NME said: “In its own terms, What’s THIS For…! is an excellent record, even if those terms are the most hopeless ones to be found in rock today. It’s the same wardance as before, slightly better realised.”
TUTV says: One of the best Apocalypse Now bands in music’s history. When Doomsday comes their wall-of-metallic-post-punk on What’s This For…! is a notable candidate to be
its hellish soundtrack.
All Music wrote: “Nearly 30 years and nine albums in, Patti Smith shows no signs of giving up, or giving in, despite the fact she expected to be quietly doing her work instead of making rock & roll albums and playing in front of audiences. But then 9/11, Afghanistan, war in Iraq. Smith lives the vocation of a poet in an old-world sense of that word. Once, bards were the gadflies of society. Smith’s Trampin’ is a work that directly evolves from that tradition and fits squarely in her oeuvre. Not surprisingly, Trampin’ is a largely political album, but it is far from a didactic one. Smith’s voice of resistance is a human one, not an ideological one. This is timeless music. It knows no age or subgenre classification; it is American music as it has been spoken the world over; it is rock & roll done as well as it can be by anybody.”
TUTV: Underrated album. Again Smith wraps her political views on several issues in masterclass songs, from rock to pop and back, with devotion, eagerness and genuine involvement. And her voice still is one of the most authentic in music’s history.
Below, one of the highlights, ‘Peaceable Kingdom‘.
Live goosebumps version with longtime friend
Tom Verlaine on guitar.
AllMusic wrote: “The Saints were to Australia what the Sex Pistols were to Britain and
the Ramones to America. Picking up the germ planted by the defunct Stooges, MC5, Velvet Underground, and New York Dolls, the Saints sparked the Far East punk rock movement
with a blasting, blistering, scorching sound no one had heard before. Moreover, The Saints
were blitzing the unsuspecting in their home of Brisbane in 1973, long before the Sex Pistols
or the Ramones had even begun.” – Score: 4.5/5 – Full review here.
TUTV says: So many didn’t/don’t know that these Aussie punks, led by the charismatic Chris Bailey were already producing rattling havoc before the Ramones let their hair grow and before Britpunk started.
Rolling Stone wrote: ” ‘A Different Kind of Tension’ is the Buzzcocks’ most formidable record yet. Chief songwriter Shelley has finally arrived at something approaching a hard-bitten and reasonable world view. Technically the band’s fourth LP, is bursting with many of the same laudable features that graced the ‘Singles Going Steady’ set: bold and big-bottomed rhythms, combustible buzz-blur guitars and leader Pete Shelley’s rushed,
iambic vocals.” Score: 5/5 – Full, review here.
TUTV: “Criminally underrated album. Their best non-stop avalanche
of riffs loaded, barbed wire pop knockouts. From start to finish.
AllMusic wrote: “The most refined of England’s bands manages to refine itself even further on their 4th disc. How ‘I Learned to Love the Bootboys’ is Luke Haines’ most immediate sounding release to date, and even though his claim that each of the record’s 12 tracks are singles sounds a bit highfalutin, he’s not far off… The cohesiveness of the record is no small feat, given the wide-ranging sounds and moods.” Score: 4.5/5 – Full review here.
TUTV: Haines designed 12 colorful stories, 12 affecting tunes, 12 compelling pop pearls.
Single/clip: The Rubettes (yes, the Sugar Baby Love group)
ALL MUSIC wrote back then : “Welcome to the breath-robbing, heart-pounding Relationship of Command, an album many have been waiting for with red-faced anticipation since their last EP, the brilliant Vaya. On this 11-track masterpiece, so full of adrenaline and swarming moods, ATDI has created one of the most infecting and mind-blowing rock albums in a long time… This is not a band that could ever be insincere. You can see it in their eyes and feel it in their music and work ethic. ATDI is one of the saviors of true emotional straight-up rock!”
Full review here – Score: 4/5
TURN UP THE VOLUME! says: A sonic tsunami of explosive emotions
and tumultuous noise-hardcore-punk-rock. Their hellish breakthrough
record.
Album: PORTISHEAD
The 2nd of their (only) 3 LPs (so far) Released: 29 Sept 1997 Score: No 2 in the UK, No 21 in the US
AllMusic said: “Throughout the album, the group crafts impeccable modern-day torch songs, from the frightening, repetitive “Cowboys” to the horn-punctuated “All Mine,” which justify the detailed, engrossing production. The end result is an album that reveals more with each listen and becomes more captivating and haunting each time it’s played.” Score: 4.5/5.
TUTV‘s fav track. The pitch-dark and eerie opener Cowboys.
AllMusic wrote: “Hallowed Ground is a testament to their tenacity, courage,
and sheer obliviousness to industry ogling. Each track is as naked as it is bursting
with ideas, and as the landscape changes, the band changes with it, leaving
the listener at a crossroads.” Score: 4.5/5.
Band:THE RAPTURE (1998–2014, 2019–present)
Singular post-punk dance act from New York.
Album:ECHOES Released: 8 September 2003 – 20 years ago
PITCHFORK review: “The Rapture are only one of about 10,000 bands ushering in this
thing that’s gotten labeled “dancepunk,” but it’s important to note that they were among the first… Bands like The Rapture have sent their message: The rock show was not meant to be a collegiate study. We have all stopped caring what snotty academics find acceptable, because now there is real, true, palpable fun, and it is the greatest liberation.” – Score: 9/10.
TURN UP THE VOLUME! says: Funky punky, P.I.L and The Pop Group influenced,
party capriciousness. A mind-boggling dance floor triumph for all indies out there.
SINGLE
ALBUM
. THE RAPTURE: Facebook – Instagram
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The Guardian wrote: “Occupying a haunted no-man’s land between post-punk, prog and plainsong, the deep blue blanket of Walker’s voice curls around elusive, allusive lyrics that hint at meaning but often seem to exist simply as games played with sound. Unexpected guests Billy Ocean and Mark Knopfler (he and Walker shared a manager) are subsumed in the music’s obtuse majesty. What followed was 12 years of silence, until 1995’s magnificent Tilt. Climate
of Hunter remains an enigmatic and frequently magical record; something both to puzzle and marvel at.”
TUTV: Fascinating voice, obscure stories, wayward song
structures. Intriguing and challenging on many levels.
