2 May 2025

Album artwork

Band: THE WATERBOYS
Who: Scottish pop-rock-folk heroes orchestrated by
songsmith Mike Scott with 16 LPs, new on included,
on their most impressive résumé.

New Album: LIFE, DEATH AND DENNIS HOPPER

Press info: “Inspired entirely by the life and mythos of actor Dennis Hopper, Mike Scott and The Waterboys created this expansive album as tribute to one of American popular culture’s most compelling public figures. Deeply conceptual, this album of all original songs brings together high-profile featured artists like Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, and Steve Earle to musically weave through Hopper’s life, including a song for each of Hopper’s wives.”

TUTV: This an amazing piece of work. A soundtrack for a yet to be made Dennis Hopper documentary. Hats off to Mike Scott for his boldness, imaginativeness, and ingenuity to score this musical movie, constructed marvellously with its sonically cinematic versatility.

Pop, rock, blues, country, bar-room jazz, and musing balladry take turns and puzzle
a most coherent and highly entertaining whole together, spiced with magnificent vocal contributions by Fiona Apple, Steve Earle and others. Never a dull moment with its varied stream of top-tier songs and Scott‘s awe-inspiring vocality throughout.

Movie shots from Hopper‘s parts in doom and gloom films such as Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now, True Romance, Speed and, of course, counterculture classic Easy Rider pop up on the screen in your head. He was at his best when he played psychotic characters. And Scott is here at its best too. Can’t stopping listening to it and discover new things with every spin I know it’s only April but this pièce de résistance is, unquestionably, a contender for album of the year. Let’s fuck.

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ALBUM

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Instagram – Linktree – All Waterboys Albums
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Band: THE MOONLANDINGZ
Who: English electro-pop combo started by the Eccentronic Research Council
duo, featuring Adrian Flanegan and Dean Honor back in 2015. Lias Saoudi (Fat
White Family, Decius, author, modern day, philosopher) joined them, as well as
different guests.

Album: NO ROCKET REQUIRED
The follow-up to their top-drawer 2018 debut LP
Interplanetary Class Classics, produced by Sean Lennon.

Press info: “No Rocket Required delivers brassy squawks, motorik convulsions and
sinister soothing vocals from a righteous line-up of guest singers and ranters: Nadine
Shah, Iggy Pop, Jessica Winter and Ewen Bremner. Plus, of course, there’s The Moonlandingz’ own front man, Johnny Rocket aka Lias Saoudi.

What to do, as we potter and fret, as we watch bodies, homes and lives destroyed every day while our elected leaders, so forensic and so sensible, use their weasel words, shrug their coward shoulders and saunter off to raise our bus fares. Dancing of course and togetherness, looking out for each other, and that’s not enough. What kind of fight are we bringing? We will always need to organise, to fight, to collaborate, to connect and to dance dance dance. And that is what The Moonlandingz do.”

TUTV: Where the first album was a 24-hour party affair, this 2nd one is musically a
sonic melting pot of 70s disco (like Sign Of A Man that clearly is inspired by 1978 classic Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez) and 80s house (like Yama Yama) uppers and midnight hour downers (like Roustabout, and the romantic ballad It’s Where I’m From with perfectly matching vocals by the one and only Iggy Pop) that messes with your mind, body and soul.

To make sure that you hit the (dance)floor in the end, Flanegan and Honor knock you
out with the 9-minute hyperkinetic brainbreaker The Knack Drought Suite (Pts 1-3) that hammers your head in relentlessly and gives the last word to film-noir crooner Lias
Saoudi. Lyrically, NRR echoes Twin Peaks‘ unhinged stories from the dark side of the
human psyche. Everybody happy now? I definitely am.

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Instagram – Linktree
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Album artwork

Artist: ANIKA
Who: British, Berlin-based songstress. She released two splendid
albums with indie band Exploded View and has her 4th solo one
out now.

Album: ABYSS

Press info: “Anika channels her frustration, anger, and confusion with the world.
The album captures raw energy with minimal overdubs, resulting in a visceral and
urgent 10-track journey fueled by intense emotions.

Abyss reflects Anika’s desire to create a space where people can unite and feel free to express themselves amidst the chaos of the world. With influences ranging from 90s grunge and Courtney Love to Patti Smith and Genesis P-Orridge, the album is driven by
a rebellious spirit.”

Press

TUTV: Abyss is sonically, her most heavy-laden longplayer. From revved-up pop crazing (Hearsay / Honey / Last Song) to psych rock shocks (Abyss / Oxygen / Out Of The Shadows).
It’s Anika Vs Anika and the outside world as she makes clear in Walk Away with the lines “The truth is, I don’t really like myself / And the truth is / I don’t really like anyone else.”

Anika still struggles with all kinds of demons (media moguls, a broken relationship, being trapped in your own narrative, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and other mind-destroying dangers). Eventually, she’s at her best when she faces and fights her worst nightmares and she knows she’s not alone. We’re all in it together. We should try not to hate each other and be tolerant for a chance. L’union fait la force. 2025 is Anika‘s year.

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Instagram – Linktree
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Band: VIAGRA BOYS
Who: Swedish punk-rock dropouts fronted
by the human tattoo Sebastian Murphy.

New album: VIAGR ABOYS
Not their smartest LP title, but
already their 4th one.

Press info: “The LP sees VB turn inwards, leaving the acid-laced, conspiracy-addled societal commentary of previous LP Cave World behind to journey into the acid-laced, conspiracy-addled landscape within. Absurd, intense and surprisingly tender, viagr aboys shuts out the noise to find that the important part of being alive in the big, stupid world is figuring out that the world inside of you that is equally big and stupid.”

Press photography by Fredrik Bengtsson

TUTV: At their core, Viagra Boys still are the mean groove machine we know from
their swirling start. Whether they speed up, slow down, or move somewhere in
between (except for the closing, tender piano ballad), they always have an intense
impact on your body’s movements.

Wordsmith Murphy still keeps on rattling and rap-like rolling non-stop, but the overall
sonic vibe is more varied this time. From catchingly capricious to one-direction punk crazy, to sultry saxy. I’m not sure all the time what Murphy rambles about, but our messed-up times are always in the middle of his bizarre stories. Ultimately, it’s all about love, the only answer to hate. Another great job, boys.

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Instagram – Website
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Artist: NELL SMITH
Who: A highly talented teenage singer-songwriter, who died
in a car crash last October, only 17. Cruel, really cruel.

As a dedicated Flaming Lips fan, she got in contact with the Oklahoma band aged 13,
and after frontman Kevin Coyne found out that Nell has a great voice and musical skills,
they recorded a Nick Cave covers album together, titled Where The Viaduct Looms together in 2021. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Full of confidence, Nell Smith started to write songs for herself,f which are now collected on her posthumously released album, named ANXIOUS produced by renowned siblings Jack and Lily Walter.

It displays her artistically, far-reaching potential, with 10 spirited, real-life pop songs.
All beautifully orchestrated tunes. A combination of mixed emotions, reflective reveries and jaunty ruminations, with Smith‘s crystalline voice as the star in the middle. This record is/will be an everlasting memory of a bona fide artist in the making, who was taken from life abruptly, way too soon.

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Instagram – Spotify