The Black Keys
THE BLACK KEYS Visit Europe & UK Next Summer
Ohio blues rockers THE BLACK KEYS are rolling since 2001.
This year they released their 11th LP, named OHIO PLAYERS.
Simply their best ever to TUTV’s greedy ears.
Next summer they’ll entertain Europe and the UK with it.
OHIO PLAYERS
20 BEST ALBUMS OF 2024
– 1 –
Band: THE CURE
Album: Songs Of A Lost World
The Goth Gods’ 14th LP, their first
in 16 years.
Orchestrator Robert Smith about
their supreme new opus.
TUTV: In the past 16 years Robert Smith lost his mother, father, and brother.
All these painful events led to this extraordinarily touching record. It’s one
long, emotionally layered lament that works liberating in the end.
Strong sentiments of heartache, grief, and sadness are omnipresent, but you
hear and feel frequently that Smith has accepted humankind’s inevitable destiny.
Live and die. Life and death.
Sonically, it feels like if you’re part of a funeral march that progresses in slow
motion. Almost every song starts with a long instrumental intro of waves of
mourning synths and weeping guitars, and every time when Smith‘s feverish
voice joins in, the sense of tristesse augments wondrously heavy-hearted.
5-star masterpiece!
SINGLE
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Instagram – All Albums
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– 2 –
Band: FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES (UK)
Album: Dark Rainbow
Their 5th
TUTV: Musically, tattoo artist Carter and his accomplices have left their angry punk days behind them and moved closer to classic rock on this surprising and bold longplayer.
And it’s a truly staggering result with several melodramatic power ballads that generate goosebumps, and some stoner rock ebullitions to keep balance. Carter sings his heart out with monumental vivaciousness. A vocal tour de force throughout, dealing with up and down emotions.
SINGLE
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Linktree
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– 3 –
Band: FAT WHITE FAMILY (UK)
Album: Forgiveness Is Yours
Their 4th one
Lias Saoudi (voice/face/wordsmith/poet/writer): ‘Forgiveness Is Yours,’ is about life as eternal contingency… about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier… in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, your body’s going to go into decay and the people you love will slowly start dropping dead around you… but somehow, you’ve smashed enough
of your expectations thus far in life, you’re sort of fine with it… you accept it.The overarching aesthetic themes at work here are torpor and further torpor still.”
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt their most startling, and most creative/inventive accomplishment. Sounds like FWF have written/recorded the bone-chilling soundtrack
for an entertaining Doomsday party. Enigmatic reflections, dark deliberations, distressing vibes, a John Lennon tribute and Saoudi as the foreboding messenger and sinister poet in the middle of it all. It’s the end of the world, as we know it, and it feels like Fat White Family.
SINGLE
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Instagram – Website
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– 4 –
Band: NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
Album: Wild God
13th one
Cave: “There’s no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves
you. I love that about it. I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it.”
TUTV: Cave is the God of cloak-and-dagger balladry. Now here’s a God I can believe in. Again he shows why he’s one of the best ever crooners in the universe. And lyrically it
feels as if, after so many devastating, heart-crushing years, with the loss of two sons,
he lets sparks of light back in his life. God bless Nick Cave.
STREAM
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Instagram – Linktree
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– 5 –
Artist: JACK WHITE
Album: No Name
6th solo one
TUTV: White returns to his punk blues roots of the early days. Swipe after swipe,
blue stripe after blue stripe, kick after kick, clap after clap. A total of 13 thunder
strokes. High-wired electricity. Dope stuff.
ALBUM
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Instagram – Linktree
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– 6 –
Band: THE MYSTERINES (Liverpool, UK)
Album: Afraid Of Tomorrows
2nd LP
TUTV: The charismatic Lia Metcalfe‘s singular voice, both anxious and bewitching,
is all over this new, awe-inspiring full-length. Overall the sound is even more gloomy
and spine-chilling than on their debut from 2022.
It fits Metcalfe‘s introspective reflections on her turbulent past terrifically well.
They’re embedded in arresting songs that send shivers down your spine.
But, eventually, there’s a light shining
at the end of the Mysterines tunnel.
One that illuminates their future
and your stereo.
SINGLE
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Linktree
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– 7 –
Band: THE BLACK KEYS (Ohio, US)
Album: Ohio Players
Their 12th
TUTV: The star duo made an album with lots of bright pop tunes and some blues light
ones. The licks/riffs and hooks – about a thousand – haven’t that BK’s raw and rough edge as we are used to, but I don’t miss it whatsoever.
The overall sonority leans more towards power guitar pop (slow, mid-tempo and only
a couple of fast ones). I never thought that the tandem would come up after 23 (!) years with a pretty different sounding, coherent longplayer, without ignoring their blues roots that is. I played Ohio Players more than their whole catalog together. Say no more.
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– 8 –
Artist: JEEN (Toronto, CA)
Album: Gold Control
Her 4th one
TUTV: The three main elements that make this album special are Jeen’s remarkable
voice, her high-quality songwriting expertise, and the heart-and-soul passion that streams throughout it. Whether Jeen rocks out, muses, or swings moods, she always holds your aural attention.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Instagram – Website
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– 9 –
Band: RIDE (UK)
Album: Interplay
7th one
TUTV: With Interplay their shoegaze past goes into the dustbin. Ride came up here
with a multi-layered pop LP stuffed with arousing tunes, alternated with pepped-up reveries.
All songs are sublimely orchestrated and bathe in a psychedelic jacuzzi,
while vocalist Mark Gardner‘s velvet vocals match the radiant atmosphere
exquisitely. It’s a new ride, and it’s a gratifying one.
SINGLE
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Instagram – Website
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– 10 –
Duo: LIAM GALLAGHER and JOHN SQUIRE
Album: Liam Gallagher – John Squire

Daft album artwork designed by John Squire
TUTV: This first Mancunian collabortion sounds as if was made about 30 years ago.
Most tunes could be leftovers from The Stone Roses‘ 2nd and final 1994 LP Second Coming, the one on which Squire played his guitar exactly the way Jimmy Page did in Led Zeppelin for years. And Liam is Liam. Arms together on his back and letting his pipes do the talking. The two heroes just did what they wanted to do, making an album together and having fun doing it.
Before I was aware of it I had played the album about 10 times in 2 days.
Mind you this is not a masterwork whatsoever, but all 10 tunes are top-entertaining
and stick faster than I can say “I want the Stone Roses support Oasis on their reunion tour”?
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Liam Gallagher – John Squire
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– 11 –
Artist: T BONE BURNETT (US)
Album: The Other Side
TUTV: The Other Side is a concept record about a “mysterious couple” having
adventures in an otherworldly America. The by-now 76-year-old Burnett translates
their journey in lovey-dovey lullabies, heartfelt musings, and amourus ballads.
This is the perfect record for daydreaming and relaxation. Soft, mellow, and tender.
His slightly hoarse Americana voice enchants and entices all through this sepia-colored album. Pure romanticism. Pure songsmith.
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Linktree
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– 12 –
Artist: JUJU (Italy)
Brainchild of Sicilian multi-instrumentalist
and producer Gioele Valenti.
Album: Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler
TUTV: Valenti is a jam champ and a groove master creating electrifying, trance-like vibrations that transfer you to the dark side of your mind where you can freely
fantasize and explore your own psyche.
Circling Krautrock-like psychedelia is all over the place. Choir chants and spacey percussion cause a tribal atmosphere à la The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Mind-bending and dream-triggering. As always.
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Linktree –
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– 13 –
Band: THE LIBERTINES
Album: All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade.
4th one
TUTV: After the turmoil, chaos and drugs addictions (especially Doherty) of the early
years, the side-projects, solo records and getting clean and healthy the Libs are back, again. They’re not the boys in the band of yesteryear, they’re now grown-up men who
enjoy a stable life and still are obsessed by making music.
They became notable, experienced musicians who left their hedonistic lifestyle behind themselves for several years now. Not one dull moment, not one dull song on the eastern esplanade.
SINGLE
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Instagram – Linktree
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– 14 –
Band: FONTAINES D.C.
Album: Romance
4th LP
TUTV: The Irishmen have become first-class songwriters (which they already proved on previous LP Skinty Fia– – still my favourite one). Frontman Grian Chatten‘s lyrics show (again) his observative view on this modern-day, confused world and how it affects
his inner-self.
This is not their masterpiece yet to my ears, but it’s only a matter of
time that they will come up with a longplayer that will blow us all away.
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Instagram – Website
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– 15 –
Band: AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS (Australia)
Album: Cartoon Darkness
3rd one
Turn Up The Volume: Old skool punk ‘n’ roll? Absolutely. Any good? You betcha!
Amyl and her loud buddies made another roasting riff-manic-monster of a hell fucking
hell yeah record. Pogo madness is back. Sturm un drang from start to finish. HOLY MOLY!
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Instagram – Website
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– 16 –
Band: THE SMILE
Sort of supergroup featuring 2 radioheads, Thom
Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Album: Cutouts.
Their 3rd LP in just 2 years
(Radiohead 8 in 31 years).
TUTV: By far their best to my ears. On the previous 2 ones they tried too hard
to not sound like Radiohead (which they did frequently anyway) and did it with
too many redundant orchestrations, too many unnecessary layers and a bit of
arty farty structures here and there.
Mind you these are good LPs but on this one they keep it far more simple resulting
in 10 very compelling pieces of mesmerizing music. Trippy fast ones alternate with slow
musing ones and throughout the arrangements are subtle, direct and most entertaining with Thom Yorke sounding, yes, at ease, not forcing his compassionate voice/vocals. Bingo.
SINGLE
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Instagram – Spotify
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– 17 –
Artist: RICHARD HAWLEY (Sheffield, UK)
Album: In This City They Call You Love
His 10th

Press photo by 📸: Dean Chalkley
TUTV: Nostalgia is the keyword all over this fully devoted record. As we already know
for a long time Hawley is a romantic at heart who’s in love with his city Sheffield since
he was a child. It’s more than just his hometown.
It’s the place where he experienced all things good and bad, happy and sad. It leads
to yearning renumerations, fanciful daydreams and wistful meditations. With his soft-heartened voice and late-night stories, the late great Roy Orbison comes to mind on
several occasions.
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Instagram – All Albums
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– 18 –
Artists: DEAD ANYWAY
British duo combining the dark lyricism of Kate Arnold
against the music and soundscapes of Marc Symonds.
Album: Tough, Listen
TUYV: Slow/mid-tempo/fast trip-hop tunes are wrapped in layers of
distortion and feedback, creating an eerie and at times sinister ambiance.
Massive Attack, Tricky, Arab Strap and Mike Skinner’s The Streets
and Laurie Anderson‘s latest opus Amelia come to mind.
DA resonates as EBM for people who come alive when the darkness sets in, far away
from our 24/7 suffocating life and the world’s destructive nature as we experience now, again.
Kate Arnold‘s spoken word stories evolve on waves of chilling synth soundscapes that actually ease one’s confused mind (mine, for sure) and transfer you to your space of imaginativeness. Trance massage it is. You’ll feel alive anyway.
SINGLE
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ALBUM
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Instagram – Spotify
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– 19 –
Band: LIP CRITIC
Mental electro-punks from NY
Album: Hex Dealer
“The singular mixture of classic punk/hardcore and electronic styles result in 12 frantic tracks of postmodern pop for the genreless future. Painted with a broad pallet of only the most extreme hues of emotion, each track is marked by a distinctive danceable mania.”
TUTV: Let your head kicked in with schizophrenic disco sledgehammers for illegal raves in batcaves where dropouts, misfits, loners, eccentrics, bohos, and other related outsiders gather to move in mysterious ways, far away from the normal world.
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Instagram – Linktree
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– 20 –
Band: SHELLAC (US)
Album: To All Trains
6th LP

(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Belgium 2017)
TUTV: It’s vintage Shellac/Steve Albini with its wayward song structures, its
capricious and minimalistic approach, its broken riffs, edgy hooks, sinewy
drumming, Albini‘s firm vocals and the raw and rough post-punk dynamics.
Absolutely weird to listen to, knowing
that the noise wizard is here no more.
He passed away on May 7, following a heart attack.
Only 10 days before the album release. Sad loss.
ALBUM
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R.I.P.
20 BEST BALLADS OF 2024
ALL TOGETHER
TRACK BY TRACK
Band: THE MYSTERINES
Who: Impassioned powerhouse pop indies from
Liverpool fronted by ravishing voice Lia Metcalfe.
Track: SO LONG
From their 2nd LP
Afraid Of Tomorrows.
Haunting femme fatale tragedy.
Linktree
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Artist: BILL RYDER-JONES
Who: Singer-songwriter who was co-founder
of Merseyside heroes The Coral.
Track: THIS CAN’T GO ON
Piece from his 6th solo LP
Lechyd Da.
Choral magnificence.
Instagram – Spotify
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Artist: NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
Track: WILD GOD
Title song from their
18th full length.
Orchestral grandeur.
Linktree
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Artist: T BONE BURNETT
Who: Legendary American songsmith and lauded producer who worked
with many greats (Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, John Mellencamp and many
more) and scored movie soundtracks all through his long career.
Track: WAITING FOR YOU
From his intimate and warm
longplayer The Other Side.
Goosebumps beauty.
Linktree
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Band: FAT WHITE FAMILY
Who: Notorious UK squad, led by the charismatic
voice/songwriter/author Lias Saoudi.
Track: RELIGION FOR ONE
From their 4th and best LP
Forgiveness Is Yours.
Enigmatic tearjerker.
Instagram – Spotify
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Peter Murphy – photo by Jolene Siana / Boy George – photo by Dean Stockings
Artists: PETER MURPHY and BOY GEORGE
Bauhaus maestro and Culture Club voice/face.
LET THE FLOWERS GROW
The song was originally written by Boy George with its initial message being
“one of
personal acceptance about being gay. As the song developed, it took on a more expansive and universal scope with its lyrics extending beyond sexuality and embracing race, gender, creed and religion.”
Epic.
Boy George – Peter Murphy
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Artist: PETER PERRETT
Who: Former frontman of legendary British new
wavers The Only Ones (1976–1982, 2007–2017)
Track: FOUNTAIN OF YOU
Song from his 3rd solo album
The Cleansing.
Still a romantic at heart.
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Band: HEARSING
Who: Long-time American
musical friends.
Track: SILICON PRAIRIE
Opener of the tandem’s 5-track
debut EP Pastoral.
“The song incorporates themes of longing and desperation I felt in my own
life at the time that found a home in anecdotes of the desert and its characters
experiencing these feelings for reasons far removed from my reality.”
Americana tristesse in motion.

Press photo by 📸: Dean Chalkley
Artist: RICHARD HAWLEY
Who: British master of melancholia.
Track: HEAR THAT LONESOME WHISTLE BLOW
Reverie from his 10th LP In This City They Call You Love.
Fanciful idealisation.
Instagram
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Artists: THE GLASS HOURS
Who: American songwriters Brad Armstrong and Megan Barbera.
Their music blurs between Sunday afternoon country-folk and
the golden age of the 1970s.
Track: SAME OLD YOU
From their heartfelt
self-titled debut LP.
Bittersweet country magic.
Website – Instagram
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Artist: KAT KOAN
Who: Entrancing songstress
from Berlin.
Track: DREAM GIRL
Whispering nightclub sensuality.
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Linktree
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Artist: KIM DEAL
Track: ARE YOU MINE?
Song from her solo debut album
Nobody Loves You More.
Captivating love song for her mother.
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Linktree
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Band: THE BLACK KEYS
Track: ON THE GAME
Song from their 12th, bluesy dream pop,
longplayer Ohio Players. Stellar record.
Spellbinding.
Instagram
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Artist: OLIVER HOHLBRUGGER
Who: Norwegian songwriter.
Track: BLACK CANVAS.
“It’s about that someone you’ll never be with and that you allow to remain
inside you as a perfect unspoiled thing, yet still you measure and hold your
real relationship up against it. It’s a dream, an illusion, an unfair fantasy.
Nothing and therefore able to be perfect.”
Yearning amorousness.
Linktree
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Band: THE SMILE
Who: Two radioheads – Thom Yorke and
Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Track: Instant Psalm
Highlight from their 3rd and
best full-length Cutouts.
Vintage Thom York blues.
Instagram
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Band: MGMT
Who: Psych-pop star duo
from Connecticut, US.
Track: PHRADIE’S SONG
Composition from their 5th LP
Loss Of Life.
Candlelight sensibility.
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Instagram
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Band: MONOSCOPES
Who: Italian psych-pop act.
Track: HEY ATLAS
Cut from their notable 2nd full
length Endcyclopedia.
Starry-eyed nostalgia.
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Instagram – Spotify
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Artist: JOHNNY CASH
The immortal country icon.
Track: HELLO OUT THERE
One of the 11 self-penned songs from 1993 that weren’t
released until now, on the new longplayer Songwriter.
Affecting as ever.
Instagram
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Artist: RINGO STARR
No pension for 85-year beatle.
Track: TIME ON MY HANDS
Starr goes country again. New LP
Look Up out early next year.
Little drummer boy.
Instagram
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Band: THE VEILS
Who: New Zealand‘s guitar-pop veterans
centered around singer/songwriter Finn Andrews .
Track: THE LADDER
From new, upcoming 6th LP Asphodels
that will arrive on January 24th.
Endearing moments.
THE BLACK KEYS Team Up With ALICE COOPER For Halloween Cracker ‘STAY IN YOUR GRAVE’
28 October 2024
With Ohio Players THE BLACK KEYS delivered one of the most entertaining albums of they year. That says a lot if I tell you that I was never a big BK fan. It’s a record that makes me happy.
Now, with Halloween a few days away, the duo invited veteran shock rocker
Alice Cooper (perfect choice) for a festive cracker, titled STAY IN YOUR GRAVE.
Cool video too.
Hallelujah!
5 New Sonic Injections To Start Up WEEK 41
Monday 7 October 2024
Band: THE BLACK KEYS
Blues rock tandem Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals)
and Patrick Carney (drums) from Ohio.
Last April, the duo released their 12th and by far their
most complete and entertaining one, called Ohio Players.
Track: MI TORMENTA
A deluxe edition, titled comes in a 2 LP set in a gatefold jacket with
an alternate cover and new sequencing. It features 18 tracks, including
4 previously unreleased ones, and will land on November 15.
This newbie features singer-songwriter,
with Mexican roots, DannyLux.
Smooth groove.
Disfrútalo aquí.
Instagram – Spotify
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Artist: PERFUME GENIUS
Who: The musical project of Michael Alden Hadreas who explores topics
including sexuality, his personal struggle with Crohn‘s disease, domestic
abuse, and the dangers faced by gay men in contemporary society.
Track: MY PLACE
A previously unreleased song added to
the 10th anniversary edition of his 3rd
album Too Bright.
Striking piece and striking performance.
Linktree
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Band: THE OPEN FLAMES
Who: 4-piece from London who bring equal parts attitude and psychedelia
to their rough-edged, literate “pop noir”. Lead singer Dave writes songs
between aid missions in war zones
Track: DROP A COIN
Dave Eastman (vocalist): “We wrote the song with the metaphor of paying a tithe to a blind girl sitting at the Gates of Hell to describe the hesitation before knocking on the door of your prom date, or a wedding chapel. It was inspired by the final moments of Ian Curtis of Joy Division, before he passed into another life. The song’s second half passes through the Gates
to fly over a tormented landscape of Dante-esque souls who rise up howling from the fires and boiling muds of Hell.”
Sonically it’s an easy-going guitar-pop gem with an instantly sticky impact.
Lyrically, it’s a sort of hallucinatory brain twister. All together, it’s a splendid
debut. No wonder Satan plays it on repeat on his stereo in hell.
Instagram – Spotify
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Band: THE SMILE
Trio featuring two radioheads, Thom Yorke and
Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Track: NO WORDS
A non-single piece and one of my favourites on
their brand-new LP Cutouts. Their 3rd and by far
their best full-length in just 2 years.
Hypnotic and chill-out jam.
Instagram – Spotify
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Band: VIRGINS
Who: Belfast-based outfit who transcend that
reductive tag to deliver a noise which is thrillingly
loud and weightily light.
Track: gliss
Last April these Irish shoegaze dreamers released their
remarkable debut album nothing hurt and anything
was beautiful.
TUTV said: “Virgins take you on a flight at supersonic speed way up into the sky
above the clouds, where reality becomes surreality, where layers of seventh heaven
shoegaze symphonies blast from the plane’s speakers. For 40 phantasy-stimulating
minutes you’ll forget all about what happens down there, on our dramatically disturbed planet.”
Now they shared gliss that initially was a bonus track on the album’s
Bandcamp edition, on all platforms. I extends and finishes their debut
LP with celestial force.
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THE BLACK KEYS Share New Track From Upcoming Deluxe Edition Of ‘OHIO PLAYERS’ Album – Learn Spanish With ‘MI TORMENTA’ Featuring DANNYLUX
Daily noise that works faster than a stream of coffee
5 October 2024
Last April, blues rock tandem THE BLACK KEYS
released their 12th album, called Ohio Players.
One of the best longplayers of 2024. The first BK’s
one that I still play frequently after it came out.
They just announced a deluxe edition (take the money and run, everybody does it).
It’s named OHIO PLAYERS – TROPHY EDITION and comes in a 2 LP set in a gatefold
jacket with an alternate cover and new sequencing. It features 18 tracks, including
4 previously unreleased ones, and will land on November 15. More info here.
Along with the news comes a new piece, titled MI TORMENTA featuring
a singer-songwriter, with Mexican roots, DannyLux. Other special guests
on the new Edition, include Alice Cooper and Beck.
Wake up people,
and groove along
in Spanish.
10 BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 (So Far)
9 July 2024
We’re halfway 2024.
These 10 LPs were TUTV’s ears favorites
over the past 6 months.
Band: FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES (UK)
Album: Dark Rainbow
Their 5th
TUTV said: “With tensely emotive singles Man Of The Hour and Brambles, tattoo artist
Carter seemed to let his angry punk days behind him and move towards classic rock.
This album confirms that surprising, bold move.
And it’s a truly staggering record, filled with several melodramatic power ballads that generate goosebumps and some stoner rock ebullitions. Carter sings his heart out with monumental vivaciousness. A vocal tour de force throughout, dealing with mixed love emotions. Dark Rainbow will impact your ears for a very long time.”
SINGLE
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Linktree
Band: FAT WHITE FAMILY (UK)
Album: Forgiveness Is Yours
4th one
Lias Saoudi, voice/face/wordsmith/poet/writer, about the LP: ‘Forgiveness Is Yours,’ is about life as eternal contingency… about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier… in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, your body’s going to go into decay and the people you love will slowly start dropping dead around you…but somehow, you’ve smashed enough of your expectations thus far in life, you’re sort of fine with it…you accept it.The overarching aesthetic themes at work here are torpor and further torpor still.”
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt their best, most startling, and most inventive accomplishment. Sounds like FWF have written/recorded the bone-chilling soundtrack
for Doomsday. Poignant vibes, ominous reflections, dark ballads, and frontman Lias Saoudi as the foreboding messenger and sinister poet. It’s the end of the world, as we know it, and it feels like Fat White Family.
SINGLE
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Instagram
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Band: THE BLACK KEYS (US)
Album: Ohio Players
Their 12th
TUTV said: The star duo made an album with lots of bright pop tunes and some light
blues ones. The licks/riffs and hooks, about a thousand of course, haven’t that BK’s raw
and rough edge as we are used to.
The overall sonority leans more towards power guitar pop (slow, mid-tempo and only
a couple of fast ones). I never thought that the tandem would come up after 23 years (yes, twenty-three years!) with a different sounding, coherent longplayer, without ignoring their blues roots that is. Ohio Players will be the album that I’ll play more than their whole catalogue together.
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Band: LIAM GALLAGHER & JOHN SQUIRE (UK)
Album: Liam Gallagher – John Squire
Their first collaborative album
TUTV said: It sounds as if the two rock stars made this record about 30 years ago when Oasis and The Stone Roses had both a glorious debut LP out. It sounds as if the 10 songs here, didn’t make those masterpiece albums, because they’re somehow lazy tunes. That’s what my ears told me at first. Two famous Manchester lads had some time to kill.
But I’ve played it countless times by now. All tracks are infectious and electrifying. Liam & John didn’t look back in anger and may be adored for this easy-peasy, but oh-so-effective psych-rock-blues longplayer. Touchdown.
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Instagram
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Band: THE MYSTERINES
Album: Afraid Of Tomorrows
2nd LP
TUTV said: The charismatic Lia Metcalfe‘s singular voice, both anxious and soul-stirring,
is all over this awe-inspiring new record. So instrumental for the band’s sound that resonates more poignant, gloomier and spine-chilling than on their debut.
It fits Metcalfe‘s introspective reflections on her turbulent past terrifically well,
with haunting and goosebumps-causing songs that have an imposing impact.
There’s always a light shining at the end of the Mysterines tunnel.
The 4 scousers are ready up for a triumphant future.
SINGLE
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Linktree
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Artist: JEEN (Toronto, CA)
Album: Gold Control
Her 4th one
TUTV said: The three main elements that make this album special are Jeen’s remarkable
voice, her high-quality songwriting expertise, and the heart-and-soul passion that streams throughout the record. Whether Jeen rocks out, muses, or swings moods, she always holds your aural attention.
The cliché is accurate here, ‘no fillers, all killers’. 10 intoxicating, 10 solid gold songs.
This first-rate longplayer should get at least the same attention as Sheryl Crow‘s
new one.
SINGLE
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Instagram
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Band: RIDE (UK)
Album: Interplay</
7th one
TUTV said: With Interplay the shoegaze past goes into the dustbin as the present Ride are fabulous. They come up with some terrifically arousing tunes, alternated with pepped-up reveries.
All songs are sublimely orchestrated and bathe in a psychedelic jacuzzi, while vocalist Mark Gardner‘s velvet vocals match the sonic atmosphere exquisitely. Ride have mixed emotions about today’s restless times, me too, but not about this record. Lots of five-star stuff.
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Band: SHELLAC (US)
Album: To All Trains
6th LP

(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Belgium 2017)
TUTV said: It’s vintage Shellac/Steve Albini with its wayward song structures, its
capricious and minimalistic resonance, its broken riffs, edgy hooks, sinewy drumming, Albini‘s firm vocals and the raw and rough post-punk dynamics at play. Absolutely weird
to listen to it, with the incredible knowledge that Albini is here no more.
He passed away on May 7, following a heart attack.
Only 10 days before the album release.
Sad, really sad.
The album closes with the ominous track I Don’t Fear Hell, including these lines
“I don’t fear hell. Their baseball team is undefeated. If there’s a heaven, I hope they’re
having fun. ‘Cause if there’s a hell, I’m gonna know everyone.” Sounds quite bizarre and macabre at this very moment. Maybe, just maybe, Albini is happy, wherever he might
be. Rest in peace.
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Band: MONOSCOPES (Italy)
Album: Endcyclopedia
Their 2nd full lenght
TUTV said: Monoscopes made an ideal record for the midnight hours, to relax
and escape from the daily rat race and lose yourself in your thoughts of choice.
Heavy-hearted lullaby pearls such as ‘The Electric Muse (I Wanna Know Why?)’, Hey Atlas and The Things You Want To Hide should be hits in a normal world. Imagine the moody musings of Evan Dando (The Lemonheads) interwoven with the shadowy electricity of NYC’s celebs Interpol.
And when they turn up the temperature and the amps, now and then, like on top-tier tracks ‘It’s A Shame About You’ and ‘Quite Life‘ you feel the mixed emotions coming through your speakers making their way to your heart and to your soul. Top!
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Artist: T BONE BURNETT (US)
Album: The Other Side
TUTV: As a solo artist, he recorded/released several LPs. As a producer, he worked
with Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and so many
more. He toured with Bob Dylan and other famous friends and he won a bunch of Grammys.
The Other Side is a concept record about a “mysterious couple” having adventures
in an otherworldly America. The by-now 76-year-old Burnett translate their mixed
emotions experiences in lovey-dovey lullabies, heartfelt musings, and nostalgic
ballads.
This is the perfect record for daydreaming and relaxation. Soft, mellow, and tender.
His slightly hoarse Americana voice enchants and entices all through this sepia-colored album. 12 bittersweet serenades for the midnight hours, away from our hyperbenthic reality. Pure compassionate romanticism. Pure songsmith.
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5 BEST BALLADS Of The Month – APRIL 2024
1 May 2024
78-year-old American singer/songwriter and highly respected producer
T Bone Burnett released his 15th LP, named The Other Side a couple of
weeks ago featuring this heavyhearted beauty, called Waiting For You.
Mellow and compassionate romanticism at its candlelight best.
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Norwegian songsmith Oliver Hohlbrugger and sensuous voice
Frøkedal will make your melt heart with this melancholic pearl,
titled Black Canvas.
Hohlbrugger: “It’s about that someone you’ll never be with and that you allow to remain
inside you as a perfect unspoiled thing, yet still you measure and hold your real relationship up against it. It’s a dream, an illusion, an unfair fantasy. Nothing and therefore able to be perfect.”
A yearning and gripping reverie for the midnight hours. Think murder ballad
duo Nick Cave/Kylie Minogue, but also legendary 60s duo’s Nancy Sinatra/Lee
Hazlewood and Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg.
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Time Alone is another glamourous musing by Berlin-based songstress Kat Koan
and her befriended collaborator Freddie Dickson on guitar. It’s a whispering, sexy,
and revealing story about a secret love.
So you’re dimming down the light I should be leaving now I guess
But then, when you touch me right It’s such a beautiful mess
Should be calling it a night It’s better if we don’t
but then you kiss me where my husband wont
Let go it’s alright let go it’s alright
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Akron‘s blues brothers The Black Keys have their 12th LP, titled Ohio Players out.
It’s their best, without a shadow of a doubt, with this glowing gem on.
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After being part for 17 years of the duo The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer,
Canadian songsmith Shawn Hall goes his own way as The Harpoonist.
His debut solo LP, baptized ‘Did We Come Here To Dance‘ comes out this
summer, featuring Canadian blues-rock legend, Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson.
Taster Good People reveals, for all who haven’t heard (like me) of Hall, the unique voice he’s blessed with. The song is a pondering blues jam – did we come here to dance or to die? – spiced with some of The Harpoonist‘s retro harmonica play and a warm-hearted organ.
5 BEST ALBUMS OF THE MONTH – APRIL 2024
29 April 2024
Band: THE BLACK KEYS (Akron, Ohio)
Album: OHIO PLAYERS – their 12th
TUTV: Surprise. The Black Keys made an album that features lots of bright pop tunes and some light blues ones. The licks/riffs and hooks, about a thousand of course, haven’t that BK’s raw and rough edge as we are used to. It’s all about feel-good, easy-going, and most entertaining tunes. It makes me feel happy and relaxed.
The overall sonority leans more towards power guitar pop (slow, mid-tempo and only
a couple of fast ones), maybe that’s Beck‘s vibes influence, who is present on half of the songs. They also invited befriended rappers Lil Noid and Juicy J and some other celebs.
I never thought that the tandem would come up after 23 years (yes, twenty-three years!) with a different sounding, coherent longplayer, without ignoring their blues roots that is. Ohio Players will be the album that I’ll play more than their whole catalogue together.
14 songs, 44 minutes with an accurate cliché ‘all killers, no fillers.’
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Band: METZ (Ottawa, Canada)
Album: UP ON GRAVITY HILL – their 5th
TUTV: ‘Up On Gravity Hill’ blows your mind, your psyche, and your ears
for 34 thunderous minutes of razor-blade wall-of-sound exorcism. Vintage
chainsaw voltage (No Reservation/Love Comes Crashing, Entwined (Street Light
Buzz), Never Still Again and the ace anti-advertising ballyhoo sledgehammer
’99’), a mean drum/bass machine throughout, and Edkins‘ mixed emotions
cry outs combine for a rough helter-skelter ride.
No arty farty BS for them, no special effects. All cylinders, all burners. It’s only
on the gripping mid-tempo closing reflection that the trio slow down a bit but
still make your stereo tremble. A great ending to another great record.
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Band: FAT WHITE FAMILY (London, UK)
Album: FORGIVENESS IS YOURS – 4th LP
TUTV: Gone are the days of rock to shock with pathetic songs such as the one about
Nazi propaganda chief Goebbels and Lebensraum. Also gone is musical orchestrator Saul Adamczewski who left the band amidst the recording sessions (not the first time he went through the exit).
Less drugs and less hedonism led to more focus on the songwriting/music, which
got better and better over the years and results now in their best full length.
Almost all tracks are ongoing electronica-infused vibes (Polygamy Is Only For The Chief / Feed The Horse) and addictive jams with poetic frontman Lias Saoudi telling/singing lots of enigmatic and absurd stories showing again how extensive his vocabulary is (The Archivist, Today You Become Man).
Here and there he’s the crooner he loves to be (Religion For One / You Can’t Face It). Sonically the record, enriched with lots of spot-on details (flutes, backing choir vocals, piano) is ingenious and crackerjack. A winner.
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Band: VIRGINS (Ireland)
Album: NOTHING HURT AND ANYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL – debut
TUTV: Virgins take you on a flight at supersonic speed way up into the sky above the clouds, where reality becomes surreality, where layers of seventh heaven shoegaze symphonies blast from the plane’s speakers. For 40 phantasy-stimulating minutes, you’ll forget all about what happens down there, on our dramatically disturbed planet.
We need to escape it all, now and then to stay sane, and that’s when these Belfast daydreamers are a great option to connect with. Layers of glowing guitars, hallucinatory vocals and an overall lyrical sonority will trigger your fantasies and will make you feel
going high(er) forgetting all about the daily, mind-boggling rat race.
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Band: THE LIBERTINES (London, UK)
Album: ALL QUIET ON THE EASTERN ESPLANADE
TUTV: After the turbulence, chaos, and drugs addictions (especially Doherty) of the early years, the side-projects, solo records, and getting clean and healthy the Libs are back, again. They’re not the boys in the band of yesteryear, they’re now grown-up men who
enjoy a stable life and are still obsessed by making music.
Compared to their first two tempestuous and jarring indie punk LPs they mellowed naturally. Older and wiser. But Doherty/Barat are still terrific songwriters, assisted here
by John Hassall/Gary Powell, with Doherty as the 5-star one.
They still rock with vivacious punch (Run Run Run / Of Shit / Mustangs / Be Young ), they
still know how to seduce with captivating, romantic ballads (Shiver / Night Of The Hunter / Baron’s Claw), and Doherty/Barat still are soul-stirring vocalists.
Not one dull moment, not one dull song. They became notable, experienced musicians who left their hedonistic lifestyle behind themselves for several years now. They sound clean, healthy and happy (lots of laughter between songs, especially at the end of closer Songs They Never Play On The Radio) all the way through and it feels very fine.
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