV: One of the 5 astronomical sledgehammers of their brand-new
debut EP Alter Ego. Love Machine takes you on a hair-rising rollercoaster.
Awesome vocalist, awesome band, asewome tune.
Band: PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS Who: The dumbfounding psych-prog rockers from
down under, who started their odyssey in 2014.
Last May they launched their volcanic 7th full-length, titled Carpe Diem, Moonman and only 2 days ago they dropped
album #8, named Pogo Rodeo.
There’s definitely something in the Australian air that makes bands over there very productive. Yes, as you may or may not know, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are
also from down under.
TUTV: We know for a long time that the sharp-mouthed mods are an unstoppable
groove engine, and this one is another pulsating one. Wowza. Fucking-A. Let’s see
if you can catch up with this speedy hip-shaking trigger.
TUTV: Picture this. Aggressive guitars rage like chainsaws around a nasty mid-tempo groove, juiced-up by sinewy drum hits and when the clamorous chorus kicks in the
vocalist bellows as if he can’t get out of his straitjacket. Oh yeah, you’ll love this horrific slice of hellraising post-punk mayhem.
They look and they operate like your new favorite Halloween band. Amps up, decibels
up, heat up. I wonder if this track isn’t a hidden one on one of Fugazi‘s detonating exploits.
An in-your-face debut. Bang-on.
Band: TEST PLAN Who: Indie noizz trio from London looking for the sweet spot between
dancing and moshing. They cultivate a ferocious blend of noise-rock,
dance-punk, and post-hardcore.
Track: GONE
The beginning of a brand-new chapter, according to the band.
It’s the first of a few singles from an EP out sometime next year.
TUTV: Hells bells. Test Plan grab you by the throat from the blaring intro and never
lose their suffocating grip. They come at you, full speed, with schizophrenic guitars,
an indefatigable drummer and a psychotic vocalist who screams his four lungs out
and tries to excommunicate his eerie demons.
No rest for the wicked. No emergency exit. We’re trapped, so let’s join these
maniacal mindfuckers in their attempt to make the Richter scale go ballistic.
Track: I THINK I’M IN LOVE
Single from their upcoming album
called ‘Evil Love‘.
TUTV: So these four Polish dropouts think they’re in love.
In love or not, I guess any reason is good for these riff-shooting
punk cowboys to run amok.
Their new cacophonous sucker-punch is a piercing piece of rambunctious racket motorized by raucous guitars, a brutal drummer and a weird frontman who looks
mental and sounds mental. Hell, bloody hell, yeah.
Get on your pogo-stick and pretend
you are a kangaroo on dope.
TUTV: Ashcroft does what he does best for years now, making your hair in the back of your neck stand up. This is another stadium anthem for thousands and thousands vocal cords to sing a long out loud.
Band: ARYEL MOON Who: Fresh Irish indie outfit, fronted by Italy-born musician Donatella Camedda, who have been building a reputation on Dublin’s live circuit.
Camedda: “It carries that mix of desire, anticipation, and adrenaline you feel
in the very first stage of falling for someone. That in-between space where you’re
caught between genuine connection and the rush of limerence.”
TUTV: Expect flamboyant indie power-pop, invigorated with reverberating guitars,
pummeling drumming and penetrating vocals, intense and intrepid, and a passional
chorus. One spin and you know we have a winner. In a normal world this should be
an indie hit. Trust me, you’ll fall in love with Aryel Moon.
Linda Pardee (vocalist/songwriter): “This song has morphed into a different meaning
than what was originally intended when written. The lyrics were initially about friendships, acquaintances, people coming into your life. Being part of a community. Finding your
people. Despite differences, we can or should be able to at least co-exist.
TUTV: TCC are no strangers to Turn Up The Volume. And their back again with
this new flashy rocker. Those jangly guitars, that vital, that feverish drive. Resonates
like R.E.M. are back and teamed up with Evan Dando‘s Lemonheads. No I don’t have a
hangover whatsoever. Listen closely and your ears will experience what I experience(d).
All you shiny people out there, come on feel the Dando vibe.
Track: WHAT IF
Piece from her upcoming 3rd full-length, called A Rupture A Canyon A Birth, out October 17th.
The song is inspired by the moment that a semi truck plowed into her broken-down tour van. Nobody in the Jane Inc. touring party was hurt in that accident, and they even played their scheduled show later that night. But everyone could’ve easily been killed, and that kind of near-death experience will do something to you. That’s the key to what if.
TUTV: Bumping EBM thrumming, shimmering synths, trippy piano touches,
and vocal outpouring. Donna Summer would like this stomper. Dress up
and hurry to the discotheque.
Band: BLURT Who: Experimental post-punk combo founded in 1979 in Stroud,
Gloucestershire (UK) by poet, saxophonist and puppeteer Ted Milton,
aged 82 now.
Milton grew up in Africa, Canada and Great Britain. He started his artistic career
with poetry publications. In the mid-1960s, he began performing as a puppeteer, participating in numerous international festivals and TV performances
With Blurt he recorded/released a dozen of albums
with Beneath Discordant Skies from 2015 as their
most recent one.
They’re back in town now with a brand
new track, titled THE MECCANO GIRAFFE.
TUTV: It grooves and moves along to a non-stop drum beat, a rollin’ bass
riff, trippy guitar lines, some saxy moments and Milton’s shivering voice.
Amy (vocalist): “The Brighton Scene is buzzing at the moment and it is thrilling to be playing alongside so many other great bands. Our single launch at the venue Alphabet in Brighton is part of a great new grassroots series of gigs from Spagetti promotions that showcases emerging bands from across the city”.
TUTV: Way to start! These Brits hit bullseye
right away with their chirpy debut single.
Its lazy indie pop vibes stick on the spot. Feathers is a tremendously catchy
feel-good lullaby, juiced with sparkling guitar solos, a bouncy drum/bass
tandem, and happy-go-lucky duet vocals upfront.
Band: THE GOODS Who: American power pop band blending big guitars, huge hooks,
and sweet British Invasion-style harmonies into a fresh, distinctive
sound. Formed by singer-songwriter Rob Good, a veteran of
the Oakland underground.
TUTV: Imagine nightingale legends The Byrds eight miles high, causing a jingle jangle
spectacle at an adrenalized speed, flavored with vivid vocals. Trust me, one spin and
you’ll be hooked.
Band: DIRT ROAD SOULS Who: Roots rock band who have a story tell, not per se their own,
and not entirely yours, either. It’s universal in its truth, but specific
in its intent.
Track: HOLD ON SOUL
Single from their upcoming album named ‘(The Life and Times of) Johnny Moonshine’, an ambitious 12-track concept album and roots rock opera set for release in early 2026.
Davis Black (vocalist/guitarist) “‘Hold On Soul’ was first written many years ago when
I had left my small town and gone off to start a life in Boston. After high school and college years I’d often return to my small town to recharge – and get drunk with my friends who didn’t leave town. These lyrics come from the culture shock between the two places. The stress of the city vs. the simplicity of the small town was very real for a little while.”
TUTV: Americana at its entertaining best. Groovy and cacthy melodiousness, heart-ans-soul stirring vocals/harmonies and glowing guitar electricity combine for a galvanic chant.
Jonny Woolnough (songwriter): “It’s a character appropriation offering a lens
into a couple’s day-to-day existence. A protagonist veering off the track is reminded
of his immaterial fortune. It celebrates life, existence, and endless possibility.”
TUTV: De-stressing fuel for daydreamers. Columba feels like an Indian summer
sun ray.
CHAT PILE the clamorous and out-of-their-minds sludge/metal creeps from Oklahoma
and Texas-born avant-garde musician, politician and performance artist HAYDEN PEDIGO have teamed up for a most surprising album. Talking about a bizarre collaboration.
Stereogum (and other mainstream music websites) had the opportunity
to listen to the record for a week now and they have this to say:
“In The Earth Again is a staggering achievement that makes sense within each artist’s discography, even as it stands out as an adventurous outlier for both acts. It’s a flavor combination on par with salted caramel or dipping fries in your Frosty, though the
outcome here is often more bitter than sweet.
I just heard the album 2 hours ago and I say: WTF. Don’t get fooled by the fact that Mike Meyers is pictured on the LP’s cover and that the record is released today, on Halloween. This is everything you wouldn’t have expected. It’s ACE!
Eternal legends QUEEN released their everlasting stroke of genius BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY on 31 October 1975, today 50 years ago.
The song parodies elements of opera with bombastic choruses, sarcastic recitative, and distorted Italian operatic phrases. Lyrical references include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo Galilei, Figaro, and Beelzebub, with cries of Bismillah.
Producer Roy Thomas Baker recalled years later: “It was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. [Laughs]. We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end.
It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more “Galileos” and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing. It started off as a ballad, but the end was heavy.”
Manchester legends OASIS released their biggest hit ever with WONDERWALL. More than 2,5 billion streams on Spotify!!). The
worldwide blockbuster was released today 30 years ago, on
30 October 1995.
It went to #2 in the UK, #1 in Canada, New-Zealand
the US Alternative Airplay Charts and top-10 in
several European countries.
Their 11th one. The first with new music since 2006. In between
the band released a couple of albums with covers of Dando‘s
favorite songs.
Press info: “It’s a record that sounds both fresh and familiar: rooted in the hallmarks
of The Lemonheads’ best work, yet expanded by years of lived experience
and new surroundings.”
Mojo Magazine says: “Love Chant might be described as scrappy, vulnerable and
heartfelt, but it is also loose, exuberant and animated in a manner that seems faithful
to who Dando is today.”
TUTV: Clean Dando has obviously refound his 90s appetite for creating
enthralling pop music and he eagerly wants it to share with us from the
get-go.
Dando has resurrected himself and his band gloriously. Now and then he touches turbulent memories from the past and does some soul-searching again, but you
can feel he’s truly happy, healthy and excited to be here in great artistic shape.
Not one dull moment. Mind you, it’s not a masterpiece, rather
a welcome reaffirmation of The Lemonheads‘ riveting pop
mastery.
Band: SPAMMERHEADS Who: Techno tandem
from Valencia, Spain.
Press Info: “The latest album by Spammerheads, was born from the difficult
experience of the floods that hit Valencia on October 29, 2024. During this time,
the duo lost part of their studio and actively participated in the cleanup efforts
in their city.
This was an experience filled with a mix of emotions—shock, helplessness, fury, resistance, solidarity, and resilience, among others that shaped what may be their
best work to date. Written as a chronicle, the album explores the personal and
collective states of people affected by tragedies or catastrophes.
TUTV: It sounds like if the Spanish electroclash duo decided to process last
year’s devastating floods drama in their hometown Valencia with new music.
Their intentions resulted in this new notable LP stuffed with eight titanic
techno thrills.
Eight 90s inspired trance tunes. Think Chem Bros, The Orb and The Prodigy.
Yes, EDM has become a timeless musical outlet genre that puts you in a
mind-bending trance, far away from the shambolic reality.
The pair’s Mire Chronicles have a hammering impact on their post-drama demons.
To hell with them. At the end of the traumatic tunnel there’s a Spammerheads light
that illuminates a healing future.
Artist: PREWN Who: The moniker of Massachusetts-born, LA-based chilling
singer-songwriter Izzy Hagerup. She released her debut album Through The Window in 2023.
Stereogum said:”System begins by oscillating between numbing ease of the modern
world and the fight-or-flight response that each new day in a world of crumbling institutions brings. But by the album’s end, Hagerup finds resolve in humanity.”
Hagerup: “I need to tap into my grief and sadness and stuff because it’s there. And when
you don’t live in it then you’re just numb. You can’t see the beauty and you are running from
the pain. It’s this Groundhog Day feeling. I feel that’s the antithesis to art, love, and connection, and giving a shit about the world.”
TUTV: Most songs are written from “twisted and sociopathic perspectives” during late-night bedroom sessions, says Hagerup. And you can feel what that did to System. Freaky at times, off-centre now and then, psychotic here and there.
The combination of creepy violins, ominous cello shadow play, and last but not least Hagerup‘s wailing voice dominate this record causing bone-chilling sensations. Her
laments evoke moments of uncomfortableness, but her grip is so overwhelming that
you just can’t get away of her sonic exorcism. Like watching a bloodcurdling thriller you can’t escape from without knowing the end of the story.
SINGLE
One of the best
of 2025 to my ears.
Masterly stroke.
Band: IT’S KARMA IT’S COOL Who: Psych pop rock outfit from Lincoln (UK),
led by singer-songwriter Jim Styring.
Album: ONE MILLION SUBURBAN SUNSETS
Their 4th, insipred by living in this modern world,
and what it means to be alive in the 21st century.
Louder Than War says: “From Lincoln, fourth album from a band who burst
the confines of the genre they are best known for. It’s Karma It’s Cool are now
a proper contemporary rock band in search of an audience who want big anthemic
tunes, stadium-sized angst that somehow lifts you out of a generational mid-life
crisis.”
Jim Styring (singer-songwriter) said to Louder Than War: “I always leave lyrics open to interpretation. It’s more important what the listener believes than what I had in mind when
I wrote them.
These so called ‘experts’ telling us that rock and roll is dead and buried. As long as we, as humans, have emotions, songwriters will continue to write, bands will continue to form, our music will continue to thrive. Basically, if you believe in something , don’t let anyone put you down.”
TUTV: The Brits have enriched their already psychedelic sound with early R.E.M.’s sinewy
jangliness and Michael Stipe‘s poignant vocality. It’s without a shadow of a doubt their most arresting opus so far. Frontman Jim Styring reflections on this turbulent and grim century are sign’s of the times.
It’s the end of the world, as we know it, but IKIC, and many of us, do not feel fine. But as long as impassioned and unequivocal records like this one are made there will always be a hopeful light shining at the end of the dark tunnel. It’s called cool karma.
Highlights: Crashability / 21st Century Meds / Serotonin /
Sidewalk Flowers / Paper Tigers / Swans
Press info: “The title and beating heart of Icelandic collective Of Monsters
And Men’s fourth album hits a lot closer to home than you’d expect. A tapestry
of stories, moments, and conversations, the album explores how love and pain
intertwine.”
AllMusic says: “Hitting on the highs and lows of life, the Icelandic quintet stick close to
their established sound: touching and tender indie folk anthems that play on earnestness
and innocence.”
TUTV: This is what melancholic, folk-inspired splendour is about. Galvanically
crafted songs that touch heart and soul. Rainbow-colored reveries about daily
life put to bewitching music with a leading role for beatific piano play amidst
enticing orchestrations and idyllically alternating and duet vocals.
Think Scottish romantics Belle & Sebastian. This is the kind of
gratifying records to cherish and embrace when your mind
wants/needs a break from the outside world.
TUTV: As an ardent Richard Ashcroft/The Verve fan a new RA full-length feels
like a conveted present a 10-year-old was waiting for. But (there’s always
a but) this one leaves me with mixed emotions.
Mind you, 5 tracks (Lover / Heavy News / I’m A Rebel / Crimson Fire ) out of the 10
are arresting tunes, but the other 5 miss the needed divertissement to make it a full commandable record. Lovin You‘ misses Ashcroft‘s epic touch and magical resonance.
No classics such as The Drugs Don’t Work, This Is How It Feels, Sonnet, Lucky Man or (of course) Bittersweet Symphony here.
Considering his illustrious work from the past, it’s hard to come up with first-class
material time and time again that achieves a similar heart-and-soul stirring glamourness. On the other hand, many singer-songwriters would have Lovin’ You on their résumé. And that says a lot about Ashcroft‘s unmistakable strength as a singer-songwriter.
TUTV: I always loved and embraced Eno‘s sonic ambient paintings, his chimerical and fanciful synth symphonies with its calming impact and starry-eyed radiance. Liminal is another opus I have added to my headphone music playlist for physical relaxation.
Again songstress Beautie Wolfe‘s angelic voice is so complementary with Eno‘s euphonic wanderings. Third collaboration in 5 months. Third invitation to ease your mind and ears in their phantasmagorial universe. A record to cherish in the coming months.
Who: the Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele‘s band for 30 years now,
is only one of the siblings’ diverse projects. They DJed the world around as 2manydjs,
had their own Radio Soulwax, and produced/remixed countless other artists.
TUTV: Soulwax excel here with a kaleidoscopic sonic amalgam that connects Kraftwerk‘s otherworldly euphoniousness and The Orb‘s ambient dynamics and at times Cabaret Voltaire‘s experimental capriciousness
The record’s arresting strength, to my ears, is it’s underlying poppiness. Half of
the album is stuffed with pop tunes, enwrapped in the bros’ electronic universe.
It’s not pure techno, not pure dance, not really EBM, rather a versatile, chameleon-like
kind of synth-layered album that sparkles and effervesces non-stop and they aren’t afraid
of tackling the powers that be, the systems that are after your soul.
The siblings got it right: “It’s a rock record without guitars”.
TUTV: When young punks play old skool punk you get bands like Upchuck. Their sharp-teethed tenacity, perseverance and hardihood bring 80s angry dogs Dead Kennedys and Black Flag to mind. The message is more important than the racket they all produce. As millions of Americans do, Upchuck also feel trapped by the tyrannical regime in the White House.
Their cathartic music helps them to ventilate all the shit they’re confronted with every single day. Ty Segall‘s production is spot on. I’m sure he took them to a filthy basement somewhere and created an out-of-tune sound that resonates exactly like these Atlanta bohos want to express themselves. Raw, rough, and real. The Upchuck revolution starts here.
It went #1 in most European countries and #3 in the US
AllMusic‘s editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said: “It’s U2’s return to the generous
spirit that flowed through their best ’80s records. A clever and craftsmanlike record,
filled with nifty twists in the arrangements, small sonic details, and colors.”
Turn Up The Volume: Along with ‘Achtung Baby‘ the Irish stadium rockers’
best work to mye ars. All killers, no fillers. They found what they were looking
for. Eat your heart out U2 haters and Bono mockers.
Sheffield‘s pop heroes PULP, fronted by voice/face/songwriter Jarvis Cocker,
who made a comeback this year with More, their first album in 24 years, scored
their biggest LP hit 30 years ago today, on 30 October 1995, with their 5th one Different Class.
It came out at the height of Britpop.
It topped the UK Charts and won
the prestigious Mercury Prize.
Pitchfork wrote: “On 1995’s Different Class, Pulp and Jarvis Cocker
were arty outsiders worming their way into the lives of ordinary folk,
and they became pop in its most democratically widespread sense.”
TUTV: Perfect pulp pop for common people like you and me.