Turn Up The Volume‘s 20 Knockout Tracks for January 2022!

A stream of rattling rippers, jagged jams, and romantic reveries.

All 20 together on Spotify…

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Here, knockout by knockout…

1. ‘Slowly Separate’ by CROWS (London)

Kamikaze guitars, boiling bluster, insane vocals. The London’s post-punks
are back with a holy smoke hammer as a warm-up for their second LP,
titled Beware Believers, out 1st of April.

I know it’s only January, but this is//will
be one of the best singles of 2022.

Bonkers time…

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2. ‘Piggy’ by SKUNK ANANSIE  (UK)

After 28 years, Skunk Anansie still is a massively popular band with Skin
screaming her lungs on this new killer single as if she’s still 28 years herself.
‘Piggy’ is an enraged eruption calling out all incompetent governments,
specifically UK’s short-sighted Brexit statesmen.

This red-hot-blistering shock wave explodes like
a metallic bomb with a volcanic Skin chorus.

Yeahhhhhh…

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3. ‘Battery Not Included‘ by Ho99o9 (Los Angeles)

The industrial crossover punks scream that they
hate techno shit before going totally berserk
on this new slam dunk.

Ever had an electric chair experience?
Me neither, but I’m sure it sounds
like this…

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4. ‘Pour Another’ by YARD ACT (Leeds, UK)

These politically charged indie gunslingers from Leeds are the talk-of-the-town
lately. Every music website/zine is raving about, them. Their dazzling debut longplayer entered the British charts on #2 last weekend. One of the highlights is this bass-driven jackhammer. Infectious from the kick-off.

Topnotch…

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5. ‘Mañana’ by JAMES DOMESTIC (Essex/Suffolk, UK)

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 drinking marathon. A slow start to get out of bed and sober up. Soul voice Clare Gillet takes care of the chirpy chorus and finally Domestic gets up for a couple of Mañana shouts.

Get up and move, ladies and gents…

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6. ‘Dead Weight’ by PLEASURE CRAFT (Toronto, CA)

After a ghostly intro, the drone machine starts up hitting like
a massive sledgehammer with an industrial exuberance. Merciless
and puissant. No rest for the wicked. Think The Horrors and NIN.

A master blaster! Absobloodylutely!

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7. ‘Fatso’ by WARMDUSCHER (London, UK)

Following in the soundsteps of legendary mega-funk-groover Sly Stone with
a 21st Century post-punk coolness and a pumped-up synth-tastic puissance
this London combo activates all of your muscles, your bloodstream, and your
appetite for behaving like a midnight rambler.

This mid-tempo disco jam helps you to keep in shape at your hot spot
at home until the nightclubs reopen. It’s a Warmduscher affair, folks.

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8. ‘Green Goddess’ by SEA POWER (UK)

Socially engaged indie pop-rockers who started their journey back in 2003.
In the very beginning, they operated as British Air Power, but changed it quickly
to British Sea Power. But last summer the band announced another name change,
dropping ‘British‘.

Their new, 7th full-length, titled Everything Was Forever lands on 11 February.
With new single Green Goddess they do what they do best, writing anthemic pop
tunes that stick after one play.

Yeeees…

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9. ‘La Fusée Du Chagrin’ by ELEPHANT STONE (Canada)

After a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown this rocket blasts into space with supersonic speed.
No looking back, full steam ahead, pushed by a banging drum/bass beat and crazed guitars. Somewhere in the middle, it’s time to reload the batteries and start all over
again fueled by swirling synths et les dernier mots de M. Lonely.

Psychedelia at its mind-boggling best.
Un coup de poing formidable!

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10. ‘The Magic’ by EELS (Los Angeles)

Eels made another Eels album sounding like an Eels album.
But as Mark Oliver Everett moves and grooves, rocks and rolls
like in the good days Extreme Witchcraft feels like he’s having fun,
although you never know for sure with his capricious state of mind.

The Magic is definitely my favorite piece…

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11. ‘Farewell, OK’ by ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS (UK)

Two weeks ago Costello released his 32nd album called
The Boy Named If. And it’s a triumph, praised by the press
and my ears.

Elvis rocks big time again…

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12. ‘Capture The Stills’ by EX-HYENA (Boston)

This twilight hallucination resonates as the shadowy side of Depeche Mode
and the enigmatic darkwave murk of The Soft Moon. The iterating synth-riff
at work here gets under your skin without asking. The atmosphere is impending,
the tone is obscure, the color is black. All you need for a sonic nightmare.

New cut from the Boston duo’s forthcoming
sophomore album Moon Reflections.

Quite special…

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13. ‘Planningtochange’ by ANIKA and PLANNINGTOROCK

This is a rotating remix of the title track of Anika‘s excellent album
released last year. British electronic musician Planningtorock
turned the song into a trippy and vibrant electro beat-breaker.

Anika‘s distorted voice changes the mood
of the original recording. More mystifying,
more mysterious.

Catch the change…

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14. ‘How To Breathe’ by GRAMMONTH (Belgium)

The smooth pop elegance of Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), the mellow
vocality of Adam Granduciel (The War Drugs) and his twinkling guitar
play to end this sweet little pearl. Sonic dreaming at its finest with
a tantalizing pearl that gets under your skin, slowly but surely. Top!

Breathe here…

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15. ‘Scream Quietly’ by REVOLUTION ABOVE DISORDER (Dublin, Ireland)

This is the moniker of Vancouver-based Dubliner Stephen Nicholas White describes
himself as a post-punk/nugaze/electro artist. This new single circles around a repetitive
guitar riff and shiny synths with Eels echoes. Magnetic, hypnotic, and mesmeric.

Press play here…

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16. ‘Delusion Spree’ by EADES (Leeds, UK)

In the past few years, another Britwave of young rousing wolves
has emerged and looks to turn into a sonic tsunami. Black Midi,
Black Country New Road, Black Honey, Fontaines D.C. (I know they’re
Irish), Yard Act, and several more prove that guitar rock is
alive and kicking again.

Now you can add Leeds’ hungry squad Eades. With
6-track EP Abstract Education EP, released last Spring,
they made it loud and clear they’re not a one-trick pony.

Here’s sonic proof…

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17. ‘You The People’ by VONAMOR (Italy)

This is a mindboggling knockout. You The People starts as a meditative harbinger
for a mindboggling sonic orgasm midway, inflamed by whamming percussion, an
ear-shattering guitar explosion, and haunting male/female, English/Italian vocals
before an abrupt comedown ends this rad rush of blood to the head. Wow!

Listen here, people

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18. ‘Gallows’ by VAZUM

Gallows progresses like a death march, on its way to the graveyard,
with a somber and macabre reverberation. Its repetitive and raucous
slo-mo dynamics evoke images of confusion, agitation, and transitoriness.

Get lost in the woods…

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19. ‘Happy Birthday Forever’ by TESS PARKS (Toronto, CA)

Toronto-born, London-based femme fatale Tess Parks has a new album,
called And Those Who Were Seen Dancing, out 2 April. Her first longplayer
in 13 years.

Lead single Happy Birthday Forever is a pretty catchy surprise.
It spins around in your head before you’re even aware of it.

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20. ‘Vercingétorix Face à l’Empire’ by FRAZYL

This is the solo project of Jérôme R. Desrosiers, who played
drums in different Black Metal and Death Metal in the late 90s.
He’s making synth music for about 20 years now, but it’s only
since 2018 that he decided to share his work.

He just issued his new album Mon Odyssée. An imaginative
journey with cinematic synth symphonies, like this one…

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See/hear you next month, music junkies…