It’s PART 4 of Turn Up The Volume‘s yearly hot summer playlists.
A mix of new and old tunes. A mix of adrenalin-infused punk/rock
anthems, dance fireworks, and some moony musings to end the
party when the sun comes up.
Turn Up The Volume‘s 15 Knockout Tracks for March 2021!
A fervid fusion of rhapsodic rippers and clashing crackerjacks.
‘High Horse’ by DEAP VALLY (LA, California)
When the utterly cool Deap Vally queen cats invite their friends you may expect firework like this blues-rock steamer featuring KT Tunstall & Peaches. Stream/buy the full stellar Digital Dream EP here.
‘Stay’ by ONISM E (New York)
A soul-stirring and electrifying top track – from one of, yes, the best albums of 2021 –
by this rad emo-striking NY-based outfit. Stream/buy ‘Survivors’ LP here.
. ‘White Elephant’ by NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS (Australia)
What can I say? Cave & Ellis made a brilliant longplayer called Carnage and White Elephant is its most impressive piece (to my ears). Mind-boggling.
‘Not To’ by WOLF VAN WYMEERSCH (Belgium)
Melancholia at its starry-eyed synth-pop best. Here’s a romantic at heart, going solo, who’s sanely obsessed with creating music, playing music, and enjoying music, if possible all at the same time. Damon Albarn‘s moody side comes to mind.
‘Five Finger Exploding Heart Technique’ by OK COOL (Chicago, US)
A sonic shot of riot grrrl guitar-pop that has an instant impact on your body activity. You just want to go out and scoot in the street, feel ecstatic, and hear your heart beat madly. These are 130 thrilling seconds you want to relive over and over again.
‘I Want Noise’ by LOBSTERBOMB (Berlin)
What you get here is Bikini Kill‘s raw outcries, L7‘s detonating gusto, B-52‘s rock lobster’s liveliness and catchy aaah-aaahh-aaaah chants. A boosting injection of Riot Grrrl adrenalin. A punk-fun knockout.
. ‘Hail Satan’ byPINK ROOM (Belgium)
A merciless haymaker, a scrappy Molotov cocktail banging from start to finish
like a brutal sledgehammer. The mean Pink machine honors their best friend.
From their brand new, ace album Putain Royale.
‘One + One’ by DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 (Canada)
With Is 4 Lovers the Canadian champions of drone noise rock made one of their best
full-lengths (so far). And the lead-single ‘1 + 1’ feels like a bulldozer coming at you.
‘Crank Bugs’ by RADIO SILENCE (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
Blustery guitars all over the place, manic drum hits, and combative Richard Hell vocals. 2021 is the new Orwellian 1984. From their red-hot-blooded debut EP ISOLATION.
. ‘Cimmerian’ by SLAP RASH (Manchester, UK)
After an ominous word-spoken intro this industrial hammer blow explodes like
a raging volcano and singer Amelia starts her enigmatic and nightmarish rant
about obscene abuse. Insane masterstroke with a hell-raising shock-chorus.
. ‘Living In Dystopia’ by CRUX (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) Crux translate their justified discontent, about our messed-up world, in this razor-sharp-cutting-power-stroke with pounding punch. A bludgeoning Royal Blood groove is the firm backbone throughout this stormy stunner. Wham bloody wham bam.
‘Hunted From Below’ by EMPTY HEAD (Belgium)
Sonic madness, mind-crushing paranoia, and muscled tumult all rolled into one bad motherrocker of an electro-shock wallop. You can smell the scent of scorching punk frenzy. Nasty, filthy and vicious! Totally insane!
‘Electric Yerevan’ by SERJ TANKIAN (LA, California) System Of A Down loudmouth Taikan rocks like hell, sings like hell and raps like hell. What
a titanic voice! Fuck SOAD, welcome Serj. From his fresh smelling solo EP Elasticity.
‘Hourglass’ by GLASS VIOLET (Bristol, UK)
Multiple waves of blistering guitars infiltrate your greedy ears, while a persistent drumbeat activates your feet and makes your head spin. When the flamboyant chorus pops up with a fervent flair à la The Killers you know and you feel that Hourglass is amplified top pop bliss with a dark lyrical twist.
. ‘Unspoken’ by ANNIE TAYLOR (Switzerland)
A troubled love reverie with a sorrowful touch. Heartbreaking romanticism at its balladesque best, notable for its vocal splendour and silver-toned resonance.
A sweet little pearl.
Annie Taylor? Always a thrill, always a kick, always a turn-on. Check their dynamite
2020 debut album Sweet Mortality (stream below) and you’ll hear what I’m talking
about. And if you want to discover the more moody and the more shadowy side of
their soul than THE FOOL and UNSPOKEN is what you’ll have on your headphones
for a while.
THE FOOL is the closer of their debut LP. A mixed emotions love song starting as a meditative ballad turning slowly but surely into an amplified, multi-layered, emotive discharge with Gini Jungi vocals bringing Wolf Alice‘s wonderful vox Ellie Roswellto mind.
. UNSPOKEN is a new piece. Another troubled love experience with a sorrowful touch. Heartbreaking romanticism at its balladesque best, notable for its vocal splendour
and silver-toned resonance. A sweet little pearl.
Firm Swiss rockers ANNIE TAYLOR already caused stormy waves before with some striking singles and a solid EP (check their Bandcampto hear it all). The foursome is gearing up now to unleash their debut LP sometime soon. And here’s the lead single. ’17 DAYS’ An angry filled first-rate contagious ripper with fronwoman Gini Jungi counting the days someone messed with her. Multiple guitar layers inject the track with a stream of heated electricity and the aroused chorus has a five star glue quality! Bingo!
After seeing London‘s new guitar pop heroes Wolf Alice led by the wonderful Ellie Rowsell, Swiss Satan lover Gini Jungi did what she actually wanted to do for quite a while. Forming
a band! With three friends she started ANNIE TAYLOR back in 2016. The swirling 4-headed outfit recorded some cutting ear-opening singles fueled by big guitars, pumping beats, and sensuous vocals and today the band release their 5-track debut EP titled NOT YOURS! You can feel and hear the giant steps this quartet made in the meantime. They rock, they roar and they roll and most of all they seduce you with rad tunes. Enough reasons to talk to frontwoman Gini Jungi about the trip so far. Let’s start the acquaintance with one of their earlier glam crackers…
1. What sparked you to start a band in the first place?
“I always liked making music with my best friend, but we were usually just jamming without really playing actual songs until I went to a festival where I saw Wolf Alice playing.
It was my first time seeing them perform and I was so inspired, that I couldn’t stop thinking of starting my own band. My only goal was at that time to practice a lot, so one day I could be opening for them. Didn’t happen so far, but this is still one of my goals.”
Without Wolf Alice no Annie Taylor…
2. What’s the story behind the group’s name?
“Annie Edison Taylor was the first human who tossed herself over the Niagara Falls,
back in 1901. A pretty crazy thing to do! We liked her attitude and thought this would
be a nice way to honour strong and emancipated women like her.”
3. The band’s bio on your FB-page starts with the great line: “Satan
I want to marry you”. Are you into black magic and/or Satanism?
“Not really! But we actually also have a song about Satan. But to me, Satan is more
like a metaphor for doing forbidden things and crossing limits. There are always so
many people judging and expecting you to do things in their way. It feels like Satan
stands for the power of ignoring expectations and do whatever feels right to yourself.”
4. ‘S.L.E..E.P.’ is the newest single off the debut EP. It’s actually
my favorite track. How did the song came together?
“Oh, thanks! S.L.E.E.P. is the outcome of a summer where I was working a lot and still wanted to be part of all the activities and festivals which were taking place around me. Classic fear of missing out. So I ended up having a great summer but not a lot of sleep. Tobi totally got the vibe of the song and played some of my favorite guitars on it. I guess that’s why it ended up to be so dreamy and dramatic.”
5. The debut EP is entitled ‘NOT YOURS!’ So why isn’t it ours?
“The second track of the EP is called ‘Not Yours‘ as well and it is a very precious song to me because it was the first song I’ve ever written and brought into the band. Since we didn’t use it for a single, we wanted to honor it in another way, that’s why we called the EP after the track.”
. 6. The EP’s front artwork is quite powerful. Tell us more about it…
“We were super lucky and got through our friend Kai Barbian in touch with Dominic Foster, who also worked with great artists such as The Coral, Cabagge and Noel Gallagher. We fell in love with his style and, luckily, he agreed to do the artwork also for our last singles and the music videos for ‘Under Your Spell‘ and ‘S.L.E.E.P‘.”
Artwork Not Yours! EP…
7. I think, as far as my memory still works well, you’re the first Swiss guitar band
I ever interviewed. Doesn’t Switzerland has an alternative rock scene?
“There are quite a lot of rock bands in Switzerland…. or bands in general! Also there are a lot of bands traveling through Switzerland on their tour in Europe, so we are very spoiled
by the offer of live shows! I wish though there were a bit more dirty, dark and sweaty rock’n’roll venues around our home town Zurich.”
8. What movie would you pick to visualize your music on a big screen while playing?
“Ah man, that’s a hard question to answer! Well, I really like the movie ‘From Dusk Till Dawn, because I love the vibe of the movie and also because it has a really weird twist. The soundtrack, stage-setting, and costumes are just amazing! I don’t know if I can compare our music to it, but maybe that’s an aim for our next song.”
Annie Taylor’s future movie soundtrack…
9. You already played with great bands such as Sunflower Bean and L.A. Witch. What band would you sell your soul to do a world with?
“There is a whole list of bands, which I hope to play with one day.
But on top of the list is Wolf Alice for sure.”
10. ANNIE TAYLOR’s ultimate ambition?
“To keep on playing shows, make people
sweat and dance and record the first
album this summer!”
Thank you Gini for taking time to answer the Qs.
May the road rise with ANNIE TAYLOR!
Who: “Girl grunge meets psychedelic rock with a touch of cheesy dark pop. Imagine ANNIE TAYLOR as a rusty dog searching for his bone in the expanding universe. Pandora’s Box opened in end of 2016, when Gini (singer & guitarist) forced her flatmate to rehearse in the living room, until the neighbours came by to sing along or shut them up.”
Track: UNDER YOUR SPELL – brand new track from upcoming EP ‘Not Yours‘, out in April
Score: Annie Taylor‘s new cut feels like a twofold story. In the first half frontwoman Gini, backed by her electrifying band, tells us joyfully that she’s under someone’s
spell but almost midway the tempo drops down, the mood gets darkish, the drums
start rattling and a feverish guitar solo kicks in as if the process of ‘I’m gonna make
you mine’ isn’t as innocent as it first appeared. Enigmatic electricity all around. Tune in…
Today Swiss 4-headed turbo ANNIE TAYLOR drops their brand new ripper ‘TEACH ME ROCK ‘N ROLL’. A steaming groove from start to finish, pushed by a mighty droning riff and a ferocious glam beat. Fueled with a vigorously incisive swagger and dead cool vocals all over it. Just imagine trash rock icons New York Dolls fronted by Joan Jett. Yes, indeed, no silly special effects nor arty farty bullshit. This cracker is about ROCK BLOODY HELL ROLL…
