Band: YOUNG FATHERS Who: Blood-tingling Scottish dance-funk-punk trio that made a grand entrance
on the music scene when they won the 2014 Mercury Prize (an annual music
prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom) with their
debut album Dead.
New album: HEAVY HEAVY – their 4th LP Released: 3 February 2023. Order infohere.
(Press photo YF – FB)
Info: Written and recorded over the course of three years, the longest time taken
on a Young Fathers album, Heavy Heavy is a tour de force from the Edinburgh trio.
An overarching theme of being human can be felt throughout the ten-track album, exploring the feelings of euphoria and rush of emotion experienced at the end of a struggle, a sense of fulfillment as a result of the toil and hard graft that life throws at everyone. An unashamedly soulful and heartfelt album, where the drums set the
scene throughout to transport the listener to a place of celebration and awakening.
(Spectacular in Antwerp – 22 February 2023 – photo by Turn Up The Volume)
NME: “‘Heavy Heavy’ is a passionate, soulful and often mesmerising work that will stick around long past the first listen. Succinct and underpinned by a catchy melodic structure, it continues Young Fathers’ peerless run of singular albums and further cements them as one of the more unique acts to exist today.” Score: 5/5.
TUTV: This is one of those remarkable records (one every 3 months or so) that
arouses from start to finish, with the cliché no fillers, all killers all over it. You hear
its sonic brilliance, you feel its dauntless vocality, you know it’s a magnum opus.
Heavy Heavy is an undisputable first-class work where vitalizing soul, ecstatic pop melodiousness and self-willed hip-hop come together in an organic, inventive way.
Funk-drunk virtuosity with astonishing vocal teamwork.
And throughout this diamond of a longplayer a modern-day gospel choir causes
an emotive euphoria that grows on you with every spin. Final verdict: this is the
1st contender for best LP of 2023. Fact!
Singles (so far): I Saw / Tell Somebody / Geronimo
YOUNG FATHERS – Trix, Antwerp, Belgium – 22 February 2023
Sassy Scottish trio YOUNG FATHERS released their 4th LP, titled Heavy Heavy, early
this month. The year is still young, but it’s a sterling contender for best-album-of-2023
to Turn Up The Volume‘s exited ears. Take note.
“Heavy Heavy could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that
supports the sound or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men
and the inevitable toll of living, a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes. “You let the demons out and deal with it. Make sense of it after, ” said the band about their new opus.
The once, with their debut full-length (2014), Mercury Prize nominated act
are touring heavily now to bring their new steaming spectacle to the people.
Last Wednesday they blew the roof off in Antwerp with their funk-punk-dance-rap exuberance and astonishing vocal teamwork. Holy moly! What a storming show it was. After the acapella beauty of Only Child they ignite the fireworks with master blaster
single I Sawand never looked back. Neither did the elated crowd.
From there on, assisted by a pounding jungle drum(mer), guitarist/keyboardist Callum Easter (who also was the support act), a grand female soul vox, and digital synths Young Fathers thundered on for 75 minutes with a spot-on selection of booming knockouts from their 4 longplayers.
Stunner ‘Queen Is Dead’ from 2013 LP ‘Tape Two’
As I said their brilliant vocal razmataz is the dominant and overwhelming factor, rollin’ all over the high-powered bass-beat machine. Their non-stop intoxicating ebullience activated all limbs present in the venue and the huge decibels made sure that the whole city of Antwerp could shake their booty along.
Young fathers Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and G. Hastings rule. Heavy Heavy rules. Their staggering live explosiveness rules. Hail hail.
All together now
SETLIST
1. Only Child 2. I Saw 3. Queen is Dead 4. Wow 5.Rain or Shine 6. Get Up 7. Old Rock n Roll 8. Be Your Lady 9. Sink or Swim 10. Drum 11.I Heard 12.In My View 13. Tell Somebody 14. Rice 15. Geronimo 16. Shame 17. Toy
1. ‘Twitchin’ in The Kitchen’ byWARMDUSCHER (London)
This punky-funky disco corker is the perfect pick-me-up tune for all the wacky
weirdos who are always in the kitchen at parties waiting for free drinks and waiting
for Warmduscher to come in and kick their lazy asses. Big stroke, big chorus, big fun!
The Scottish dance-funk-punk trio YOUNG FATHERS launch
their 5th LP called HEAVY HEAVY on 3 February.
Ahead of hit came this ridiculously sticky stunner I SAW.
A master blaster that makes your blood stream faster
through your veins. The addition of a choir in the back
works on the spot.
This London post-punk team unleashed their 2nd scorching album Beware Believers, last April. One of TUTV’s best full-lengths of 2022.
Slowly Separate is a schizo sonic serpent generating a mind-blowing backwash
while chainsaw guitars turn up the decibels to an illegal peak, and vox-in-the-middle James Fox rages and blazes through his teeth.
The by now legendary passion rockers from Cincinnati, Ohio with mastermind Greg Dulli leading the troops. Their new 10th LP How Do You Burn? was voted Best Album Of 2022 on Turn Up The Volume.
I’ll Make You See God was the lead single. A sturdy steamroller, a red-hot-heated juggernaut, an unstoppable cannonball going everywhere fast. Manic blitzkrieg
guitars, ruthless drum/bass attacks, Greg Dulli‘s rush of blood vocality, and a brutal
finish. Flabbergasting.
Dulli: “That’s one of the hardest rock songs we’ve ever done.
It was written and performed on sheer adrenalin.”
This frenetic Brit force hit big time with their dazzling
debut album The Great Regression last March.
Single I Am Kate Moss is a cast-iron brainbreaker. It’s a poignant, biting, and
anxious uppercut. I’m pretty sure Moss would love this hit-and-run drone when
it would hit her ears. She is, after all, the Femme Punk Fatale of fashion.
The Prophet progresses like a vicious viper sliding to its prey until a horrific explosion strikes you in the face. Next is a titanic bass riff that keeps the roller coaster turning with scary speed. This flabbergasting monster is part of their 2nd notable longplayer Trust No Leaders.
About: “As a story or metaphor, we are all ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ – made up of
other people’s opinions and parts that don’t belong to us. That we were born
perfect but people, in their own conditioning, come along and can make us feel
undesirable/inadequate/the monster. But we can choose to be real instead.”
This is without a shadow the best debut single of 2022.
A towering tune going low, high and back. A sickly sticky pop gem wrapped in
a big-boisterous wall-of-sound. And up front, Sianna Lafferty‘s phenomenal voice
causes goosebumps when she reaches for the sky on the chorus. The ardency of Porridge Radio comes to mind.
“I am not what you want me to be
Uncle Sam won’t even point at me
Even the eyes of the Virgin Mary wall
hanging won’t even stare at me.”
Kill Me Again, one of three pieces shared so far, is an infectious groove
propelled by a pounding synth/bass riff, spiced with Coxon on saxophone
and mesmerizing (duet) vocals. Splendid stuff. Bring on the LP.
This power pop sensation impressed big time with their self-titled debut album. The outstanding dingle Chaise Longue – catchy, funny and witty caused choirs of thousands of sing-along people at festivals this past summer as I experienced myself, not at Glastonbury (below), but in Belgium at Hear!Hear! fest.
After releasing her sterling debut LP last year, songstress Ilayda Cicek and her band
came back this year for a series of riveting concerts (I saw 5 of them) and this sublime single. Her passion, her vivaciousness and vocal fervency push this electrifying pearl
way up to the stars.
Where We Sleep is the alter ego of Beth Rettig,
former front force of electro-rock band Blindness
On this boiling groover Rethig rants non-stop with anger and frustration.
A nasty bass riff is the backbone here, while layers of menacing guitar
electricity augment this ripper’s rowdy roll.
A crystal clear statement, a menacing projectile.
“They Don’t Want The Truth / They Just Want The Power”
12. ‘Nothing Good Comes Easy’ by DEAD LEVEE (Canada)
What a wowzer! This uplifting motherrocker boosts your state of mind with
fired-up dynamism from the get-go. Rapid-fire rawk and roll riffs switch on
a fervent feel of euphoria. It did it in the past, it does it in the present and
it will do it in the future.
Despite all the BS we have to endure (pandemic, Ukraine, natural disasters,
and other threats) it’s never too late to get back on track and why not start
with 4 and a half minutes of heart-warming guitar-fueled boogie-woogie
that triggers hope and assurance.
Stoogefather IGGY POP still wants to be your dog.
He has his new – 19th – LP, named Every Loser
lands out next week, on 6 January.
Lead-single was the perfect harbinger. A motherfucker of a punk bomb
featuring an all-star band including Watt, Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan
and Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith.
I’m in a frenzy
Fucking prick
I’m in a frenzy
Goddamn dick
It’s been two years since these Scottish hound dogs made
my speakers tremble with their furious Johnny single.
But on their steamy comeback stomper they still have the same barnstorming groove and move drive. Something Good is a nasty rip-roaring-riff jackhammer,
annex agitated vocals, rotating in your head in an ear-blink. Think NYC’s darlings Interpol playing The Fall. Something good? Way better, something ace!
Geordie Greep (vocalist, guitar): “Almost everything I write is from a true thing, something
I experienced and exaggerated and wrote down. I don’t believe in Hell, but all that old world folly is great for songs, I’ve always loved movies and anything else with a depiction of Hell.”
A screwy zig-zagging haymaker it is.
From their head-spinning 3rd LP Hellfire.
“A paean to taking your foot off the gas and letting things slide, or a warning of the perils of procrastination, perhaps? It’s hard to tell whether ‘Mañana’ is meant to serve as a confessional regarding Domestic’s own perceived lack of willpower, or a celebration of idleness. It could be either of these things; and that’s one of its many joys.”.
A sirens intro, David Bowie‘s saxophone, and steel drums straight from Trinidad. Sounds like an exotic swing and shake ditty is coming up. No folks, it’s a lazy rap-sody you can play the morning after a booze marathon to get up and sober up, slowly.
Soul voice Clare Gillet takes care of the chirpy chorus.
These Welshmen released their new excellent album Druids and Bards
displaying mastermind Scott Marsden high-quality songwriting.
This impassioned hard-luck story is my fav cut. It grows slowly but surely into a soul-stirring and mesmerising heartbreaker with an epic finale. Glowing guitars, a steady drumbeat, and mixed-emotions vocals all come together for a poignant performance.
‘Love Is Cruel / The Hurt Within’. You can feel it.
This wholly charismatic and fast up-and-coming darkwave duo mixes Gothic Depeche Mode beats, with sonic Human League echoes, bass-synth-riffs à la German legends D.A.F. and spice it all up with spooky vocals. And it looks like 2023 will even be bigger than 2022.
After their eponymous bonkers debut EP (2020) followed by some staggering singles,
the high-decibels tandem nail it with another sucker punch. Leader is a funk-punk riff ripsnorter that kicks forth and back before a freakish guitar outbreak slashes and
trashes its way to the end.
Watch out for the pigman,
he looks like a meme in disguise.
“It’s a warning, an unflinching assessment of the vastness and insignificance of this
life, is precisely counterbalanced by their lesson, which models the resilience that this understanding demands. ‘Demolition Row’ is persistent, concise, and alarmingly physical.”
This blustery belter is vintage Metz. Full blast ahead. The track
featured on a split 7” with London-based group Adult Life.
From Dylan’s Desolation Row
to Metz’s Demolition Row…
Once I learned that this startling belter is about the horrible exploitation of human
beings by ferocious money sharks this jagged jackhammer blew my mind even harder than I heard it the first time before knowing about the band’s inspiration for this slam.
Expect rabid guitars, doom-and-gloom vocals, and frantic
twists and turns until the chaotic finale. Post-punk at
its razorblade best.
Jeen: “It’s about letting yourself drift in the flow of everything and hanging on as hard as you can to what makes the shitty parts more tolerable…I was thinking of that Hunter S. Thompson quote, “buy the ticket, take the ride.” It was written in April 2021, which was a rough part of last year for me. I needed to write something that reminded me to tread lightly, to forget about the heaviness of everything.
After only one spin, my ears told me that Chemical Emotion is an bewitching pop doozy. Jeen‘s emotive voice bewitches right away, the mid-tempo cadence emphasizes the meditative reflection perfectly, the compelling chorus brings Alanis Morissette to mind, and overall the orchestral sonority and the layered harmonies lead to a thrilling triumph.
Oscar Mic wrote this song after witnessing the horrific violence of
psycho Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine on the news. All proceeds of
the song weent to Save The Children’s Ukraine Appeal.
We Are Ukrainian is a vivid hp-rap-pop anthem featuring steel drums
and timpani balancing somewhere between Roots Manuva and Mr. Scruff.
“Fleeing people running scared, so tell me Where’s the justice? Our leaders say they care,
tell me can you trust this? Urban warfare, your home’s done and dusted, Aiming at the
public, they wouldn’t? They just did,”
LCD Soundsytem still sounds like LC Soundsystem. New track NEW BODY RHUMBA
has that familiar hypnotic and groovy speed-up rhythm propelled by a steady bass riff, guitars popping up now and then and Murphy singing with his characteristic, nervous voice.
Band: DECIUS (UK) Who: Members of Trashmouth Records, Fat White Family (frontman Lias Saoudi)
& Paranoid London finding themselves climbing out of a hole together at a disco
after hours.
Band: GLYTSH Who: 2 seasoned female musicians from the London music scene.
They mix their love for metal music with their passion for dark and
haunting sonic soundscapes and visuals.
Want some references: Ho99o9, Skunk Anansie, Nova Twins. Fucking cool, right?
You betcha. Sav@ge is a badass piece, a metal beast. Hell bloody hell yeah!
I heard and watched this British post-hardcore bulldozer play
in Antwerp, Belgium recently. They blew my mind and turned
me into an instant fan. What a find.
Band: RED LAMA Who: Formed by five friends from Svendborg, Denmark in 2011. Since then, the sextet has been refining their unique take on psych rock, music for the inner journey, carried forward by melody, groove and soundscapes exploding in grand crescendos.
Single: CHAOS IS THE PLAN
Third shared track from the upcoming new
album – their 3rd – Memory Terrain, landing
on 4 November.
Expect a hypnotic and magnetic psych jam moving
hauntingly, propelled by a groovy bass riff, sinister
synth layers, weeping guitars and emotive vocals.
Grand score!
. RED LAMA: Facebook – Instagram
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Band: THE PULL OF AUTUMN Who: The art-rock collective of Rhode Island musician Daniel Darrow,
from 80s post-punk group Johanna’s House Of Glamour. working
constantly with other notable artists
New album – the 4th – Beautiful Broken World is a 15-track
undertaking that involves a number of experienced musicians.
It arrives on 18 November. Pre-order info here
The first single, namedOUTLAW EMPIRE grooves and moves with Massive Attack‘s
trip-hop swagger, spacey reverberance, and a mesmeric, ongoing dub rotation. If you were/are a Pop Group fan you’ll recognize Maffia Godfather Mark Stewart‘s voice from
the first note.
It’s a beautiful swing-and-sway activator
for a broken world, as we know it.
Stream/buy here.
. THE PULL OF AUTUMN/RBM Records: Facebook
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(Press photo via C & The R)
Scottish post-hardcore punk and tattoo artist FRANK CARTER
and his RATTLESNAKES had their 4th longplayer Sticky out last year
(Carter also released 3 albums with his first band Gallows and 1 under
the moniker of Pure Love)
For new single THE DRUGSCarter invited his friend Jamie T to the studio.
An anti-drugs slam.
A nasty rant. Holy cow.
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES: Facebook – Instagram
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Artist:HANG LINTON Who: British musician, visual artist, filmmaker
and avant-funk enchanter based in Berlin.
TUTV: This funky hip-hop uplift does what great hip-hop vibes do. Having
a prompt impact on your hips’ movements that in turn activate your whole
body’s spryness. Think of rap hero Roots Manuva‘s flamboyant flow.
SALE is for sale, go get it.
.
HANG LINTON:Facebook – Instagram
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Band: BUGEYE Who: Female pop quartet from London blending cherry-liqueur lyrics, bubblegum-kneecap bass electrics, goth-heavy drum compactions & hi-rise guitar sculptures.
Single: SUMMER IN THE CITY “A song that explores the highs and lows and stories of life in the city. From feeling like you’re winning in life, to turning a corner to tensions and violence, to dating app cringeworthy dating experiences and the death of David Bowie. It is a playful song that highlights our fickle nature and our scrolling boredom obsession.”
Time flies. It’s already 2 years since these 4 colorful Amazons had their swinging
dance-punk debut LP Ready Steady Bang out. But the wait is over with this new
firecracker. It’s sexy bugglegum pop, it’s groovy electro-funk, it’s effervescent fun.
“The song captures the frustrations of people across the globe as we all try to make
sense of our new emerging world following the pandemic and the economic mayhem
it has created.”
This Welsh turbo bring their celebrated countrymen Stereophonics to mind here, but
with three guitarists, a John Bonham drummer and a red-hot-blooded vocalist who’s alarming voice fits the confusing times we live in. Wowzers!
Band: YEAH YEAH YEAHS Who: Pop/rock trio from New York
fronted by the gorgeous Karen O Active: Since 20000 / 6th LP (new one incl.)
Their new album Cool It Down – first in 9 years – is out now.
The title is taken from the Velvet Underground song of the same name
from their 1970 LP Loaded.
Band: BLACK NITE CRASH Who: A psych collective started by Jim Biggs (vocals, guitar) twenty years ago
in Seattle Washington. The band had more than 30 members over the years.
OpenerTHE TAKE sets the tone for the full remarkable longplayer.
Influences by masters of the genre such as jangly hero Anton Newcombe
and his Brianjones Town Massacre gang, The Black Angels, and Heart
are all around.
Top stuff!
BLACK NITE CRASH: Facebook
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KAT KOAN is a Berlin-based artist with a passion for expressing intense emotions through music and visuals. With her Belgian musical partner Raymond Rose she canned her second album Coccoon and released it on 7 October.
A sonically versatile and compelling record with Koan speaking and singing
her mind and her heart out. Think Garbage‘s charismatic lady Shirly Manson.
One of my fav tracks is this moody pearl titled STAY
featuring Freddie Dickson and her band The Lost Souls.
KAT KOAN: Website – Instagram – Linktree
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Band: CMON CMON Who: Indie rock trio from Belgium, signed by renowned manager Stephen Budd (Gang Of Four, Heaven 17, The Magic Numbers)
The jangly guitars and the glossy resonance of R.E.M. and Teenage Fanclub are obvious,
but my ears also detect the slacker rock mood of Dinosaur Jr. ‘Say What It Means’ is an
ideal post-summer musing for grey Autumn days for confused and vulnerable souls.
Mike Llerena (vocalist/songwriter) “This song is our love letter to The Fest, a punk rock festival held in Gainesville every year during Halloween weekend. I’ve attended, volunteered, and/or played at Fest almost every year for the past decade and I’ve made a lot of great friendships and memories because of it.”
Melancholia on Halloween? Why not? When it sounds moony, warm
and romantic as Christmas In October does I’m all ears. So should you.
. MIKE & THE NERVE: Facebook – Instagram
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The Welsh icon will release his 17th solo longplayer, titled Mercy
on 20 January 2023 viaDouble Six/Domino.
Single NIGHT CRAWLING was written with David Bowie in mind when
both had fun in New York City in the 70s. It’s a synth-trippy and chilling
reflection.
Watch/listen here.
JOHN CALE: Facebook
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Band: MODERN STARS Who: Spacey shoegazers from Italy. Their work is loaded with stringed
and electronic sounds laid down through a multilayering approach that
has more in common with Indian traditional music and Techno,
If I tell you that my ears here echoes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre
and The Black Angels on Drowning you know that you’ll enter a dark space
with enigmatic, psychedelic encounters.
Roll the tape and get puzzled…
MODERN STARS: Facebook
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Band: USE KNIFE Who: Started as a Belgian duo – Stef Heeren and Kwinten Mordijck – born out of the mutual love for analog and modular electronic machinery. They explore and express hallucinatory freethinking visions to contemporary living. Iraqi artist Saif Al-Qaissy recently joined the duo, making a trio now.
A spectacular ambient jam from their spectacular debut album The Shedding Of Skin.
An intriguing and fascinating piece featuring Iraqi, Brussels-based artist Saif Al-Qaissy
adding Eastern vibes.
Blood-tingling Scottish dance-funk-punk trio YOUNG FATHERS made a notable
entrance on the music scene when they won the 2014 Mercury Prize (an annual
music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom) with their
debut album Dead.
Now, eight years later they announced their 5th LP called HEAVY HEAVY. It will be launched on 3 February 2023.
Ahead comes this brand-new sickly stick stunner I SAW.
I just added this spicy scream-along earworm to my
best-tracks-of-2022 list.
