Turn Up The Volume: A blazing rock slam about the desperate
need for stable emotional stimulation. Blustering guitars, flurried
synths, hot-blooded vocals, a discharging chorus, and somewhere
in the middle a thunder and lighting guitar solo to electrocute all
your mind-destroying demons. Every time you take this medicine,
you’ll get a kick out of it.
If you like British turbo Royal Blood
you’ll go berserk to this cracker too.
Britpop is back, but not poppy, nor chart-orientated, nor with a macho rock ‘n roll
attitude. No, new British bands like Black Midi, The Murder Capital (well, actually,
they’re Irish), and Black Country, New Road explore other directions.
These young gunslingers dive into not-commerce-orientated sonic territories resulting in experimental exploits of their own containing prog and math rock, jazz, post-psych-punk, and other musical challenges. I agree they do not invent a new wheel, but the way these bands turn different genres upside down and create an adventurous sound without resonating arty-farty or complex is pretty terrific.
One of them, London’s collective BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD stunned with their brilliant jazz-infused debut album For The First Time early this year. And they’re ready
for a second time with the follow-up ANTS FROM UP THERE. Out next year, on 22 February. Order info here.
Press statement: “Almost exactly a year to the day from the release of their acclaimed debut “For the first time”, the band have harnessed the momentum from that record and run full pelt into their second, with “Ants From Up There” managing to strike a skillful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before, as well as a natural progression.”
Along with this announcement we get the lead single.
CHAOS SPACE MARINE is “the best song we’ve ever written. We threw in every idea anyone had with that song. So the making of it was a really fast, whimsical approach – like throwing
all the shit at the wall and just letting everything stick.” says frontman Isaac Wood.
Band: THE BARBITURATES Who: Take a deep breath,… “a grungy psychedelic occult postpunk
Dadaist Guerrilla D.I.Y ontology discordian skizophonic rock band from Derry city Ireland”
New album: Titled, take another deep breath,… SUPER CALLOUS FASCIST
RACIST TORIES ARE ATROCIOUS (the best album title I heard all year long) that
will hit the streets just before Xmas, on 23rd December. A great festive present
to convert your beloved family to The Barbiturates.
All tracks will be unleashed one by one before
the longplayer’s release (bonus stuff included).
The first two singles…
– YOU CAN’T SEE ME –
Doesn’t really sound like a Guerilla rant. The vibrant combination of jingle-jangle guitars
à la 60s legends The Byrds, whistle-along catchiness à la Kurt Vile, a sing-along ba-ba-ba chorus, and a sparkling guitar finale resound more like a radio hit and that’s totally fine
by me.
. – CONTORT –
After the poppy decoy above it’s in-your-face time with a cry-out sledgehammer swaying forth and back with droning force for 100 seconds. A trash and clash slam with some unexpected piano clatter in the end. Bingo!
.
I wonder what comes next: a jazzy instrumental followed
by a hardcore hammer blow? Yep, I’m definitely curious.
Clams Baker Jr (frontman/songwriter): “I kept doing that freaking track over
and over, trying to do a kind of Talking Heads “Once in a Lifetime” thing. Then I
just got to a point where I was like, ‘Ugh! Fuck this and fuck these motherfuckers!’
Turn Up The Volume: London’s funk punk gang is gearing up for their big
breakthrough album. First taster ‘Wild Flowers’ is a trippy bass-driven disco
groove you can sway your hips to in the morning while waking up, in the
evening while getting drunk, and during the day when you’re getting bored.
Meanwhile modern-day James Brown frontman Clams Baker Jr does an attempt
to beat Al Pacino‘s record of spitting and sneering ‘fucks’ when he played fucking Tony Montana in the fucking cocaine crime classic Scarface.
Band: THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA Who: London-based duo feat. Daphne Ang (Singapore) and Andrea Papi (Italy).
Drawing inspiration from Tool and Kraftwerk, as well as the poetry of Sylvia Plath,
Virginia Woolf, and Jim Morrison, TCOMAS fills a gap in music by bringing literature,
art, and history together into a space where rock and metal meet electronica.
After the release, last February of Full Spectrum, one of the best and most
adventurous albums of 2021, Manimal and Samara return with a new single.
Count The Death is a song “about the value of human life. We composed this song
in protest of governments and world leaders, whose negligence and recklessness
have resulted in one of the largest ‘avoidable’ losses of lives in generations. The song
raises issues that people need to know and think about, such as the social and economic injustices that plague society and violent health inequalities that have been further
exacerbated by the pandemic”.
An Eddie Van Halen-like intro riff, Samara‘s menacing spoken word rant, feverish
wailing moments, growling Napalm Death eruptions. All in one song? Absolutely.
On paper, it resembles a chaotic piece of doom and gloom anger.
On record, all those elements come together organically resulting in a crystal-clear structured protest against greedy political sharks and megalomaniac charlatans oppressing people for their own devastating agendas. Again Manimal and Samara
show how to fuse poignant poetry and versatile metal genres. Manimal and Samara
are sonic architects.
Band: DEAP VALLY Who: Utterly cool female rock duo out of Los Angeles Active: Since 2011 / 4 studioalbums (the ace collabarotive
one with The Flaming Lips last year, and the upcoming new
one included).
Recent work: Two EPs Digital Dream and American Cockroach,
featuring several guests, released this year. Put together it’s an
extra Deap Vally album to my ears.
New album: MARRIAGE Out: 12th November 2021 – order info here
Deap Vally: “Being in a band is like being in a marriage: sometimes it’s magical,
sometimes it’s unbearably challenging. To reinvigorate that marriage we’ve made
album three a genre-bending experiment with new collaborators and instrumentation
that push the limits of what has previously defined us. Marriage’ is our musical Rumspringa,
if you will. We’re breaking free of the rigid creative constraints within which we previously existed (two members, two instruments, two voices). Writing with the calibre of musicians
that we did on this record was an unforgettable experience, and we’re so happy to have
the result of our creative rebirth eternalised in ‘Marriage’.”
The new LP also features a number of collaborations from the aforementioned
EPs, including songs with Peaches, KT Tunstall, and Warpaint‘s Jenny Lee.
”’Magic Medicine’ is a song five years in the making. Initially, a song about being high on what-have-you (body chemistry, lab chemistry, nature’s chemistry) the lyrics have taken on a new meaning in the era of coronavirus, a moment when more than ever we need a miracle cure to make it safe to have fun and feel free again.”
Turn Up The Volume: Deap Vally is dead! Long live Deap Vally! This year’s two EPs (see above) surprised us with other sonic sides of these two steamy sisters in rock. After 10 years they inject their bond with new musical challenges (mind you, I still go bonkers to their first two blues-rock albums). And here’s the first taster. A slo-mo synth-vaccinated groove with glimmering Lindsey Troy guitars all over it and Julie Edwards, as usual taking care of the solid backbone drum beat. And Troy‘s vocals and Edwards echoing voice in the back give the song an extra thrill.
Trust me, this magic medicine will protect you against post-lockdown blues.
Turn Up The Volume: “I found my god in a garbage can at the corner
of the graveyard of man” must be the opening line of the year. It also
starts a shadowy beauty of a song. Both moody and reflective, but also
graceful and intimately blissful. Pure singer-songwriter splendour. By the
way, I can’t remember when I heard a sparkling bouzouki sound and it
works subtly great here.
Wolf loves his Queen. She’s his muse.
Watch/listen and enjoy here…
Ps: I’m not happy with an EP, I want a full album.
“The song depicts a hairy episode in the artists past in which Jesse, following the
dissolution of his marriage, escapes from New York City seeking refuge amongst
the horse & buggies of the Quaker state. It’s a fish out of water story except in this
version, Jesse (the fish) gets caught in the jaws of a thirsty female shark.”
Turn Up The Volume: The swing and shake swagger of Eddie Cochran, the surfin’
guitar electricity of Link Wray and the fervent fire of Bo Diddley. Get the punchy
picture? So what are you still doing on your lazy couch?
Get up, stand up and get your black leather jacket and those Beatles boots out of the closet, and shake your ass when Jesse Stone Creatchman blasts out of your trembling speakers while you watch – sweating – the accompanying clip with sexy burlesque
dancing sensation Lavender May . Press play and drool!
Artist: STEFANIE PARNELL Who: Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec,
Parnell is an insightful, refined, and melodically
driven Canadian singer/songwriter. Her music will
leave you feeling comforted by the dissonant chords
and melancholic lyrics.
Parnell:“It started off as an instrumental track that my DJ friend,
Morbin, sent me in hopes for a collaboration. After the first listen,
the vocal melody came to me right away. At the time, I was going
through unforeseen health issues which naturally provoked intense
episodes of anxiety. The lyrics allowed me to ease my mind of the
paralyzing thoughts.”
Turn Up The Volume: The vocal gloominess you experience here
causes goosebumps. Parnell‘s expressive voice is the stunning star
of this heavyhearted ballad. You can really feel the tenseness and
melodrama at play. Emotive voice Angel Olsen comes to mind. A truly
gripping discovery.
And just as the sorrowing song, the single’s artwork (by Lee Thorburn
and Bryan Wilkat) and the creepy video clip are fascinating too.
In the light I can see you
In the dark I can feel you
When you’re in front of me, I can’t read you
You’re a part of me but I don’t need you
