Archive for December, 2022

Fighting Colours – Wishing Well

Posted: 9 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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25th November 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

What we all need is a jolt, a shock. Right NOW. You may not even realise it, but consider this: while life and the world seems to be swirling in a vortex of addling bewilderment, a lot of music seems to have become incredibly safe, a retreat. I’m not even talking about that slick, mass-produced mainstream fodder: even so-called ‘alternative’ rock has become increasingly safe in recent years, in the post-emo, post Foos world. And while a few acts on the peripheries are smashing all genre conventions with sledgehammers, they’re pretty niche, and what the world needs is something that can really get into the mix and shake things up. Has anything turned the world even halfway on its head singe grunge?

I’m aware that even reminiscing about grunge places my voice in a time capsule and in the ‘old bugger’ demographic for many, but has anything really been even remotely as evolutionary since? Has there ever been a seismic event since? We talk – or talked – about the zeitgeist, but what is the zeitgeist at the flaccid tail-end of 2022? Disaffection, discontent, strikes? Maybe, but what’s the soundtrack? Ed Sheeran and the new Adele album sure as hell aren’t the voice of disaffected youth.

Brighton’s ‘rising alt-rock rebels’ Fighting Colours might not be the face of the revolution, but they are the band to deliver that much-needed shakeup.

The vibe around the opening of the first of the EP’s four tracks, ‘Your Choice Now’ is a bit post-rock, with a nice, clean, chiming guitar sound – but it yields to some beefy riffage that’s pure grunge, it’s clear from the outset that they’re keen to mix things up and create their own blend, and it’s one that works well. And then Jasmine Ardley’s vocals enter the mix, and with this kind of chunky alt-rock being so male-orientated, to hear a female voice is unusual – and while Ardley has a clean vocal sound, it’s not unduly poppy.

‘The Boat Starts to Shake’ shuffled closer towards the jazzier, noodling end of the post-rock sound that was ubiquitous circa 2004, but the mathy verses contrast with massive slugging grunged-out choruses and a climax that’s nearly nu-metal and beings some hefty noise.

‘The Cure’ is different again, venturing into almost urban territory, while still anchored in jazzy math rock elements, before rupturing into a bold chorus that’s in between Evanescence and Halestorm, both gutsy and melodic and with an ‘epic’ feel, and it’s delivered with style.

The final cut of the EP plays the slower, emotion-filled arena anthem card, but still has more than enough guts and a keen melody, not least of all thanks to Jasmine’s voice, to separate it from the countless Paramore-wannabe alt rock acts out there.

It all stacks up for a strong set with a lot of bold and exhilarating rock action. It’s the kick up the arse alt-rock needs.

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Fighting Colours - Wishing Well - EP artwork (Gypsy Rose Design)

Nefas – Sora

Posted: 8 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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23rd September 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Perhaps it’s that media has a numbing effect, or perhaps it’s simply that however strong the quality of the reportage, it can never truly convey the details in a way that are relatable. I’ve spent the best part of the last year seeing footage or the War in Ukraine and seeing and reasoning about the humanitarian crisis, and, like most people, it’s been quite overwhelming. And yet, ultimately, it’s just more TV, more news media online, on the radio.

I receive missives from around the globe, most containing new music for my ears, and this week, the arrival of Nefas EP by Sora, an offshoot of Kadaitcha piqued my interest with the offer of instrumental southern Ukrainian jazzcore.

Sure, I’m up for a challenge, and hell it’s definitely that. But if the music is a challenge – and if you look up ‘challenge’ in the dictionary, you’ll find it starts playing this EP – the backdrop to its release is even harder to process, with the context of its having been recorded and released shortly before its makers fled Ukraine and decamped to Estonia for their survival, leaving their musical equipment behind and a new Kadaitcha album in the can and in suspense.

Like many, I simply take my home and possessions for granted, writing in my review of the last Kadaitcha release – a lathe-cut 7” ‘with a true physical format, apart from fire or flooding, you have something pretty robust’. It feels pretty crass in the face of everything, in hindsight.

But… but… these guys have continued to make music right up to that moment of departure. It’s not heroic, but a real indicator of just how essential art is, even in the most desperate of time. And more than anything, it shows how strong the need for normality is in the most extreme of situations. The world is seemingly ending, what do you do? Keep going, do as much as you can of what you were doing before. Because it’s a way to cope. Channel that anxiety creatively, and who knows?

Well, we know now. Sora is something special.

The five tracks drag the listener on a wild journey, with the first piece, ‘kings’ but a prelude to the frenetic manic sonic explosion of ‘limit’, a frenzy of crashing drums, jagged guitars, freewheeling bass grooves and crazy brass that brings a whirlwind of discord and by the end, it’s all whipped into a head-spinning cyclone of chaos. It’s a maelstrom of madness, there’s just so much going on all at once, and so much noise and dissonance.

‘Schizoid’ brings some truly nefarious low-end to the party, and it’s hurled against some crashing drums, and in combination conjures a tempestuous storm of sound that rages and pummels, before ‘No’ lumbers heavily onto a hooting, tooting onslaught of mayhem.

There’s a serious risk of a headache with this one, but it’s a headache that need poking: Sora is brain-bending, dizzying, and at times intense and harsh. But that’s why we like it.

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Watch: ‘A Void’ by Neon Funeral

Posted: 8 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Hardcore darkwave band, Neon Funeral recently unveiled their latest single and video, ‘A Void’.

The song deals with escaping a life of drugs and societal pressures; avoiding it but not wanting to talk about it. It’s about someone being tortured by their addictions and demons. The instrumentals emit an overall sound that is darker and a range that is more dynamic than on previous releases. They just flow in the direction of the layered guitars that take over during the fadeout.

The video concept was one that finds the band’s front man, Randy waking up while experiencing hallucinations of a dark cult-like figure. He joins a strange cult doing strange rituals while initiating other members unwillingly. The video opens questions of societal pressures and about not being able to escape one’s mind and the darker paths of life.

The fire pit represents passion and a rebirth of his life. At the end you see all the people wearing masks in a row essentially giving into the cult like Randy gives into his fear. But they gain strength through the darkness at the end. particularly in the last scene when Randy grabs the light bulb to essentially say that he darkens his own light.

So the themes of the song and video are fear, spirituality, rebirth, strength and passion. 

Watch the video here:

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Neon Funeral US live dates:

1.6.23 Richmond, VA @ Fallout
1.7.23 Washington DC @ The Runaway
1.8.23 Philadelphia, PA @ Century

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Fvnerals – Ashen Era

Posted: 7 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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Prophecy Productions – 7th December 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Following on from ‘For Horror Eats the Light’, Fvnerals bring more darkness for December with ‘Ashen Era’ from the forthcoming album Let the Earth Be Silent. And truly, it’s a monster, a sprawling seven-and-a-half-minute beast that behind dark, murky, atmospheric in a haunting, ethereal ambient sort of a way, before crushingly heavy guitars grind out colossal drone over thunderous percussion.

If it feels like the end of the world, that’s probably because that’s the intention. The band explain the song and is place in the album’s development thus: “Inspired by the deeply destructive nature and harmful presence of our species, ‘Ashen Era’ was the first song that we wrote for this album, which also established its foundation", singer and bass player Tiffany Ström reveals. “In our writing process, we used dissonant orchestral instrumentation coupled with eerie vocals to ritualistically build up from a chant of despair to a state of acceptance. It is moving from the overwhelming longing for annihilation as well as the anxiety and guilt of our existence, to finding beauty and peace in our own impending end.”

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Pic: Anja Bergman

This anxiety is something that’s been increasingly difficult to ignore, and it’s not just me and the sense of impending apocalypse that I’ve had for half my life: everything seems to be accelerating exponentially – climate change, consumption, population growth. The last few weeks have seen myriad news pieces on people complaining that Christmas markets have never been so busy and that traffic gridlock is suddenly no longer a rush hour or bank holiday thing, but from eight in the morning to nine at night.

In the wake of the pandemic, and with floods and droughts and fuel shortages and spiralling prices as demand for everything exceeds demand, as I’ve written previously, it feels as if we’re not only heading towards but already living in all of the dystopian futures featured in books and movies. That more writers and musicians are articulating these same feelings is cold comfort.

If one thing is becoming clear now, it’s that we have left it too late, and have almost certainly sealed our own fate, and now it seems that all we can do is make peace with this, and search for the ‘beauty and peace in our own impending end.’ It isn’t easy, if it’s even achievable, accelerating toward the abyss. But with ‘Ashen Era’, Fvnerals provide the perfect soundtrack.

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Watch: ‘Enter the Loop’ by Witch Ripper

Posted: 6 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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WITCH RIPPER have created a loving pastiche of the legendary pulp science fiction stories of old. The story told on their sophomore full-length The Flight after the Fall has all those tasty ingredients: a mad professor, his dying wife, cryogenic chambers, a black hole as well as themes of love, failure, loss, and acceptance.

Musically, Witch Ripper have packed The Flight After the Fall with as much aggression and barely tamed electricity as anybody knowing them would expect, but there are also fleetly intricate guitar interplay touches of subtle synth, and cosmic atmospherics as well as unshakably catchy clean vocal hooks. In short, Witch Ripper maintain their brutal roots while embracing the arena rock bombast of Queen and David Bowie, the exuberant modern prog of Coheed and Cambria, and MUSE.

Born and raised in the city of grey skies and loud music, Seattle in 2012, Washington’s WITCH RIPPER have seamlessly welded together the contemporary heaviness of such hard-hitting acts as Mastodon, GOJIRA, and Baroness with the anthemic quality of classic rock artists.

With a self-titled EP Witch Ripper (2012) and the debut full-length Homestead (2018),Witch Ripper garnered both critical acclaim and a strong buzz in the underground metal scene. Witch Ripper have performed alongside heavy rock outfits such as MONOLORD, CONAN, and RUBY THE HATCHET as well as modern metal acts including SLIPKNOT, GOJIRA, and KHEMMIS among many others.

Witch Ripper approach their music in true American fashion: big riffs, bigger hooks, and damn, that drummer! With The Flight After the Fall, this heavy Seattle outfit re-emerge boldly into the guitar-driven US metal scene.

Watch the video here for some bombastic, overblown guitar entertainment:

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Watch: ‘Spiral’ by Berries

Posted: 6 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Berries totally grabbed us with their debut album, How We Function.

Taken from said debut album,  ‘Spiral’ showcases everything we dig about them, and the new release comes ahead of a UK headline run in March 2023, plus a run of Winter shows with Skinny Lister this December.

Steeped in BERRIES’ trademark craggy, contagious rhythms and earworm choral hooks, it’s another fine example of the band’s melodic noise-driven rock in full flight. A track about concealing our innermost struggles and the escalating repercussions it can cause, vocalist Holly explains:

“’Spiral’ is about how easily we share insignificant details about ourselves but struggle to open up about serious matters through fear of seeming weak or vulnerable. And how what we do share with people is often for the satisfaction and approval of others and not for ourselves.”

Blending distinctive melodies with inner-battles we’ve all faced, ‘Spiral’ is a quintessential BERRIES cut plucked from the band’s new album How We Function (out now, via Xtra Mile Recordings); an album ostensibly about mental health struggles and how we can overcome them.

Watch the video here:

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BERRIES – UK DATES

December

08 – Manchester, Gorilla +

09 – Newcastle, University +

10 – Bristol, Thekla +

14 – Leicester, The Y Theatre +

15 – Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill +

16 – Leeds, Stylus +

17 – London, Islington Assembly Hall +

March

27 – Nottingham, Bodega

28 – Leeds, Santiago Bar

29 – Manchester, Gullivers

30 – Bristol, Mr Wolfs

31 – London, Oslo

+ w/ Skinny Lister

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Watch: ‘Mary in the Black and White Room’ by IST IST

Posted: 5 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Before we wave adieu to 2022 – IST IST – pause for reflection with the philosophical: ‘Mary In The Black And White Room’.

This new single arrives as the Manchester post/punk frontrunners also confirm a series of UK headline shows for April 2023, with dates in Glasgow, Newcastle, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol and London. Tickets will be on sale this Wednesday (7t December) at 10AM here.

A reminder of their keenly-anticipated third album ‘Protagonists’ (slated for Spring 2023 via Kind Violence Records), the track finds the band revealing one of its most cerebral, synth-driven moments.

With shades of classic OMD, The Cure and New Order, ‘Mary In The Black And White Room’ effervesces in the darkness with its potent blend of layered synthesisers, darting basslines, and labyrinthine lyrical intrigue.

“Mary…” is inspired by a thought experiment proposed by the philosopher Frank Jackson that has since become known as ‘the knowledge argument’ (or ‘Mary’s room’). Hypothesising the work of a scientist called Mary, who exists in a black and white world where she has extensive access to physical descriptions of colour, but no actual human perceptual experience of colour; Jackson’s theory wonders whether Mary will gain new knowledge if she actually experiences seeing colour.

Speaking about the track, IST IST’s  Adam Houghton says:

“Mary in the Black and White Room is about trying to figure out if experience trumps knowledge. See ‘the Knowledge Argument’ where the subject, Mary, exists in a black and white world but has extensive descriptions of colour, but you don’t know if she knows what they actually look like until exposed to it. Really interesting stuff.”

Absorbed by themes explored in Jackson’s theory of physicalism, IST IST create an unconventional love-song-of-sorts. As if reaching out from another dimension, frontman Adam Houghton delivers a cascade of cryptic couplets and non sequiturs in his rich baritone, looking to add colour to a world that could be so much more than monochrome.

The single arrives with an official lyric video created by Shaolin Pete, which elegantly reflects the themes explored in ‘Mary in the Black and White Room’. Watch it here:

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IST IST

Ketamine Kow – Shoe Shopping

Posted: 5 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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Warren Records

Christopher Nosnibor

On witnessing Hull band Ketamine Kow playing live low on the bill supporting Mannequin Death Squad a little while ago, I found myself feeling exhilarated and fully charged by the raw energy of the performance and 100% sold on their punk energy, and I wrote as much after the fact. So it’s nice to see my enthusiastic comments repeated in the press release for their new single, ‘Shoe Shopping’, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

A nervous, but soft jangling guitar yields to a welter of everything going off all at once and at a hundred miles an hour and they charge headlong into a raucous blast of driving alternative rock that channels post-punk and grunge as much as it does classic vintage punk, while Adam Stainforth rants about uncomfortable shoes.

If that sounds like facetious fluff, it’s far from it, and Stainforth’s explanation of the song’s subject matter shows a depth and reflection that may not be immediately apparent based on first impressions:

“The song battles with the idea of gender identity being a lot like a pair of shoes,” he says. If you have a good comfortable well-fitting pair, then you don’t think about it and as you walk about you aren’t constantly thinking about your shoes and their comfort. But if your shoes are too small, or there’s a pebble in them, it’s all you can think about. Every step is annoying and you don’t want to do anything else until you fix the problem and your shoes stop hurting. So, I think in that sense most people probably can’t conceptualise the feeling of their gender well, because it just fits right and always has – and therefore it’s hard to imagine how all the small, normal things just constantly feel wrong, even if you are alone in your home.”

Put simply, there’s more than just all-out attack happening here, although the full-throttle, furious delivery is, unquestionably, a major draw. With the momentum they’ve built – and the speed at which they’ve gained it – this year, 2023 is looking like being a stormer for Ketamine Kow.

Listen: ‘Nazarite’ by The Lord † David Pajo

Posted: 4 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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2022 has been a phenomenally active year for Greg Anderson as The Lord. Having previously shared standalone track releases, he then released his debut solo album Forest Nocturne in Summer followed by a collaborative album with Petra Haden, Devotional, in October.

Now, he is heard in collaboration with David Pajo in a brand new track, "Nazarite", which sees the two musicians meet over ominous arpeggios and spoken word segments in this new track which Greg suggests is a "gateway" to more collaborations in the future.

Greg says, "I’m beyond honoured to have been able to collaborate with David Pajo for this ever evolving output as The Lord. Slint remains one of the most important bands ever to me. I composed the music for ‘Nazarite’ as a love letter to Slint that exemplifies my obsession and devotion. David’s brilliant response to my humble offering is clear proof of his genius."

David Pajo says, “In Tennessee, I played a bit of acoustic guitar on the Goatsnake song ‘Another River To Cross.’ It was then that I realized we had a perfect working dynamic. We seem to be able to push an idea from nothing into solid shape, without much effort or ego. I trust Greg’s ear and musical sense implicitly—he’s fearless.”

Listen to ‘Nazarite’ here:

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Various artists: EMOM York XIII, The Fulford Arms, York, 30th November 2022

Posted: 3 December 2022 in Live
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Christopher Nosnibor

I absolutely love the EMOM nights: regardless of where they are, they’re eclectic, and above all, accommodating: there’s a real sense of community around them. But if there’s one criticism to be made, it’s around the demographic: guys. Always guys. White, and mostly 50+. This was particularly apparent at the Leeds EMOM at Wharf Chambers a couple of months ago, and admittedly, this is inching towards being my demographic, but… well. What to do about it? It’s an open mic. How can you make something that’s inclusive feel like a place for everyone?

While many guys take up tinkering with synths once their kids have left the nest, it’s clear that this is not representative of the electronic scene, by any means. So why do EMOM nights draw wall-to-wall guys, middle-aged or older, pissing about with expensive midlife-crisis kit, but next to no women or, well, anyone who’s not a middle-aged white bloke?

Tonight does not conform to this emerging form, and it’s genuinely warming to see that the room is not only quite full, but rather more diverse in its populace.

The diversity applies to the music on offer, too: within the first four acts, we’d witnessed modular minimal krautrock, angular bleeping and live chess, as well as an abundance of laptop action, yielding a full spectrum of styles and frequencies. And the evening swiftly evolves from here, because then there’s some absolutely everything going off all at once choral samples, synths and bouncing grooves what the fuckness from Hull’s PariahX, noodly and surprisingly atmospheric, vintage sci fi stuff from regulars TSR2, the trio again reduced to a duo, making innovative use of a mobile phone. They’re reliably good, but this is possibly the best I’ve heard from them yet.

Host Simon Higginbotham, who operates as How Buildings Fail, brings a heap of kit and five miles of cable to conjure squelchy experimental electronica in the vein of Cabaret Voltaire, as fronted by Mark E Smith, thanks to his sprechgesang vocals. He looks like he’s having a ball, and he does a great job, with the sound emanating from the PA landing in the region of Dr Mix: it’s of proper late 70s vintage in style, with pulsating retro drum machine sounds and endless reverb proving integral to the experience.

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How Buildings Fail

Dots brought guitar, keytar, and his ‘n’ hers silver spangled outfits, and the human glitterballs provided one of the night’s more unexpected turns. They were good fun, too, even if I was mostly plunging headlong into the zone where everything goes quiet and fades into a blur as I fumble with cables and fret about the seconds ticking down. I am aware that appear significantly more composed than I really am. My head is swimming and everything is a fog.

Dots

Dots

The question of whether or not it’s acceptable to review gigs where you’re also performing is one I’ve touched on more than once, and tonight my focus on the acts has been pulled a little by the prospect of my first collaboration with Debz Fialkiewicz. Having been impressed by Hull Duo Spore’s performance at WonkyStuff in October, I wrote ‘I feel I should collaborate with these guys – because they’re ace, and Nosnispore has a definite ring to it’. And this, I have to say is the beauty of this little scene: the people are open-minded and interested. Debz got in touch, and so with no rehearsal and only minimal discussion – simply an agreement on ‘dark ambient noise with dystopian spoken word narrative’ the day before – it happened. A few people said the vocals were too low in the mix and barely audible beneath all the echo, but that was exactly the idea. There’s going to be more where that came from.

Noisenispor EMOM

Noisenispore

Still buzzing, I slump, drained, into my seat to watch the rest of the night.

Ian J Cole brought some avant-oddity, while Jamie brought some thumping uptempo rhythms to build a harsh beat-driven techno attack before Tom Ray – Home Taper – brought some bulbous, buzzing laptop distortion-driven heavy drone by way of a finale. He brought some really nice, dirty, dark tones and difficult frequencies that rattled the bones and sent vibrations through the intestines, and it felt good. Maybe there’s another collaboration there.

Jamie EMOM

Jamie

Tom

Home Taper

In all, it was another cracking night, and a first-class showcase of the thriving electronic scene in Yorkshire.

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