5 BEST ALBUMS OF THE MONTH – JANUARY 2025
31 January 2025
Band: DITZ
Who: Unbridled post-punks
from Brighton, UK.
Album: NEVER EXHALE
Follow-up to their astonishing debut
The Great Regression from 2022.
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt, the perfect soundtrack for Doomsday.
Sledgehammer after sledgehammer, drone after drone, brainfucker after
brainfucker. Always danger in the air.
Cal Francis‘s spoken word performances are bone-chilling. His primal screams
send shivers down the spine. Lyrically, he operates in a space where reality and
surreality meet. No room for birds and bees.
Sonically, they fabricate a volcanic and bombastic wall-of-helter-skelter havoc.
Blood-curdling emo-punk exorcism. Chainsaw chaos. Flabbergasting and
jaw-dropping are the keywords.
Never Exhale is an other-worldly Götterdämmerung experience.
It smells like something is alive and kicking here. A spectacular and
lasting tour de force. No regression whatsoever, only progression.
Photo by TUTV – Belgium, 2024
Canadian noizz bulldozers Metz are on a long hiatus.
Ditz will fill the gap. 2025 is theirs. Inhale them.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Instagram – Linktree
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Band: LAMBRINI GIRLS
Who: Two razorblade riot girrrrlzz – vox/guitarist Phoebe Lunny
and bassist Lilly Macieira – from Brighton (UK) with an insatiable
appetite for mass moshpits.
Album: WHO LET THE DOGS OUT
Their debut longplayer.
Faster than a Formula One Ferrari.
Louder than a supersonic jet.
Punkier than any punks around.
Trashing. Crashing. Slashing.
Hellish. Demonic. Manicial.
Deeper-cutting than a Swiss knife.
More lethal than a rattling riot-gun.
Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Lille, France – 24 February 2024
11 knockouts. 11 killers. 11 hits.
11 Molotov cocktails. 11 bulls-eyes.
Massive bass buzz.
Schizo guitar riffs.
Octopus drumming.
Exorcistic screams.
Cuntological rages.
100 sneers. 100 spits.
100 rants. 100 bursts.
100 shits. 100 fuck-offs.
Middle-finger to all LGBTQ-haters.
To hell with all greedy capitalists.
Kick Brex-shit in the nationalistic ass.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Instagram – Website
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Album artwork
Artist: BENJAMIN BOOKER
Who: Absorbing singer-songwriter
from Virginia.
Album: LOWER
His first one in 7 years,
3rd overall.
Pitchfork says: “The New Orleans-based singer-songwriter constructs a corroded
beat-centric grunge that soundtracks stories of violence and perseverance… He pays
sneering homage to the U.S. government’s history of covertly undermining
African American liberation.
The message: This game wasn’t winnable then, and it certainly isn’t winnable now. Booker has seemingly spent the seven years since his last record swallowing down all the hopelessness and dread he could hold. Now he’s spitting it back up like bile. Booker offers pockets of solace amid the outrage.
(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Brussels 2014)
TUTV: 11 years ago BB released his garage blues/soul rock debut LP. Raw and rough.
I saw him perform an emotional gig in Brussels before about 100 people. His 2nd more laid-back album ‘Witness‘ followed in 2017 and he went away after it and now 7 years he’s back with Lower.
A totally different piece of work. A mostly guitar-distorted, yet quite melodic sound
fits his near-whispering, at times haunting and ominous vocals à la trip-hop legend
Tricky. The tone is inky accentuating his downhearted sentiments, his pain caused by
that disease called racism. It’s still present in America’s society an under Trump all white supremacists are crawling back from their caves without any fear. That orange criminal gave them a voice again. Poor, poor America.
This significant, awe-inspiring and cathartic opus reflects the still alarming and
oppressing situation black people have to suffer from. Not only in the USA.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Instagram – Linktree
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Band: THE VEILS
Who: Reknowed New Zealand band THE VEILS
centred around songsmith Finn Andrews.
Album: ASPHODELS
7th one.
It takes its name from the Ancient Greek flower of the Underworld, and lyrically, Andrews draws more from the great poets than he does from the well of more traditional rock and roll songwriters.
TUTV: Andrews‘ enthrals one again with songs of love and death, songs of hope
and loss. He evokes Nick Cave and Father John Mysty atmospherics where introspection, melancholia and contemplations stir heart and soul. The tone is almost acoustic throughout. The timbre is mellow, affectionate, and melodramatic.
Andrews‘s vulnerable vocals are heartbreaking at times and draw your aural attention uninterruptedly. He’s blessed with a spellbound voice that fits his romantic music perfectly. 9 ruminative ballads, 9 soft-hearted musing for laid-back evenings, away
from all outside noise. A memorable 2025 accomplishment.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Instagram – Linktree
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Artist: BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY
Who: Alter ego of singer-songwriter Will Oldham. He started his busy journey back in 1993. He released a lot of solo work so far, collaborated with other songsmiths (and still does), and, was also a member of a couple of bands.
Album: THE PURPLE BIRD
LP artwork
Pitchfork says: “A sort of companion to his two previous studio LPs, it’s also his
best and most focused in some time. The Purple Bird is a Bonnie “Prince” Billy country record. Oldham gave himself over fully to the Nashville experience, participating in a series of casual songwriting sessions with various local legends and playing with a wrecking crew of musicians who are deft enough to sound like they’ve been backing him on stages all over creation. There’s a freewheeling spirit to the music they created together, a punchy camaraderie that connects.”
TUTV: BPB doesn’t behave, doesn’t dress, or doesn’t brag like super rock and roll
stars do. He’s a star when it comes to masterly singer-songwriter qualities. For years
he wrote/recorded contemplative records. Both moody and mellow. He’s a unique crooner, a genuine balladeer and a wholehearted vocalist.
And this laid-back collection of country reveries confirms once again what
we know for a long time. Never a dull moment with Bonnie “Prince” Billy.
Dim the lights, relax, listen, feel the warmth, and enjoy the soothing music.
SINGLE
ALBUM
