I saw them myself in Belgium last August, but this version
is way better than the one I witnessed. But hey, you can’t
beat a sign-along audience of 70.000.
Where: KNEBWORTH (UK) Liam‘s massive and biblical concert at the historic
(rock) field confirmed once more that our kid still is
the man for the masses.
Who: A non-stop volcanic rawk & roll bolide from down under, led by the
utterly cool and stormy frontwoman Amyl Taylor. An uproarious Melbourne-based
noise turbine generating a lethal cocktail ofThe Runaways (Joan Jett‘s teenage band)
and metallic furyPlasmatics (with the legendary Wendy O. Williams) fueled by an eruptive Motörhead drive. So far they released two LPs. The self-titled debut (2019) and the follow-up Comfort To Me.
Where: Trix, Antwerp, Belgium When: 15 November 2022
TUTVimpressions: Holy shit! What a gash gash gash gig! Stage beast Amyl was all over
the place, on and off the podium, while screaming, sneering and spitting at the top of her lungs backed by a mean poised punk machine. She’s a natural-born entertainer and totally real. When she doesn’t sing, she has her tongue out, she giggles, she jokes, she smiles from left to right, and most of all as she said herself so many times before, she has the time of her life.
And so had the enraptured crowd. From the first riff on a sweaty moshpit formed in front of the stage. Every single steamroller was yelled along, word by word. It was an old skool kamikaze punk ‘n roll show at its very hot. MAD! BAD! RABID! HYPERKINETIC! NEUROTIC!
Oh yes, I had a bonkers time too, as much as 3 years ago when I saw Amyl explode
also in Antwerp but in a much smaller venue (and having a beer with her afterward).
Here’s a loud and clear idea of
the Aussies’ live firepower.
Setlist
1.Control 2.Pleasure Forever 3.Got You 4.Some Mutts (Can’t Be Muzzled) 5. Guided By Angels 6. Shake Ya 7. Capital 8. Security 9. GFY 10. Gacked on Anger 11. Choices 12. Knifey 13.Don’t Need A Cunt Like You (to Love Me) 14. Hertz
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS are one of the hottest acts going apeshit on open-air podia around the globe right now. With two sizzling-and-steaming-punk-and-roll albums in
three years under their belt now they have enough stonking stunners to blow people’s minds.
Amyl is the real deal. I know, I saw
her live a couple of years ago and I
have my ticket for her October show
in Antwerp (Belgium) in my pocket
Here she and her sniffin’ comrades explode in Atlanta last April when playing Security (from their 2021 LP Comfort To Me) for the festival’s security guards.
Awesome punkette AMYL TAYLOR from Australian turboAMYL AND THE SNIFFERS
is on the cover of the newest issue of French music magazine VIVE LE ROCK. Read all about the fast-rising riff-roaring rebels from down under. You can buy a copy here.
Here’s Hertz, one of the torching knockouts
of the band’s newest album Comfort To Me.
Drop-dead gorgeous Aussie punkette AMY TAYLOR and her SNIFFERS
have two blistering punk rock albums out, so far. Their self-titled boiling
debut LP (2019) and the red-hot follow-upComfort To Me (2021).
A week ago the Aussie fury and her desperadoes caught
fire in front of the cameras of The Late Night Show with
a volcanic version ofHertz, one of the many highlights on
the new longplayer. And of course, all eyes are on Amyl.
Piping-hot Aussie punkette AMY TAYLOR and her SNIFFERS have two
blistering punk rock albums out, so far. Their self-titled cooking debut LP (2019) and the holy smoke follow-upComfort To Me (2021).
Amyl loses control and almost her head on this fucktastic live
version of the headbanger called CONTROL (from that debut CD).
Ounsworth (mastermind): “The songs are politically motivated,
which is unusual for me. It’s about what I think we’re all experiencing
at the moment, certainly here in the United States, anyway, trying
to move forward amidst an almost cruel uncertainty.”
Turn Up The Volume: Riveting tunes, sharp-cutting reflections,
magical sparks, Ounsworth‘s feverish voice, and his glittery guitar
play make this LP the best one since the self-titled 2005 debut.
Bewitching all the way. My 2021 number one
Turn Up The Volume: Finally, Iceage do what they were expected to do for a long
time. Creating a standout album that makes the hair in the back of your neck stand
up. Melodramatic with ardency, impassioned with vigour, emotional with grimness. Charismatic frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt leads the troops as never before.
Turn Up The Volume: From outlandish sonority – think Scott Walker – to
Zappa-esque adventurousness, from a ‘normal’ song (Marlene Dietrich) to
free jazz weirdness. The sonic search of this impressively inventive band is
both inscrutable and intriguing.
Cavalcade confirms the experimental brilliance of their debut LP. Miles Davis going post-punk in the 21st Century.
Turn Up The Volume: The drop-dead gorgeous sisters in rock arms Lindsey Troy
and Julie Edwards celebrate their 10th year of producing high-powered turbulence.
Their bond is tighter than ever and their boogie-woogie more varied than ever.
Mind you, don’t expect a jazz record. Deap Vally are still about rocking ‘n rolling
while tackling their demons with vocal bravado and forthright ruminations.
Old skool punk ‘n’ roll? Absolutely. Any good? You betcha!
Amyl and her buddies made another blistering riff-manic-monster of
a hell fucking hell yeah record. Pogo madness is back. Sturm und drang
from start to finish. Holy Moly!
Turn Up The Volume: This black and white pearl is the work of
the romantic Cave crooner meeting the haunting Cave crooner. Idyllic
orchestrations, classical arrangements, and bad seed Warren Ellis
showing, once more, his refined grandeur.
Turn Up The Volume: Manimal and Samara are a poetallica sensation.
A new laser light at the end of a mythical and tenebrous tunnel.
Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting a mind-challenging, noise-exploring band.
Their debut album is a multi-faceted opus in sound and vision. Puzzling poetry
exploring life, death, birth, past, present, and future embedded in titanic thunder
and lighting symphonies going from perplexing metal to chill-out ambient.
Turn Up The Volume: The amplified haziness of Slowdive, the mystifying
soulfulness of Spacemen 3, the multi-layer-constructing skills of My Bloody
Valentine.
Hallucinating soundscapes, synth shadowplays, and guitars dueling with
each other while tireless drums dauntlessly beat, and wailing voices wander
in an enigmatic fog of reverberation.
This is what the (sur)real world of Ghost Patterns sounds like.
Turn Up The Volume: This time the bombastic rockers take another direction
to express their emotiveness. Moody, nostalgic, melancholically romantic with
frontman Brandon Flowers looking back at his teenage years in his hometown
Utah. Think Bruce Springsteen‘s sentimentality on his masterpiece Nebraska.
Overall an emotive and melodramatic
record without going over the top.
For some critics, it’s too mellow.
For me, its gripping mellowness
that works just fine.
Liz Lamere (Vega’s widow) remembers: “Our primary purpose for going into the studio
was to experiment with sound, not to ‘make records. I was playing the machines with Alan manipulating sounds. I played riffs while Alan morphed the sounds being channeled through the machines.’
Turn Up The Volume: Most of the lost albums that eventually came/come to the
surface one day should have stayed lost forever. If they were good enough to be
released the moment they were recorded they would have never ended up in a
smelly cellar or, worst case, in a trash can.
So what about Alan Vega’s lost one? One: it feels special to have the legend back.
Two: the album seems to come from a very dark mind, from the obscure places
of Vega‘s soul, creating a nightmarish and Kafkaesque chill-out atmosphere for
a 30-minute David Lynch film-noir.
Turn Up The Volume: The rap and roll venom of Rage Against The Machine, the
fuck-you-hypocrites grimness of Black Flag, the punky saxophone of X-Ray-Spex,
the sharp poetic spit and sneer anarchy of Mark. E. Smith, the challenging spirit
of open-minded-and-ass-kicking-anti-establishment doom and gloom crusaders.
Sounds like 2021, like the end of the world as we know it.
Turn Up The Volume says: Like Pavement going prog rock with the sound- exploring
state of mind of Mogwai. Jazzy and classical music textures make sure your curious mind
is focused all the time. And singer Isaac Wood‘s voice resonates freakishly identical to the chilling voice of American songwriter Conor Oberst from indie band Bright Eyes.
It’s not a happy record, but who needs a tsunami of cheesy pop tunes in these science-fiction-like times, anyway. I know it’s their first time, but these hungry noise crusaders
will stun us again in the future.
Turn Up The Volume wrote: Gusto, high-spiritedness, and anxiety are the
keywords here. This warm-blooded record is a heart-rending reflection of the
group’s state of 2021 mind. A galvanizing collection of cohesive poignant emo
songs influenced by the disturbing way our troubled world is handling human
issues, once-in-a-lifetime dramas, and the personal turmoil of frontwoman Eline Chavez.
Her soul-stirring and powerful (Aretha Franklin / young Tina Turner) vox, the weeping
guitars, and the electrical intensity are at times overwhelming and heartbreaking. Impressive!
Turn Up The Volume: The essential message of this new powerhouse album is loud and clear: noise-challenging turbo Pink Room is here to stay! Their tsunami energy is beyond any decibel regulation. Again, loudmouth Bart Cocquyt leads the rip-roaring trio.
As I said before his vocal range is out-of-this-world. He easily could front a death metal band (Stay Black/Stay White) or a Nirvana reunion (Losing/Skin) or kick Ozzy Osbourne‘s ass (Hail Satan). Expect ear-shattering jackhammers, over-the-top frenzy, and clamorous lockdown paranoia.
Putain, putain, c’est vachement bien, nous sommes quand même tous des bohemiens.
‘Queen Of Swords’ by TYPHOID ROSIE (Brooklyn, New York)
Rousing Riot grrrl Rosie Rebel and her riff-racing rascals go full steam ahead on
the tense title track of their smoking new album. If you want to know more about this lively gang check the recent interview Rosie Rebel did with Turn Up The Volume right here.
With this new standout, ILA reveals a total turnover in resonance. She rocks, raves, and rolls backed by steamy wall-of-towering turbulence. Mind you, the heartfelt fervency, personal turmoil and vocal vehemence are still intact. Can’t wait to find out if this is actually another page in her magical music book.
A highlight of Participation Mystique, the fourth longplayer by this most thrilling duo with Laura Mariposa Williams‘ bewitching voice as the heroine. Her psychedelic, gothic,
far-out, and at times wailing timbre magnetizes and hypnotizes while wandering in an orchestral space. Learn more about these intriguing artists in their recent interview
with Turn Up The Volume.
This Belgian quartet brings Scottish daydreamers Teenage Fanclub to mind. Combine this with the band’s slacker rock sensibility and jingle-jangle jives and what you get is a tingling tune. It’s called pop-ular music.
The alter ego of Texan prize-winning poet and guitarist Harold Whit Williams.
This is a sickly sticky dope tune, one that makes me smile from left to right
and back. One shot of this, and you’ll jump around the room like a kangaroo
on speed.
This has everything a perky pop pearl needs. Play it in the morning, in the evening and every hour in between and at the end of the day you feel so much better and most of all it’s a truly helpful way to process a breakup. So much cheaper than therapy.
Regrets floats on layers of shoegaze guitars and fervid vocals while growing to an engrossing level of electrifying epicness when the glowing chorus kicks in. Trust me,
a couple of spins and you’re addicted. Fact!
The fever of The Verve‘s urban hymns, the sassy swagger of Oasis in slo-mo
with 60s organs and the fervent flair of 90s Britpop. The final result is obvious.
A bittersweet blistering symphony. Touchdown!
The darkwave tandem is on depeche modus with this shadow-dancing single from their brand new, second EP Body Electric. Expect booming beats, doomed drones, eerie vocals, and a repetitive bass synth riff that sticks as first-rate glue. A club cracker!
Put your black leather jacket on and shake your booty…
This riveting ripper starts with a mid-tempo drum-driven intro, gliding quickly into
a swing and sway your hips chorus, followed by a moment of reflection. The whole
process repeats itself and gets slowly but surely under your skin. You’ll love every
second of this electro roller coaster.
‘I Miss It’ by JODIE LANGFORD(Hull / East Yorkshire, UK)
This young, outspoken, and observative artist – a female Mike Skinner – reflects the dreadful freedom-restricting sentiments of the past lockdown times in her new word rap waterfall jam. An intoxicating and groovetastic house stomper making you euphoric now that you can freak out again in nightclubs.
“It’s Fine” examines themes of jealousy and insecurity in open relationships.”
Not an easy issue to write a song about, but embedded in an ebullient earworm like
this, it’s fine. Impossible to resist this tremendously infectious corker spinning around like forever inviting you to pirouette yourself dizzy while duet vocals push the pace. No pause, no breathing space, no interval, always straight on.
Sonically this surreal saga wouldn’t be out of place on a Gary Numan album. Lyrically it’s like an ode to the unknown eternity. In my imagination Wytch Lych resonates like a funeral hymn, celebrating the imperishability of the soul. Stunning vocals, striking synth shadows, and an overall spellbinding impressiveness. Top stuff!
When I listened to this new little pearl on Spotify for the first time, it was followed
by the title track of the upcoming LP of The War On Drugs. I swear I thought that
it was another Lossline song. It was that melancholic guitar glow that confused
my ears. It wasn’t until Adam Granduciel‘s voice came up that I knew it wasn’t
the Manchester duo.
‘Lights In The Expanse Of The Sky’ by DREW FIVE (London)
Close your eyes, relax and imagine you’re floating into space where Spiritualized‘s mastermind Jason Pierce lives while playing this hallucinatory ambient trip on your headphones.
French songstress Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier returns with two new songs,
with this one as my favorite. A slow-burning and emotive humdinger with
a gospel-like choir.
TURN UP THE VOLUME 