25 December 2024
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AMYL TAYLOR and her SNIFFERS
were all over 2024.
The Aussie punks released their 3rd and best
album (so far) Cartoon Darkness and toured
non-stop.
On 17 November, they stopped in Brussels for a whirlwind concert.
For everybody who wants their Xmas very LOUD you can watch it in
full right here.
Spotlight on stand-out indie artists
16 November 2024
Band: ILA
Who: Vigorous Belgian rock quartet led by formidable singer-songwriter/guitarist,
with Turkish roots, Ilayda Cicek who’s blessed with a unique voice and shares
unadulterated emotions, sonically and lyrically.
I remember seeing Ilayda Cicek for the first time as a solo artist, about seven years ago.
She looked shy and vulnerable but her set of intimate musings in a small club was one not to forget. She impressed my ears with her soul-stirring voice and subtle acoustic guitar play. Her vocal tone, timbre, and range caused goosebumps.
A couple of years later, she started to turn up the decibels with the help of a full rock band and drew the attention of new fans and also the press. Her debut 7-track debut EP Felt showed us her high-quality songwriting skills.
‘You Leave Me Dry’.
In a normal world (does that exist?) this
striking stroke should be a global hit.
I suppose Ilayda will be tired by now of being compared with PJ Harvey all the time,
but that is how imposing, how compelling, and how special she is. Her vocal fervency, profound passion, and emotive energy cause a sort of trance-like experience.
Last Thursday she played in the city of Ghent, billed as the official release show
of her first longplayer, titled ANYA. Without a shadow of a doubt, the best debut
of 2024 on my list. No fillers, all killers. Heartfelt ardency in motion.
One of the LP’s highlights.
Again (I saw her about 20 times) she confirmed the top level she has reached by
now, on record and on stage. Her rousing voice filled the cozy venue, her presence
was magnetic and her band has become a top turbo. It was another 5-star performance. Hail hail!
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ILA is for real, ILA is authentic,
ILA is here to entertain us for
a very long time (I hope).
– ANYA –
ILA: Facebook – Spotify
(Live photos by Turn Up The Volume)
5 November 2024
Goth Gods THE CURE released their 14th album, their
first in 16 years, titled Songs Of A Lost World last Friday.
A stunning, heart-and-soul stirring longplayer mostly inspired by
maestro Robert Smith‘s loss of his brother and parents the past
16 years.
TUTV: “The most drastically soul-stirring record I heard all year, accentuating how
sorrow can overwhelm and hurt one’s heart and mind. It’s a universal experience that
millions, and millions of people who lost loved ones – past, present and future – can
relate to.”
Unquestionable contender for Album Of The Year.
On the album’s release day, November 1st, the band played their new
magnum opus in full (and ended with a series of past hits) at The Roxy
in London (OMG, I wish I was there). The concert was streamed in real
time on the internet.
If you’re a fan, and you missed
it, here’s the full 3-hour show.
2 November 2024
LICE are a post-punk hit team from Bristol, UK. Last September they released
their second longplayer, named Third Time At The Beach (stream/buy it below).
It follows their smashing debut WASTELAND: What Ails our People Is Clear
from 2021.
They’re in the middle of a European tour with fellow Brits Deathletter.
On Halloween night they made a stop on their own, in my hometown of
Ghent (their 2nd visit here), for a freaky Halloween gig. The misfits didn’t
need horror masks to get us all in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre mood.
They have Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (real name: Alastair Shuttleworth, really?)
as their demonic voice right in the middle.
Offstage he’s like the nice guy from next door, on stage he turns into a Götterdämmerung creep screaming his 4 lungs out amidst a blistering cacophony of electricity. Sonic exorcism. Schizophrenic outbursts. Dante‘s inferno in motion. Break-up, break-down. Labyrinth paranoia and other related straight jacket hysteria. Lyrically, he mixes reality and surreality with his hallucinations and accentuates the resulting insanity up there on the podium with deafening shrieks that surpass the legal amount of decibels.
Here’s an idea.
It all felt like having an electric chair experience (again). Scary, blood-curdling and totally maniacal. Awesome, right? You bloody betcha. Go and see them if you can. It’s worth the brain-shock.
STREAM/BUY
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Lice: Linktree
Beware, they only look nice (photo by Dani Bolton – @theredbeanienz)
16 October 2024
New York‘s rock darlings INTERPOL released their second
album ANTICS on 27 September 2004, 20 years ago.
A deluxe anniversary is out now. Different formats of Vinyl/CD/Digital with all
sort of specials, a 30-page booklet and some other collector items. Details here.
You can stream the digitally version below.
Frontman Paul Banks spoke with English music website NME about the making of Antics: “It was a fairly organic and not-contrived evolution of where we were with our songwriting. I’d like to say that we were pushing back on these labels of being super dour in the first round, but I’m not sure how much that would have actually had an impact on the material that we then wrote for ‘Antics’. We had a lot of ‘Antics’ written by the end of the ‘Bright Lights’ tour, so it was almost like a continuation.”
20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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EURO/UK TOUR
Interpol: Instagram – All Albums
4 October 2024
Band: THE RATS
Who: 5 ambitious noisemakers
from Ghent, Belgium.
TUTV: These Belgian up-and-coming punk pitbulls released their
contender for best EP of the year, named DISCO TO DISCO last month.
Last Wednesday, they threw a raw and rough release party. Wowzers. I guess their unbridled intensity matches an electric chair experience. Furious frontman Emile
is the maddening man in the middle. Off-stage he’s as sweet as Dr. Jekyll, on stage
he turns into a badass Mr. Hyde bastard with shorts on. Backed by a bulldozing rats
artillery, these manic misfits made me think of the infamous Henry Rollins Band .
Fast-forward fireworks, nasty left/right punch after nasty left/right
punch, headbutt after headbutt, and spitting and sneering all over
the sweaty sauna club.
Their smashing debut EP gets lots of adrenaline shots live up there on the podium.
Post-punk at its sharp-teethed best with Old Flames as everybody’s favourite (watch
the clip below). In a normal world (does that even exist?) this roaring riff-ripper should
be on top of the indie charts all over this messed-up planet.
Footage by KinkyStarCeSoir (thanks, Wouter)
The band’s message was very loud and crystal clear: they are here to stay and
have no intention whatsoever to stop attacking your ears and your speakers and
go nuts at their alive and kicking performances. The rat race has only started.
Hail hail, motherrockers!
Stream/buy DISCO TO DISCO right here
and have yourself a jolly good moshpit.
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Linktree
23 August 2024
Press photo
Original SEX PISTOLS, Paul Cook (drummer), Glen Matlock (bassist) and Steve
Jones (guitarist) played their one and only album Never Mind The Bollocks
(still the best punk LP in my book), in its entirety at a fundraiser for London’s
historical, small Bush Hall venue in Shepherd’s Bush last week. It was a blast.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
And due to popular demand, they announced a handful of gigs in September in the UK.
BODIES
19 August 2024
Last Wednesday, Brooklyn‘s pop-folk dreamers BIG THIEF
played in the beautiful park Rivierenhof in Antwerp, Belgium.
Frontwoman/songwriter Adrienne Lenker, who released her 6th, widely praised solo
LP Bright Future last March, drew all attention with her heartfelt and poignant voice.
The set consisted mostly of new songs, but as it were vintage Big Thief, mixed
emotions musings, they all were received with much approval of the enthusiastic
crowd.
Here’s one of the new ones, titled Taker.
My favourite one of the 90-minute set was Vampire Empire which they
started playing live last year. An acoustic version of the song is on her
new solo album.
A funny thing happened when they ended the show with a steamy newbie named Incomprehensible. When the band returned for 2 encores, they played that song again,
but much slower.
Lenker explained that they wanted it to play it again, but slower, as it should be done, because the first time was too fast on purpose because she needed to pee urgently. Laughter all over the place. To end a magical night in a green surrounding, they
rocked out with Grandmother, also a new piece.
One small negative remark. I was a bit disappointed because BT didn’t perform one
of their most gripping songs ever, Change from their latest album Drag New Warm Mountain I Believe In You which came out two years ago. I’m pretty sure they didn’t
it because they played that ‘Incomprehensible‘ one twice.
A diamond of a ballad.
(Photos by Turn Up The Volume)
15 August 2024
Original SEX PISTOLS, Paul Cook (drummer), Glen Matlock (bassist) and Steve
Jones (guitarist) played their one and only album Never Mind The Bollocks
(still the best punk LP in my book), in its entirety at a fundraiser for London’s
historical, small Bush Hall venue in Shepherd’s Bush for the past two days.
They distanced themselves and vice versa from former voice/face
Johnny Forgotten Rotten who became a far-right Trump fanatic over
the years. Sharp-cutting vox Frank Carter (from FC & The Rattlesnakes
who released one of the best albums of 2024 with Dark Rainbow) took
his place and it worked bollocks well.
Steve Jones, Glenn Matlock, Frank Carter and Paul Cook Promo photo
Check these 3 crazed moments
– GOD SAVE THE QUEEN –
Featuring Yungblud
– BODIES –
– LIAR –
13 August 2024
Utterly charismatic, urban R&B punk two-piece NOVA TWINS – vocalist/guitarist
Amy Love and bassist Georgia South – from London, entered the scene back in 2014
and attracted lots of attention with their explosive gigs and a series of big bang singles, which featured on their praised debut LP Who Are The Girls? in 2020.
But it was with last year’s post-pandemic follow-up LP SUPERNOVA that the utterly cool, human battle axes raised with the speed of a comet to stardom. British newspaper The Guardian named them the loudest, most exciting new rock band in the UK and gave the
LP a 5/5 score.
Single ‘Antagonist’
Last year I saw them for the first time going bonkers in Brussels (and all of us in the audience too) and last week at Lokerse Feesten in Belgium they went again through a steaming set of robust hip-metal-pop rowdiness.
Their Rage Against The Machine rants against any form of human intolerance doubled our adrenalin stream. Btw, RATM’s guitarist Tom Morello is a big fan. Some time ago he said: “This is an incredible band who deserve to be huge.”
They appeal to young and old and any age in between. I saw elated teenagers as
well as 50-plus-year-old music freaks jumping for joy. I said it over and over again
and I’ll do it over and over again: music unite people! Thank you, Nova Twins.
Here’s an idea of their impressive live presence.
Lokerse Feesten
6 Augustus 2024
Georgia South
Amy Love
NT: Linktree
(Photos by Turn Up The Volume)