Friday 29 January 2016

TALONS - 'New Topographics' review




TALONS - 'New Topographics' review

"My old band SPERARE were fortunate enough to play with TALONS a fair few years back, and I do recall being blown away by their dual-violin accompanied instrumental post-rock. What we have here is a little more ambient and soundscape driven than what I remember of their last album, 'Hollow Realm', with a few songs dedicated solely to textures of the hum of ringing guitars, and violin melodies, creating epic, sweeping soundscapes. There are still plenty of colossal riffs here though, coupled with epic guitar melodies, with songs like 'Lunar Gloss' and 'The Wild Places' showing their ability to contrast both to beautiful effect, as well as some awesome, fuzzy distorted bass, and pounding drum work that is at times fast and technical, while at others sounding brilliantly mechanical, shining especially in the sublime 'The Dreams Have No Dream', which features not only the most intense and noisy section of the album at the end, which massively took me by surprise, but also a couple of my favourite melodies on here. A brilliant, and at times haunting, experimental piece of work by a band that have the layering of sounds and textures down to a tee, from every piece of feedback and percussionary click, to every underlying melody. Mesmerising."


xox

Sunday 24 January 2016

STRUNG OUT - 'Transmission. Alpha. Delta' review



STRUNG OUT - 'Transmission. Alpha. Delta' review


"So, the sticker on the cover of this states that 'two years in the making, STRUNG OUT are back with a career-defining masterpiece', which is somewhat of an exaggeration in my opinion, but this is still, as expected, pretty damn great. It sounds a lot like the stuff that appeared on their last couple of albums; crisp, tight, polished skate-punk that fuses twiddly metallic guitar work with a load of pace and energy, big melodies, and some huge choruses. and having been listening to these guys since I was in school, it's great to hear how everything has culminated into this cohesive sound that doesn't really sound like anyone else (not least because of Jason's ace vocal style). There are some real crackers on here in the form of super catchy opener 'Rats in the Walls', 'Black Maps', and the intro to 'Nowheresville' is every skatepunkers dream; utter perfection. If you dig Fat Wreck style melodic punk with the twiddles of stuff like THE HUMAN PROJECT and THIS IS A STANDOFF, or simply like what they've done on recent previous albums, then I definitely recommend picking this up. Hard to believe these guys are in their forties and still writing such technical and relevant punk rock."

Sunday 17 January 2016

THE STORY SO FAR - 's/t' review

THE STORY SO FAR - 's/t' review


"I was quite looking forward to this coming out, given that their last album 'What You Don't See' was a pretty cracking collection of big and catchy pop-punk tunes with a nice heavy tone to the guitars, kinda like FOUR YEAR STRONG meets THE WONDER YEARS, and this pretty much lives up to expectations. The high range, almost melodic hardcore vocal stylings that soar to huge heights in choruses are still there ('Distaste'), the heavy guitar tones coupled with melodic leads are still present throughout save for the odd slower, acoustic tune ('Phantom'), and the characteristic drumming still gives it that familiar sound. The biggest difference for me is that where 'WYDS' was a pacey album, and had a lot of energy and intensity, this feels a bit more relaxed and slower in tempo. That's no bad thing though, especially with how good these songs are, and I think these guys are one of few bands who can pull such a thing off whilst still maintaining their own sound. So yeah, if you liked their previous stuff, you'll probably still like this as long as you don't mind a slight drop in momentum."
xox

Tuesday 12 January 2016

THE SHOGUN'S DECAPITATOR - 'Head Hunting' CD review


THE SHOGUN'S DECAPITATOR - 'Head Hunting' CD review


"THE SHOGUN'S DECAPITATOR is a band featuring members of other local bands such as OPIUM LORD, MOTHERTRUCKER, and THE HUBBLE CONSTANT, and where those other bands respectively bring the doom, the riffs, and the... science, TSD bring the FUNK. Throughout these nine instrumental tracks, most (if not all) of which appear to be named after local pubs and clubs of past and present, you'll find some seriously smooth yet booming bass grooves and licks alongside sublime rocking riffs and guitar chords picked and strummed in some of the most creative hooks and rhythms that I've heard in a long time, all driven by pounding yet technically considered percussionary magic (of which the intro to 'Exclusives' is particularly majestic). Dance beats, technical and funky dual guitar play that harmonises beautifully, stop / start song structures that I defy you to not want to move to, and a rock undertone, all culminate to form a somewhat 90s influenced sound that is both danceable and rocking. Check out opener 'Foley Arms Foley Arms', or I particularly like 'Picture House', especially that time change at the beginning, and 'Retreat'. Cool, now let's party."


xox

Thursday 7 January 2016

REHASHER - 'Make The Noise' CD review


REHASHER - 'Make The Noise' CD review


"For those that aren't already aware, REHASHER is the side project of Roger Lima of LESS THAN JAKE, and whilst eschewing any ska influences, he goes all out Fat Wreck style skate-punk that is fast, melodic, catchy, and packed full of sing-a-long choruses that grab you pretty much instantly. I always thought Roger was just part of this band, but it turns out he does everything on here except play the drums, which is pretty bloody impressive. I grew up loving LTJ (and especially Roger's voice) and skatepunk, so this band is a real dream for me, and there were some songs on the album 'Off Key Melodies' that were utter perfection in speed, intensity, and really passionate vocals, and though this collection of songs comes down a notch in those areas, this is still awesome melodic punk rock how it should be done. 'On the Way to Get to You' is one of the most infectious tunes I've heard him sing, 'S's B-day' offers a change of pace that breaks up the speed nicely, 'How to Lose Yourself' and 'Waste My Words' show off Roger's guitar chording skills (those in the verse of the latter are beautiful) whereas 'Right Here Right Now' (one of my faves on here) is a brilliant and welcome return to form in break neck speed and intensity. Whether you like LTJ or not, if you love skatepunk, you really should pick up this as well as previous releases. Great stuff."

xox

Tuesday 5 January 2016

THE PERVERTS - 'Thinking is Dangerous' / 'Inverted Cigarette Stumps' double CD and book


THE PERVERTS - 'Thinking is Dangerous' / 'Inverted Cigarette Stumps' double CD and book


"Firstly, I have to say this is a great, well put together set; two CDs of about twenty tracks each, plus a book featuring a piece of fiction by each of the three members of the band. I often refer to THE PERVERTS as probably one of the strangest things you will ever hear, so now I'll describe (or at least attempt to describe) what they sound like. Imagine walking through a long, grimey, English subway in the middle of the night, during which you discover a small, dark, secret passage, which after traversing for a while in pitch black, you subsequently stumble into a bright, garish, almost nursery-like room, full of musical broken toys (a couple of percussionary monkeys, a creepy, high-pitched talking clown, broken toy guitars, etc.) all playing at once but at different times... Yeah, something like that. It's funky and it's twinkly, but it still has that odd shroud of darkness surrounding it, making for a really creepy and eerie listening experience. I can't even begin to guess what the songs are about, but there are some cool song titles like 'Degenerative Jelly Bean', and especially on the second disc (which is more instrumental led, only featuring vocals on about three of the twenty tracks), with 'A Horn in the Distance Distills the Essence of the Rat Race', and 'Like Godzilla in a Steel Cage that is More Like a Shoebox'. The book, which works as an accompaniment to the music, features three pieces of dystopian fiction, the first being the longest story about a governmental plan to inseminate genetically modified, drone-like humans that act only upon command into society, as a means of developing a future race that is easily mass-controlled, followed by a short piece of poetry painting a bleak picture of the future, and finally a particularly well written but abstract short story about daily monotony, and probably a load of stuff that I didn't quite pick up on the first read. It's hard to know who to recommend this to, as it has elements of everything from PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. to THE PRODIGY to MELT BANANA, so I'd say just have a listen online and see what you make of it. A great set if you fancy something a bit (or a lot) different."
xox