Posts Tagged ‘fun’

Utterly Fuzzled #12: Cowtown / Steatopygous / Chaffinch – Fulfordgate Club, York, 11th July 2026

Posted: 12 July 2026 in Live, Reviews
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Christopher Nosnibor

Is it possible for there to be too much happening? This evening’s show was brought forward to a matinee start with 8pm finish in order to accommodate England’s World Cup quarter final match with its 10mp kick off. And while another tasty lineup headlined by Soma Crew on the other side of town got rescheduled, there’s also Super Furry Animals headlining one of the city’s biggest nights of the year at The Museum Gardens, and York Races. These are the challenges which can face promoters – and given other issues, like the first band on the original bill having to pull out because of being unable to make the earlier time slot, and Steatopygous having van issues that resulted in their having to cancel their Glasgow show the night before and having to be rescued from limbo in Leeds, it’s little short of a miracle that tonight even went ahead, let alone that people turned up.

It’s oft said that most music reviewers are failed musicians – usually by the kind of cynics who trot out lines like ‘if you can’t do, teach’, while themselves being incredibly self-satisfied by their having never attempted anything to fail at. And so it is that I find myself here as a last-minute replacement for The Pennydrops, who had to cancel, and while it’s true that the early doors meant the vast majority turned up after my set, I’d call getting to blast my racket without clearing the room a success.

Chaffinch may visually resemble York band Knitting Circle with an additional guitarist, but they’re very, very different indeed. And here, playing their fifth ever show, they cement the differences, not just sonically, but in terms of presentation, with all but the drummer playing the majority of the set in front of the stage, largely with their backs to the audience, with the jabbing twin guitars playing against and across one another to forge jolting No-Wave discord atop shuddering bass and powerful syncopated drumming. Their set is rapidly evolving, too, with a couple of new songs packed into their succinct and thrilling set.

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Chaffinch

It’s here that I should once again highlight the eclecticism of Utterly Fuzzled lineups. As much as they do perhaps have a leaning towards indie, alternative rock, contemporary punk and post-punk, as Jo Dale explained to me in a recent interview, their fundamental criteria are ‘Absolutely no all-male line-ups! …We’re not genre specific, between us we have very wide musical tastes. Basically, if it excites us then we want to put it on, simple as that really’.

Even so, having seen Wiltshire four-piece Steatopygous (whose name, incidentally, means fat or prominent buttocks) advertised as ‘teenagers playing high-energy punk with a rather 90s riot grrrl feel’ and trading in ‘raging expressions of angered feminist teenage anguish did nothing to prepare me for the full-on aural assault that incorporates elements of hardcore and metalcore. With heavy, filthy bass dominating the dense sound, I’m at times reminded of the dirty noise rock of Fudge Tunnel, only rendered all the more terrifying by Poppy’s throat-rippingly demonic vocals. A high, crisp snare cuts through the sludge noise. But there’s subtlety and detail to their sonic palate, too. Mellow passages border on folk, with spoken word segments, showcasing some intelligent and articulate songwriting that’s so much more than mere rage. That said, their fiery and passionate final song, is a beast and whips up a mini-moshpit down the front, and that’s no small feat when it’s absolutely melting.

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Steatopygous

So after extreme electronica, angular no-wave noise rock, and multi-faceted hardcore, Cowtown are perhaps the most overtly indie / alternative act of the night, but the thing about Cowtown is that, well, they’re uniquely Cowtown. Stalwarts of the Leeds scene in the same way as Bilge Pump (and, more recently, Objections, and Thank, for that matter), it’s the quirkiness that’s as integral to their appeal as their commitment to the DIY scene. Oh, and songs, of course. They have some songs. Good songs, too. But what are they about? Tonight, we get to find out about some of them. And so do they, seemingly for the first time, too. This is a significant part of the great and enduring appeal of Cowtown: they never fail to entertain, and as they race through the songs – grunge and punk at heart, but with pop keen leanings –with unbridled energy and effervescence, there’s a joy which radiates from the stage: they genuinely love doing what they do – and tonight, Hilary is loving the gong, a fixture of Utterly Fuzzled events used primarily to herald the commencement of each set, but here, used as punctuation between songs, and equally, just for the fun of it. And ultimately, fun is what they specialise in, bringing a near-miraculous evening to a most uplifting finish.

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Cowtown

Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band – The New Atomic

Posted: 11 June 2026 in Albums, Reviews
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Trash City Records – 26th June 2026

Christopher Nosnibnor

With over thirty members, there’s nothing imaginary about the bigness of the band led by Fergus Quill, and this, their third album, we’re told, ‘celebrates the full gamut of big band music from the big screen showbiz razzmatazz of yore to Charles Mingus, to John Zorn, to the Afrofuturism of Sun Ra’.

But first, a brief potted musical history of the big band, and the origin of this one, which was established as ‘a celebration of the neglected possibilities of the big band’. ‘Following World War II, big bands, with their large ensembles were considered commercially unviable for most, hence the transition to the smaller groups of the bebop era. They are still more scarce in our own times for the same, economic reasons. As such, an undertaking like this, led by primary composer Fergus Quill, is a true labour of love, of spiritual adventure and big fun, a joyful blast of collective noise’.

The New Atomic was recorded over three days, its forty-minute duration culled from some five hours of recordings – more of a box set than an album – and the result is quite remarkable.

‘J Surfing on the Sun’ kicks things off with a nine-minute journey that one might reasonably call quintessential film score stuff – think movie soundtracks from the 60s and 70s with big action. You could almost play this over the video of ‘Sabotage’ by The Beastie Boys – only it’s got swing, it’s got groove, and it’s got… not necessarily narrative, but changes in tempo and instrumentation which could readily correspond with different scenes and the telling of a story, culminating in a frenetic finale. It packs crazy horns and cadent keys and thrills and spills galore. Sure, it’s jazz, but it’s no ponderous chin-stroking shit – this is lively stuff to get down to.

If ‘Theme from “The New Atomic”’ goes avant-garde and disjointed in places, and space-age ambient in others, their cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Love Sick’ is tight, focused, and marks a complete contrast to the rest of the album – it’s overtly structured, and sedate in pace, but boasts some Pearl and Dean kind of blasts (that’s a reference that’ll only make sense to a certain demographic, but hey), and side two goes all out on the groove with ‘Do the Right Thing’, which again brings sturdy beats and a solid groove. And from hereon in, things only get more rambunctious and bold and expansive and wide-ranging, until we arrive at the final song, ‘ I Shall Not Be Moved’ an arrangement of the traditional song, which I’d always believed was ‘We’ rather than ‘I’. Essentially an acapella ensemble performance to begin, the coming together of voices articulating peaceful protest is intensely moving, and never more pertinent. It’s powerful in its simplicity and directness, and serves as a reminder that resistance is by no means futile: we need more of this, and a lot less lobbing of projectiles and burning of vehicles.

The New Atomic is every bit as explosive as the cover art suggests.

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Shonen Knife / Speedreaders – The Crescent, York, 6th June 2025

Posted: 7 June 2025 in Live, Reviews
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Christopher Nosnibor

Sure, having Kurt Cobain proclaim his fandom and bringing them on tour as a support act may have helped bring Shonen Knife to a wider audience, but in the Internet age, when it’s much easier to discover bands who aren’t shoved under your nose by pluggers and playlists, it seems probable that they’d have reached the current place on their journey on their own merits.

And so it is that the original all-female Japanese pop / punk power trio return to York after quite some time, bringing their ‘Have a Knife Day’ tour to a sold-out Crescent the night after stopping at the legendary Brudenell in Leeds. With the twenty-seven EU / UK tour taking in Hebden Bridge, Manchester, and Sunderland, it’s nice to see the North getting a decent share of shows, and the turnout and response tonight shows it’s appreciated.

The front bar is busy a good half an hour before the doors open, and local support Speedreaders seem genuinely surprised by the size of the crowd they’re playing to. They’re never the most conversational of acts, with the gaps between songs spent turning up and keeping their eyes to the floor, but their brand of slowcore indie – a significant contrast to the headliners’ uptempo style – is well-received, and deservedly so: they’re tight, and the arrangements are such that there is considerable air between the instruments, The sound is crisp and clear, and their concise set no doubt won some new converts.

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Speedreaders

Shonen Knife set up their own kit – drums, the lot, tuning, etc., all wearing their own current tour shirts. One bass pedal, perhaps half a dozen guitar pedals, small amps, there’s nothing fancy about their setup. That’s the essence of punk right there. A tech does come on and make some final checks before they return, T-shirts removed to reveal their co-ordinated colourful stage dresses, and they’re proceed to serve up a set which is pure joy from beginning to end.

For a band that’s been going for nearly forty-five years, their lineup has been consistent for long periods of time, and currently consists of co-founding sisters Naoko and Atsuko Yamano (guitar / vocals and bass / vocals respectively) and singing drummer Risa Kawano, who’s been with the band since 2015. This stability is likely one of the key factors in their tightness as a unit: the songs may not be especially complex, but their played really well – to the extent that it stands out. What also stands out is just how much they look to be enjoying themselves: they smile a lot, and Kawano in particular beams throughout the set, like she’s having the absolute time of her life on every swing of a stick. And that joy is infectious.

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Shonen Knife

For the uninitiated, Shonen Knife sound like a Japanese female Ramones experiencing a massive sugar rush. Their songs are perfect pop, and revel in the pleasures of ice cream, candy, and cookie dough. They’re the musical equivalent of kawaii drawing, and their stage show is in keeping with this. It’s not just the outfits, but the spangle guitars, the way the harmonies come together, the way the jumps aren’t jumps so much as bunny hops. Yet none of it feels trite or contrived, and it’s never cloying. It’s simply good, clean fun. A couple of times, I find myself thinking of Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds – and it’s theme tune, that hyperpop energy the likes of which I had never heard before at the time.

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Shonen Knife

For an hour and a half, I find myself uplifted to a point that I am simply bursting with joy. While they play, everyone is in the moment, transported away from everything: the room is filled with happiness which celebrates simple joys. It’s pure escapism, and absolutely wonderful.

Bruno Muerte – Errors

Posted: 18 March 2023 in Albums
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24th February 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

This Oxford based act describe themselves as ‘Techno Western New Wave Electroclash’ and ‘Synth lovers’. Unfortunately for me, this description conjures images of moustachioed hipsters circa 2009. The pair may well, be, choosing to keep their mugs off the record, and I’m all too aware of just how the field of instrumental electronic music is very much the domain of middle-class white guys tinkering with expensive toys. This lack of cultural diversity may be a leading factor in there being so much sameness stylistically.

Sameness isn’t really a criticism one could level at this album, for while it does assimilate many common tropes of contemporary synthesizer music – in that its inspirations are often retro in origin – stylistically, Errors offers a broad range.

‘Science of Errors’ is a punchy piece of electropop with some big, bold proggy sections that surge along in a rush, and it’s a strong start. ‘Conga Cop’ is very much a tune of 80s TV show vintage style. It’s extremely busy in terms of arrangement, stabby synths shooting over a hectic rhythm and samples flying around there and there, before going altogether more minimal on ‘Phil D’Ophear’, a much darker slice of techno where the dense bass dominates. Elsewhere, ‘Wibli Wobli’ packs a driving, energetic groove.

Errors is big on ideas: it’s positively bursting with them, and consequently, there is a lot happening, sometimes, if not all at the same time, then densely packed together, to the point that sometimes it feels as if there’s too much happening. And not all of the ideas necessarily work perfectly: the Clangers whistling over a microtonal waltz on ‘Satomi’ is novel and fun, but little more, but it’s Bruno Muerte’s willingness to experiment and the mix-and-shake approach to making music that’s a large part of the album’s appeal.

As they write in the accompanying notes, ‘One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist without errors.’ It’s refreshing to hear: Errors, then, is not a quest for perfection, but a celebration of imperfection and the joy of being creative. And ultimately, it’s joy that Errors brings.

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