Five? Five more musical slices, five exciting musical things that have drifted this way in the last week or so, five things that stood out from the hundreds of slices of music that drift this way every week, five musical things we think are worthy of more investigation from you.  You have the music, you have the links, you have a mouse, you hopefully have eyes and ears, here you go, five more musical slices, off you go….

Witch Fever (a photo stolen from their social media, taken by Pic by Asupremeshot)

1: WITCH FEVER Are a Manchester based all girl punk grunge band.  We rather like their attitude, we rather like like the energy, here’s a couple of videos, the first from 2017, the second from a couple of weeks ago. You don’t need any more from us, you have a coupleo d fastes there, you have the link, words aren’t needed…

.

.

2 ICE BATHS  have their “Self-Titled” debut album out on Blank Editions on May 11th, does that mean they’e actually named it “Self-Titled” or does that mean they got a little “anarchic” with the quotation marks there?  Always thought a self-titled album was a little bit of a cop-out, not sure about a label being described as “boutique” either, but hey, all about the music and here it is now, a taste of what promised ot be a rather special self-titled debut album from London’s Ice Baths…

Here’s the press release blurb should you feel the need “London based four-piece Ice Baths are set to release their debut album on 11th May via Blank Editions. The album is coming out on Blank Editions – a renowned boutique label who released the latest Thurston Moore 7”. Ice Bath’s distinctive post-punk sound is a natural fit for the label who have also released music by Housewives, a band Ice Baths cite as an influence on their own work. Sonically, Ice Baths take influence from cult heroes such as Swell Maps, Television Personalities, Devo, US Maple – all restless energy and angled aggression. Lyrically there is a bleakness and darkness, though the band prefer the listener to reach their own conclusions as to lyrical themes. “They centre on feelings or imagery that can be dreary, dark, difficult and abstract. We deliberately pass the buck to the listener to pick out certain moods or feelings” explains the band (Alex Ives, Thomas Cleall, Ed Shellard & Jack Davis).

The production process was not simple nor was it smooth. The band had a very clear idea of how they wanted the record to sound and that included a long, pain-staking period where ideas were scrapped and reworked. “It was an absolute challenge, we were very picky about how to get the sound we wanted. It led us to mixing the record ourselves. We wanted the record unpolished and raw, hissy, trebly, bitty & a bit uncouth” says Alex. To achieve the desired effect, the album was recorded on a selection of different Tascam tape machines – a move to retain the grittiness of early demo’s as well as the spike their live shows are known for. Ice Baths have been on the London circuit for a short while now, they’re a notoriously tight live band but now they are ready to take the next step”.

“We’re pretty excited to be released on a label with artists we really respect, it’s a confidence boost that perhaps we’re on the right track. We’re proud of the album the same way you might be proud of an errant child” said someone from the “boutique” label

3: MOCK IDENTITY are from, well where are they from? Somewhere in the USA, a new band apparently, “Hey Sean, Jeff Barsky here – wanted to share my new band with you! We’re wrapping up an LP thatll come out in summer, but in the meantime we have a new track from the record we’re sharing called Glamour, as well as announcing a midwest US summer tour”

4: HUNDRED YEAR OLD MAN have a new single, here it is, The Leeds band play a metal night at London’s Underdog Gallery on May 19th  alongside Limb, the rather excellent  Cold in Berlin and more. The Hundred Year Old Man Bandcamp page and the album can be found here

.

Bad Breeding 

5: BAD BREEDING – More  Bad Breeding, they’re a band we’ve covered quite a few times on these fractured pages over the last couple of years, here’s another track from the fresh now proper real deal old school hardcore punk rock band ahead of their Worker’s day show on Tuesday May 1st in Stoke Newington  Bad Breeding’s Abandonment EP just came out on 27th April on 12″ vinyl via One Little Indian Records, this track here is another slice from that EP, more coverage here: