I suppose that yet again you’re going to require some kind of editorial introduction to this page? You always do, why is that? Next you’ll be demanding we proof read the damn thing or telling us we keep repeating things, here’s some more album reviews, here’s another band called Scions…

Gut Model – Spulctures (EXAG) – Gut Model are from Brussels, Belgium, there’s four of them, Paul Brynaert, Leonard Thiébaut, Lucas Roger, Simon François, the album came out back in April, it finally made it to us a few days back when an encounter with Why The Eye took us in their direction (rather looks like we need to go check out more of the Exag roster). Gut Model have this rather urgent rather infectious rather uplifting new wave poppy side of Devo thing going on, they kind of boing and bounce, they get a little sharp at times, just then they sounded a little Human League flavoured, a garage Human League maybe? All of these things are good things. And there is a picture of course, and people talking about lust in that mainland European way. Some of it is musically unhinged, Sabre Tooth for instance, that bit that sounds like a big cat walking on the piano keyboard, they do have a two minute song called Awkward, you’ve got to like their awkward bits Awkward sounds like The Fall playing Kraftwerk, well no,not really, but something kind of like that, anyone remember Yip-Yip? Gut Model kind of sound like you’d expect a band from Belgium to sound, but then does anyone have any idea what a band from Belgium would sound like? The is excellent and En live, Gut Model fait le grand écart entre garage poisseux et clubbing synthétique. Déversant le flot de compositions post punk écrites à dix mains et…     

Bandcamp

Nice Biscuit – SOS (Bad Vibrations) – The Brisbane-based psych/garage-rock band Nice Biscuit will release their long-awaited second album SOS on October 4th via Bad Vibrations (UK) and Greenway Records/Reverberation Appreciation Society (US) so says the press release. Well yes I’ll give you the psych element, not really hearing a garage rock band though, far far from it, this sounds like incredibly creamy, highly polished intricately produced psychedelic pop, some of it very good 60s/70s flavoured psychedelic pop but you don’t make music like this with your amps standing on an oil stained floor of a garage, this is not plug it is and let’s get going garage rock, this is a difference beast, a highly polished studio production, bit of smooth jazz, 70s disco, world music in there with a more than healthy psychedelic blend akk of thier own , no bad thing… 

Some of it is beautifully hypnotic, soothing, delicious vocals from front women Billie Star and Grace Cuell, this is a calm creamy relaxing sunny album. The band tell us that “sometimes we feel hopeful and grateful, pessimistic and desolate, mournful and angry, sometimes we feel that love can solve it all and sometimes we just become overwhelmed and apathetic about everything” and that is kind of how I feel about this album, it really is an album for hopeful days when you do think choosing love can solve everything, most of the time these days I feel kind of angry, cynical, a nice biscuit might help, they do have moments that start to grab. It isn’t immediate and these days we do want these things to be so immediate, to happen right away, there is time for a pop art fifteen minutes in 2024. Give it time, Nice Biscuit are a long game kind of band and don’t let me give you the idea any of this is in some way throwaway, pop art is high art and this album has depth, and they can rock, Rain gets a truck on in a stylish manner, yes, this is good…       

Bandcamp

Sealionwoman – Nothing Will Grow in the Soil (The state51 Conspiracy Ltd) – And I did say only the other day, “the rather delicious two headed thing that is Sealionwoman have a new album on the way”, we were telling of “a rather beautiful first taste (our first taste) of that and a rather beautiful thing called Two Sisters, a track from their then forthcoming second album, Nothing Will Grow In The Soil. The new album came out back on Friday 13th September, and we said at that time “it is a rather dark, rather beautiful first taste, a thrilling first taste that really does drag you in…”.

Thing is, Two Sisters is the first track of a very (very) slow moving album, there’s is a very rich, hardly moving rather moving sound but you really so have to be in the right frame of mind for what could be dangerously close to a dirge, and if truth be honestly told I have been back into it quite a few times over the last three or four weeks, I have said to myself let’s leave it ’till tomorrow, it probably is just my black mood. I mean they were glorious last time we saw them with Gazelle Twin last year, that gig was something special – ORGAN THING: Gazelle Twin and Sealionwoman at London’s Bush Hall – if this was just a gig then it was a very special one, but it wasn’t just a gig was it, this was something more…

I mean she does have such a rich voice, just that dark chocolatey voice, just the voice and the low end double bass drones and the almost stillness of it all (and there’s the cup of tea I made a couple of hours ago, tea bag still in it, stewed and cold and I do keep using that blue photo of them (that I took last year) because it is how that sound, all rich washes of not too obvious colour in the darkness of it all and they’re playing in a church just down the road from us tonight and I bet it will be quietly magnificent and this album and their sound is so so rich, so quietly rich and their river is slowly slowly flowing, feel it sweling, hear it creeping and and and and…

It is beautiful, slow, doomy, dark, it is rich and in small tastes or live rooms it is wonderful and charcoal is deliciously rewarding whe nyou really get into it, when you really let it have the lead in the way it does, when you just go with it and let the marks flow and don’t fight it or try to control it, whe nyou work with it rather than trying to make it work for you, if you stick with it then charcoal can take you to places a 6b pencil never will. Are they torch songs, should we call them torch songs.

Bracken is beautiful, it is where they lighten up a little for a final song, a tender tale, a sweat tender tale, a song that allows you to breath at the end of it all, a still very slow moving darkly coloured folk song sung under the old yew tree, it is a wonderful ending that does pull you back to it all and Charcoal, when you let it, does have a (dangerous) edge to it and did I say it was dangerously close to become a dirge? What a stupid thing to say and it does pull you in and Wise Woman does stand tall

And It Rides A Horse is willing to take you to all kinds of places you never really notice if you let it and really, if you let the whole album take you with it, if you stop for a moment, like you would when you’re in a live room with them, if you jsut stop and let the glad life they have lived in then you probably could not wish for a better time in their almost silent way and Braken really really is beautiful, a beautifully sweat and tender tale from under that old yew tree. The point is, you have to give it time, time and proper care and attention… Braken really is a beautiful ending, something very special..

Bandcamp / Facebook

TR/ST – Performance (Dais Records) – “TR/ST is the musical project of producer, singer, and artist Robert Alfons. Weaving an entirely unique sonic tapestry, Alfons has been captivating audiences with his dynamic vocals, emotive lyrics, and late night sensuality for over a decade now. TR/ST will release his new album Performance on September 13th via Dais Records, his first full-length for the label. Performance sinks even further into the nasty synth-pop psychodrama that Alfons has pioneered and, finally, perfected across his evolution” – that’s what the press release said, that’s the basic information, and the label’s people did ask politely several times if we could review it and I have had it running in here again for a good few hours now. Nothing is really registering, nothing is exciting these ears, it leaves me as cold and unengaged as LCD Soundsystem or the recently encountered Phoenix do, and hey, lots of people insist both those bands are wonderful, if very slick slightly left field synth driven pop-rock is your thing then hey, we passed it on. Clowned stood out, hey, it is;nt you, it really is me. Here’s the Bandcamp

And the Dog Faced Hermans fly by and remind you….

Dog Faced Hermans – Those Deep Buds Rebalanced & Remastered 2024 (Phoenix Music) – An album from 1994 remastred and reissued, I think we first crossed paths with them when they sent in a copy of their excellent debut single Unbend back in the late 80s. And they fly by and remind you just how good Human Spark was and still is (and how we should have covered them much much more back there). Don’t take my word for it, take this person’s, “Truly a classic from 1994, this last studio album from the Hermans is their masterpiece. From the propulsive, off-kilter hooks and grooves of Blessed Are The Follies, to the flamenco-influenced noise rock of Volkswagen and the disturbing reliving of the My Lai Massacre of Vietnam in Calley, this album brims with energy and intelligence. For all the glorious noisiness, singer/trumpeter, Marion Coutts never shouts, and at times sings in hushed, evocative tones which break through the mix very nicely. All the players are in top form here, and there isn’t a weak track on the album. As usual, unorthodox instrumentation and an unlikely combination of folk, free jazz and post-punk elements fuse to form a signature sound unlike any other band before or since”. 

And get out, get out, get out, this is my place of business. Were they ahead of their time? Were they just too musically intimidating back there? They were (and are) so damn good and this album from 1994 just got reworded and reissued this month some thirty years on and it still sound urgent, it still sounds fresh, it still kind of sounds like they’re falling upstairs, it is at times a vicious, and yes, delivered with smart passion, they do take you on detours. I must admit I thought they were Dutch for a while back there, their letters always came from Amsterdam  – “Dog Faced Hermans formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1986, and later moved to Amsterdam. The band was closely associated with The Ex. A mix of energetic post punk, African music, No Wave, Free Jazz and improvisation. They grew out the scene of angular noisy guitar bands in the UK. They disbanded in 1995, with members moving on to projects including Rhythm Activism, The Ex, Kletka Red, Two Pin Din”.   

Bandcamp

One more….

Mile Marker Zero – Coming of Age (self release) – Third album from the New Haven, Connecticut band, they tell us they’re a prog rock band, they’re not really, not properly progressive, not pushing the envelope, not challenging or experiments or daring to go down new roads. What Mile Marker Zero are is a rather good mix of slick clean cut North American hard rock and nights with friends and summers that will never end, they’re modern neo prog politeness jousting with something that nods towards the power of bands like Kansas, Boston or Styx with and now and again, a keyboard line or something that could have fallen off the back of an early Marillion album. Truth is I love slightly prog flavoured American hard rock, I love a Kansas power ballad or when Styx really let go, I love the Speedwagon, no disrespecting the REO around here, of course others in here totally diagree, I am right though and there goes a bit that sounds a lot like Starcastle or Lone Star (that is a good thing). They sound like they should be on a Richard Linklater soundtrack, they sound like they should be played on the the Eight track player of a Trans Am, actually now they sound like they should be on the Breakfast Club soundtrack and take care to hide yourself and throw away the key, actually this is an excellent album, you’re probably not going to agree but then you’re nor in control of this review and those keyboard details are just in the right place along with those slick drums and those ‘perfect’ guitar licks. There are times when they get a little Comsat Angels, a little late 80s Rush, the Comsat Angels reference was a compliment by the way, the late 80s Rush one maybe not so much. It is all very very slick, very North American, there are others in here complaining loudly and talking of cheese and AOR and demanding something awkward with lots of time changes and that is now what you are going to get here… (sw)

Bandcamp / Website