Divorce 16 Apr 4:30 AM (21 hours ago)
Country can be a bit of dirty word in music – conjuring up cheesy images of stetsons and rhinestones.
However, stick an ‘alt.’ in front of it and you have something a bit more accessible to many music fans. Take Divorce, whose sound is, as the band themselves say, “alt-country/grunge(ish)”.
And the slide guitar on ‘Eat My Words’ or the decided hoedown (including the video) that is ‘Checking Out’ bear out this description, as do the plaintive vocal and harmonies shared by Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow throughout the Nottingham quartet’s back catalogue.
Formed in 2021, far from Nashville, the foursome – Adam Peter Smith and Kasper Sandstrøm completing the lineup – met as teenagers through the city’s close-knit DIY scene and self-released a clutch of singles (gathered in EP ’Get Mean’.
They then signed to Gravity Records (Universal Music) for their acclaimed ‘Heady Metal’ EP, before filling 2024 with a raft of international festivals and tours with Bombay Bicycle Club, The Vaccines and Everything Everything.
Feeling “like we were being dragged through a hedge backwards – in a nice way!” – the quartet have honed their craft in a live setting, although rather than trawling across Route 66 they’re more familiar with the M1, as documented on debut single ‘Services’.
With this has come me a diversification in their output, drawing on indie-rock, folk and chamber pop to create a sumptuous, rich sound worthy of their crafted, considered lyrics.
All of which leads us to debut long player ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’, the band’s fantasy location and fictional refuge from the world at large.
The album’s 12 tracks were brought to life with producer Catherine Marks (boygenius, Foals, Wolf Alice) at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, in the pastoral Bath countryside. Far from their native Midlands, but as Tiger says: “We’re very proud of ‘Goldenhammer’. We got to make an album the way we wanted to, kept the weird parts in, followed the warmth and didn’t overthink it.
“This album pays homage to seeking place and home; one of the great human levellers. Much of life feels at odds with this particular need. And to Goldenhammer; you are a reason to keep driving. We will find you again and again!”
‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ is out now. This article originally appeared in the Portsmouth News.
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Beautiful Cosmos 16 Apr 3:01 AM (22 hours ago)
Vinyl’s revival is all the rage now with the format shifting its highest units since 1990 and indie shops opening around the UK.
However, there is a price to pay, and not just the inflated cost of the format thanks to its still short-run nature. Records are constructed from PVC plastic, one of the most toxic materials on earth.
That’s why the 12” sleeve for ‘Dance Of The Atoms’, the debut album from Glasgow-based act Beautiful Cosmos, contains… nothing.
Well, aside from a download code, and beautiful full-size artwork by singer Anna Miles.
It’s all part of the Doughnut Music project, aiming for more sustainable music releases, and the brainchild of Zoey Van Goey’s Matt Brennan, who formed Beautiful Cosmos with Miles, formerly of Maple Leaves and sometime Belle and Sebastian backing vocalist. The pair worked alongside the likes of Alex Kapranos and Robert Wyatt on a tribute album to Scottish singer Ivor Cutler (Return to H’Yup) and take the name Beautiful Cosmos from one of Cutler’s best-known tracks.
It’s Glasgow that has pulled the (husband and wife) pair together – Brennan originally from Prince Edward Island in Canada before settling in Scotland to work as a Professor of Music. Meanwhile, Miles – drawn to the city as “the home of all the music I like” – hails from Newcastle, and her near-neighbours Peter and David Brewiss – of Sunderland Mercury-nominated act Field Music – handle production dueies on the majority of album tracks (aside from two produced by Frightened Rabbit’s Andy Monaghan).
The band monicker ties in, perhaps obviously with the universe and our place within it, as well as the album’s central theme, summed up in single ‘Midlife’.
The idea of putting out an indie-pop record when approaching middle age, is described by Brennan as “an authentic impulse that simultaneously feels absurd” while the album’s title track looks at a state of one-ness with the universe inspired by watching the Persid meteor showers.
“I like to reflect that it’s so improbable that any life exists at all,” Brennan muses. “And there’s this star so far away. And if we didn’t have it, there’d be no life at all.
“And I don’t know why I’m obsessed with that idea, but it gives me a sense of calm that most things in the world don’t.”
‘Dance Of The Atoms’ is out now. This article originally appeared in the Lancashire Post.
Dance of the Atoms by Beautiful Cosmos
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Heart Attack Man 15 Apr 1:48 PM (yesterday, 1:48 pm)
Heart Attack Man is a band that has me in a constant state of confusion… Why don’t more people know about them and love them? I’ve seen them play a half full (or empty depending on your life philosophy) Cathouse as a headliner and I’ve seen them play The Garage supporting the tremendous Spanish Love Songs and both times they’ve come out blasting. Pop punk that’s perpetually pissed off at life to a degree where you don’t want to be left alone in a room with the mind that’s come up with these lyrics.
The prospect of new album ‘Joyride The Pale Horse’ – probably a reference to Death’s choice of steed rather than cocaine – has had a bit of a buzz around it since it’s announcement and now we have a copy of it. Here’s the skinny on what you have to look forward to…
We open with ‘One More Song (Imposter Syndrome)’ that counts us down into Heart Attack Man’s patented slow verse rhythm before exploding into one of the loudest choruses that I’ve heard in some time. The repeating narrative of frontman Eric Egan being at the end of his rope in terms of his creativity and performing; and the panic that comes with thinking you’ll be judged as an imposter for not having an infinite amount of anything in the tank. It’s a great glimpse into the fragility of the artist that’s expressed with a fight/flight mode that’s made up of 99% fight.
That slides straight into ‘End Of The Gun’ which proves the instrumentals of HAM are getting darker and more aggressive. Remember when Tom Delonge released Box Car Racer into the wild? It sounded like the guitars should have been in a padded cell as they snarled and growled rather than just lay back and provided poppy backing tracks for the adolescent love songs that we were used to. That’s what the instrumentals of this song are like, but on steroids. A snarling beast of a riff with the same frustration that’s been dragged through from the opening number. There is a key change at the end which kicks us up a gear momentarily but, we get back to the anger sooner than we can crack a smile.
‘Joyride The Pale Horse’ is released on April 25
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Father John Misty / Butch Bastard 15 Apr 1:04 PM (yesterday, 1:04 pm)
It may be difficult to work out exactly how sincere Father John Misty’s schtick is or whether to take his tales of debauchery and self-doubt literally, but there can be few better venues for some louche showmanship than the Usher Hall. The old Edinburgh theatre’s plush interiors and three tiers are made for a performer who wants to project to the very back row.
To pull off that trick however, you need to take the crowd in your palm and silence the chatterers and this evening’s entertainment shows that that is not always so easy, no matter how strong your songs are.
Singer-songwriter Butch Bastard aka LA’s Ian Murray is first on the bill.
The excellent new Butch Bastard record ‘Death Valley’ came out two weeks ago so it’s no surprise he wants to show it off. ‘If It Wasn’t For The UFOs’ in particular is a real standout, mixing mordant wit, leftfield cultural references and hazy imagery to come up with something that wouldn’t feel out of place on one of our headliner’s albums.
With a strong voice and a fresh songbook, it’s just a shame he doesn’t quite manage to quiet a talkative Edinburgh crowd. It’s their loss.
After just twenty minutes, the lights go down and Father John Misty and his band take to the stage in front of a huge red curtain.
From purveyor of exquisite harmonies as part of Fleet Foxes to his reinvention as the dapper don of lounge-alternative, the sometime psychedelic voyager has wandered a winding path.
This evening, he opens with a ten-minute Leonard Cohen-at-the-disco romp ‘I Guess Time Makes Fools Of Us All’. It’s a brave move and one that befits a track that the singer was so confident in the quality of that he attached it to a greatest hits compilation four months before it ever appeared on a studio record.
With its danceable rhythm and the well practiced hips and arms of a showman, the audience are instantly engaged in a way that they never were for his somewhat unfortunate support act.
This opening act of the show tosses out a series of reflections and refractions of his well-practiced public persona – musing on company execs concerned for their bottom line on Q4, narrating a bad trip on ‘Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose’ and best of all, the wickedly funny ‘Mr Tillman’, in which put upon hotel desk staff must navigate the many peccadilloes of a larger-than-life rockstar.
His band are slick – and there’s plenty of love for the sax player in particular – but the real star is the bequiffed singer and his lounge lizard poses.
By the end of the main set, it’s clear that he has left the world of indie ambitions ad is more than confident musing on the big philosophical questions over the grandest of soundscapes on tracks like ‘Screamland’ and nine-minute main set closer ‘Mahashmashana’.
‘Mental Health’ is a rare miss, a snarky take on the issue that doesn’t even really work as a fun satire on wellness culture, while ‘Disappointing Diamonds Are The Rarest Ones Of All’ is never quite as entertaining as its title but by the time he delivers a pin-drop worthy version of ‘Summer’s Gone’ accompanied only by a piano, he’s more than showcased his charisma and vocal prowess.
For the finale, the mask finally seems to drop and he delivers the charming and heartfelt ‘I Love You, Honeybear’ straight down the barrel. Is this the real Father John Misty? Who can tell, but the audience seem to enjoy every one of the multitude of facets on show tonight. That’s how you silence a crowd.
Photos: Joe Paolella
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Constant Follower 15 Apr 6:30 AM (yesterday, 6:30 am)
It’s often said that music can be a healing process but for Steven McAll – the frontman and songwriter behind Constant Follower – it’s much more than that.
The Stirling-based musician’s life changed forever when he was attacked in the street, just before his 17th birthday. The serious head injuries he sustained has harmed the way his memory functions.
But two decades on, he is using his music-making to connect better to the world around him.
Raised in Glasgow, McAll moved from an earlier interest in electronic music to making rather more sparse and organic sounds – think the oh-so-quiet of early Low combined with the sonic intensity of Talk Talk.
This rebirth culminated in 2021 debut album ‘Neither Is, Nor Ever Was’, shortlisted for the prestigious Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award; a feat he repeated with 2023’s ‘Even Days Dissolve’, a collaboration with guitarist Scott William Urquhart.
Now, new long-player ‘The Smile You Send Out Returns To You’ continues this creative and cathartic process, a song cycle that tackles addiction and recovery, parenthood and the impact of kindness.
While Constant Follower is a band, McAll is the main driving force behind the beautiful music.
“The way that I write is very, very solitary,” he says. “I sit down with a guitar and a blank sheet of paper, and I start singing. The way songs come to me is almost as though you’re driving down a country road at night in the dark, and you can kind of see where you’re going, but you don’t exactly know. It’s like you’re being guided.”
Thus, the creative process for the new album took place at a remote cabin just outside the Scottish town of Callander; McAll being lucky enough to gain funding from a Scottish Government fund meaning that during the pandemic, he wrote the new songs in two weeks,
Despite his period of isolation, he was happy to return to civilisation.
McAll cites poet Norman MacCaig as a influence and whose work has also helped in his healing process. “For a long time, I couldn’t read books because of my head injury – I’d get to the end of a sentence and forget the start. With Norman’s work, I could trace each poem sentence by sentence, and truly connect.”
The new album was produced in Austin, Texas, working alongside Dan Duszynski – famed for his work with Sub Pop band Loma as well as with Brian Eno – to complete the album. “My children tend to herald the coming of each album – my second was born during the sessions for my debut, and my third was born just after this one was finished,”McAll says. “I was over in Austin for a month – staying in an RV on the Dripping Springs ranch, with coyotes coming down at night.”
It’s an album littered with glittering moments of truth and realisation. Take ‘All Is Well’ with its ‘healing message’… “I needed to hear it, and I think other people need to hear it, too.”
“The songs come from deep inside me,” he reflects. “It’s like you’re channelling some feeling, something general to everyone, but somehow it’s inside you.”
“In those wilderness years, I was so depressed. Just lost. I felt like my life had no meaning. It was only really when I started writing songs that I felt like I had purpose.
“There’s something else going on that we don’t understand to do with the universe. With songs, a part of it is me and a part of it is… something else.”
“For me, the magic in music is collaboration,” he continues. “Most of what I do is focussed on finding the right people”. And musicians Andrew Pankhurst, David Guild and Gareth Perrie help create a mesmerising backdrop for vocalists Kathleen Stosch and Amy Campbell, who add fragile backing to McAll’s dulcet, soothing croon.
And these fellow musicians and friends have created something more than an album, more a process of healing.
Calling myself a musician is a stretch,” McAll jokes, “but I’m proud to call myself a songwriter.”
‘The Smile You Send Out Returns To You’ is out now. This article originally appeared in the Edinburgh News.
The Smile You Send Out Returns To You by CONSTANT FOLLOWER
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Manic Street Preachers / Low Harness 14 Apr 2:13 AM (2 days ago)
I’ve been pondering on how to describe the Manics for a while now. For me, they’ve always been the thinking punk’s band, the Mac Daddies of the Welsh rock scene (yes, more important than whatever other band you’re about to throw at me), and some of the finest lyrics going.
The Manic Street Preachers aren’t just a band for the sake of being a band. Their music can unashamedly stand next to that of The Clash and Black Flag in terms of political and social commentary. Songs with claws and teeth, but also capable of warmth and intimacy, such as in the case of ‘Ocean Spray’ – a touching number about singer James Dean Bradfield’s mother’s fight with cancer.
Tonight they’re rounding up their sold out double-nighter at the historic Barrowlands and we’re here for the party.
The support act for both nights is Low Harness. A grungy, shoegazey bunch from Cornwall. They’re not unlikeable if not an acquired taste. It’s a dark sounding, alternative, punky set that cares more about it’s message than being aurally pleasant. Lyrics that go along the lines of “It’s a great day for some bloodsports” are awesome and it’s pretty clear why the Manics chose them to come on tour. The lead guitarist has a lot of Graham Coxon about him, which forms most of the energy on stage – other than that, it’s a pretty static affair with the exception of when the keyboardist has her tambourine out and has a nice little dance to accompany the playing.
While waiting on the headliners, we get a D.H Lawrence quote on the screen to ignite our inner nihilists. “Consciousness is an end in itself. We torture ourselves getting somewhere, and when we get there it is nowhere, for there is nowhere to get to”. Then, as an introduction we get a remix of ‘Critical Thinking’ to a video projected on the screen of a POV of us racing down a highway. Perhaps to that place D.H was referring to…
Then we get there, and the band come on stage.
From note one, the crowd are clearly in the mood to sing along. It’s a glorious mix of high and low voices harmonizing and filling the venue with the thick sound of the vocal melodies. By the time ‘Design For Life’ comes along, it’s like the world’s best football crowd, before becoming softer with acoustic numbers such as ‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’.
It’s no surprise that we get all of the hits tonight – these guys know what they’re doing. Tonight – the second of two – we got the tour debut of ‘Australia’ which I would say puts us one up on those who were there for the first night. What a belter of a tune.
The sound is genuinely great, but the best part is James Dean Bradfield’s vocals sitting slightly high in the mix which is allowing him to showcase how good they actually are. This is something that’s often neglected in their recordings where the vocals can seem buried at times. Tonight they soar and they’re unbelievably on point. Bassist and chief wordsmith Nicky Wire still provides the kinetic energy on stage and is still young enough to put in plenty of jumps while playing. Those close enough to see his smile can tell he’s loving tonight too.
Finishing the night with ‘If You Tolerate This…’ is fantastic, even if there were guitar issues for James – but they went unnoticed and absolutely forgiven with the confetti being blasted out over the crowd following a final singalong at the bridge.
I can’t really think of anything that could have made this show better. It’s clear why these guys have such a devoted, cult following and once you see them live, it’s a cult you don’t mind joining.
Photos by Catching Light Photography
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The Loft 13 Apr 3:26 AM (3 days ago)
There seems to be a thirst for nostalgia in the UK indie music scene – and much of it is coming via the alumni of Creation Records.
Long before Oasis and Primal Scream helped make Alan McGee’s bedroom label a worldwide success, The Loft blazed the trail, notching up an impressive list of firsts for Creation Records’ artists back in the mid-80s. First Creation band on TV, first to top the indie singles chart, first to be invited on to a major UK tour, and first Creation band to record a coveted BBC radio session – for Janice Long’s Radio One show in 1984.
Then they split up – mid-song, at the Hammersmith Palais in front of 3,000 people when seemingly on the verge of the Big Time.
However, the band have, presumably, put those tensions behind them, and reunited to claim their legacy as one of the UK’s most influential guitar bands of the 1980s. Having performed sporadically since the early noughties, the band have, finally, recorded their debut album.
“Time has been kind to us I think; where once the world felt impossible and threatening, we seem to have learned to be more careful of each other and focus on playing together,” says singer, guitarist and songwriter, Pete Astor.
Last year, after a sell-out show at London’s MOTH club and their appearance at Glas-Goes Pop festival, the group was invited by BBC 6 Music’s ‘Riley & Coe’ to record its fourth BBC session. Within six months the session was released by Precious Recordings of London on 10” vinyl.
Enter Hamburg-based, Tapete Records, who, hearing rumours about new Loft material, snapped up the album ‘Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same’ and signed the band without hearing a single note.
“The Loft has always been just the four of us and it’s a real thrill to be writing and recording and playing across the UK with the band again,” says guitarist Andy Strickland, who is joined by fellow original members Astor, bassist Bill Prince, and drummer Dave Morgan, who enthuses: “ We’re having a blast.”
“It’s incredibly exciting to not only be setting out on tour again,” he adds, “but now with a brand new set of songs to play alongside some of our, ahem, ‘greatest hits’.”
‘Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same’ is out now on Tapete Records.
This article originally appeared in the Blackpool Gazette.
Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same by The Loft
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The Burning Hell 12 Apr 3:26 AM (4 days ago)
Some people might argue that the end of the world is no cause for celebration, but The Burning Hell have been singing the pre-apocalypse blues for a while now.
The Canadian act – core members Mathias Kom and Ariel Sharratt plus, currently, Jake Nicoll and Maria Peddle – have just released new album ‘Ghost Palace’ which they describe as “their most joyful collection of songs about death to date”.
But “Ghost Palace” doesn’t dwell directly on the end of the world. Instead, the songs assume that our time running out is a foregone conclusion – something they’ve done on previous long-player ‘Garbage Island’ which imagined in many songs how we’d cope in a climate emergency-induced end.
Instead in their latest 11-track opus they ponder what we might leave behind when we go, what might endure, and what surprises might be found amidst the remnants.
A cynic looking at the band’s tour archive you might wonder how many air miles they’ve clocked up performing more than 1000 shows (nearly 200 in the UK) in the 15 years since they formed (never mind how they find the time to actually record a dozen albums and umpteen EPs in their studio on Price Edward Island.
However, as UK fans found last year, they do their bit for the world’s wellbeing – performing a few shows out of the Photobothy, a PA and stage combo powered entirely by solar and Hydrogen.
They also are rightful holders of a world record for playing shows in 10 (European) countries in 24 hours – though official recognition of that accolade was, remarkably, denied as the band didn’t use commercial airlines to travel between the shows.
‘Ghost Palace’ also ponders our post-planet future. After we finish making Earth uninhabitable for ourselves, where do we go, and who gets to go there? On the closing title track the band sing: “We’ll leave all the lights on / We’ll see them shine for a while, after we’ve gone… Goodbye, cool world!”
However, while the band regard the end as a foregone conclusion, there is a hint of optimism among the gloom. As Mathias says: ”Thanks to anybody out there who is still trying to save the world.
“The fight is worth it.”
‘Ghost Palace’ is out now via You’ve Changed / BB*Island .
This article originally appeared in the Lancashire Post.
Ghost Palace by The Burning Hell
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Frank Carter 11 Apr 12:28 PM (5 days ago)
Up-and-coming musicians may dream of the rock star life, but those who have tasted success often advise against becoming too embroiled in showbiz ways.
Frank Carter would probably agree. “We talk about how rock and roll will never die, but we never really talk about how maybe the idea of the rock star should die,” the former Gallows frontman says. “The whole concept and what it means has always been this glamorised moment, but ultimately when I put that suit on, it didn’t go very well for me.”
Now one half of The Rattlesnakes alongside guitarist Dean Richardson, the band’s new album ‘Dark Rainbow’is their first since 2021’s ‘Sticky‘, and looks likely to continue a run of three consecutive UK Top 10 placings.
Since exploding onto the UK punk scene with first EP ‘Rotten‘, it’s been a bewildering eight years for the pair. Four killer albums, touring with Foo Fighters, headlining festivals, and featuring Tom Morello, Bobby Gillespie and Cassyette on their tunes.
Now, the two old friends are taking stock. “Normally we don’t look backwards when making a record, but this has been looking to reach us for a long time,” Richardson explains.
“Some songs are old ideas reworked, fresh eyes on something that didn’t quite fit on their other records.” Richardson remembers, “Some of these songs were lost along the way because basically we didn’t really give them the space.”
In contrast to their previous records – which were snapshots of the time and mindset in which they were made – ‘Dark Rainbow’ was, they say, born from self-reflection, memory and gratitude. “I’m just witnessing the world change so quickly and I’m still trying to come to terms with who I am and what the authentic version of me is,” Carter says.
“By giving people what I thought they wanted I think I got further and further away from who I actually am, you know? So now, first and foremost, I’m prioritising what I need. Sobriety has been really, really helpful for me.”
Carter says that this is the most “authentic” album he’s ever made, and that came from them doing the work, and really getting to know themselves and each other. “We’ve lived a lot of life together,” Carter says.
As they gear up for headline tours through the UK, Europe, USA and Australia in early 2024, in January, Carter and Richardson have never been more ready.
This article originally appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post.
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Held By Trees 11 Apr 2:00 AM (5 days ago)
I’ve not been to an album ‘listening party’ since who knows when… and I wasn’t able to make the one held at Linlithgow’s Low Port Music for the new release by English act Held By Trees either, so was forced to conduct my own at home.
The first time I was at such an event was a highly stagemanaged demonstration for the first Marantz CD players in the UK, so early 1980s. They set the scene with a Dire Straits track – extensive and painful research suggesting it was ‘Private Investigations’ – which evokes memories of that evening, plied with free booze in a darkened room.
On ‘Hinterland’s opening track, ‘Edge Of Town’, a miasma of atmospheric electronic sounds gives way to an extended guitar piece evoking Dave Gilmour, or indeed the work of Mark Knopfler.
The Held By Trees biog says while they are mainly inspired by Talk Talk (more ‘Spirit Of Eden’ than ‘The Party’s Over’), prime mover David Joseph has assembled an ensemble of musicians who have also worked with, yes, Pink Floyd and Dire Straits as well as Mark Hollis, so they will hopefully take these comparisons as compliments.
The album is a curious mix, in that the longer pieces clock in at eight minutes or so, alternating with shorter, almost interludes. ‘The Boundary’ is a short piece driven by jazzy sax, perhaps a little too melodic, while the almost-title-track ‘Hinterland Soul’ – except the album is vocal and lyric-free – sports spooky organ in the vein of Tindersticks or even the Blue Nile, before building slowly to a crescendo mid-song, rather doing a Mogwai on us. However, the saxophone rather sits at odds with any post rock ambitions, instead leading us to ‘The Path’s boppy noodling. Another influence seats them at the fringes of chilled US alt.rock, though personally I preferred Codeine to Morphine.
‘Between States’ similarly builds on a piano-driven soundscape, contrasting with ‘The Pylon Line’, overarching organ combining with almost fingerstyle guitar before closer ‘Boughs and Branches’ eschews musicality for atmosphere, piano bursting through in a fully-immersive experience.
Indeed, that may be the best way to enjoy Held By Trees – headphones-on, curtains drawn, and surround yourself in the experience. If speakers are your preference then I know where you can pick up a new sound system…
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