TTSSFU 'Blown' (EP REVIEW)

Fans of dreamy bedroom pop will find TTSSFU’s edgier take on the genre irresistible – ‘nightmare pop’, if you will – the sonic equivalent of scrolling early internet forums and drifting through liminal spaces, with an unsettling sense of doomer unease gnawing at the edges of the tracks. ‘Blown’ is dark, feverish, and feels like its own shadowy twin, industrial and aggressive yet at the same time vulnerable and exposed, flickering between steel, circuits, and flesh sometimes within the same track.  

Tiger Island ‘Looka Looka Looka’ EP REVIEW

 

Emerging from the post Covid ennui brimming with defiance, West Yorkshire DIY punk quintet Tiger Island feel like a band stuck in a malfunctioning time machine, constantly veering Goodnight Sweetheart style back and forth from the eighventies [sic]. 

Minor Conflict ‘Bright Lights, Dead City’ (EP REVIEW)

 

 

Unconventional West Country alt-pop quartet Minor Conflict are yet another one of those bands fusing pop with avant garde with quirky additional instrumentation thrown in for good measure. 

Fidlar ‘That’s Life’

Four years can feel like a lifetime, and in few places are 48 months so keenly felt as in punk rock. You can do a lot of growing up in that time, could end up drinking a lot less alcohol and, at least in terms of this particular genre, get a lot more boring. 

Blanketman 'National Trust' EP REVIEW

 

The setting – your lockdown living room. The time – 36 seconds after dropping the needle on Blanketman's National Trust EP. The scene – chaos, as the Manchester-based indie-pop darlings crescendo into the joyous, crashing chorus of 'Beach Body', the first song released from their debut EP and the one that really got the hype machine churning.

Baby Boys 'Threesome' EP REVIEW

Minneapolis muso geek trio Baby Boys have expertly utilized their vast amounts of time spent honing their skills in recording studios, combining that hard-earned nous with the playful experimentation of a certain local Purple pop legend, creating a beguiling little cartoon of an album full of twists and turns. 

Nuha Ruby Ra 'How to Move' (EP REVIEW)

This expletive laden, post-apocalyptic debut EP from Londoner Nuha Ruby Ra bristles with anger, danger, desire and chaos in equal measure. Released on 5th March courtesy of Brace Yourself Records, the stand out track is arguably the stylishly urbane bit-on-the-side lament ‘Sparky’. A fatalistic take on an intense, controlling yet doomed relationship in the classic quiet/loud format, Nuha just about manages to keep it together during the taut verses before unravelling spectacularly at each chorus.

Egyptian Blue 'Body of Itch' EP REVIEW

In our review of Egyptian Blue's debut EP Collateral Damage we put forward the suggestion that "maybe a full-length LP of [their music] might get a little exhausting", but graft new EP Body of Itch onto that visceral introduction to the Brighton band and you would be left with a serious piece of post-punk debauchery. 

SHEAFS 'Vox Pop' (EP REVIEW)

Unless it turns out that their skeletons are made of actual steel, SHEAFS couldn't be tied any closer to their hometown of Sheffield – the band is named after the river which flows through the city and which gave it its name, their spiky punk-rock barrelling forward as relentlessly as the industry it spent centuries powering. 

Egyptian Blue 'Collateral Damage' (EP REVIEW)

In or around 2500 BC ancient Egyptian artists settled on blue, rare and expensive blue, as the only colour befitting their gods. Casting the common blacks, browns and reds aside, they struck out in search of a lasting, beautiful blue – and stumbled on what we now know as Egyptian blue, a rich pigment still vivid several centuries down the line.

Austel 'Unfold' (EP review)

Wistful electronica treads a path fraught with danger, with pompous self-indulgence looming to the left and a sheer drop into waves of boring nothingness to the right. Fortunately it’s a path Austel could walk with her eyes closed and still make it to the promised land at the end where total sonic immersion is offset by sincere lyrics. 

Maff 'Melaniña' (EP REVIEW)

Emerging from the swirling mists and forbidding fogs in the DMZ between shoegaze and grunge, Chilean outfit Maff reach for their bricks and mortar to build another stunning wall of sound on new ep 'Melaniña'. Inspired by frontman Ricardo Gomez’s first child Augusta, the ep title combines the word ‘melanin’ with ‘niña’ – Spanish for little girl – to pay tribute to the fact that Augusta is slightly albino.

Holy Fuck 'Bird Brains' (EP REVIEW)

Including the f-word in your band’s moniker can prove attention grabbing whilst simultaneously sending the promoters fleeing for the hills. Despite this, Canadian electronica quartet Holy Fuck continue to make innovative music, now well into their second decade, fusing live instrumentals with boatloads of electronica, creating urgent and infectious grooves guaranteed to make even the most leaden footed of us start tapping away.

Amber Arcades 'Cannonball EP' (EP Review)

Whilst taking some well-earned time out mid-tour in New York last autumn, Amber Arcades nipped into Strange Weather Studios for a couple of days, enlisting the services of producer Ben Greenberg. The result is the Cannonball EP, a handful of songs, four of them originals, released again on Heavenly Recordings. 

Field Studies 'Rainmaking' (EP REVIEW)

"...‘Verbatim’ completes the panoramic yet down-tempo denouement, the soothing outro bringing to mind a sunset on a deserted beach..."

Sunwatchers 'Sunwatchers' (ALBUM REVIEW)

"Kicking things off with ‘Herd of Creeps’, a hypnotic looping track with Arabic overtones, squiggly sax underpinned by a driving rhythm section, maintaining its urgency throughout..."

Sweet Baboo 'Dennis' (EP REVIEW)

"Pick of the sextet is arguably penultimate track ‘Blowin’ Up My Mind’, full of cunning linguistics and driven by a Wurlitzer straight off the set of Phoenix Nights .."

Hewn from the same school of Cambrian quirkiness that blessed the music world with Super Furry, Gorky’s and Cate Le Bon, Sweet Baboo, (aka Stephen Black) has been ploughing his own like-minded idiosyncratic furrow for the best part of a decade. He can also boast a pretty impressive productivity rate, the six-track ‘Dennis’ is EP number four, again released on the Adrian Pike founded London based label Moshi Moshi, and that’s not half of it, with a clutch of albums on top of that, the dude must have songs coming out of his ears!

Chastity 'Tape' (EP REVIEW)

In their infancy on paper but by no means lacking in limitless promise, Chastity are a somewhat controversial and intriguing prospect. Hailing from Whitby, Ontario, Chastity is the brainchild of lead singer Brandon Williams. Formed early in 2015, they have wasted no time in stamping their mark on the scene. Tape, released 13 November 2015, serves as an easy to digest yet emotionally destructive tidbit of anthemic angst. Clocking in at less than ten minutes, this debut EP is a signal of intent from the Canadian grunge rockers.

Tigercub 'Repressed Semantics' (EP REVIEW)

Brighton rockers TIGERCUB may not have total respect for the rules of grammar but the irreverence they bring to that fuzzy roar they call their sound is exactly what makes Repressed Semantics so good. Refined to its rawest elements, but still smartly constructed, this is the sound of garage rock on steroids. But instead of using those big arms to crush your skull to powder, it just wants to put one round your shoulder and drink beer to the impassioned roar of a fuzz pedal until the sun comes up.

Menace Beach 'Super Transporterreum' (EP REVIEW)

Following on from the success of their debut album Ratworld and the subsequent critical acclaim still ringing in their ears, Menace Beach release their latest EP Super Transporterreum. Ratworld was thoroughly impressive and just a few months down the line this 5 track offering carries on in the same rich vein of form.