The psych rock gunslingers from down under launced their 6th album, titled Fronzoli (meaning, ‘something unnecessary added as decoration’) on November 10.
Press photo
Jack McEwan (songwriter/frontman): “This record is my favourite creation
to date. Every nuance has been discussed, slandered and carefully contorted into place,
it sporadically colours outside the lines, so you’re left with these extraverted squiggles.”
TUTV: Uppercut after uppercut, corker after corker, jackhammer after jackhammer
(you get two breathers with amplified ballad Cpt. Gravity Mouse Welcome and the short acoustic beauty ‘Illusions of Grandeur’). Your ears need to be in great shape to absorb
this whirlwind record.
If PPC were animals they would be hungry wolves wandering in the deserts of Australia looking for prey. Their melting pot of glam metal, pithy punk, high-voltage pop and other noisy shout-outs results in an ecstatic body of infectious. Btw, am I the only one who thinks McEwan‘s voice resembles Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner one (now and then) and vice versa, of course. Top-tier opus.
The synth-pop musician/songwriter who started his career with Depeche Mode,
who he left after their 1981 debut album to form Yazoo (1981–1983, 2008-2011)
with grand voice Alison Moyet and later on he started Erasure with singer/songwriter Andy Bell.
TUTV: If you don’t pay attention to the author of this record when you’re listening
to it, there’s a great chance that you think that it’s another ambient Brian Eno album.
The relaxing ambient atmospheres Clarke creates (Cathedral / Passage / Imminent / Last Transmission) are similar to the ones Eno composes/composed (29 solo LPs, so far).
Clarke paints synth-scapes with an overall symphonic sonority, with both classical
(like the weeping violin play on The Lamentations Of Jeremiah) and futuristic-sounding structures (White Rabbit / Scarper). This is the sort of cosmic music that calms me down after a busy day. Its relaxing effect soothes my buzzing mind. Tranquillizing, instrumental (except for Blackleg which is infused with eerie chants) uncomplicatedness for dark winter nights.
Wonderful work.
Silent majesty.
Chill-out vibes.
Sonic ear-massage.
Former The Cure drummer Lol Tolhorst (64), Budgie (65), former Siouxsie
and the Banshees drummer and Siouxsie‘s husband, and Irish music producer Jacknife Lee all live in Los Angeles and as music junkies, they found each other
in the City of Angels and decided to give it a go together and fabricated
a rad longplayer.
TUTV: The trio invited big-name vocalists such as Bobby Gillespie and James Murphy
(LCD Soundsystem) and other stars such as The Edge (U2) and Mark Bowen (Idles) for
their first body of work. 13 tracks, 54 minutes.
If there was a jungle in Los Angeles this would be its soundtrack. Lots of primitive Budgie percussion (remember his album ‘A Bestiary Of with his then-wife Siouxsie Sioux, operating as The Creatures?) embedded in synth orchestrations creating dance-infused collages. Paranoid psychedelia for big cities. The flow of the tracklist isn’t as accurate as it could have been, but first impression after a couple of spins is one of let’s hit the drums
once again.
Supreme songsmith Joe Jackson released his 21st studio album a week ago.
A surprising one as the record celebrates Music Hall legend Max Champion
who is credited for writing all the songs.
Music Hall is a musical genre that started in the pubs and streets of London
in the mid-19th century and grew into the first form of mass entertainment to
be created by the working classes. By 1900 it regularly drew huge audiences from
across the whole spectrum of society, from prostitutes to princes, all singing along
with superstar performers in gorgeous theatres (some of which still survive). Like
its American cousin Vaudeville, Music Hall featured magicians, acrobats, and
ventriloquists – elements that we still see today in musical theatre and cabaret
shows.
One of the most fascinating of the Music Hall performers was Max Champion.
Little is known about him, except that he was born in London in 1882. He was
almost completely forgotten until the sheet music of his songs was found in Valletta, Malta, in 2014.
What A Racket! presents eleven of Max Champion’s songs for the first time
in more than a century with Jackson directing a 12-piece orchestra and singing
like a genuine Music Hall artist.
Title track with a great old footage video
Joe Jackson:: ‘These were wonderful songs in their time, but they’re
surprisingly modern, too. Sometimes it’s almost as if Max is speaking,
from his London of the early 20th century, directly to us in the early 21st’.
It’s showtime, folks.
Enjoy this glorious sonic spectacle.
At the age of 77, fabulous country queen Dolly Parton
is still working longer than from 9 to 5 per day.
In a recent interview, she said:“I would never retire. I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song on stage someday, hopefully one I’ve written.”
Her never-ending creativity and productivity is astonishing.
The living legend just launched her 49th (!) LP. Her first rock album.
Parton about the album: “I’m so excited to finally present my first Rock and Roll album.
I am very honored and privileged to have worked with some of the greatest iconic singers
and musicians of all time and to be able to sing all the iconic songs throughout the album
was a joy beyond measure. I hope everybody enjoys the album as much as I’ve enjoyed
putting it together!”
The longplayer contains no less than 30 songs and 20 covers, including collabs
with big names such as Miley Cyrus, Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting,
Chris Stapleton, Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, and many more.
I don’t own a Dolly album, I didn’t follow her career but as so many million people
I know her hits, and I do love her formidable voice – the heroine again on this record –
and her charismatic I do what I want attitude.
TUTV: Expect a tsunami of Molotov cocktails, punk-o-rama riffage, and yell-along
refrains spit out by primal screamer Pele. No rest for the wicked. Beware, this explosive record can damage your speakers. On the other hand, it’s the ideal soundtrack for banging your poor head against a wall of your choice and/or jumping up and down like a madman/woman.
“It’s their sophomore LP. Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Steve Christensen.
The 10 tracks discuss only two topics: swimming pools and shopping malls. Although
the themes initially appear whimsical or even trivial on the surface, Swimwear Department skilfully sculpts experiences laden with emotional depth and profundity.”
Learn more about the band, via this video.
TUTV: The summer is not over until it’s over. Enter Swimwear Department and their new jump-up-and-down pool party soundtrack. Expect bouncy, brisk, and bold stuff you can hip-and-hop to like a kangaroo on E. Think post-Devo-punk weirdness combined with rap-rant Beastie Boys lunacy translated in 10 instantly infectious tunes (except for coming down closer Memall). If you’re a punk surfer, this is your kind of stimulant to brave the waves.
They spice up all the excitement with schizo 70s-organ glow, non-stop pumping bass turbulence, steadfast drum hits, agitated guitar fragments and an expressive vocalist sneering a bit like The Fall‘s late legend Mark E. Smith used to do for a living. Frequently
all-together-now chants pop up, which you want to be a part of. Sounds like big fun, right? You betcha.
Nashville‘s inflammable garage rockers had some loud fun between 2004-2008,
vanished into oblivion afterward, but last year they couldn’t stop themselves from
coming back and starting to play an endless series of gigs ahead of their brand new
3rd LP, titled Mommy released last week.
TUTV: After 2 albums and 15 years (!) BYOP still have tons of vitality, pizzaz
and sinewy corkers to offer. Battle-axe frontwoman Pearl still has demons to
fight with, and I assure you, you don’t want to be one of them. 11 spunky cry-outs.
Combative, bad-tempered, sharp, raw and LOUD. They truly have a great mommy.
Dyer about the LP: “The aim became to create a collection of songs that paid homage
to our back catalogue and attempted to dissect not only the positive but the negative
elements of nostalgia, primarily the romanticisation of the past – be it the politics of
a country, the controversial legacies of film and musical icons or the sentimental
idealisation of long dead toxic relationships.”
TUTV: To be honest, I needed several spins to get into the new TUY album and in Craig Dyer‘s world. Of course, he’s the only one who knows exactly what happens in
his mind, in his soul and his heart. But as he said he looked back to times gone by.
Great/gratifying moments, bad/sad moments. I guess for so many of us, nostalgia
can be both depressing and heart-warming. Dyer opened the door to his past, that
evokes those mixed emotions.
His sombre vocals, the overall gloomy tone and slow, shadowy pace (except for Another Country that sounds like a splendid tribute to The Velvet Underground of the
music feels like he got lost in a labyrinth of uncomfortable memories most of the time leading to a spellbinding and bone-chilling opus. Melancholic poetry in motion. You can
file Nostalgia’s Glass next to Nick Cave‘s 2016 mourning masterpiece Skeleton Tree.
TUTV: After a series of stormy singles this turbulent Berlin-based released their debut LP this summer. A manic mixture of left/right punk uppercuts, garage glam swagger, and riot grrl dynamics, stoked up by roaring riffs, a frenetic bass/drum tandem and high-pitched vocals, think of Poly Sterene, Kathleen Hanna or Bonnie Bloomgarden. All limbs-activating ingredients you need for a bonkers moshpit.
This sizzling Scottish trio nailed it with their 3rd LP. Heavy Heavy is one of those remarkable records (one every 3 months or so) that arouses from start to finish, with the cliché no fillers, all killers all over it. You hear its sonic brilliance, you feel its dauntless vocality, you realise quickly that this LP is special, very special.
(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Antwerp 2023)
An undisputable first-class work where vitalizing soul, ecstatic pop melodiousness
and self-willed hip-hop come together in an organic way. A spiritual happening.
Funk-punk drunk virtuosity with astonishing vocal teamwork.
2. ‘First Tow Pages Of Frankenstein’ by THE NATIONAL
I second the multiple raving reviews for this brilliant album. It’s not the first time that troubled and depressed artists (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and others made a living out of it) come up with healing music.
Despite a temporary writer’s block and severe depression, Matt Berninger (aged 52)
found his way in his chaotic mind and came back to express the psychic fights with all of his demons in a most affecting manner. And his crooning voice, once more, is instrumental for The National‘s sound.
This Californian experimental act, founded in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart surprise every time they come up with new music. Also with Ignore Grief, already their
13th full length, XX impress mightily.
(Press photo)
Ignore Grief is not happy music, it’s grim reality music, it’s mind-absorbing music.
Inventive, capricious and ideal as the soundtrack for one of David Lynch‘s hallucinatory films. Although after a couple of spins, you’ll find out that Xiu Xiu‘s bone-chilling sonic exorcism is more accessible than you thought at first. Their orchestral manoeuvres in
the dark are flabbergasting.
With Shook this American/English outfit drew tons of critical praise. Rightly so.
It’s a tremendously varied work. They jump from zestful hip-rap-hop to forceful
post-punk-rock, to soulful lullabies, to arresting spoken-word protest, to sparkling
gospel. 54 minutes long, but you get sucked in every second. Wowzers!
5. ‘A Headlong Fall Into The Vast Ocean Of Anxiety’ by EYEMOUTH
Expect atmospheric synth-scapes for soundtracks of sci-fi movies, mellow Pink Floyd echoes, dark-electro-wave surrealism, and an overall synth-symphonic sonority.
All mesmerizingly orchestrated with both classical and venturesome music structures. Now and then composer Marcus Lilja‘s ghostly voice adds an extra mysterious touch to the instrumental grandeur at play. The power of nature in sonic motion.
Weird collaboration? No, certainly not. The very popular EBM/house/hip-hop/DJ Fred and the legendary ambient wizard Brian Eno complete each other here perfectly. They create a sonic labyrinth where Eno‘s hallucinatory ambient waves progress in slow motion, causing a trance trip in a foggy environment while Fred‘s phantasmal vocals seem to come from an unknown universe.
Secret Life is a hushed, soothing companion for late-night mind entertainment after
another busy day and too much noisy music. Relaxing, calming and triggering lazy dreaming.
The L.A. garage rock fury led by vocalist/guitarist/organist and natural-born
charismatic front-Amazon Bonnie Bloomgarden hit bullseye with their 5th LP.
(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Brussels, 2023)
Islands In The Sky is, without a shadow of a doubt, according to my trained ears, their best achievement (so far). When you combine pop/rock songwriting quality, richly layered orchestrations, Bloomgarden‘s full-hearted vocal dynamism and tons of tunes (if anything else tunes are key) wrapped up in party-igniting vibes, you have a winner. FACT!
The British glam and glitter popsmiths delivered
their best LP since hitting the scene back in 2014.
It’s their 4th one.
(Photo by Turn Up The Volume)
This album grew on me spin after spin. It’s still a mellow, laid-back, and familiar
resonating collection of tunes. But its sunlit spirit, its vivid vibe, and its melodies are so infectious. Let your thoughts ignore reality and drift away in your happy-go-lucky cocoon. Top-tier effort.
No pension yet for these veteran indies from New Jersey who started their journey
in 1984 and recorded/released 17 longplayers so far (new one included).
(Press photo)
They’re experts in creating uncomplicated, electrifying melodies and then giving them a psychedelic edge with distorted guitars. Different moods, different sonic tones. We all know that we live in a stupid world where political ‘me, myself, and I’ leaders use the 2000-year-old trick of divide and conquer. YLT know too, of course, and it inspired them (again)
to can another topmost record.
It’s the second longplayer from these 4 Belgian mavericks.
Both sonically and lyrically, you get a mood-swings record that evokes both eerie and profound emotions. Filibuster fabricate a melting pot of grunge (Nirvana), slacker rock (Dinosaur Jr.) and anything post-punk edged. You can rock out to it, take a breather now and then, and go quiet/loud all the way through. Overall an impassioned job well done.
THDV embed 60s psychedelia in a blistering mix of flaming garage rock mania,
swaggering mid-tempo grooves, an impressive, amplified slo-mo jam right in the middle and a stunning opener with horns snippets of Primal Scream‘s e-tastic classic Loaded.
Back In The Room is a hell of a must-hear-now record.
Weird collaboration? No, certainly not. The very popular EBM/house/hip-hop/DJ FRED
and legendary sound wizard ENO complete each other here on this surprising album. They create a sonic labyrinth where Eno‘s hallucinatory ambient waves progress in slow motion, causing a trance trip in a foggy environment and Fred‘s rare, ghostly vocals seem to come from a mysterious universe.
Secret Life is a hushed, soothing soundtrack for late-night mind entertainment after
another busy day and too much noisy music. Relaxing, calming and triggering lazy dreaming.
It’s the second longplayer by these 4 Belgian mavericks.
Both sonically and lyrically, you get a mood-swings record that evokes both eerie and profound emotions. Filibuster fabricate a melting pot of grunge (Nirvana), slacker rock
(Dinosaur Jr.) and anything post-punk edged. You can rock out to it, take a breather now and then, and go quiet/loud all the way through. Overall an impassioned tour de force.
Karl Strooban (frontman/songwriter): “It’s hard for us/me not to make music that’s
extremely personal. You tend to cut out the overly emotional bits during the writing process,
but somehow it just always turns out sentimental and angsty. Most of these songs were written during a tumultuous time in my/our personal life and while grieving a family member. So the title reflects this I guess. We don’t mean to say the quiet parts out loud, we just wanna have fun and rock out, you know, but we can’t really help it.”
Wanna know more? Read the full interview with Karl Strobanthere.
Who?“A trio of Edmonton, Canada-based musicians has built a sound that’s synonymous with the hardest-hitting country and rockabilly acts around with sound that stands on its own. Their sound fills dance floors with fans from age 8 to 80. Their thoughtful and hard-hitting songs are for people that believe that music should have a little dirt under its fingernails.”
Westernization is their 3rd album.
These motherrockers jump from hot-blooded blues jams to garage rock electricity, from peppery punk echoes to charged-country music in an eye/ear blink. And it’s good old riff-rotating rockabilly that glues all the frenetic havoc together. Confusionaires know all the tricks to activate you to get up, to stand up and to fight for your right to go apeshit.
Sounds fucktastic, right? You betcha.
By the way, these three desperadoes look (see band photo above) like the reincarnation of maddening noise maniacs Motörhead ready for that infamous digging-body-up scene in Maffia movie Goodfellas. Hell bloody hell yeah.
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. 4. ‘First Tow Pages Of Frankenstein’ by THE NATIONAL
Artwork: The cover features a photo of a young boy holding a mannequin’s head.
The photograph was taken by the boy’s father, John Solimine, an illustrator and longtime friend of vocalist Matt Berninger. They met as dishwashers in a Cincinnati restaurant.
I second the multiple raving reviews for this outstanding LP. It’s not the first
time that troubled and depressed artists (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and others experienced it too) come up with healing music. Despite a temporary writer’s block and severe depression, Matt Berninger (aged 52) found his way in his chaotic mind and came back to express the psychic fights with all of his demons in a most affecting manner. And his crooning voice, once more, is instrumental for The National‘s sound.
THDV embed 60s psychedelia in a blistering mix of flaming garage rock mania,
swaggering mid-tempo grooves, an impressive, amplified slo-mo jam right in the middle and a stunning opener with horns snippets of Primal Scream‘s e-tastic classic Loaded.
Overall I hear Beatles-like harmonies, multi-layered guitar extravaganza à la Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, steady drums/bass horsepower, sizzling six-string solos, psyched-out space steamrollers, 24 Karat riff-rushing rockers, some slow ones, and echoing vocals
from the eight miles high past. Final result: a hell of a must-hear record that I added to
my best-albums-of-2023 list. The Dharma Violets should be huge. FACT! Don’t miss them.
TUTV: Greg Dulli‘s pipes reach for the sky throughout this new standout LP. His unique rock voice is the unwearying motor of this heart-and-soul opus. And when the songs are of supreme quality, as all 10 terrific tunes here are, and your bustling band are on a raucous roll with the vitality of young wolves you end up with the undeniable best album of 2022.
2. ‘Cave World’ by VIAGRA BOYS (Stockholm, Sweden)
Turn Up The Volume: The more our world gets fucked-up the more inspiration Viagra Boys have to write absurd, hilarious, sarcastic, crazy, monkey-ish songs about
all the related mess, embedded in their by now familiar filthy punk and roll grooves.
Never a dull moment with punk rock loser Sebastian Murphy in the middle. And they
played the best gig to my ears/eyes a couple of weeks ago in Antwerp, Belgium.
Turn Up The Volume: After playing opener Clocks to the max, with its Blitzkrieg grinta, it feels like the band and I are already out of breath as you can hear on the post-explosion outro. I felt wrong, as several KO Killers (Ded Würst / The Warden / I Am Kate Moss and the JAWDROPPING missile closer No Thanks, I’m Full) follow and do your head in. Ditz is a mean manic post-punk machine. The first minutes of the slower pieces (Three / Instinct / Teeth) are misleading, halfway they explode like grenades. No rest for the wicked, no rest for Ditz, no rest for your ears.
Turn Up The Volume: Back in 2016 Crows blew my mind when they played a small club
gig in my hometown of Ghent, Belgium. A memorable one cemented in the aural side of my
brain. The immense intensity and their frenetic furiosity were no less than jaw-dropping. On Beware Believers, their high-powered passion is still intact and its sizzling sound evolved further into a mean Herculean rock machine.
Blistering hammer blows like Garden Of England, Slowly Separate, and Room 156 are already noted in my end-of-the-year list of best 2022 knockouts. And reflective reality checks like the Joy Division-esqueHealing, Moderation, Wild Eyed & and Loathsome, and the fucktastic Meanwhile have the sonic vehemence to burn holes in your stereo.
TUTV: Musically and lyrically, this 3rd LP is moony, mellow and pensive with frontman Grian Chatten becoming a modern-day crooner who touches sensitive hearts, especially Irish ones as this album is about their Irish past/present/future identity in and outside of their beloved country.
TUTV: Weirdly exciting and capriciously inventive. This new LP resonates like a Zappa-esque rock circus. A sundry potpourri of symphonic jazz-prog-rock twists and turns, building up/breaking down constructions, forth/back and vertical/horizontal saltations with head-spinning orchestrations. Welcome to Black Midi‘s hell.
. Turn Up The Volume wrote: Prepare your ears for brawny industrial bombast (No Yes More less / Veni Vidi Vici / Feed The Wound / Taranatula), nightmares in slow-motion (Limbo / Sugar My Pill / The Judas Chair), wham-bam-glam drones (Glitz Krieg / The Dark Room) and the fantastic slow-burning gospel chant of the title track. It’s all there to have yourself a merciless head-banging pig trip. File next to Rammstein’s new opus Zeit.
TUTV: The result of the collaboration of wordsmith and poetry lover Peter Doherty and French composer Frédéric Lo who wrote the music, is a sparkling thing of beauty. This is the record to play when you’re feeling lazy, and in the mood for doing just nothing but daydreaming while lying in a green field enjoying the sun. Expect romantic lullabies with violins, piano and smooth horns, sweet little pop ditties, and sepia-colored tunes that transfer you to a place far away from our cruel reality.
9. ‘All Of Us Flames’ by EZRA FURMAN (Chicago, US)
TUTV: Definitely her most complete accomplishment to date. Majestic songwriting quality. Top-level tunes in orchestration, arrangement and vocal emotiveness. Here and there songs’ structures and Furman‘s fragile voice (Train Comes Trough / Throne / Poor Girl A Long Way From Home) bring, yes, Tom Petty to mind. Un-Americana Americana splendor with an artist who’s slowly but surely finds her way as a human being on this frightful planet.
TUTV: Disco fuel for 24-Hour misfit parties in obscure nightclubs for SM fans, physically unsatisfied individuals looking for sexual healing, gangbang addicts, nudists, lost sex workers, manic David Lynch characters, neurotic Brexit victims, acid-house junks, erotic lovers, lobotomized politicians, trashmouth artists, Andy Weatherall junks and all other messed-up souls who hate reality and want to dance/party/fuck/hallucinate to stripped-down techno beats. E-tastic.
Turn Up The Volume: Check in on a Saturday Warmduscher Fever Night, ladies and gents, at the club called The Hotspot. Feel the sultry ambiance, have a couple of cocktails at the bar, dance to some banging boosters and some funky Sly Stone vibes, and go twitchin’ in the kitchen now and then.
Turn Up The Volume: JO-JO is the flamboyant Amazon in the middle. She sings the
blues with the vigorous vitality of eternal legend Janis Joplin (We’re Just Animals / Moon Child), she rocks her multi-colored tail off with the gusto of Grace Slick on a roll (My Babe / No More Good News / Don’t Get Too Heavy), she has the groovy guts and the glamorous looks of eccentric punkette Nina Hagen and to close the show she affects with a gripping candlelight reverie for the midnight hours (Oh Brother).
Mind you, she’s not alone. Her bang-on band The Teeth know all the 60s/80s/80s
rock ‘n’ blues ‘n’ glam ‘n’ punk ‘n’ roll classics. They back Jo-Jo with a mood-and-cadence fitting firework of Jimmy Page riffs, John Lee Hooker hooks and Slash licks. Retro injected electricity.
Turn Up The Volume: As I said several times before, Samara and Animal are
adventurous architects in sound and vision (watch the singles’ spectacular videos
below / also the artwork for their releases is always a reflection of vivid visual inventiveness).
On this new, bone-and-mind chilling, longplayer both high-tech DIY artists keep
on challenging sonic and thematic boundaries. It’s also the first time we hear poetry fanatic Samara sing instead of reciting her poetic chimeras, as on psychoanalytic
discharge Shaman and on doom-punk sledgehammer Human Sacrifice.
There are so many layers, so many different directions, so many pendulum movements and so many unexpected turns at play here that you need several spins to get a grip of their poetallica world fully. This record as well as their debut are voyages of discovery.
Turn Up The Volume said: Damon Albarn was the first name that popped up in my head when The Early Years impressed my ears on first hearing. At times I thought he was a guest singer on Vanwymeersch‘s debut longplayer, with his pondering voice and his musing songs . Check Drama I, Who Can Tell, I’m Wide Awake and you’ll find out why.
Vanwymeersh also, like Albarn, is a song architect. All lullabies, reveries, and tunes at
play here stick quickly. But with every listen you discover how rich and subtly layered the musical arrangements and feel-good orchestrations (hear that playful banjo sound on Part Of Me ) are. Then again he invites you into his sonic labyrinth where he goes left, right, and back in one and the same song (When You’re Old And Grey And Full Of Sleep / Fall From Grace).
15. ‘Carrion Repeating’ by JAMES DOMESTIC (Essex/Suffolk, UK)
TUTV: Domestic is a story-telling Cockney wordsmith, tackling politics, daily life shit, gobbling business sharks, and other related mess.
Musically anything is possible. Screechy guitars and 60s sounding Hammond organs to inflame tirades such as Itchy Itchy, Faze Out, Bean Counter and Push on Trough. Saxophone and steel drums straight from Trinidad on Mañana. Soulful female voices and Le Freak C’est Chic riffs on Never Enough. A reggae vibe with xylophone touches on Is Thay You?. Dub Jah Wobble bas on Weekend Carbs and Giblets. He just does what his ears like.
Turn Up The Volume:Dim Gray float in a universe where the poignancy and
starry-eyed melodrama of Sigur Rós and the spiritual vocality of day-and-night
dreamers Fleet Foxes become one. This heart-and-soul stirring trio reverberates
like a full orchestra. They’re cinematic pop architects working with a drone flying
up high like an eagle and showing us where the ocean meets the sky.
Symphonic pop splendour. Firmament is a shiny diamond of a record.
I really can’t say more about this multi-faceted record and its from lost soul to ‘fuck it, you only live once’ author does herself.
Koan: “This record sounds like I’m schizophrenic in a way coz there are so many mad emotions in the songs. They are all very real, which took some guts to vocalize but I’m proud that we managed to bring it all across in a raw and real way. It’s not as sexually charged as my first album.
This new album COCOON was written during the lockdown, so many emotions that were pent up inside had time and space to surface and they sure came out with a vengeance. Anger, procrastination, questions about the way we C/O-exist in this society, and some new relationship issues like jealousy, infidelity, breakups. So it’s a more grown up album with more grown up topics.”
Turn Up the Volume: A striking work of top-notch tunes, written by mastermind Scott Marsden, that get under your skin slowly but surely until you see/hear the whole picture and realize that this is one of the most gripping albums of 2022 in my book. And lots to learn about Wales’ history.
Turn Up The Volume: Liam says that he is happy with his rock formula. So nothing new? No, just a bunch of new songs from good to very good. As much as I love our kid I enjoy him the most when he’s a rock ‘n’ roll star on stage. That’s his habitat. That’s what he does best. Entertaining a crowd/choir of 50.000 in a green field. See you in Belgium in August, Liam, on a green field of course.
The greatest Belgian singer-songwriter ever past away this year. A passionate chansonnier, a blues man, a rocker, a goosebumps crooner, a charismatic personality, and a one-of-a-kind live performer. I saw him about a 100 times, mostly solo, but also with his fantastic band TC Matic and one-time side projects.
Opex is his final longplayer. Vocally you hear him suffer from that deadly
disease that killed him shortly after recording the LP. I miss him, really hard.
(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Brussels – 20 Feb 2023)
TUTV: Islands In The Sky feels like the perfect follow-up to Under The Spell Of Joy (2020), sonically as well as lyrically. On the latter Bonnie Bloomgarden wanted to experience the potential and possibility of joy. On the new LP, she’s still under the spell of looking and finding joy but also and most of all spiritual freedom as only then nothing can happen anymore to her as she reveals on the standout track When I’m Free.
Musically it’s simply their best achievement (so far) because of the coherent first-rate songwriting quality, the richly layered orchestrations, Bloomgarden‘s full-hearted vocal
dynamism and the top production. Not one dull moment with Death Valley Girls.
Jason Williamson: “Maybe we are proud of the country. Maybe we are proud to be English. Maybe I’m proud of the horrible grey streets and the shit weather and the stupid fashions I find myself investing in. It’s just that the English we’re proud of being is absolutely nothing like the English the authorities want to try and promote.”
TUTV: It’s Sleaford Mods by very good numbers. A familiar sounding record with its
sharp-teethed grim-UK rants (Brexit didn’t benefit the country in many ways and the ongoing right-wing Tories‘ incompetence isn’t a blessing either, never was) and, sonically, with its catchy and irresistible simplicity that still activates your limbs without asking.
Holy smoke! The Darts roll faster and harder than a steamroller on full speed. Snake Oil is without a shadow of a doubt their best longplayer so far. It feels like the record is infused with all their lockdown frustration. Tons of relentless energy, a non-stop appetite for a garage rock tsunami and the decibels turned up.
Centre-stage Nicole Laurenne sings her heart out as never before while her 60s-sounding organ spices things up all the way. Now and then the Phoenix turbo slow down and give us a chance to fill our oxyen tank. The Darts are unquestionably at the top of their blistering game. Hell-bloody-hell-yeah!
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WHO: This musical project started in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2014 and presents a soundscape based on electronic backgrounds and a more classic rock instrumentation blended with mellotrons, vibraphone, santur, harmonium and other alluring sounding instruments. In short, atmospheric psychedelic darkness with occult undertones.
TUTV:Eyemouth is not a band, it’s a sort of spiritual experience, floating from the past
to the present with an eye on the future. This new sonically versatile opus is another explorative voyage into their mythical world. Expect atmospheric synth-scapes for soundtracks of sci-fi movies, mellow Pink Floyd echoes,,dark-electro-wave surrealism
and an overall symphonic sonority.
All greatly orchestrated with both classical and futuristic-sounding structures. At times composer Marcus Lilja‘s ghostly voice comes on, but for the greatest part, this record bathes in instrumental grandeur embracing the power of nature.
WHO: American experimental band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart
in San Jose, California who worked with artists such as. Mitski, Sharon Van Etten, Deerhoof, Chelsea Wolfe, Twin Shadow as well as with avant-garde composers like Charlemagne Palestine.
TUTV: This is not happy music, this is grim reality music, this is truly fascinating
music. Cinematic electronics, orchestral maneuvers in the dark. Experimental and
sonic David Lynch exploration. Give it a couple of spins and you’ll find out that Xiu Xiu‘s bone-chilling world is more accessible than you thought at first. Their orchestral maneuvers in the dark are fascinating. Grand accomplishment
Kibou Records: “This is the debut release by BOTCHED TOE. The catchy, pummelling riffs Flanagan serves up provide the perfect backdrop to a bleak vocal narrative from Domestic
of a country in decay. Government corruption at an all-time high, those in power displaying ever-increasing contempt for the public; the ravages of unbridled capitalism and a poorly handled pandemic carving ever deeper scars into our individual and collective mental health; simple dreams now out of reach, and a populace so on edge and exhausted by it all that any significant, organised dissent seems less enticing that just retreating into one’s shell and hoping for the best (even when it’s clear that this is the most flawed tactic of all”.
Turn Up The Volume wrote: This 18-minute apocalyptic hardcore album
is 10 minutes shorter than the Ramones‘ debut LP. But loudmouthed frontman James Domestic doesn’t need more time to make clear what a mess England
has become over the years. He spits and sneers, howls and growls, all the way.
No brakes, no breaks.
Botched Toe is a mean riff machine, a blustering beast with a powerhouse
of a debut album under their belt. Get together, all you mosh-pit fanatics, and
let’s stop the devastating rat race – and fucking Putin – while going berserk.
TUTV: Greg Dulli‘s pipes reach for the sky throughout this new standout LP. His unique rock voice is the unwearying motor of this heart-and-soul opus. And when the songs are of supreme quality, as all 10 terrific tunes here are, and your bustling band are on a raucous roll with the vitality of young wolves you end up with the undeniable best album of 2022.
2. ‘Cave World’ by VIAGRA BOYS (Stockholm, Sweden)
Turn Up The Volume: The more our world gets fucked-up the more inspiration Viagra Boys have to write absurd, hilarious, sarcastic, crazy, monkey-ish songs about
all the related mess, embedded in their by now familiar filthy punk and roll grooves.
Never a dull moment with punk rock loser Sebastian Murphy in the middle. And they
played the best gig to my ears/eyes a couple of weeks ago in Antwerp, Belgium.
Turn Up The Volume: After playing opener Clocks to the max, with its Blitzkrieg grinta, it feels like the band and I are already out of breath as you can hear on the post-explosion outro. I felt wrong, as several KO Killers (Ded Würst / The Warden / I Am Kate Moss and the JAWDROPPING missile closer No Thanks, I’m Full) follow and do your head in. Ditz is a mean manic post-punk machine. The first minutes of the slower pieces (Three / Instinct / Teeth) are misleading, halfway they explode like grenades. No rest for the wicked, no rest for Ditz, no rest for your ears.
Turn Up The Volume: Back in 2016 Crows blew my mind when they played a small club
gig in my hometown of Ghent, Belgium. A memorable one cemented in the aural side of my
brain. The immense intensity and their frenetic furiosity were no less than jaw-dropping. On Beware Believers, their high-powered passion is still intact and its sizzling sound evolved further into a mean Herculean rock machine.
Blistering hammer blows like Garden Of England, Slowly Separate, and Room 156 are already noted in my end-of-the-year list of best 2022 knockouts. And reflective reality checks like the Joy Division-esqueHealing, Moderation, Wild Eyed & and Loathsome, and the fucktastic Meanwhile have the sonic vehemence to burn holes in your stereo.
TUTV: Musically and lyrically, this 3rd LP is moony, mellow and pensive with frontman Grian Chatten becoming a modern-day crooner who touches sensitive hearts, especially Irish ones as this album is about their Irish past/present/future identity in and outside of their beloved country.
TUTV: Weirdly exciting and capriciously inventive. This new LP resonates like a Zappa-esque rock circus. A sundry potpourri of symphonic jazz-prog-rock twists and turns, building up/breaking down constructions, forth/back and vertical/horizontal saltations with head-spinning orchestrations. Welcome to Black Midi‘s hell.
. Turn Up The Volume wrote: Prepare your ears for brawny industrial bombast (No Yes More less / Veni Vidi Vici / Feed The Wound / Taranatula), nightmares in slow-motion (Limbo / Sugar My Pill / The Judas Chair), wham-bam-glam drones (Glitz Krieg / The Dark Room) and the fantastic slow-burning gospel chant of the title track. It’s all there to have yourself a merciless head-banging pig trip. File next to Rammstein’s new opus Zeit.
TUTV: The result of the collaboration of wordsmith and poetry lover Peter Doherty and French composer Frédéric Lo who wrote the music, is a sparkling thing of beauty. This is the record to play when you’re feeling lazy, and in the mood for doing just nothing but daydreaming while lying in a green field enjoying the sun. Expect romantic lullabies with violins, piano and smooth horns, sweet little pop ditties, and sepia-colored tunes that transfer you to a place far away from our cruel reality.
9. ‘All Of Us Flames’ by EZRA FURMAN (Chicago, US)
TUTV: Definitely her most complete accomplishment to date. Majestic songwriting quality. Top-level tunes in orchestration, arrangement and vocal emotiveness. Here and there songs’ structures and Furman‘s fragile voice (Train Comes Trough / Throne / Poor Girl A Long Way From Home) bring, yes, Tom Petty to mind. Un-Americana Americana splendor with an artist who’s slowly but surely finds her way as a human being on this frightful planet.
TUTV: Disco fuel for 24-Hour misfit parties in obscure nightclubs for SM fans, physically unsatisfied individuals looking for sexual healing, gangbang addicts, nudists, lost sex workers, manic David Lynch characters, neurotic Brexit victims, acid-house junks, erotic lovers, lobotomized politicians, trashmouth artists, Andy Weatherall junks and all other messed-up souls who hate reality and want to dance/party/fuck/hallucinate to stripped-down techno beats. E-tastic.
Turn Up The Volume: Check in on a Saturday Warmduscher Fever Night, ladies and gents, at the club called The Hotspot. Feel the sultry ambiance, have a couple of cocktails at the bar, dance to some banging boosters and some funky Sly Stone vibes, and go twitchin’ in the kitchen now and then.
Turn Up The Volume: JO-JO is the flamboyant Amazon in the middle. She sings the
blues with the vigorous vitality of eternal legend Janis Joplin (We’re Just Animals / Moon Child), she rocks her multi-colored tail off with the gusto of Grace Slick on a roll (My Babe / No More Good News / Don’t Get Too Heavy), she has the groovy guts and the glamorous looks of eccentric punkette Nina Hagen and to close the show she affects with a gripping candlelight reverie for the midnight hours (Oh Brother).
Mind you, she’s not alone. Her bang-on band The Teeth know all the 60s/80s/80s
rock ‘n’ blues ‘n’ glam ‘n’ punk ‘n’ roll classics. They back Jo-Jo with a mood-and-cadence fitting firework of Jimmy Page riffs, John Lee Hooker hooks and Slash licks. Retro injected electricity.
Turn Up The Volume: As I said several times before, Samara and Animal are
adventurous architects in sound and vision (watch the singles’ spectacular videos
below / also the artwork for their releases is always a reflection of vivid visual inventiveness).
On this new, bone-and-mind chilling, longplayer both high-tech DIY artists keep
on challenging sonic and thematic boundaries. It’s also the first time we hear poetry fanatic Samara sing instead of reciting her poetic chimeras, as on psychoanalytic
discharge Shaman and on doom-punk sledgehammer Human Sacrifice.
There are so many layers, so many different directions, so many pendulum movements and so many unexpected turns at play here that you need several spins to get a grip of their poetallica world fully. This record as well as their debut are voyages of discovery.
Turn Up The Volume said: Damon Albarn was the first name that popped up in my head when The Early Years impressed my ears on first hearing. At times I thought he was a guest singer on Vanwymeersch‘s debut longplayer, with his pondering voice and his musing songs . Check Drama I, Who Can Tell, I’m Wide Awake and you’ll find out why.
Vanwymeersh also, like Albarn, is a song architect. All lullabies, reveries, and tunes at
play here stick quickly. But with every listen you discover how rich and subtly layered the musical arrangements and feel-good orchestrations (hear that playful banjo sound on Part Of Me ) are. Then again he invites you into his sonic labyrinth where he goes left, right, and back in one and the same song (When You’re Old And Grey And Full Of Sleep / Fall From Grace).
15. ‘Carrion Repeating’ by JAMES DOMESTIC (Essex/Suffolk, UK)
TUTV: Domestic is a story-telling Cockney wordsmith, tackling politics, daily life shit, gobbling business sharks, and other related mess.
Musically anything is possible. Screechy guitars and 60s sounding Hammond organs to inflame tirades such as Itchy Itchy, Faze Out, Bean Counter and Push on Trough. Saxophone and steel drums straight from Trinidad on Mañana. Soulful female voices and Le Freak C’est Chic riffs on Never Enough. A reggae vibe with xylophone touches on Is Thay You?. Dub Jah Wobble bas on Weekend Carbs and Giblets. He just does what his ears like.
Turn Up The Volume:Dim Gray float in a universe where the poignancy and
starry-eyed melodrama of Sigur Rós and the spiritual vocality of day-and-night
dreamers Fleet Foxes become one. This heart-and-soul stirring trio reverberates
like a full orchestra. They’re cinematic pop architects working with a drone flying
up high like an eagle and showing us where the ocean meets the sky.
Symphonic pop splendour. Firmament is a shiny diamond of a record.
I really can’t say more about this multi-faceted record and its from lost soul to ‘fuck it, you only live once’ author does herself.
Koan: “This record sounds like I’m schizophrenic in a way coz there are so many mad emotions in the songs. They are all very real, which took some guts to vocalize but I’m proud that we managed to bring it all across in a raw and real way. It’s not as sexually charged as my first album.
This new album COCOON was written during the lockdown, so many emotions that were pent up inside had time and space to surface and they sure came out with a vengeance. Anger, procrastination, questions about the way we C/O-exist in this society, and some new relationship issues like jealousy, infidelity, breakups. So it’s a more grown up album with more grown up topics.”
Turn Up the Volume: A striking work of top-notch tunes, written by mastermind Scott Marsden, that get under your skin slowly but surely until you see/hear the whole picture and realize that this is one of the most gripping albums of 2022 in my book. And lots to learn about Wales’ history.
Turn Up The Volume: Liam says that he is happy with his rock formula. So nothing new? No, just a bunch of new songs from good to very good. As much as I love our kid I enjoy him the most when he’s a rock ‘n’ roll star on stage. That’s his habitat. That’s what he does best. Entertaining a crowd/choir of 50.000 in a green field. See you in Belgium in August, Liam, on a green field of course.
The greatest Belgian singer-songwriter ever past away this year. A passionate chansonnier, a blues man, a rocker, a goosebumps crooner, a charismatic personality, and a one-of-a-kind live performer. I saw him about a 100 times, mostly solo, but also with his fantastic band TC Matic and one-time side projects.
Opex is his final longplayer. Vocally you hear him suffer from that deadly
disease that killed him shortly after recording the LP. I miss him, really hard.
Released: 7 July 2003 Score: #3 in the UK, #4 in Scotland, #133 in the US
TUTV: Their first, their unquestionable best. Americana rock ‘n roll with sharp hooks and nasty riffage. Afterward KOL became slowly but surely a soft, commericial money machine.
Not my kinda list. Too many computer fabrications. Glam and glitter, glossy images,
and expensive videos come in first, and music second. On the other hand, if the whole
wide world would listen to the same music, it would be pretty boring and, of course,
I can do my thing on my own list (coming next week).
Rolling Stone: “The album finds her unabashedly celebrating Black pleasure
in all its multitudes and illustrates that theme with dozens of sampled voices and
sounds, esteemed guests (Grace Jones), and echoes to global club styles past and
present.”
Single:Break My Soul
Stream RENAISSANCE on SPOTIFY
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Rolling Stone: “Bad Bunny’s sunlit ode to Puerto Rican summers is the superstar’s
most carefree project yet, but there’s a weightiness to the way it’s broken record after
record: The LP became the most-streamed album on Spotify when it first came out. It
spent more time at Number One on the Billboard 200 than any other album this year.”
Single: Moscow Mule
Stream Un Verano Sin Ti on SPOTIFY
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3. ‘Midnights’ by TAYLOR SWIFT (West Reading, Pennsylvania)
Rolling Stone: “It’s a record that sounds best from start to finish. But if you’re short on time, just focus on the three-song run of “Vigilante Shit,” “Bejeweled,” and “Labyrinth” that makes for a euphoric streak higher than nearly anything released this year. Checkmate, you couldn’t lose.”
Single: Anti-Hero
Stream MIDNIGHTS on SPOTIFY
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Rolling Stone:“The Catalonian shapeshifter has been triggering arguments about genre, race, and culture in Spanish-language music for years now. But with the polyglot Motomami, she went all-in as a proud pop globalist, flaunting her devotion to Kate Bush, M.I.A., and Camarón de la Isla in equal parts.”
Single: Saoko
Stream MOTOMAMI on SPOTIFY
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5. ‘Harry’s House’ by HARRY STYLES (Redditch, England)
Rolling Stone:“With Harry’s House, he decides to rip it up and start again. It’s a vibrant, playful, vividly emotional song cycle about finding different kinds of home on the run.
Single: As It Was
Stream HARRY’S HOUSE on SPOTIFY
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Rolling Stone: “For more than a decade, he’s been navigating his post-Clipse career with projects steeped in his winning formula: dope talk over dope beats. It’s Almost Dry may be
his finest offering yet.”
Single: Diet Coke
Stream IT’S ALMOST DRY on SPOTIFY
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Rolling Stone: “Hold on Baby, a 40-minute odyssey of emotional breakdowns, introspective lyrics, and anthemic choruses that sound like a magical combination of Savage Garden and Audioslave.”
Single: For My Friends
Stream HOLD ON BABY on SPOTIFY
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8. ‘Caprisongs’ by FKA TWIGS (Cheltenham, England)
Rolling Stone: “Caprisongs is revelatory simply because
it sees FKA Twigs, known perfectionist, finally letting loose.”
Single: Oh My Love
Stream CAPRISONGS on SPOTIFY
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Rolling Stone: “The first BTS member to release a solo album, J-Hope set the bar
high with Jack in the Box, a 10-track concept album. After a debut like this, J-Hope’s
fans (new and old) can be pretty sure they won’t be disappointed with his future
offerings.”
Stream JACK IN THE BOX on SPOTIFY
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Rolling Stone: “One of the best new rock bands to come around in the past five years, this duo from the Isle of Wight garnered buckets of well-deserved hype. Wet Leg bristles with sharp tunes and even sharper jokes, offering a 2020s update on deadpan Nineties legends like Pavement and Elastica.”
