Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - De Facto
Sonic Cathedral
Released: 11th January 2019
De Facto is the fifth album released by the Mexican duo of Lorena Quintanilla (Lorelle) and Alberto González (The Obsolete), recorded at their home studio on the Pacific coast at Ensenada. Two and half years on from the impressive Balance, this new nine-track, forty-five minute offering walks in similar teritory to its predecessor, yet pleasingly manages to break through the boundary walls and stretch its horizons even further; it is no mean feat to create your most accessible and your most experimental work at the same time. In many ways De Facto marks a new beginning for the band, it being recorded unusually with their touring band (Fernando Nuti - bass, Andrea Davi - drums, José Orozco - synths) with all of the vocals in Spanish and, a rarity for LMTO, with completely new songs rather than old tunes that have been meandering through the creative process for some time. It certainly sounds as fresh and as positive as a debut album as it wanders in mood without ever losing its coherence. At the heart of this record lie gentle, psychedelic dreamscapes such as 'Ana' and 'Inundación' whose gentle repetitive refrains coax you into relaxation before shaking you awake roughly with scything guitar attacks and dalek invasions. Cleverly, closing track 'La Maga' has similar somnolent properties, but remains on course throughout its ten minutes to lead the album to a graceful conclusion. It's not all woozy goodness, though. 'Líneas En Hojas' offers up dreamy pop with a hard centre while the meticulous 'Acción – Vaciar' has more of a cutting edge, but is a thing of quite remarkable beauty. Throw in the droning 'El Durrumbe', the charged attack of 'Lux, Lumina', and the fractured 'Resistir' and you have a multi-faceted record that doesn't waver in quality or commitment for a second. Best of all is the nine-minute savage guitar wipe-out of 'Unificado', beginning in the style of a Velvet Underground ballad before being overtaken by spite and consumed whole in a six-minute guitar feeding frenzy. This is really a bloody good record so snap up a copy. There's a limited red vinyl as well as the CD.
Tallies - Tallies
Fear Of Missing Out
Released: 11th January 2019
It was because we were at war. A mere handful of years ago the state of the music industry was so dire that we only had time for the soldiers, those bands who were aggressive in pushing forward a real alternative, those who wanted to challenge convention, kick down walls and laugh in the face of all doubters. Once you are caught up in that way of thinking, perhaps it is difficult to lay down arms and embrace the fact that the underground was once a house of many rooms, those who were resolute in turning their backs on commerciality living side by side with those for whom a jangling guitar and a catchy melody were the bare essentials. With the renaissance still in full flow and not looking as though it is showing any signs of abating, perhaps the time is right once again to welcome back those of a gentler, more melodic persuasion. Toronto's Tallies are neither innovative nor challenging but they do produce a music the likes of which we never thought we would love again, jangly guitar pop with heartfelt vocals - and a nod to shoegazy fogginess thrown in on top. There are certainly shades of The Sundays here, though singer-guitarist Sarah Cogan's vocals aren't so beautifully framed as Harriet Wheeler's, lying a little more buried in the mix where the guitars are also not quite so sharp or plaintive, seemingly content to shimmer in the haze. That said Tallies still make a joyful noise and when they are at their best, this can be quite touching. 'Midnight' sparkles with Cogan's voice stretching attractively as it proclaims, "I'm no burden, I'm just shy," whilst 'Trains And Snow' takes a congested path and is pleasantly thoughtful. Elsewhere there is enough variety to keep the songs interesting, a gentle obscurity to the lyrics that makes you ponder, and plenty of moments where you look up and think, "Oh, that was nice." Tallies is not the complete package, but there's an awful lot here to enjoy, even if it is just letting your guard down for forty-five minutes. Give it a go.
The Twilight Sad - It Won't Be Like This All The Time
Rock Action
Released: 18th January 2019
We always have to psych ourselves up to listen to The Twilight Sad and generally need to lie down after we have done so. The vehemence of this band's music is astonishing; few others have ever managed to capture such intensity and fewer still have managed to prolong this over a series of five albums and some twelve years. How they have lived on the brink for so long without either collapsing or exploding is a mystery, but yet again the band has delivered a collection of songs that would leave most musicians rocking and crying in a dark corner. The Twilight Sad's sound is heavy and brooding, the mood of desperation enhanced by the pleading vocals of James Graham who has stated that on these recordings he ceased to hide behind metaphors to reveal his state of mind openly. "We're hanging on by a thread," he intones as the album opens with '[10 Good Reasons For Modern Drugs]', and this merely paves the way for a desperate journey through weariness, distrust, loss, self-doubt and self-loathing. It is little wonder he believes that "runnin' away doesn't feel so bad." Yet there is no escape here, as Andy MacFarlane's guitars and Brendan Smith's keyboards take it in turn to hold these songs in an unrelenting grip while simultaneously pretending the notes they are playing are thoughtful, intricate and textured. Johnny Docherty's resonating bass and Sebastien Schultz's drums surprisingly dance around the songs rather than lay foundations and this helps to give the sense of weight that holds everything down. There nice touches of sound experimentation, some pleasing melodies and even some gentle harmonies, but none of this lightens the mood. The Twilight Sad are unrelentingly doomed and It Won't Be Like This All The Time will remain as one of the least convincing titles in music history. This is the first album from the band on Mogwai's Rock Action label and the first without founder member Mark Devine, but in all other senses it is 'come as you are', and that is how it is meant to be. Terrific.
Bouts - Flow
Wonky Karousel
Released: 25th January 2019
We were shocked to realise that it is over five years since Bouts released their first album, Nothing Good Gets Away, an uplifting and irrepressible collection of tunes with plenty of sparkle to brighten your day but enough edge to keep you in line. We are sure that it has not been through a lack of ideas that this follow-up has taken so long to appear; it seems more likely that limited resources and the weight of life have had more of a say, though it is good to hear that Flow follows on in very much the same vein as its predecessor, being a collection of summery pop tunes, nicely recorded, and laced with guitars that are jagged enough to make these songs more than insubstantial daydreams. The album is anchored by 'Love's Lost Landings', a song in two parts, the first of which sees Colin Boylan's dancing guitars drag Barry Bracken's terrific vocals along for the ride, whilst the second is a weightier look at the same theme, simply strummed chords ultimately morphing into a neo-psychedelic mash which swallows up the guitars while Bracken's vocals remain poignant and resigned. These are nice moments but are surrounded by songs of equal worth. 'Stop Pushing' opens the collection brightly, poking your eye with pointed guitar bursts while Niall Jackson's fat bass sits weightily over the whole, ensuring nothing is free to run around loosely. Meanwhile, the brisk and prodding background to 'By A Thread' belies its melancholic weight. It's a theme; however it sounds this album is not a celebration of love, life and fizz, but a weighing up of hope, expectation and reality ... "Be good to yourself, be good to me." And there is hidden weight to the music. 'Face Up' borders on rock and roll, with drummer Daniel Flynn almost getting excited, and the song has a tiny hint of 'Revol' about it whilst not being so openly brash. And as 'Big Reveals' soars heavenward it sounds pretty much like indie-pop perfection. Bouts have done it again; this record delivers on almost every level so check it out and ensure we don't have to wait so long for the next one. There are only one hundred vinyl copies here so be quick to snap one up.
Toy - Happy In The Hollow
Tough Love
Released: 25th January 2019
At one stage it appeared to us that Toy were the next underground band about to sweep to superstardom. Their appealing blend of psych-laced Germanic rock earned them many admirers and two fine albums reaped much critical acclaim. 2016's Clear Shot should have been the record that led them to glory, but it was pretty much a disaster on all fronts. Arriving some three years after Join The Dots, an eternity in the realm of breaking bands, it lacked the power, focus and hypnotic appeal of its predecessors. It was light, insubstantial and showed the band aiming for a more commercial sound and failing; it simply left them sounding naked and thin. Two and a bit years later, freed from Heavenly Records and newly signed to Tough Love, Toy have emerged with a new collection of songs which have been mixed and recorded by themselves with a nod of thanks to Dan Carey who was so important in capturing the band's sound so brilliantly on those first two vital releases. The vinyl is loaded to capacity, with eleven tracks squeezed in over forty-eight minutes, and though the near monochrome cover lacks the brashness and confidence shown by the multicoloured, gatefold, foiled, debut release it is clear that Tough Love have been prepared to invest in their new captures with green vinyl and clear vinyl editions coming with assorted giveaway seven- and twelve-inchers. Toy are nothing if not collectable. Musically Toy here embrace more evidently the psych elements that were but a minor component of their earlier sound, and do so with very much a late-sixties British bias. There are no acid burn-outs but a myriad of whirrs, clinks, bending chords and woozy rushes that infuse these songs with a gentle psychedelic edge that is a world more refined, more thoughtful and more accomplished than they have achieved before. This record is a multi-layered joy and you will find a lot of pleasure in diving into its depths to discover new sounds on every play. The customary motorik drumming and palpitating bass remain as good foundations on which to lay eerie synths, chattering and swollen guitars, gentle vocals and even twisted interludes that wouldn't have seemed out of place on Sergeant Pepper. Delicate, considered, occasionally tough but always a delight, Happy In The Hollow is just what the band needed at this stage in their career. It is not a record that is going to smash its way into mainstream conciousness but it gives Toy back their status
as one of the underground's main attractions.
Ist Ist - Everything Is Different Now
Kind Violence
Released: 25th January 2019
If Toy looked likely candidates to move on to bigger things a few years ago, then the current leaders in this field are Manchester's Ist Ist. It has been enjoyable watching how this band has progressed over the past couple of years, building momentum slowly and patiently with their releases getting snapped up quickly and increasingly larger gigs regularly selling out. They certainly look like a band on the brink of major success and it would be well deserved. Everything Ist Ist have produced has been cleverly done, from the artwork on their records and posters to their increasingly rounded and refined sound and they have done this without any label or management support. If you have not heard the band before, a "faster Joy Division" was an often-heard comment in their early days, but though their Manchester peers have been an undoubted influence Ist Ist have a lighter touch to their music and a happy knack of producing infectiously powerful choruses that drive their songs to new levels. There are also hints of early Editors in these songs, whilst Adam Houghton’s deep vocals often enunciate like Eldritch, though his voice is stronger, cleaner and a world more powerful. Ist Ist reap from the past to bring something vital to the modern day. All bands should know their history. There are six tracks on this EP, all worthy of your attention, the highlight being the closer 'Undignified', five and a half minutes of dark glory, with the most beautiful keyboard line cutting through the guitar drone and dense shadow of the backing track. It's simply stunning. Ist Ist's music is full of such intricate patterns as well as being forged with intrinsic strength and the balance between the two is just about perfect. Grab hold of this EP while you can and catch the band if they come close. The record is available to buy here. Look at the amount of 'Sold Out' labels on the site to see which way things are heading.
The Telescopes - Exploding Head Syndrome
Tapete
Released: 1st February 2019
Four albums now in four years for The Telescopes and it is great to see Stephen Lawrie delivering the goods so prolifically. It's even better that each release has offered up something different; all four of these records have emerged from the darker recesses of the psych world but they attack from different angles and imprint on different parts of the brain. Exploding Head Syndrome is named after a little researched type of parasomnia which occurs when a sleeper experiences an auditory hallucination in the form of a sudden loud noise which often appears to have come from inside the head. Lasting only a brief time, the condition can affect sleep patterns, cause anxiety and lead to daytime fatigue. This is something we have experienced ourselves; the first time it happens bringing on much confusion and not a little worry. If EHS was the inspiration for this collection of songs, don't expect to be jolted into life with sudden loud explosions for this is an album very much muted and oppressed, an intimate glimpse at emotional resignation and a virtually complete loss of hope. "Take me by the hand for a spell / Lead me nowhere, I know it well," Lawrie mumbles on 'Nothing Was Held'. The sad thing is, it is not loss that Lawrie fears but his overwhelming expectation of loss. Everything will fail, everything falls apart; the EHS is the death of dreams. "Don't put your happiness in the hands of another / They will let you down." For a contemporary Telescopes album, EHS is pleasingly wordy, though the vocals rarely rise above whispers, and the whole record sounds as if it was recorded in a narrow, circular tunnel through which it will rumble for all eternity, loop after unfulfilled loop. The oppressive bottom end drone dominates, though flashes of keyboards, white noise, guitar and bass occasionally break through the morass, most impressively on 'I Know You've Got Something Inside'. At other times you have to strain your ears to dig out sounds from the mud but, as always with Lawrie, deeper investigation is generally profitable. This is a sad record, at times touching, and at times worryingly familiar. Lose yourself in it.
SPC ECO - Fifteen
Same
Released: 15th February 2019
Eighteen months on from the release of Calm, a collection that marked the tenth anniversary of the band – intrinsically the duo of Dean Garcia and his daughter Rose Berlin – SPC ECO (Space Echo) have produced a fifteen-track, seventy-five minute album which would have been a double had it been released on anything but download. Garcia, formerly half of the important indie-beat crossover duo Curve, again contributes most of the music, featuring on bass, guitar, drums and keyboards, while Berlin is responsible for the fragile, hushed vocals and the lyrics. Some extra guitars are added by Jarek Leskiewicz and they are certainly more prominent on Fifteen than on Calm, a record that was so viscous it was easy to believe the laws of physics would prevent it from ever playing out. Fifteen is more fluid, Berlin's vocals shaking off some of their torpor as they infiltrate higher ground where there is air to breathe, but little more. They remain eternally insubstantial and clinging, as if afraid to break away and reveal themselves to the world. Whilst hinting at hidden power SPC ECO's music is trammelled by narrowly defined boundaries. The fantastic 'Breathing could have been epic and crushing, but it is tamed and hemmed in, ultimately offering little more than an unfulfilled promise. It's a theme that runs through this collection. Fifteen is mellifluous and layered and weighty and often quite staggeringly lovely, but it is also unfulfilled and scared and desperate. It's the sound of hope just of reach, of dreams submerged. It touches the boundaries of a multitude of genres without embracing any of them. Do not let this one pass you by. The download is available on the band's Bandcamp page.
Piroshka - Brickbat
Bella Union
Released: 15th February 2019
Having been immersed in plenty of shadowy music these past few weeks, the first listen of Brickbat takes us by surprise. Despite an opening squeal of feedback, the album begins with such a light touch, bouncing along with a blatant pop sensibility, that it takes a while to attune. Especially when the horns come into play. This wasn't what we expected from an album named after a lump of brick hurled as a weapon, something we got quite adept at dodging in the away ends of football grounds in days gone by. As we delve further into the record, it becomes clear that we are not just dealing with tunes that whistle nonchalantly and twirl their canes as they saunter down the street. There are bubbling rhythms here, but they are soon swallowed up by a harder approach, and there is certainly no little angst and anger in the lyrics. It goes without saying that the vocals and their intonation are familiar, as Piroshka is the new vehicle for former Lush guitarist-vocalist Miki Berenyi, so the second effort is to get our brains to divorce this music from that of her former band. Like Lush, Piroshka are a two-guitar, bass and drums outfit with the other musicians being Moose guitarist KJ McKillop, Modern English bassist Mick Conroy and Elastica drummer Justin Welch. Unlike Lush, the music they offer is not guitar-heavy. This is surprising for a band with two guitarists, but keyboards and bass are prominent and there really are few sharp edges to the songs. Musically this record is more than a little blunt; it can also be quite murky and difficult to navigate. At times the vocals want to run freely, but the music won't allow such freedom, and perhaps the subject matter never warranted it in the first place. With song titles such as 'This Must Be Bedlam', 'Village Of The Damned' and 'Run For Your Life', Brickbat was never going to be a throwaway record and even in a seemingly positive track such as 'Everlastingly Yours' there is little to warm you, "Don't trample my dreams in the ground / Tear up my flowers and scatter the petals around." We have rarely listened to a record more times in order to come to terms with it, but this one pulls us in different directions and fills us with contradictory emotions. Perhaps it lacks a bit of balance, but this is a new band building a new sound and it will be fascinating to hear what comes next. Great cover.
Rema-Rema - Fond Reflections
4AD
Released: 1st March 2019
We have been looking forward to this record for months now after being informed by guitarist-vocalist Gary Asquith that 4AD had finally agreed to release the remaining recordings of legendary post-punk originators Rema-Rema. The band's only official release, the posthumous Wheel In The Roses EP that saw light of day in 1980, was described by 4AD main man Ivo Watts-Russell as the real starting point for his label and it was an astonishing piece of work, deeply influential and outrageously innovative. With the band splitting when lead guitarist Marco Pirroni grew more distant before moving on to join Adam Ant's rocket ship to glory, these recordings have lain dormant for nigh on forty years, occasionally being passed around by the various members of the band until Asquith's urging finally pushed 4AD into action.
Rema-Rema were one of the first bands to grow disillusioned by the limitations of punk but also one of the first to realise that the movement had kicked down all of the doors and left the way open for innovation and experimentation. Boundaries were only there to be crossed and as Public Image Limited, The Pop Group and Joy Division (amongst others) began to create a new paradigm in music, Rema-Rema were up there with the best of them. Fond Reflections includes recordings from their numerous overnight rehearsal sessions, live tracks from one of their eleven gigs, and the studio demos later recorded when the band's skills had been more finely honed. Of course the demos sound great, but the quality of the other recordings is also remarkably good considering they were never meant for release. Some recordings are a little rawer than others, but they remain vital and fascinating. Musically, Pirroni's tortured guitars light up the tracks which are anchored by Michael Allen's epic bass, Mark Cox's haunting keyboards, and Max Prior's economically sharp drumming. In fact Pirroni is startling, showing more invention on 'The Feedback Song' and the equally brilliant 'International Scale' than he did in his entire career with the Ants, though of course these recordings would never have brought him such stardom. The music is crowned by the fantastic vocals of Allen and Asquith, which sway from primal howls to detached commentaries, from angry outbursts to resigned laments. For all of your This Mortal Coils, 'Fond Affections' never sounds better than when Rema-Rema perform it and it hacks away at your heart just as vigorousy now as it ever did in 1980. And is there anybody on earth who wouldn't love a band who record a track called 'Instrumental' which has vocals on it?
Fond Reflections is available as a double vinyl set or in a double CD package which contains an extra disc, Extended Wheel In The Roses, which has remixed versions of the debut EP as well as three tracks recorded at the same sessions or at the Albany Empire in July 1979. Buy them both before they disappear forever, and then buy more for all your friends. How good would this band have been if they had continued? And as all five of them are hale and hearty, why not get it together for a twelfth gig?
Wych Elm - Rat Blanket
Post Mortem
Released: 22nd March 2019
When a record is released by Post Mortem Records in a hand-sewn body bag and features artwork by Adrian Dutt, you expect to hear something quite noisy and nasty. This debut EP from Wych Elm is a world away from such expectations, being a fairly gentle collection of seven songs, most of which fail to make it to two minutes, with the total running time coming in at dead on fourteen. Wych Elms (ulmus glabra) were commonly used to make coffins and in mythology the tree is linked to melancholy, death and the journey to the underworld, all of which ties in well with the Bristol band's downbeat tales. Musically, there is not a lot of English folklore influence to be revealed as the band are clearly in love with Pixies, and Pixies at their most tuneful and pointed rather than their more explosive. In fact it is a little difficult not to count the whole record as a pastiche as the influence extends to the gloopy bass lines, the delicate guitars, the pacing of the songs and even the intonation of the vocals. It's all good, but alarmingly familiar, and even when the band break out of walking pace to let it rip in '1983', they are clearly doing so in baseball boots and backwards caps. It leaves us with a bit of a dilemma as this is a decent enough debut and we like it quite a lot, but it just lacks originality. If Pixies don't want to be Pixies any more then it seems logical that somebody should be them, but hopefully Wych Elm will grow into their own music, drop the too obvious reference points, and come up with something startlingly cutting, brave and original.
Crows - Silver Tongues
Balley
Released: 22nd March 2019
We nearly missed this one. The north London four-piece came to notice a few years ago, but had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth so no doubt the release of their debut album escaped many who are generally pretty focussed on such things. Crows' music is guitar-heavy, dense and brooding, so much so that it often sounds like it is carrying a bitter grudge. It certainly hates your family. And your life. And it always will. Most of the songs here are relentless, hard and unyielding and it would be easy in such circumstances for the music to lack variety; it certainly has a narrow focus sonically and the fact it still manages to impress is a testament to its strength. Guitars break from the morass and run for cover or a bassline bubbles over to add texture, while towards the end of the album there is even more give. 'Chain Of Being' tugs the band slightly out of their comfort zone to offer a different sense of perspective, while 'Tired and Failed' steps back just enough to do the same.
'First Light//False Face' begins slowly and builds into more familiar territory, but the funereal 'Dysphoria' really attempts to break the mould as the album concludes in a more experimental phase than it began. It's a truly impressive moment, a song of regret with James Cox's emotional vocal rising above Steve Goddard’s grasping guitars that are looking to drag it down. Lyrically, the theme of self-doubt intrudes into every perspective Cox takes. Whether inspired by religion, literature or burial, the real focus of these songs is how any of these things impact on the personal. It gives a human edge to what is really a record standing in the darkness and this is helped by a nice resonance to the vocals that were recorded live on an empty stage to capture the right tone. Well worth investigation.
Spectres - Choucoune Asphyxiate Repeat
Cranes
Released: 25th March 2019
We are always excited to see what Spectres will come up with next and the band have chosen to release their first new recordings since 2017's brilliant Condition album on the French label, Cranes. Described by the label as a "12" 45 rpm vinyl, one-side single with endless groove and mirror-side B, hermetic bag cover with fragrant under sleeve", this continues Spectres' tradition of refusing to release anything in a format that even hints at convention, though why this one needs a waterproof sleeve is certainly a fascinating question. Annoyingly, you cannot get at the record without causing damage to the wrapper, and when you have prised it apart you are greeted by a lead track of just two minutes in duration with a five-minute companion. It certainly isn't more of the same. Whereas Condition was full of experimental instrumentation and muted vocals, 'Choucoune Asphyxiate Repeat' is a far more straightforward grinding attack, in many ways reminiscent of new age American punk bands. There are crushing bursts of guitars, pounding drums and more upfront vocals, again with the familiar repetition of phrases. It's nicely jagged and grating, and ends before everything starts to wear as its quiet vocal/loud guitar bursts appear a little bit familiar. It's unusual to hear Spectres sounding anything like other bands, but the second track , 'Evol', is more detached, a haunting, trembling mess which touches the edges of ethereal gothic as its guitars wail plaintively to Joe Hatt's gentle vocals. Of course, being Spectres, it is just a little bit nasty and concludes its five minutes of tortured whispers with a painful blast of guitars. Good work as ever, though we nod towards 'Evol' as the standout track here.
