Shall we write a new editorial? Oh the endless demand and who needs a damn editorial? No time for editorials, let the actual music do the actual walking and the actual talking. Exact same thing again, another five (or so) slices of music that have passed our way recently and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of oranges and here comes the editorial. Don’t be flippant she said, how could it ever be flippant? I can’t remember why she said that now, in one ear, out the other, we have a bad attitude here apparently, no respect for those who work in the music industry, well no poop Sherlock, have you only just worked that one out?

Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? 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 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, skip this bit, 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 what’s Wordsworth? Just the basic facts and links and those sounds (and visuals), that’s surely all you need from us?

Here we go, five more slices of music that have recently come our way, this time we start in, well where are Squid actually from? English art rock so we’re constantly reminded…

1: Squid – Cowards  is the third album by the English art rock quintet Squid, out this Friday on Warp Records. The album is about evil, we’ve all been there. Here’s a bag of links

2: Use Knife – “Freedom, Asshole is the first single from the upcoming album État Coupable (March 28). It’s a gut-wrenching piece of raw electronica featuring live drums by Spooky-J from Nihiloxica. It’s the only track on the album not to focus on Saif Al-Qaissy’s percussion. Pushed by Stef Heeren and Kwinten Mordijck’s distorted synth beat, tape drones and extreme vocal fx, Al-Qaissy uses the opportunity to deploy his most barbed vocal performance of the album. Improvising from a lyric he wrote, he grapples with the privileged Western mindset directly, offering a distorted truth: no one is free until we are all free. Belgian multidisciplinary artist Youniss Ahamad, a longtime collaborator of the project and creator of the band’s live visuals, has shared a video that embodies unease through distorted images, a black-and-white palette, and abstract bird loops”. Here’s some links

“For me ‘Freedom, Asshole’ is about fighting for freedom even when everything seems bleak.” – Youniss Ahamad

And here’s some more from that new Squid album and I couldn’t eat another thing, did we share this already? Not sure if I’m off the Squid fence yet? Not sure if Crispy skin is a thing to crave and what of the price of dish of fish anyway? Show me around, show me around show me around and I’m sure Frank’s a really nice guy. Here’s a bag of links, sometime I feel like nothing more than an unpaid unthanked part of the marketing plan. Enough of this, off to listen to Super Ready, I have no idea who Frank is? Maybe The Musical Box? Something that isn’t part of anyone’s marketing plan and it hardly seems to matter now, of the kingdom beyond the skies. Hang on some marketing man want me to give up next Monday afternoon to go interview someone about their new album, here it comes again, all part of your advertsing scheme. I’ve been waiting here for so long, it doesn’t seem to matter now, you stand there with your fixed expression, here’s that second slice of Squid….

3: Bandler Ching – Ketsune is taken from Bandler Ching’s new album Mercurial, which will be released via Sdban Ultra. Visualizer by Benoit Vangeel, the band are from Brussels, Belgium, we’re listening to it in East London but you knew that already and you know we cherry pick and one swallow doesn’t make a summer and here’s that Bandler Ching swallow

“Following previously released singles ‘Mochi’ and ‘Époustouflant’, Bandler Ching serves us the third and final single leading up towards new album Mercurial. While those earlier singles showed the more up-tempo side of this new body of work, new single Ketsune is a striking example of the duality that lies within the music of the Brussels three piece”.

Here’s more on the album via Bandcamp, “Hailing from Brussels, Bandler Ching is a creation of musical ideas from composer and saxophonist Ambroos De Schepper. Flawlessly blending contemporary jazz, electronics, hip-hop, noise and global beats, the sound is based around the freedom of expression and improvisation and performed with dazzling conviction”.  The album is out of February 21st…

4: Momma – I Want You (Fever) is the new single from Momma’s ‪upcoming album, Welcome to My Blue Sky – out April 4th, 2025, there’s something comfortably 90s about it, sometimes in all the noise, the comfort of some 90s alt pop rock is enough for a moment or two..

The Momma album is out in April, maybe the sun will be out by then? I mean they sound like dozens of bands that has fifteen minutes late in the last century, albums on Sub Pop and hyped gigs in Camden and adverts placed in Organ and

5: Naxatras – The Greek progressive psychedelic quartet have a new album, V, out on 28th February via Evening Star Records a little more here and far more here on Bandcamp. The band have just released a video for new single Numenia, which they describe as “an Anatolian rock anthem, a neo-psychedelic pagan chant to the Moon Goddess.”

And a little more here as well…

And,,,

And while we’re here, there is something new from Sparks, doing things their own way as always. A piece taken from the new album MAD! Coming soon on Transgressive Records. neat video, Director: Ambar Navarro

And for those who do do the Spotify thing, the building of the ever evolving February Organ playist is now under way, it will build throughout the month, just like it did last month and the one before that…