Posts Tagged ‘music video’

Watch: ‘Bubblegum Party’ by SICKY

Posted: 22 September 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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British alternative artist SICKY unveils his new single‘Bubblegum Party’, a playful, infectious slice of indie rock that pairs catchy pop sensibilities with his trademark off-kilter style.  Beneath the bubblegum facade lies a gloriously messy breakup party, served with a crooked grin as sweetness meets spite, chaos and a wicked sense of fun.

‘Bubblegum Party’ offers the first taste of his forthcoming full-length Redland album – his fourth to date. Full of mischief, attitude and a darker sense of humour, here SICKY delivers one of his most fun and irreverent songs to date. ‘Redland’ is an album about friends lost along the way. It’s a good bit darker than its predecessor Troubled Delight.

“Ultimately, ‘Bubblegum Party’ is a tale of sweet revenge. A public humiliation of someone who absolutely had it coming to them. It’s a work of fiction but has a large toe touching reality. We’ve all met the cocky arrogant lowlife type who tries to control someone they’re supposed to be close to. Well, in this song, he gets his comeuppance at our heroine’s birthday party,” says Mick Butler.

“The bubblegum reference is effectively a middle finger gesture by the metaphorical blowing of an exploding gum bubble in someone’s direction. It’s poppy, it’s silly and it’s just a bit of fun amongst some much darker moments on the Redland album”.

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SICKY is the solo project of Mick Butler, whose brand of melodic Britpop-infused indie rock spells good news for fans of Beck, Supergrass and early Blur. Originally from the Black Country region of England, he is now based in Shropshire. 

While Mick Butler has had his run of playing in bands, ranging from the brass soaked pop of Papa Mantra to the dirty stomp of SUMO, he now derives pleasure from banging out tunes and crafting new material. Literally everything you hear in his music is him squeezing noises out of anything that’ll sing.

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Watch: ‘Unsound Hero’ by 30,000 Monkies

Posted: 13 September 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Belgium’s most unpredictable noise-rock troublemakers 30,000 Monkies have premiered their new single .Unsound Hero’.

Taken from the band’s forthcoming album Super Rebound, due September 18 via Fvn Kvlt Records, ‘Unsound Hero’ trades instant impact for a six-minute descent into tension, melancholy and crushing sludge.

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The band explains: “‘Unsound Hero’ is about almost wandering off to the dark side when hostile forces keep pushing all the wrong buttons. Unlike a lot of other tracks on the album, this one starts with a slow-burning intro. We had fun layering some deep melodic vocals with uncanny, autotuned choirs, trying to increase the tension with every added layer.”
But restraint was never going to last forever.

“Eventually, of course, we wanted to put the hammer down—BAM! After this, the hero drifts completely off the map, left with nothing but two clean guitars, screaming into an empty space. But then all of a sudden—BAM!—another hammer, arriving unexpectedly, used by our hero to flatten everything in his path once and for all: a reluctant but absolute obliteration for anyone who left him no choice.”

For more than a decade, 30,000 Monkies have occupied a unique place within the European underground. Emerging from the Belgian noise-rock scene, the band built their reputation through a string of increasingly adventurous releases that balanced cathartic chaos with an unmistakable sense of fun. From the dizzying riff storms of Somewhere Over The Painbow to the wild experimentation of I Ate Myself To Grow Twice As Big and HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION, the band have consistently followed their own path.
With Super Rebound, they may have finally arrived at the destination they have been chasing all along.

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Watch: ‘Remaker Redeemer’ by Then Comes Silence

Posted: 12 September 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Stockholm post-punk trio Then Comes Silence presents ‘Remaker Redeemer’, the second single from their forthcoming Requiem Ballroom album, due in November via Metropolis Records. The music video, filmed by Damon Zurawski of Future Legends Films, captures the song perfectly, descending into the space between death and rebirth, where the final journey into darkness becomes a passage toward transformation, renewal and the possibility of another world.

Then Comes Silence has also just launched their European tour, which runs throughout September and October, bringing them to venues and like-minded music lovers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Czech Republic, before returning home to Sweden for the final show on this leg.

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A tightly focused trio since 2022, Then Comes Silence was formed in 2012 by vocalist-bassist Alex Svenson in 2012. Drummer Jonas Fransson and guitarist Hugo Zombie, round out the band in its most direct, powerful and uncompromising form. One of the leading names on today’s goth, post-punk and darkwave scene, they are driven by a fascination with horror, the occult and the raw intensity of underground music, having forged a distinctive sound and a devoted international following.

The Requiem Ballroom album itself is divided into two parts: ‘Ballroom’ was mixed by Jon Bordon (Nicole Sabouné, Melody Club, The Exploding Boy) and the ‘Requiem’ half was mixed byTom van Heesch (Rammstein, Apocalyptica, Backyard Babies). Svante Forsbäck / Chartmakers (Rammstein, Amaranthe, Ville Valo, The Rasmus, Apocalyptica) assumed mastering duties.
”Remaker Redeemer introduces the second part of the album ‘Requiem Ballroom’. It’s about new life, and being reborn with the old sins washed away. A kind of cleansing, a fresh start, and the feeling of beginning again. The choice of instruments and sound on this track is a way to explore something different this time,” says Alex Svenson.

“Death is generally regarded, across many cultures, as the final blackout where nothing follows. Yet in another sense, death can also serve as a metaphor for change and transformation. To take the next step, change is inevitable.”

Then Comes Silence earlier released ‘Judgement Day’, a driving anthem that embraces failure, reckless choices and the thrill of living without regrets, embracing a final celebration before the inevitable reckoning. The vivid behind-the-scenes documentary by Marzipan Moonlight offers a glimpse into the video’s creation and the thriving spirit of Stockholm’s goth community.

LIVE DATES
SEP. 11 -  Glain, Belgium @ Deux Ours
SEP. 12 – Rotterdam-Albrandswaard, Netherlands @ Baroeg Open Air 2026
SEP. 13 -  Rennes, France @ Brewklyn
SEP. 14 -  Paris, France @ Le Chinois
SEP. 15 -  Rezé, France @ Cold Crash
SEP. 16 -  Lyon, France @ Rock N’Eat
SEP. 17 -  Marseille, France @ Le Molotov
SEP. 18 -  Torino, Italy @ Ziggy Club
SEP. 19 -  Castelfranco Veneto, Italy @ Sale Improve
SEP. 20 -  Hlavní Město Praha, Czechia @ Subzero
OCT. 24 -  Stockholm, Sweden @ Kollektivet Livet

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Watch: ‘Old Gold’ by Gnod

Posted: 8 September 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Two decades have passed in the land of Gnod, yet the psychic travelogue only becomes more enthralling as it goes on. The page is turned, a new chapter begins… Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol. 2) will arrive via Rocket Recordings on 9th October.

Today, the band share the King Tubby-inspired ‘Old Gold’, taken from their transcendentally heavy middle instalment in the Chronicles of Gnowt trilogy.

Paddy comments, “The words for ‘Old Gold’ have been floating around the Gnod universe since 2008 waiting for the right rhythm. 18 years later the right rhythm appeared. This track was further enhanced by our (sometimes) sound engineer Raikes jumping on guitar, wah and space echo and Spud Murphy approaching the mix like King Tubby.”

Chris adds, “The rhythm came from jamming in the rehearsal room on a one note riff / rhythm that I was playing on the bass. It was one of those riffs that stuck & became a track.”

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Watch: ‘Anna O’ by Ecce Shnak

Posted: 29 August 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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NYC art-rockers Ecce Shnak is bombastically stoked to present ‘Anna O’, the third single from their much-anticipated full-length record Dandy Variances, slated for release on October 23rd via Records, Man Records. With its ferocious blend of art-rock swagger, grunge grit, and theatrical ambition, ‘Anna O’ offers a raucous first taste of the sonic unruliness in store on the album.

Recorded and produced by Jeff Lucci, this single was mixed by Grammy award-winning producer Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, Julian Lennon) and mastered by multi-platinum engineer Kris Crummett.

Formed in 2011 and forged in NYC’s experimental scene, Ecce Shnak (pronounced Eh-kay sh-knock) is made up of David Roush (composer, bassist and baritone vocalist), Bella Komodromos (vocals), Chris Krasnow (guitar), Gannon Ferrell (guitar), and Henry Buchanan-Vaughn (drums).

‘Anna O’ is a jump-off-the-couch, roaring-the-hook anthem with big grunge energy. For the first time, Ecce Shnak’s composer-baritone-bassist defers his lyric-writing duties to someone else. His mother, Robin Kneubuhl, wrote a poem months before he and his producer, Jeff Lucci, cooked up a noisy instrumental in March 2019. Roush and Lucci tried the poem out as a lyric, and it fit just right.

Kneubuhl has described her poem as “a lament about tragic contradictions in contemporary feminist thought and practice”. While Kneubuhl wholeheartedly believes in feminism’s ideals, she is concerned that it is misused toward nefarious ends, to the detriment of women and others alike.

“The song’s tragic hero embodies both a noteworthy psychoanalytic patient of Freud’s protégé Josef Breuer and the real-life gun-slinging heroine Annie Oakley. Though Anna is beleaguered by the contradictions Kneubuhl observes in the poem’s story, she ultimately emerges triumphant in the fight against patriarchy by the song’s end,” explains David Roush. “Though we are in the process of firming up the specifics, we can’t wait to play this for the Shnakiverse and music lovers generally on tour this fall!”

The music video is a third collaboration between Ecce Shnak and LA-based film producer DJay Brawner, who also directed the videos for the album’s first two singles, ‘Vincent’ and ‘Eddie, Legalistic Homeslice’. Ecce Shnak’s soprano, Bella Komodromos, plays the role of Anna, who is deeply distressed in captivity, as she seems wrongfully entrapped in an asylum. However, through an act of heroic resistance, she overthrows her abusive doctor and his servile aide. She sets herself free while the mighty rock band Ecce Shnak plays her homage as loudly and wildly as they can.

While Ecce Shnak’s songs draw on a wide array of styles, fans of Nirvana, the Pixies, and the Jesus Lizard will likely latch onto ‘Anna O’ quite tenaciously. With a reputation for astounding performances, Ecce Shnak’s music a volatile yet meticulously crafted ecosystem, where technical precision meets inspired mayhem.

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Watch: ‘Judgement Day’ by Then Comes Silence

Posted: 9 August 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Long held in high regard for a sound that is a modern and unique take on classic goth and post-punk, Swedish trio Then Comes Silence have released a brand new single entitled ‘Judgement Day’. It is the first to be lifted from Requiem Ballroom, their new studio album out on 20th November.

“This song is about failure, bad decisions and poor behaviour – those who will be the first in line on doomsday,” the band explain. Beginning with a catchy Euro techno melody, the surprising intro creates a contrast to the band’s established roots from the outset and serves as a metaphor for the theme of the song. The band itself ‘fails’ by letting something completely unexpected and out of character take over.

A video for ‘Judgement Day’ has been directed by Damon Zurawski of Future Legends Films and can be seen here:

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Requiem Ballroom will be the follow-up to Trickery, the seventh full-length album by Then Comes Silence released in 2024. Collecting accolades galore, the UK’s Classic Rock magazine described it as “the post-punk influence of Bauhaus or Joy Division offset by an ’80s windblown, cinematic sense of drama presented with silky production and confidence.” Vive Le Rock concurred, remarking on its “huge, spectral sound that cascades the post-punk genres seamlessly whilst delivering a unique and compelling sound that is as captivatingly gripping as it is intense.”

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Watch: ‘The Summer Talking’ by The Noise Who Runs

Posted: 4 August 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Alternative Pop / Electro-Rock firebrand THE NOISE WHO RUNS returns with ‘The Summer Talking’, a catchy sonic respite that disguises devastating social critique beneath shimmering indie-pop hooks. Sneaker Pimps legend Ian Pickering spins a tale of romance and nostalgia before spiralling into an indictment of climate denial, political inaction and humanity’s addiction to comforting lies. The striking video contrasts postcard-perfect holiday escapes with the growing environmental crisis, this song asks an uncomfortable question – are we sleepwalking through catastrophe while convincing ourselves everything will somehow work out?

This track is lifted from PIckering’s new (and now acclaimed) Re: GenX album, a fearless uncompromising record that puts an entire generation (and society itself) on trial. Addressing war, consumerism, inequality, media outrage and the collapse of collective responsibility, he sounds a warning siren for a world in freefall. Blending dark electronic textures with anthemic alternative rock, The Noise Who Runs is one of alternative music’’ most fearless voices, offering a brutally honest examination of the choices that have brought us to the brink.

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Built around the repeated refrain, “It’s just the summer talking”, the song explores the promises we make when sunshine, nostalgia and hope temporarily blur our view of reality.  Balancing melancholic indie-pop with widescreen alternative rock, it follows dreams of escape, new beginnings and forever as they gradually reveal themselves to be fragile seasonal illusions. Beneath the relationship story lies a wider reflection on the comforting stories we tell ourselves—about love, our lives and the future itself.

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Watch: ‘Ghost Piano’ by Martin Virgo

Posted: 3 August 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Martin Virgo is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who worked with musical luminaries such as Björk and Massive Attack in the early 1990s before going on to enjoy global success with his own band, Mono, later in that decade.

Almost three decades on, Virgo is releasing his debut solo album. Entitled Ghost Piano, it can be seen as a prequel to his hit-making years. Classically trained in composition and piano at the Guildhall School of Music, he had developed a taste for Chopin, French Impressionism, the austere strangeness of Erik Satie and the minimalism of Philip Glass and Brian Eno. However, he then hooked up with Nellee Hooper and began a career in pop music that also led to work composing for cinema and TV commercials. These included an award-winning ad for Help The Aged.

“I came to the point a couple of years ago when I wanted to create something that was completely stripped of all the frippery and distractions of modern production techniques,” explains Virgo. “I wanted to write music that had a sense of lineage, but within a very distilled style. I also wanted to take a break from the world of digital audio production, so all the tracks on Ghost Piano were recorded live by myself on a Steinway model B acoustic grand piano, with the cello on the title track played by Nick Cooper (The Michael Nyman Band).”

Hear the title track here:

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Ghost Piano contains eleven evocative pieces in which the listener can hear the ‘ghosts’ of Chopin, Debussy and Satie playing in the absinthe soaked atmosphere of late 19th century Paris. “You can hear those influences on this album, although I think there are also traces of my time working with Björk on Debut, Massive Attack and Nellee Hooper on ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and ‘Safe From Harm’, Shara Nelson on ‘Friendly Fire’ and Alanis Morissette on ‘Still’ (from the film Dogma),” Virgo adds. “These were all formative creative experiences for me. By the time I came to write and produce Mono songs like ‘Life In Mono’  and our album Formica Blues, I had embarked on a quest for a more European sounding harmonic and melodic palette.”

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Watch: ‘An American Ideal Of Beauty’ by PIG

Posted: 2 August 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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UK industrial glam maverick Raymond Watts aka PIG has released a brand new single, ‘An American Ideal Of Beauty’, on Metropolis Records. Co-written with old friend Marc Heal (Cubanate, C-Tec), who provides a co-vocal and synth work, the song also features Günter Schulz (ex-KMFDM) sharing guitar duties with Watts’ regular songwriting partner Jim Davies (ex-The Prodigy and Pitchshifter).

“I wanted to distil and hone the sound of the current PIG album, ‘Hurt People Hurt’, so inviting my old partners in swine Marc and Günter to join Jim and myself in the studio seemed the perfect blend of brutality and beauty to feed, fertilise and transmogrify the hog into Hogzilla,” Watts explains. "This new single was the first result of our work as a quartet, hammered in the heat of the anvil of hurt.”

A stunning video for ‘An American Ideal Of Beauty’ directed by E Gabriel Edvy for Blackswitch Labs can be seen here:

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The recording sessions produced three more new songs, each of which has been remixed by contemporaries that include Stabbing Westward’s Chris Hall and  Combichrist. All eight tracks are collected on Dirt Box, an EP that will be issued on 4th September, a week after the commencement of PIG’s ‘Hurt People Tour’ of North America. The 44 dates are to promote Hurt People Hurt, which received stellar reviews upon release in late May, and include performances in Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin as part of the Cold Waves XIV festival.

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Watch: ‘Eddie, Legalistic Homeslice’ by Ecce Shnak

Posted: 29 July 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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NYC art-rockers Ecce Shnak present ‘Eddie, Legalistic Homeslice’, the second single from their full-length album Dandy Variances, anticipated later this year via Records, Man Records. Recorded and produced by Jeff Lucci, this single was mixed by Grammy award-winning producer Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, Julian Lennon).

Formed in the mid-1990s and forged in NYC’s experimental scene, Ecce Shnak (pronounced Eh-kay sh-knock) is made up of David Roush (composer, bassist and baritone vocalist), Bella Komodromos (vocals), Chris Krasnow (guitar), Gannon Ferrell (guitar), and Henry Buchanan-Vaughn (drums).

An ode to camaraderie, ‘Eddie’ reaches its lyrical denouement with what may be the “oldest prayer of friendship", but sounds like a throwaway Rivers Cuomo line: “I pray you don’t be a rat in a rat-suit! Pray you don’t be a rat in a rat-costume!”

“Like ‘Larry, Sleepover Friend’ from our 2019 Joke Oso EP, our new song is a garage-rock homage to a beloved friend of mine. Like ‘Larry’, ‘Eddie’ explores big themes in great friendships: their gnarly ambivalences, their absurd misunderstandings, their inside-jokes, and their contradictory mix of irreverence with utmost care,” says David Roush.

“We are also overjoyed to feature two great friends as the co-stars of the music video, the preposterously funny and talented comedic duo Syd and Olivia! I was lucky to have met these two pugnaciously podcasting, thoughtfully Thespian, joke-slinging YouTube yokels on a fantastic journey to the Greek island of Crete two years ago, and the rest was thirst’ory.”

Bella Komodromos adds, “They absolutely kicked butt at their roles in this Wes-Anderson-hued buddy-comedy music video, directed and produced by DJay Brawner. It is our ardent hope that all fans of Ecce Shnak and Syd and Olivia alike can shart out with their hearts out to this badass collaboration!”

Apart from directing and editing the new video with Brooks Jones, Beth Narducci and David Roush, Brawner also worked on the video for the album’s lead track ‘Vincent’, an homage to superb music videos of yesteryear – for Meshuggah’s ‘Bleed’ and 311’s ‘Down’. Here, operatic trills collide with frantic rock energy in a high-decibel takedown of a formulaic antagonist through the power of one’s own voice.

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