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Here we are at te end of the season or the start of the season, the art season, some bass player has left one band for another in the closing hours, will she strengthen the midfield? All subject to a medical, the window closed, Frieze week coming into view, two weeks to conclude work for the Art Car Boot Fair so there reallty is no time for all this and in no particular order, some recent or maybe still forthcoming albums that have passed our way this rather busy Summer. There’s bits of reviews scattered everywhere, lines on the back of shopping reciepts, the corner of sketchbooks, half finshed drafts, hundreds of them, reviews that should have been posted weeks (moths or even months) ago, reviews that still aren’t finished if the truth were ever to be told – let them go, get them out there, probably old news now and who has the attention span now anyway? Heads stuffed with unresolved live reviews, album reviews, art show reviews, cake review, six added minutes of extra time, will we get it all out there?

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Snooper – Super Sn​õ​õ​per (Third Man) – Nashville’s rather frantic much hyped Sn​õ​õ​per have a debut album out on the too-cool-for-the-likes-of-us Third Man Records, I expect they’re all over Pitchbloodtfork and such. We have been featuring them quite a bit on these fractured pages, they do kind of go off and things in a very American urgently frantic new wave no wave kind of way. They;re from Nashville, frantic is the word,, Avery Barkley probably rates them, I imagine they go over Decon Claybourne’s head (he does always seem to have a respect for musicians though, Country or not), actually they’re probably from the hipster side of Nashnille, the stranger side, and while you could argue they’re not doing anything that new, then again who is? They sound like they’ve drunk far too much orange juice, they do demand you play them on repeat and they are dangerouusly infectious, they’re brilliant actually, you probably already knew that…. Defect, reset, connect, cardiac arrest, bratty, scattered, you’re it. Don’t let all the hype put you off, they’re worth it all, they maY only have one trick and you may have heard it all before but hey we need new takes on that one glorious trick, this is good…. Bandcamp

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mr.phylzzz – Fat Chance (AmRep) –  A self confessed “Two piece loud band from Chicago who really doesn’t care about genres”, fair enough but a mention of a genre or a shove into a pigeonhole or two does help point people in the right way and a signpost or two is never a bad thing is it? This is abrasively good for you noise rock, there was a time back in the day when an album arriving in the post from AmRep was always a good day, Amphetamine Reptile was one of those era defining labels of the 90’s, not been that in touch with the label’s more recent output (guess we fell off the mailing list) but this does very much sound like you’d expect something on AmRep to sound.  Formed in late 2015 Mr.Phylzzz (pronounced Flyzzz) is “an ever changing monster of noise”. We’re told that over time mr.phylzzz have formed a heavy wall of sound “filled with hooky riffs and melodic vocals”. not sure how much of that melody these ears are hearing, not too many hooks, more like slabs of collar grabbing awkward intensity really, they’re are indeed “creating a chaotic storm that’s well worth the painful wall of cranked amps and exploding drums” and yes I am been lazy here with a review that I started and never went back to weeks ago. Hey, I’m trying to paint 43 paintings at the same time today, the Art Car Boot Fair is just two weeks today, I don’t have time to be writing reviews and anyway, you don’t need a review, you go the whole album there waiting on Bandcamp, who needs words? 

We’re told that during the growing years, Phylzzz were doing small tours which landed them getting picked up in 2019 by Amphetamine Reptile Records (AmRep) they were featured on the Dope. Guns ‘N Fucking in the Streets Vol. 14 comp and later that year they released their rather tasty debut album Penitent Curtis (2019), followed by 2022’s even better Cancel Culture Club (there’s probably a half written review for that one kicking around here as well). “The band is Chicago based and are currently on tour in anticipation of their  new album which is set to be released fall of 2023. Mr.Phylzzz is Clinton Jacobs (guitar/vox) & Danny Sein (drums)” and well, what more can we tell you? Opening track Pontiac Grand Am sets out the intent, god damn, get in the car and okay so not all of it is full on noise, there are awkwardly complex bits of gear changing as they negotiate the abrasive traffic. there are the barbed bits in there with the heavy pounding, there are those rusty edges waiting to catch you, is there really only two of them? Those drums are heavy, the whole thing is heavy duty, they’re not the kind of band who are going to let you out at the junction….

Find the album on Bandcamp

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The Filibuster Saloon – Going off Topic (self release) – Are you sure this bloke is American? This sounds like it comes from the fields of Southern England, it sounds like country lanes, steam trains on branch lines, cows called Henry, caravans and Cardiacs, this sounds delightful. Properly proper English strawberry jam flavoured prog rock, a delight that sounds extra good tonight in the Summer rain of East London. Are you sure The Filibuster Saloon are from New York? Eight full-bodied instrumental track that gallop in their own time, a gallop but never a rush, never cluttered, always easy of the ear. True the motif is repeated rather a lot, it kind of skips in a delightfully awkward always upbeat kind of way, a clever way, a very progressive way. Upbeat, jaunty, these are the compositions of the excellent Eyeless Owl’s Zachary Detrick and I do believe the last time we encountered Eyeless Owl on these page we might just have mentioned Bagpuss alongside references to the Canterbury Scene as well as Henry Cow. The repetition is positive in this case, clever, always moving forward, never standing still, always happy to take you with it (nothing worse than music that just runs of ideas and repeated itself).

There’s a whole host of people playing with The Filibuster Saloon, a more than healthy collective led by Zachary Detrick and alive with what you’d suspect are rather young musicians skips through the hints of Henry Cow, Gentle Giant, Hatfield and The North, Vaughn Williams and maybe just a hint of Mike Oldfield in there with the piano lines and the slight hints of jazz and the progressive rock and the classical breeze of the compositional complexity, the cheerfulness, the violin, the bassoon, the guitar and the electric piano. A lot of it sounds like 70’s English TV theme tunes you can almost but not quite put your finger on and vitally here. nothing is hard work or hard boiled or difficult. It clearly is very clever but it all sounds so easy, so effortless, so fresh, so refreshing, so gracefully jaunty, it just all sounds rather rather good and very rarely do they try to catch you out, they really are too good to need to show off.   This The Filibuster Saloon album is jsut refreshingly good…  (sw)          

Bandcamp

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Fred Abong – Fear Pageant – America 808 is a rather beautiful piece of music, not that Fred Abong’s latest album, Fear Pageant, is something to be picking standout tracks from, it isn’t one of those albums with a couple of singles and a whole load of filler, this is one of those full bodied albums, a proper album of songs that works as one whole thing, an album that feels like one time and place in the life of an artist, a real old school album you might say.

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Fear Pageant is a quietly inward looking piece of work, a warm album, songs, tales, thoughtful. A Filipino-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Abong got his musical start in the 1980’s as a drummer, bassist and guitarist on the Rhode Island hardcore punk scene. In the early 1990s, he played bass for Throwing Muses and then Belly. Putting music on hold for academic pursuits, he earned a PhD in Humanities and then taught at various universities for years before returning as a solo artist. Abong also currently plays bass in the Kristin Hersh Electric Trio. Fred’s latest solo album is rather captivating, it does indeed build upon the exploratory nature of his fine debut full-length album Yellowthroat from last year, yes, Yellowthroat was more of a collaborative efforts between Fred Abong and producer Rob Ahlers (50 Foot Wave), Fear Pageant embraces a more intimate and personal approach. Fred takes the reins of the entire creative process, assuming the roles of songwriter, recording engineer, producer and bat observer (so it says here in the press release).

The singles released ahead of the new album, My Way and Father, offered a warm restrained glimpse into the  space the album occupied in the world, simple, clever, thoughtful, reflective crafted, rather delightfully engaging throughout the forty-minutes that the album flows through in such as easy inviting kind of way. Slow hearts beats, warm shadowplay,, Fear Pageant does indeed, as someone else said, beckon those with inquisitive ears and a readiness to delve into an expansive range of thought-provoking themes. Poignant questions that challenge both the artist and the listener, fostering an album that connects both parties

Find the album and more on Bandcamp or www.fredabongmusic.com

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Now what is going on in Finland? Not a new album but we do need to mention it….

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Dai Kaht – Dai Kaht II – “Dai Kaht was formed in Kajaani Finland by bassist/vocalist Atte Kemppainen around 2013.  Dai Kaht is known for its dark visions of humanity’s future in the celestial age of space colonization. Dai Kaht delves in themes such as naturalism, industrialism, religious manipulation, tribalism and human nature” – This gloriously adventurous second album actually came out back in 2020, it landed in the mitts of her from The Other Rock Show a few weeks back, she’s been gleefully playing it on the radio and raving about their Zeuhl flavoured thing ever since. They tell us they’re working on a new album right now. No idea what they’re on about other than what they said in that short biography, it does sound urgently good though, urgent, alive, off-hinge in a Focus meets a slightly lighter shade of Magma kind of way – different though, a need to move things forward. Have they been riding on a cheesecake truck? That bit there sounds like frontline Ruins, that of course is a very good thing. Most of it is in their native tongue (once again no bad thing). We await further developments and if this album wasn’t already three years old we’d probably be saying lots more…  here’s the album via their Bandcamp.

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And here’s some early footage…

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We do gather a lot of this up on our monthly Spotify playlists, mostly for our own entertainment, you’re welcome to have a listen though…