Ahead of the release of their new album, Burn Me Once, cult Yorkshire goth act Westenra have released ‘Time’ as a single.
Blending the feel of Siouxsie and the Banshees with arena-sized production values, it’s an instant classic.
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Posts Tagged ‘Post-Punk’
Listen: ‘Time’ by Westenra
Posted: 10 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPsTags: Burn Me Once, goth, Post-Punk, Single, stream new album, Time, Westenra
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Watch: ‘We Are the Resistance’ by Sword Tongue
Posted: 5 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPsTags: alt rock, Bonfire In the Tempest EP, Darkwave, goth rock, human rights, Official Video, Post-Punk, Protest, Single, Stream, Sword Topngue, track, USA, We Are the Resistance
Oakland-based alternative rock / darkwave trio Sword Tongue presents the video for ‘We Are The Resistance’ , a dark gem showcasing their explosive fourth EP Bonfire In The Tempest. Galvanized, song by song, during our current age of cultural upheaval, this release is bursting with raw emotion and tempered by sophisticated production, launching the band into uncharted territory.
This EP is a love letter to the music we all loved in the 90s. Long delays, lush chorus sounds, deep flanges and modulations – a guitar tone chaser’s dream, married with deep distorted growling bass lines, hard driven drums and pulsing, electronic dance beats provide the texture over which soaring female vocals triumph. At times a whisper, and other times a roar, each song crafted in the crucible of these modern, unprecedented times.
In these five loaded tracks, vocalist Jennifer Wilde delivers alluring vocal lines that oscillate between a croon and a roar, seduction and rage. Gaetano Maleki’s signature shimmering guitar tones and bass lines mesmerize and ensnare, while Dan Milligan’s intricate drum lines drive the message and become the heartbeat of this sonic tour de force reminiscent of the 90s.
Capturing the essence of 90s alternative music, reimagined for a new era, Sword Tongue weaves together rock, industrial, shoegaze, post-punk and trip hop, giving voice to anguish, anger, transformation and triumph. Pulling from an array of musical styles, from electronic music to space rock, the band earlier shared the single ‘Diamonds To Rust’.
“Originally, this album was meant to be more of a danceable opus with a trip hop flavor. However, after the U.S. Presidential election, we realized that our album had to carry a more specific message on the current pollical climate, on aging, and on transitions. We wanted to give voice to the frustration, the anguish, the strength, and the hope in all of us,” says Jennifer Wilde.
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Debuting in 2020 during the pandemic, Sword Tongue creates dark music for dark times, casting a shadow of hope in the twilight. Formed by husband-and-wife duo Gaetano Maleki and Jennifer Wilde, the project is their love language and the culmination of their life’s work as musicians. Wilde, a classically trained vocalist who has performed with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, has been a guest vocalist and lyricist for seminal shoegaze band Love Spirals Downwards. Maleki brings an intensity from his background in heavy music, infusing his shimmering guitar soundscapes with sonic weight.
The pair were then joined by renowned producer and drummer Dan Milligan, whose driving contribution has infused the music with more depth, drive and dimension. The brainchild of The Joy Thieves, he has quite the history co-creating, producing and remixing such artists as Chris Connelly, PIG and Consolidated, and members of such bands as Ministry, Stabbing Westward, The Rollins Band, Killing Joke, David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, among others.
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Ashley Reaks – At Night The World Belongs To Me
Posted: 24 September 2025 in Albums, ReviewsTags: Album Review, Ashley Reaks, At Night The World Belongs To Me, Avant-garde, Bauhaus, Bowie, dark, Death, Experimental, fusion, Jazz, loss, mortality, Post Rock, Post-Punk, Progressive, The Cure
2nd October 2025
Christopher Nosnibor
The context for Ashley Reaks’ sixteenth solo album – and his third in three years (not counting the compilation of demos released earlier this year) – is weighty. He has written openly and extensively of his health issues, while sharing images and commentary nocturnal wanderings, and these both inform At Night The World Belongs To Me, of which he writes:
The looming spectre of death and loss haunt the album: Reaks survived two major health scares and a misdiagnosed terminal illness over the last 18 months, experiences that inform the reflective, poetically gloomy lyrics, and the 4 am downtempo grooves. Adding to the sense of loss, guitarist and long-term collaborator Nick Dunne died suddenly at home just one week after completing his guitar parts for the record.
Through all of this, he has continued to collage and write prodigiously, but At Night The World Belongs To Me marks a distinct change of tone from its immediate predecessors, The Body Blow of Grief (2024) and Winter Crawls (2023). The usual elements are all present and correct – the sense of experimentalism, the collaging of genres, melding post-punk, jazz, and dub – but this feels darker, more introspective. The cover art, too, reflects this. While it has the same rather disturbing, grotesque strangeness of his usual work, the grim-looking figure in repose has connotations of ailment, frailty, even the deathbed.
The first track, ‘Playing Skittles With The Skulls and Bones’ has a bass groove that calls to mind The Cure’s early sound, melded to a rattling rhythm reminiscent of ‘Bela Lugiosi’s Dead’. The smooth sax that wanders in around the mid-point provides something of a stylistic contrast, but at the same time, it’s minor-key vibes keep the song as a whole contained within a bubble of reflection, evoking the stillness of night. I know, I’m sort of dancing about architecture here, but something about Reaks’ work prompts a multi-sensory response.
‘Rimmed With Yellow Haloes’ brings soaring post-rock guitars atop of an urgent ricochet of drumming and solid bass. On the fact of it, it’s almost poppy, but it soon shifts to take on a folksy aspect, while Reaks sings of death and funeral pyres, and the refrain, delivered with lilting, proggy overtones, ‘The Lord gave the day to the living, the night to the dead’. In context of the album’s title and theme, there is a tangibly haunting foreshadowing here, a suggestion that Reaks has not only accepted his mortality, but has assumed his place. It’s powerful, and deeply moving. Of course, Reaks can’t help but introduce incongruous elements, with some horns which are pure ska and some super whizzy 80s pop synths providing a pretty wild counterpoint to it all. It’s hard not to smile, because there’s an audacity to this approach to composition and arrangement – a lot of it simply shouldn’t work, but it does, and it’s uniquely Reaks.
The album’s shortest song, ‘Things Unseen’ is snappy, poppy, Bowie-esque, an amalgamation of post-punk and electropop, a standout which is succinct and tight, and consequently, the dark connotations of the bleak shuffle of ‘Life Forever Underground’ – a rippling synth-led tune – are rendered more profound. The sequencing of this album is such that the shifts between songs accentuate their individual impact.
‘Mask the face, unmask the soul…’ he sings softly on ‘Mask The Face’, which has a somewhat spacey Krautrock feel to it – before a guitar solo that worthy of Mark Knopfler emerges most unexpectedly. And as dark as things get here, Reaks never ceases to bring surprises. At Night The World Belongs To Me perfectly encapsulates the reason he’s so respected and critically acclaimed, but orbits light years outside the mainstream. In a world defined by an exponentially reducing capacity for sustained attention, Ashley Reaks makes music that requires real engagement, the musical equivalent of complex carbs and high fibre foods in a processed, white bread culture. But also, contemporary mainstream radio music favours short songs which cut straight to the chorus, where the hook has to land in the first twenty seconds. Here, we have eight songs, all but one of which are over five minutes long. They take their time, they’re expansive and exploratory, there’s atmosphere, there’s depth. And as ‘Eyeing Up The Sky’ tapers away on a buzzing drone, we’re left with much to chew on, much to consider.
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Bo Gritz’s ‘Prang’ EP set to be released on tape via Buzzhowl
Posted: 23 September 2025 in Singles and EPs, Previews and EditorialTags: alternative, Bo Gritz, Buzzhowl Records, Cassette, Lo-Fi, Motorik, noisy, Post-Punk, Prang EP, Tape
Originally released digitally on 14th March, and recorded at Hermitage Works during November 2024, the four track EP will receive its first physical release and will be available via Bandcamp.
Mixed and mastered by Max Goulding and Nathan Ridley.
Track Listing
One Window Open
Polar
Unit
Void Request
Liner Notes (by Fred MG):
Bo Gritz have been at it for ten years now. Or do we mean five?
You see, while the trio of Benjamin Salt, Max Goulding and Finn Holland have been together since 2015, they are also one of those groups who have a significant fork in the road in their past, specifically the Coronavirus pandemic. Lockdown gave Bo Gritz the opportunity for a hard-ish reset, with the band using all that time as a chance to work new synthetic textures into the tried and tested combo of guitar/bass/drums/vocals. Coupled with them securing a new permanent practice space in South London, the Covid period ultimately led to the hair-raising noise-rock of Bo Gritz’s most recent LP, 2023’s Chroma.
On Prang, Bo Gritz continue to reap the benefits of their new era. This is a potent four-tracker, industrialised and bristling. From the single-note lurch that heralds first track ‘One Window Open’ to the last thwack of closer ‘Void Request’, Prang’s barely-shackled chaos makes for an unpredictable and arresting listen. It’s ambitious, grizzly and extremely hard not to fall for.
At the noisier end of rock, there’s a strong modern lineage of album openers which get all their mileage from a stomping single-note riff. To a list which includes Pissed Jeans’ ‘Waiting On My Horrible Warning’ and Death Grips’ ‘Giving Bad People Good Ideas’ we can now add ‘One Window Open’. The track sitting just below mid-tempo allows space in the beat with which Bo Gritz can gesture towards all manner of beat-based stylings, from mercurial junglism to broken-beat techno.
The stall set out, Prang’s other three joints also tow the line of order and bedlam. ‘Polar’ is screed with strange, almost-tuneful noise which sounds like a revving motorcycle fed through an ungodly array of outboard gear. Occupying a space between texture and melody, this sort-of-lead line increasingly becomes the centrepiece of the song as things go on. Something similar takes place on ‘Unit’, and this track’s nervous twitching also has one thinking of that instrumental version of ‘Breathe’ by The Prodigy which used to be on the soundtrack of one of the Wipeout games.
As with the instruments, so with the vocals. Across this EP, Holland assimilates a sense of barely-controlled chaos into both the lyrics and delivery. The way in which ‘Polar’ sets lurid imagery (‘they said his eyes were cut out’) against the straight-laced sloganeering of capital (‘business must only get better’) makes one think of Thom Yorke’s star-making era cut with a little of that Gilla Band hysteria. ‘Void Request’ – a joint with a hint of Leeds lifers Bilge Pump in its DNA – finds Holland barking stentorian code one minute, muttering in the background the next.
Times change, but humanity doesn’t. Whether Bo Gritz had been doing their thing for five, ten or fifty years, the feeling at the heart of Prang – the suppressed horror of contemporary civilisation, the ugliness lurking underneath the workaday – is one for the ages. It’s just that now, in Bo Gritz’s new phase, they’ve got the emotional and material tools to deliver their message with a viscerality which feels thrillingly contemporary.
Listen: ‘Care to Try?’ by Clone
Posted: 21 September 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPsTags: alt rock, Care to Try?, Clone, EP, Little Cloud Records, Martin Bisi, Post-Punk, Single, Stream
Brooklyn alt rockers CLONE present ‘Care To Try?’, the title track from their Care To Try EP, a blazing three-track offering set for release on October 3 via Portland label Little Cloud Records. The band recently shared the adrenaline-inducing lead single ‘Galvanized’.
Written over the past year with Clone’s original lineup of LG Galleon, Gregg Giufree (Pilot to Gunner), Max Idas and Dominick Turi, this EP was produced by LG Galleon and Bisi at his famed BC Studio (built together with Brian Eno), and mastered by Fred Kevorkian (The White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Juliana Hatfield, Regina Spektor, Lloyd Cole).
"Well ‘Care to Try?’ is a retribution song. A song that cries out for the disenfranchised and undersung people in the world whose voices are never heard above the drowning of the right wing nationalist leaders in this world,” says LG Galleon. “The spoken word bridge signals out to this issue with the line "with all charisma there is scorn, with every swoon another’s heart will stammer slowly in submission. To Glimpse what could have been through the eyes of another.”
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Fat Concubine – Empire
Posted: 19 September 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPsTags: beats, Cabaret Voltaire, Cruel Nature Records, Dance, edgy, electronic, Empire, EP, Fat Concubine, hard, Harsh, Hybrid, Industrial, Post-Punk, Postmodern, rave, Review
Cruel Nature Records – 12th September 2025
Christopher Nosnibor
Postmodernism, emerging primarily as a product of post-war America was defined by hybridity, the demolition of parameters and distinctions between different cultures, genres, and was, in many respects, tied to the accelerating pace of technological development, in particular the globalisation of communications and beyond. But postmodernism also not only recognised, but celebrated, the fact that originality has finite scope, and that anything ‘new’ will by necessity involve the reconfiguration of that which has gone before. Shakespeare had all the ground to break in terms of the advent of modern literature, and one might say the same of Elvis and The Beatles with the advent of rock ‘n’ roll and pop respectively. The reason the 80s were such a watershed was because technology revolutionised the potentials for music-making, and while this saw a huge refraction in terms of creative directions, from industrial to electropop, one could reasonably argue that the next leap in music after 1985 came with house and techno.
Post-millennium, it feels like there is no dominant culture, no defining movement, underground or overground: the mainstream is dominated by a handful of proficient but in many ways unremarkable pop acts, and notably, it’s largely solo artists rather than bands, and while there are bands who pack out stadiums, they tend to be of the heritage variety. At the other end of the spectrum, the underground is fragmented to the point of particles. There are some pros about this, in that there is most certainly something for everyone, but the major con is that unlike, say, in the mid- to late-noughties, when post-rock was all the rage, there’s no sense of zeitgeist or unity, and right now, that’s something we could really do with.
Fat Concubine are most certainly not representative of any kind of zeitgeist movement. With a name that’s not entirely PC, the London acts describe themselves as purveyors of ‘unhinged dance music’, and Empire is their debut EP, following a brace of singles. The second of those singles, ‘for Whom the Fools toll’ (with its irregular capitalisation, which is a bit jarring), is featured here, along with four previously unreleased tracks. This is a positive in my view: so many bands release four, five, or six tracks as singles, and then put them together as an EP release, which feels somewhat redundant, apart from when there’s a physical release.
And so it is, in the spirit of wild hybridisation, that they’re not kidding when they say their thing is ‘unhinged dance music’, or as quoted elsewhere, ‘unhinged no wave ravers’. ‘Feeding off the dogs’ pounds in melding angular post-punk in the vein of Alien Sex Fiend with thumping hardcore techno beats, and it’s not pretty – although it is pretty intense. The snare drum in their first thirty seconds of ‘for Whom the Fools toll’ takes the top of your head off, and the rest of the ‘tune’… well, tune is a stretch. It’s brash, sneering punk, but with hyperactive drum machines tripping over one another and a stack of synthesized horns blaring Eastern-influenced motifs.
There are hints of late 80s Ministry about ‘When we kick Their front door’, another synth horn-led tune that begins as a flap and a flutter before a kick drum that’s hard enough to smash your ribs thuds in and pumps away with relentless force. If the notes didn’t mention that it was a perversion of ‘These Boots We’re Made for Walking’, I’d have probably never guessed. As the song evolves, layers and details emerge, and the vibe is very much reverby post-punk, but with an industrial slant, and a hint of Chris and Cosey and a dash of The Prodigy. If this sounds like a somewhat confused, clutching-at-straws attempt to summarise a wild hotch-potch of stuff, to an extent, it is. But equally, it’s not so much a matter of straw-clutching as summing up a head-spinning sonic assault.
‘tiny pills’ is a brief and brutal blast of beat-driven abrasion, with a bowel-shaking bass and deranged euphoric vocals which pave the way for a finale that calls to mind, tangentially, at least, Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Nag Nag Nag’.
The version of ‘O so peaceful’ was recorded live, and builds to an abstract chanting drone work. It offers a change of angle, but is no less attacking, its percussion-heavy distorted, shouting racket reminiscent of Test Department and even Throbbing Gristle, particularly in the last minute or so, and you can feel the volume of the performance, too. This is some brutal shit.
Empire is pretty nasty, regardless of which angle you approach it from. It’s clearly meant to be, too. Harsh, heavy, abrasive, messed-up… these are the selling points for this release. And maybe having your head mashed isn’t such a bad thing if you’re wanting to break out of your comfort zone and really feel alive.
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Watch: ‘I Am The Fear’ by IST IST
Posted: 19 September 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPsTags: 2025 tour dates, dark, electro, grove, I Am The Fear, IST IST, New Album, Post-Punk, single video, Stream, Synths
“I Am The Song Stuck On Repeat… I Am The Fear” warns frontman Adam Houghton, his baritone oozing with its trademark ominousness.
But rest assured listeners, there’s nothing to worry about. Piled high with oscillating synth strokes, meteoric basslines, and stacked guitar tones, ‘I Am The Fear’ is a single from the Manchester band that more than bears repeating.
The track arrives with an artistic official video directed and edited by Black Rock Creative and produced by Tom White & Mat Peters. Captured amidst the crumbling surroundings of a Victorian theatre, it features a captivating performance from actor Oliver Marson, alongside on stage footage of IST IST.
Confident and catchy, ‘I Am The Fear’ arrives as the band’s first new recorded material since 2024’s Light A Bigger Fire. Produced by Joseph Cross and mastered by Robin Schmitt, it marks yet another bold step forward for a band who demand your attention more with everything they put their name to.
With the promise of a new album looming, standby for further news on that front very soon…
Watch ‘I Am The Fear’ here:
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Over the years, IST IST have forged a formidable reputation on word of mouth excitement, amassing a dedicated cult following in the process. Operating with a fierce northern DIY work ethic, the band have an ever-growing back catalogue of successful studio and live releases. Self-releasing their entire repertoire through their own Kind Violence Records label, the band’s output has been championed by BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6Music, Radio X, XS Manchester, KINK FM in the Netherlands, The Times and more.
Their acclaimed fourth record ‘Light A Bigger Fire’ reached 25th in the UK Official Album Charts in 2024, with John Robb praising the record as “glorious yet introspective 21st-century pop music” in a five star review on Louder Than War.
Taking the record out on the road last year, over 8,000 people across thirteen countries turned out in force at iconic venues such as the Paradiso in Amsterdam and New Century Hall in Manchester to support the band in what stands as one of their most successful European tours to date.
Riding this wave into 2025, IST IST returned to Europe for further dates including their SOLD OUT debut Italian shows, and subsequently released two live albums ‘ON FIRE’ and ‘Live In Italy’. The band are book-ending this year with a run of major shows back in the UK – in Leeds, Glasgow, London, and Birmingham across late November and December – as they celebrate their 10th year in business.
And in the last few weeks, IST IST announced their biggest hometown show to date. In 2026, the band will play the salubrious Albert Hall show; a show that presents both an unmissable opportunity to revel in the career high points of their decade long career, while getting a glimpse of their eagerly awaited new album.
Catch IST IST at the following UK shows:
IST IST – 2025/26 TOUR DATES
Friday 28th November – Leeds – Warehouse
Saturday 29th November – Glasgow – Oran Mor
Friday 5th December – London – 229
Saturday 6th December – Birmingham – O2 Academy2
Friday 1st May 2026 – Manchester – Albert Hall
w/ Support from DESPERATE JOURNALIST + THE YOUTH PLAY
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A Gig for Gaza – The Crescent, York, 14th September 2025
Posted: 16 September 2025 in Live, ReviewsTags: A Gig for Gaza, alternative, Borgia, Captain Starlet, collectivism, community, Fat Spatula, fundraising, genocide, Indie, jazz-punk, Lara McClure, Navigator Arts, Post-Punk, The Bricks, The Crescent, York
Christopher Nosnibor
I shouldn’t be here. This event shouldn’t be happening. No, I don’t mean there shouldn’t be a bunch of York acts performing a packed bill on a Sunday evening in front of around two hundred people, but the reason it’s happening, the circumstances meaning we need a gig for Gaza. It’s something I haven’t really written or commented on – not because I condone the genocide that’s been playing out over the last twenty-three months, but because the shock, the sheer horror of it all has resulted in some kind of paralysis. The fact that after almost two years, it’s not only ongoing, but the situation is worsening is almost beyond comprehension, and while our government hasn’t mentioned Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ recently, it continues to supply arms to and meet with their government, and to deny both genocide and famine, preferring instead oversee the arrest hundreds of pensioners for holding placards stating their opposition to this. Since when did vandalism equal terrorism? The media still refer to the ‘war’ in Gaza, but this is not a war. It’s a decimation. It’s annihilation. It’s genocide.
It’s impossible at this point to reasonably stack a hierarchy of horror, to say ‘but what’s worse is…’, but the fact that Israel’s collapsing of buildings in Gaza city at barely any notice is only occasionally making footnotes in the news a measure of how appalling things have become. Meanwhile, the UK news is currently devoted to outpourings over the assassination of a pro-gun fascist hardly anyone had heard of until he was shot, plugging a pro-racist march arranged by jacked-up right-wing thug Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and giving Nigel Farage so much more screen time than all of the other parties combined (who knew that The Green Party hold as many seats in Parliament as Reform, eh?), and Russia continue to pound Ukraine and extend their reach, and under the radar, Sudan is another hell on earth. Meanwhile, the world burns, and people are still in thrall to billionaires, chucking their cash at Daniel Ek to fund more war so they can stream mediocre slop while ordering some shit via Deliveroo and spending their evenings watching Love Island and shit instead of facing the fact that we’re actually entering World War 3 and the apocalypse is happening right here right now.
But here we are. I’ve written extensively about the therapeutic qualities of live music, and why grassroots venues are important., and tonight brings my entire thesis together perfectly. The Crescent Community Venue – as the name suggests – is about community. Not in the way those who have been zip-tying flags half-way up have been harping on about ‘uniting communities’ (the subtext being that they’re uniting against something – namely anything that isn’t white, straight, etc.), but in the truest sense. Everyone is welcome – just please don’t be a dick.
Tonight is the perfect representation of what community means. It’s not even really about the acts performing – although it’s a great lineup, curated by local promoter of the experimental, avant-garde, spoken word milieu, Navigator Arts, with the aid of the venue and local legend Joe Coates, who operates independently and via a regional network as Please Please You. These guys champion local acts and regional talent and live and breathe it, and the performers who’ve given their time for this event – I can only applaud them all, really.
What we have here, then, is a great lineup for a vital cause, in a great venue – I’ll say it again that The Crescent is York’s Brudenell: there are many parallels, and they’re all positive. And tonight is exemplary, because what we have here is a great lineup for a vital cause, with a brilliant vibe.
Lara McClure
It’s an interesting mix of bands and interludes: spoken word artist Lara McClure stretches out a fantastical story over the course of the night, seamlessly – or otherwise – creating segues to the following acts, and a guy who operates under the moniker of Cast – clearly being too young to remember the 90s indie act – does some beatboxing before Knitting Circle take the stage, as a three-piece on this outing. My appreciation of Knitting Circle is strewn all over these pages. They’re a great band, and a perfect choice for this event. They’re proud and passionate lefties with a ‘don’t be a dick’ agenda of inclusivity, and songs like ‘Safe Routes’ aren’t only resonant but prove quite moving in the context of the event. They’re brilliant, as always, and I have to take a moment after their set.
Knitting Circle
Captain Starlet are a band I’ve never really taken, to, but here’s their singer, Tom, playing a set that includes covers of songs by Love and The Incredible String Band with a Vox guitar, and her does so in a self-effacing manner. And he’s here, taking a stand against genocide and fascism, and so respect is due.
Tom of Captain Starlet
Things take a turn when Fat Spatula hit the stage, and the volume takes a leap by at least ten per cent. The songs may be fairly mellow alt-rock in the main, but they are LOUD and played with masses of energy and enthusiasm, they’re kinetic (especially the rhythm section), electric. As a band, they seem a little uncertain of their abilities, despite the fact they’re rarely anything other than killer. But maybe that’s a part of their way of working. They put everything into their set and look to be really enjoying themselves. And it’s great.
Fat Spatula
It takes me a while to get into Borgia, and my initial impression is of these purveyors of jazz punk is ‘jazz punk cunts in suits’ (which, I know, is a niche piece of self-referencing for the ten people familiar with my own ‘musical’ work, but, why not?). They’re decidedly more jazz than punk, and the shades are off after five minutes. But they present a pretty meaty racket with busy bass balanced by sturdy drumming and some wild parping sax. The theatrical enunciation and dramatic presentation is a bit over the top and only nearly as cool as they think, but all credit to them for putting on a performance. They’re seriously tight and go all-out to entertain.
Borgia
The Bricks are on fire right now. Just eleven days previous they were up-close and personal in a pub on the other side of town, and looked to be relishing the intense proximity. Now, here they are in a 350-capacity venue and owning every inch of the stage. Gemma’s voice may be cracking and only just surviving with the aid of honey, but she still goes all out for the duration, and doesn’t miss a note. There aren’t many bands that seem as much at home playing large or small venues, and even fewer who bring their A-game every single time, but The Bricks are one of the few.
The Bricks
While there were reminders of why we were here – and rightly so – tonight was as much about bringing people together and espousing true community spirit. The atmosphere was warm, genial, and safe, and in the current climate, riven with tension and hate, this felt like an oasis of nice, a much-needed balm to soothe the stress. And if you’re going to be proud of anything, be proud of local bands, local venues, be proud of generosity and kindness, not shitty flags.
The latest is that the event raised £1,500… and you can still donate… Please.
Sunshine Blind – Scarred but Fearless
Posted: 9 September 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPsTags: AA-side, Comeback, Ghost of You, goth, Post-Punk, revival, Scarred but Fearless, Single, Sunshine Blind, Sunshot, The March Violets, The Psychedelic Furs, Unsinkable
5th September 2025
Christopher Nosnibor
Bandcamp Friday may be a regular occurrence, but it is an event, and one which surpasses Records Store Day in terms of its tangible benefits – namely, that artists get paid. Who would have thought that this should have become such a topic for discussion? The sad fact is, artists haven’t been receiving fair recompense for a long time, but the Internet was supposed to herald the arrival of a new age of egalitarianism. But then the corporatisation of the Internet put paid to that. While the world was focussed on vilifying Napster and Soulseek and the like, streaming machines like Apple and Spotify erupted like Godzilla from the depths and created a new model whereby artists got paid, but by nowhere near enough, and only of they were already raking it in.
I’ve digressed already, but the flipside of Bandcamp Friday is that there are more releases in a day than I could listen to in a month, and my inbox is battered and overloaded with updates. Sometimes, I feel inclined to simply go and lie down rather than approach their contents.
But some releases remind me why I do, and it’s worth quoting here:
After much teasing and anticipation, US goth rock veterans Sunshine Blind at last release their first new songs in over twenty years: two driving goth rock bangers, ‘Ghost of You’ and the especially rousing anthem, ‘Unsinkable’. The new tracks are released together as the Scarred but Fearless single for Bandcamp Friday, 5 September 2025.
Twenty years. Twenty years! Time does, indeed, fly. People my age struggle to accept that the 90s were thirty years ago, or that when they were 21 was anything other than the definitive bygone era. Then again, Sunshine Blind’s sound was always very much rooted in the sound of 90s goth / post punk revival, when The Sisters of Mercy unleashed the altogether more rock-orientated Vision Thing, and acts like Sunshot were taking drum-machine driven gothy goodness in new and invigorating directions. It’s not just Caroline Bland’s vocals which invite favourable comparisons to Sunshot: Sunshine Blind’s catalogue is bursting with effervescent energy, and this new brace of tunes make a most welcome addition.
The janglesome intro to ‘Ghost of You’ calls to mind The Psychedelic Furs during their 80s pop phase, and there’s certainly a melodic accessibility to the song. However, it’s countered by a thunderous, driving bass sound and screeding feedback filling out the sound at the back, and captures the vibe of The March Violets, another classic act newly invigorated. What goes around comes around, and with certain parallels between now and the early 80s, it very much feels like this is the time for a goth revival, including crimped hair and hats. ‘Ghost of You’ brings the vibe, and well as guts and hooks in equal measure.
‘Unsinkable’ ups the rock leanings still further, with a brittle guitar chiming through the verses before going full tube crunch on the bold chorus, propelled by some sturdy drumming and another solid bassline. The sentiment is the perfect analogy for the band here, too. You can’t keep talent down, or buried forever.
With both songs of a standard, this is very much an AA-side single, making Scarred but Fearless a triumphant return.
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Cowgirl / The Bricks / Strange Pink – The Black Horse, York, 4th September 2025
Posted: 5 September 2025 in Live, ReviewsTags: alternative, Capitalism, Cowgirl, Grunge, Indie, industry, live music, Live Review, local, Nine Black Alps, Post-Punk, pub, pubs, quality, scene, Strange Pink, The Bricks, The Federals, venues, WMC, York
Christopher Nosnibor
Pub gigs provided me with my first experiences of live music, back in the early 90s. Often, pubs with upstairs rooms would pop bands on, and other still would simply pack bands somewhere in the bar. At some point, there seemed to be a shift away from this, with pubs seeming to be only really interested in solo performers and acoustic duos. Gigs in pubs stopped being such a thing. But now, pubs are dying. And grassroots venues are dying. Let me be more blunt they’re not so much dying, as being killed off in the interest of capitalist greed.
As I wrote recently on the repurposing of working men’s clubs – also suffering from a severe decline – as gig venues, so the return of the pub gig seems to solve two problems at once, namely how to bring punters into pubs, and providing bands with a place to play. This certainly seems to be happening in York.
The Black Horse used to be a Tap and Spile, and has always been a solid Yorkshire boozer – real ale and bar snacks, and a weekly quiz. But clearing the top part of the room – more a raised area than a mezzanine per se – creates a fairly generous stage space, and not being a massive space, means a basic setup whereby the bands play straight through their amps with only the vocals going through the house PA, simplifying soundchecks and making switchovers straightforward.
When this show was first announced, Strange Pink were an unknown quantity, but the release of their debut EP changed that, and the Hull-based power-trio-cum-supergroup consisting of Sam Forrest (Nine Black Alps, Sewage Farm), Eddie Alan Logie, and Dom Smith (whose resume is a feature in itself) make for a cracking opening act. They manage to be loose but tight at the same time, and it suits their 90s slacker rock stylings. As the EP attests, their approach is varied, and so, accordingly, is their set. They seem to grow in confidence as the set progresses, the sound coming clearer and brighter, too, and by the end of the set, they’re on fire. They close with ‘Boys Club’, the lead single from EP. It’s a clear standout and possibly their best song, with a strong hook, making for the perfect way to leave the crowd with something to remember.
Strange Pink
The Bricks have become Aural Aggravation staples, and are a band I will always go and see whenever possible, for two simple reason: they have great tunes, and they’re a great live band – always. During their brief soundcheck, I began to wonder if their run of infallibility might come to and end tonight, but I needn’t have worried, because they were firing on all cylinders from beginning to end. In fact, they seem incredibly at home in tiny venues such as this, and flame-haired Gemma cranks up the wild, eyes-wide, lung-busting intensity, as if relishing the proximity. By the end of a fierce set, her fringe is swept away and plastered to her forehead. The band play relentlessly hard, too, and I try to analyse what it is about them that’s so compelling, why they work so well. The songs are fairly simple, both structurally and in terms of musical complexity – simple lead parts, four-chord riffs, classic (post-)punk, built around solid rhythms, with most songs two or three minutes long and strong hooks. Simple proves effective, especially when played with precision and passion.
The Bricks
This does mean that Cowgirl have a tough act to follow. But they’re super-seasoned professionals. Danny Barton (guitar and vocals) plays bass in Sewage Farm, previously played bass with White Firs with former Federals drummer James Holdstock (who’s also drummed with Cowgirl), and has, in short, played in more bands in and around York than I’ve had hot dinners, and the same is true of Sam Coates (also guitar and vocals), who’s been pretty much ubiquitous on the scene for years now.
Looking around the room – it’s standing room only, and there’s plenty of beer being drunk, and I bet they’ve not sold this much on a Thursday night in a long time – half the people here are in other bands, or are otherwise recognisable as gig-going regulars, highlighting what a close-knit scene the city has, but also that this lineup has brought people out on a night that’s not exactly a popular one for gigs or pubs. The free entry and donations bucket may be a factor (although a facility to take card donations would likely have seen more contributions), but still, it’s proof that a quality lineup is a definite draw, and the fact a small venue can be filled more easily creates a sense of buzz, which is definitely the case here.
Cowgirl
Early on in their set, a friend remarked that they sound like Oasis. He’s completely wrong, but the comment got me thinking. Some of the elements are there… some of the jangle, a bit of the swagger, but with a keen American indie influence. Perhaps his opinion was influenced by the fact that their sound is decidedly more ‘rock’ on this occasion than previous times I’ve seen, them, likely on account of the backline / PA setup, resulting in a sound dominated by blistering guitars. But they have actual melodies and a psychedelic hue, and once again, it’s a set that builds in every way – confidence, cohesion, and volume. The final brace of songs is segued together to form a ten-minute melting wall of sound, an epic psych-wig out that’s nothing short of a brain-cleansing blast that leaves you dazed as the final strains of feedback taper away.
Everything about tonight feels like a win. I may have had one more than was wise – easily done when it’s hot because it’s packed and all hand-pulled beers are a fiver and there’s half a dozen to choose from – and I may be a touch emotional at having attended my last live music of my forties – but stepping into the night, I feel like I’ve experienced something life-affirming and positive in the bleakest of times.
Aural Aggravation 