BROKEN SOUND TAPES is an indie label based out of Hillsborough, NC
focused on small runs of weird and creative artists. They also re-issue
albums from the South and North Carolina scene of the 80s, 90s, and
early 2Ks.
BST have their 5th shoegaze compilation out, in a series named Aspirin Age.
The first 17 tracks are available on cassette, everything after that is digital only.
A staggering amount of 47 songs. Not only shoegaze stuff. Also, dream pop, post-punk, darkwavish and guitar pop/rock tunes are on the menu. Actually, all things exciting for music junkies, like me and many of you out there, to explore. Only adrenalin, no need
for aspirin.
Press info: Their debut album ‘Bitchhouse‘ is more than music.
It’s a safe space where women make the rules, embrace chaos,
and channel power through sound.
TUTV The two snake queens finally, after their 2021 debut single Arrival, have their debut album out. As the cliché goes it was worth
the wait, it absolutely is.
It resonates like an outlandish electro-pop journey. Sonically it reverberates,
at times spooky and uncanny, at times mysterious and enigmatic, at times
bombastic and melodramatic, always highly arresting and fully absorbing.
From industrial-rock infused, and orchestral pieces (think Chelsea Wolfe / Killing Joke
and NIN), to amplified reveries, and a surprising, but utterly cool rap guest moment
on shock track Pervert. The duo’s passional vocality fits the manic music like a glove.
No songs about the bees and the trees for Piranha and Fitzgerald. They address
all sorts of intolerance in our messed-up society where political charlatans rule.
Bitchhouse has all dark Gothwavish ingredients to have
yourself a mind-stirring experience. Electroclash excellence.
NME (the by now legendary British music website) says: “At an already exciting
time for Australian music as a cultural export – from the rise of punk and hardcore
acts like Amyl & The Sniffers and Speed, to the continuing arena dominance of Tame
Impala and Rüfüs Du Sol – there’s unquestionably a space for The Belair Lip Bombs
to thrive globally.
‘Again’, to paraphrase U2, feels like them auditioning
to be the biggest band in the world.”
TUTV: Just one spin and I knew this LP is a winner. Ace tune, after ace tune, after
ace tune. Guitar pop at its most move ‘n groove exciting. In the middle, vocalist and
guitarist Maisie Everett draws all attention. Wonderful voice, striking performance.
She’s backed by a well-oiled rock turbo. All together they showed us why they are a trustworthy hype. Anyway, hype or not, these Aussies are going places, all around the globe. Just like that, and so late in the year, they score bullseye with one of the best longplayers of 2025. Fact!
SINGLE
STREAM/ BUY ALBUM
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Wait, don’t go, folks.
Last night, the bombs played my hometown of Ghent, Belgium, bringing ‘Again’ to life with lots of panache, flair, and verve. TBLB are one of those bands you fall in love with at first sight/listen.
This new compilation of unreleased or little heard compositions from indie artists
raises money for the Gaza Soup Kitchen Organisation. A grassroots organisation
that was established last year, to provide food for Palestinians at risk of famine
during the Gaza war.
It features A Place To Bury Strangers, of Montreal, Kristeen Young, Jason Trachtenberg, Weston Allen, Preston Spurlock, Prairie Princess and many
more.
Californian veteran rockers THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, conducted by singer/songwriter/musical mastermind and only original member John Darnielle, are playing around for more than 3 decades, actually
since 1991.
Paste Magazine says: “John Darnielle trades the lo-fi confessional for high tragedy, finding transcendence—albeit a touch of distance, in the performance of survival. A record that dramatizes collapse, but, for better or for worse, never quite gives in to it.
It’s gorgeous, exacting, and ultimately cyclical, much like theater itself, where death is just the cue for the lights to come back up.” Full review here.
TUTV: Hats off to singer-songwriter John Darnielle. Coming up, after 34 years
and 22 albums, with this new high-quality record is remarkable. His love for music
isn’t reduced whatsoever. Not one dull moment here. Darnielle‘s songwriting expertise
is still intact. Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan is a flawless accomplishment.
Top-notch orchestral entertainment for winter evenings.
Artist: MILES KANE Who: Brit-mod rocker who love to revisit
music history and is very good at it.
Album: SUNLIGHT IN THE SHADOWS
His 3rd in 4 years. Overall, his 6th one. Co-written with The Black Keys, Daniel Tashian and Pat McLaughlin.
Clash Magazine: “Miles Kane tackles the blues with an all-killer stadium filler.
It’s anthemic and thrumming, and reads like the soundtrack to a summer spent
on Route 66.”
TUTV: Kane should join The Black Keys (it sounds like he already did). His new record, mostly written with Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney uses those two keys’ formula applied on their last two LPs. Light blues rock tunes, smoothly crafted and mainstreamed for success.
NME says: “There’s unquestionably a space for The Belair Lip Bombs
to thrive globally. ‘Again’, to paraphrase U2, feels like them auditioning
to be the biggest band in the world.”
TUTV: Just like that these pop indies from down under score one of the best guitar pop albums of 2025. Expect a swirling series of emotive earworms. Top-drawer stuff. Trust me, these bombs will go nuclear soon.
Kerrang says: “Carry on screaming! Creeper return with their fangs on full display for
bigger, brassier, bloodier Sanguivore sequel. Creeper have always been great. In this current (and unexpectedly elongated) vampire phase, they’ve blossomed into their true, proper selves. Go on, Creeper, make this sequel part two of a trilogy.”
TUTV: Goth rock bombast with a huge entertaining impact. Titanic tunes blast
out of your speakers for 42 minutes. Not creepy, rather speedy and sweepy.
Band: EX HYENA (Boston, MA) Who: The musical project of Bo Barringer and Reuben Bettsak.
They got together in 2020, surfacing through the haze of the
global pandemic and have released 3 albums since.
Press info: “To understand this rich and complex collection of 11 tracks, one must crawl into its title. The XX in XX YOUR LOVE is a placeholder for the listeners’ understanding of
a personalized reflection of love, as Ex-Hyena canvass a Lynchian narrative that explores the innocent love of youth, the love of our dreams, and the love of our assumed innocence juxtaposed by the damaged love of our desires, the love of our nightmares, and the love of our assumed supremacy.”
TUTV: Ex-Hyena fans know what to expect from this electro-crazy Boston duo.
Old skool techno pyrotechnics, 24-hour party extravaganza, and synth-laced jams.
Artist: ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF Who: Swedish singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and
pipe organist. She is known for her gothic-styled music, usually
accompanied by the pipe organ.
The Guardian (British newspaper): “It’s music that feels as if it’s in constant motion, amplified by the fact that the melodies, rich and beautiful as they are, seldom adhere to any standard verse-chorus structure: the songs here usually end up somewhere very different from the place they started. Indeed, its maximalism might be too overwhelming to take in one long sitting.”
TUTV: This synth-symphonic, heavy percussion and vocal tour de force opus causes
a transcendental experience that lingers for a long time. Think Kate Bush teaming up
with Florence + The Machine.
Press info: “The title and beating heart of Icelandic collective Of Monsters
And Men’s fourth album hits a lot closer to home than you’d expect. A tapestry
of stories, moments, and conversations, the album explores how love and pain
intertwine.
Feelings that might seem at odds with each other, but co-exist simultaneously and
need one another. Tales both big and small — from the loneliness and longing of living
in a block surrounded by strangers, to missed connections in a grocery store, to the lives and losses of a community of mice in a vacant house during winter.”
AllMusic says: “Hitting on the highs and lows of life, the Icelandic quintet stick close to
their established sound: touching and tender indie folk anthems that play on earnestness
and innocence. Rather than shaking things up, Of Monsters and Men play to their strengths
and opt for soothing familiarity and comfort on a micro scale.”
TUTV: This is what melancholic, folk-inspired splendour is about. Galvanically
crafted songs that touch heart and soul. Rainbow-colored reveries about daily
life put to bewitching music with a leading role for beatific piano play amidst
enticing orchestrations and idyllically alternating and duet vocals.
Think Scottish romantics Belle & Sebastian. This is the kind of
gratifying records to cherish and embrace when your mind
wants/needs a break from the outside world.
Many artists make a covers album when they have no inspiration/intention to write
new material. Sometimes it works, many times it doesn’t work. With The Pretenders
legend CHRISSIE HYNDE and her DUETS it works magnificently. Why?
One, the songs, mostly ballads and lullabies, she picked are all top ones. Two, she
performed them in duet with marvelous voices such as the late Mark Lanegan, K.D. Lang, Lucinda Williams, Debbie Harry and Garbage‘s Shirley Manson. Three: covers or not, Hynde‘s sensual voice always enthralls.
Duets is an ideal soundtrack companion for
a cosy night in, relaxing with your favorite
drink at hand.
SOULWAX, the Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele‘s band for 30 years now,
is only one of the siblings’ diverse projects. They DJed the world around as 2manydjs,
had their own Radio Soulwax, and produced/remixed countless other artists.
Press info: “Soulwax’s first new album in 8 years, entitled All Systems Are Lying, showcases the band’s return with a touch of Ibiza and a post-punk electronic funk edge. Since 1995, David and Stephen Dewaele have consistently pushed the boundaries of music by diversifying into various guises.”
Credit: Nadine Fraczkowski
TUTV: Soulwax excel here with a kaleidoscopic sonic amalgam that connects Kraftwerk‘s otherworldly euphoniousness and The Orb‘s ambient dynamics and at times Cabaret Voltaire‘s experimental capriciousness
The record’s arresting strength, to my ears, is it’s underlying poppiness. Half of
the album is stuffed with pop tunes, enwrapped in the bros’ electronic universe.
It’s not pure techno, not pure dance, not really EBM, rather a versatile, chameleon-like
kind of synth-layered album that sparkles and effervesces non-stop and they aren’t afraid
of tackling the powers that be, the systems that are after your soul.
The siblings got it right: “It’s a rock record without guitars”.
