Never mind nothing, on with the music and what we said last time or last week or last year, you’ve read all this already, never mind the editorial, never mind the biscuits just jump down past this editorial, who needs an editorial? Jump past and let the actual music do the actual walking and the talking. Exact same thing again, another five (or so) slices of musical things that have passed our way recently and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of apples and here comes the intro, Don’t be flippant she said, how could it ever be flippant?

Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying rabbits out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Snake oil? Everything must go and same as last time (and the time before that) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this damn thing and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut cut slash and cut it, who needs an editorial or words or worms in general? What’s Wordsworth? Just facts and links and sounds then. Here you go, play the music, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go eat some fresh music and don’t forget whatever it was we said last time…

Here we go again, same as last time, in no particular order, starting in Glasgow…

1: Dragged Up – New Dragged Up, kind of want to sing rub me out, rub me out but that would be ill-defined, a muscle memory maybe? There’s new Dragged Up and that is no bad thing. Missing Person is the new single released on Feb 2nd 2024, find it on Bandcamp, find more of that Glasgow thing, that D.I.Y flavoured forwardness, find all kinds of goodness in there yet again…

2: Foncedalle – We’re rather pleased to introduce you to Foncedalle, a three piece who describe themselves as an electronic / Kraut / acid rock band from Lyon, France (yes Lyon again, maybe we should just move there). There’s a rather crisp debut album out on March 8th on EXAG Records, on first listen it sounds rather crisp, more in a bit when said album has been explored properly, for now here’s a rather fine first taste… here’s their Bandcamp

And here they are in a nightclub last year, more soon….

3: Maquina – Lisbon trio Maquina, (‘Machine’) have today announced their second album Prata (‘Silver’), due out April 5th on Fuzz Club, and shared the first single Denial. In support of the release, Maquina will also be heading out on a European tour with A Place To Bury Strangers over April, followed by festival appearances lined up at Primavera Porto, Sonic Blast and Fuzz Club 2024.

“Drawing from minimal krautrock repetition, pounding industrial techno and EBM, Maquina (who seem to insist they have a full stop at the end of their name) explore the boundaries of these genres with force, carving out an adrenaline-fuelled sound that’s equally suited to dark, sweaty back rooms and the dance floor. On the new single, Maquina write: “denial is about an inner turmoil and restless contemplation. The raw, haunting lyrics explore the struggle to find solace within oneself, amidst a sea of conflicting emotions. The plea to ‘shut me down’ echoes the yearning for respite in the face of overwhelming darkness.”

Bandcamp

4: GRÓA – Well they got us interested at “Equal parts DIY spirit, strong-minded vision, and wildly playful imagination”. Their excellent What I Like To Do album caem out originally in 2021, both theserecently psoted videos feature tracks from that album “The Reykjavík-bred band merge elements of post-punk and noise-rock and art-pop with absolute abandon, arriving at an explosive yet magnificently arranged sound”, they look like they’re about to get going on new new things or maybe they’re taking their current album to wider audiences? More as things start to evolve and emerge. More via Found.

Here’s the Bandcamp

5: Urvanovic have a rather glowing new song or track or video or, whatever it is it does swell in a rather glorious way – “The first track from our new record Let’s Not Be Here, coming soon via Common Grounds Record. Raze is the perfect opening track, it is like the opening of the curtains on the whole production, and it is a glorious production, a beautifully ambitious album. More in a couple of days… here’s their links

The press release…

“Urvanovic (uhr-van-no-vitch) are a noisy chamber-pop ensemble consisting of Tom Irvine (songwriter/composer/lyricist/vocals), Seonaid Stevenson (vocals), Niall Sinclair (producer/noise-maker) and David Hill (drums/percussion) plus an extended line-up of string players. On the 29th March, the band are set to release their new album ‘Let’s Not Be Here’ via Common Grounds Records.

‘Let’s Not Be Here’ is a record about evolving through catastrophe – romanticising ruination as an incitement to action. Across the album, Urvanovic indulge in the escapism of an imagined apocalypse as a catalyst for positive personal change. Forgoing their earlier alt-folk influences, ‘Let’s Not Be Here’ embraces Urvanovic’s latent maximalism and experimentation. Veering between dense, wall-of-noise synthesis and abstract soundscapes – further embellished by colourful string arrangements, theatrical vocals, and orchestral percussion – this is a dynamic, complex, and at times abrasive record” .

“From the start of working towards ‘Let’s Not Be Here’, we knew we wanted to move away from the folk-tinged and somewhat clinical production of our home-produced debut. We wanted to be noisier, more chaotic, and just ‘more’ – leaning towards fuzz-drenched synths, OTT vocals, and more classically-flavoured string arrangements. The writing process was more collaborative and natural than before, which helped us to blend our tastes and become more of a ‘band’ – where before Tom was the mastermind,” says Stevenson.

here’s a taste of their previous album, the new one is quite a few steop up form the already rather fine previous five year old taste.