It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes like this. well something like this. Cherry picking, there’s a million albums here demanding attention and with the best whatever in the world, there isn’t the time other than to pick the best of the cherries. Here’s some more words about more albums and those links and the clutter and the stutter and…
Pharaoh Overlord – Louhi (Rocket Recordings) – Pharaoh Overlord from Pori, Finland and a brooding beast of an album that, without needing to smash anyone around the head, demands from the start. Just two piece of music, Louhi part one and two, both just short of twenty minutes each, both very much two sides of the same heavyweight coin. ” More Pharaoh Overlord. Monotonous, hypnotic, spacious and this time with Hurdy Gurdy” said someone. This really is an album that broods, a couple of big slabs (and get back to your cities), two giant pieces, dense rather than heavy and when Aaron Turner starts vocalising/growing it never imposes; “In the world of Pharaoh Overlord, little is ever as it seems. This band is less comprised of tricksters or mischief makers than fearless obsessives whose musical instincts take twisted and wild pathways. Now, fresh from forays into Italo-disco and synth-pop, they have thrown another still more mighty statement of intent into the universe”.
“Whilst the character Louhi herself is most commonly known as the embodiment of a shape-shifting and evil witch queen in Finnish lore, this is characteristically not the case here, as the band – built around the nucleus of Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen – explain. “Actually the Louhi name is not inspired by the Finnish national epic, but by cryptocurrency. In Finnish language the bitcoin mining is called Louhinta. The same word is used for describing someone playing extremely heavy riffs on guitar, so it seemed like a good fit for us.” It is almost intimidating, almost. Darkly psychedelic, brooding, ritualistic, otherly, moody, one way traffic, intriguingly detailed as it slowly evolves rather than unfolds, painterly, always moving on, adding and well as subtracting, details you might miss if you’re not playing it loudly and letting it surround you. A beautifully dense beautifully detailed broodingly intense album, and yes, dare I say if The Doors were a brooding post-blackmetal band? No, that’s probably a step too fat. Excellent Hurdy Gurdy. Bandcamp / Rocket Recordings
Czonka – The Geography of Nowhere (Means of Production) – Says here that “Czonka are an instrumental drums, bass, synth duo from Washington DC area whose debut album, and remix album with guest artists, are available at czonka.bandcamp.com. Our music is a high-energy mix of art-punk and post-rock styles along the lines of Battles, Trans Am, Holy Fuck, and Can”. Actually it said “Czonka is…”, we’re not having any of that though, they’re a group, a duo, they are, they are, they are, actually they’re a little like Battles, not as complex, deliberately so rather than a feeling that they can’t do it like Battle, this feels deliberately (relatively) straight forward. Cronka are a rather rewarding instrumental band, positively repetitive, driving, focused, high-energy indeed, light and shade though, they have quiet in there alongside the loud. Actually do they have a bit of an AK/DK feel or is that just a lazy comparison? Bits and bites of krautrock flavours, motorik, synth rock film and television soundtrack influences. J. Robbins (Jawbox; Burning Airlines) recorded and mixed the album at Magpie Cage in Baltimore; Dan Coutant (Sun Room) mastered it and right now we’re lsitening to it in the Saturday pre-season friendly sunshine of Hackney. been listening to it rather a lot actually, it is an album that grows, that takes time to reveal a secret or two… Bandcamp
Wippy Bonstack – Tactile Demons – Wippy Bonstack is the very musical busy instrumental solo project of songwriter/composer Ben Coniguliaro (Sun Colored Chair, Wyxz, Filibuster Saloon, In-Dreamview). Tactile Demons is overloaded with note, most of them in the right order, it feels like several good cups of tea, that bit there is rather delightful,, actually the whole thin is a clever delight. Wippy Bonstack is clever, he doesn’t ever need to tell us this, fear not, this is not one of those show off prog instrumental album although that is exactly what it is, a very clever progressive instrumental album. Whippy is playing electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, bass, piano, analogue synth, keyboard, vibraphone, glockenspiel, percussion, there are all kinds of guests of bits of strings or percussion and if ever Zappa had ever made an album that wasn’t so cynically sneering and not very nice, it might have been a bit like this, this really is a breezy sunny delight. I can never listen to Zappa for too long, I’ve been listening to this rather a lot, when time allows I listen to Ben Coniguliaro’s bands rather a lot. Tactile Demons is a airy album, a colourfully breezy uplifting happy kind of album, a complex set of accessible tunes that never get predictable, all the required (sometimes jazzy) light and shade is here, the positive patterns, a touch of a Canterbury feel maybe? Just a really positive, really enjoyable, positively clever progressive instrumental album that is rather recommended.
Rotersand – Don’t Become The Thing You Hated (Metropolis) – Rotersand, a Hamburg based duo (comprised of Rascal Nikov and Krischan Jan-Eric Wesenberg) return with what we are told is a “long-awaited new album that is as much a cultural critique as it is a musical statement. In a world increasingly defined by division, alienation and existential anxiety, the duo cast a sharp eye on the psychological toll of our times and issue a warning. The message is clear: in fighting what we oppose, we risk becoming it ourselves”. Is the message clear? Not sure it is and anyway who wants clear messages? Some kind of upbeat electro-goth flavoured dance club Pet Shop Boys in black eyeliner off to the Slimelight to pose all night and then wave goodbye, bye bye bye. They’re positively poppy, they’re dark enough to hold the interest, they do what they do really well even if their whole world did fall apart last night. You’re not going to find too many surprising moves, there is enough here though, they’re gone a little Sparks go Goth now, no bad thing, actually it isn’t that poppy.
“The song lyrics address themes of disillusionment, anger and the fragile line between resistance and complicity. Indeed, the album title itself functions as a thesis statement that confronts listeners with a central dilemma of our era – how do we oppose injustice without replicating its methods or mindset? Rotersand offer no easy answers, but instead encourage a kind of inner vigilance; a conscious rejection of the very forces that threaten to erode empathy, nuance and individual integrity”.
This is a crisp album, a sharp sound, an album dark enough to more than satisfy should you’re mind be in the right place and your body willing to contact, Sexiness is Slow is a moody standing out to get all all tied up in, it does sound like an album made for a dark night in a dark club with dark friends and a dark dynamic, they do sounds like a darkly goth flavoured Pet Shop Boys, sounds good to me. Train is the perfect come down track at the end of it all, the closing piece adds so much, Train also pulls you back to All Tomorrows and let’s go round again (Train is only on the physical CD version, not on the digital download, Train feels like a vital part of the album to me). You have clued into the fact that we only rreally bother covering the things we’re positive about right? Bandcamp
Wolves – Self Titled (Ripcord) – Apparently this is a self-titled record by a band called Wolves, they’re probably not going to be selling many copies in West Bromwich then. “Wolves is the sound of unfinished business finally finding its voice” so they say. They, whoever they are, formed in 2016, the band brings together a tight-knit group of musicians with a long, tangled history. From the angular chaos of Finish Him! to the crushing riffs of Ashes of Maybelle, the jazzy metalcore of EFK to the politically charged aggression of Bludger, each project added a layer to what Wolves would become. Along the way, members also left their mark in bands like Hundred Year Old Man, Conjurer, ByTheRiver, xKings, Vnder a Crvmbling Moon, and The Grey. But Wolves feels like a culmination, a full-circle moment built on trust, scars, and a shared sense of unfinished business. After Bludger disbanded, Mark Howes (vocals/guitar) and Andy Price (bass/vocals) weren’t ready to stop. Joined by longtime friend Robbie Tewelde (drums), and soon after by dual guitarists Andy ‘Beard’ Rodger (guitar/vocals/sax) and Ryan Tyrrell (guitar/vocals), the band came together under the name When The Wolf Comes Home. Their debut EP, Gone Are The White Flags (Damage Limitation Records, 2017), was a raw, cathartic outburst, written fast, recorded with urgency, and soaked in sweat and intent”.
Right now Wolves sound like whey want to be digging a hole to the pit of your soul, yep, that is a Pulkas reference and that is the thing here, as good as all these bands like Wolves are, we’ve kind of heard it all so so many times before and well enough of that, Wolves sound committed, they sound angry and I guess, even if we have kind of heard it all before, we need new(er) bands likes this, we can’t just gather in dark corners whispering about Medulla Nocte or Iron Monkey is some retirement home for old metalheads, dig those new holes. No, hang on, that bit there’s something a little different, who let the the slightly discordant jazzhead in? Well someone did mention jazzy metalcore up there, it is mostly intense screaming metal though, it is relentless, perpetual, it probably won’t keep the country clean? Screaming metalcore hardcore whatevercore, what are we to call it as this blistering hardcore crossover metal thing? Who cares how we call it or for that matter how anyone calls it and apparently they have a a reputation for “chaotic, no-holds-barred performances marked by flailing limbs, flying guitars, and more than a little blood”.
New Liver, Same Eagle starts out those seven minutes it takes up on the album with some reflective colour, some post something or other kind of musical progression, it does sound like a set of rather cathartic outbursts, the whole album I mean, not just that one track. Anger is an energy, it is an urgently good album and it it is the sound of unfinished business finally finding its voice then it kind of sounds like then they need to build on this good bit of business, they need to run with this excellent slab of anger and take it to that list of unsavoury names they call out. A Stolen Horse is a genuine standout and something that really wants to be different, hey this is starting to really grow – “Plans to record a debut album stalled as the world ground to a halt. Families grew. Life got real. But in early 2021, Wolves returned – older, more focused, and determined to craft something heavier, sharper, and more deliberate. The result is Self Titled: a ten-track maelstrom of Every Time I Die-style swagger, atmospheric post-metal vastness, Dillinger-grade technicality, and Poison The Well-level emotion. Wolves shift gears effortlessly, from twisted, discordant riffing to thunderous, fist-in-the-air anthems and they do it with remarkable control and finesse. Take Reformed (Try Love), for example: a track that showcases their ability to balance chaos and clarity without losing any momentum” and well yes, that was lazy of me to cut and copy that bit, have you seen out inbox? Have you seen the mountain, there’s a Grateful Dead triple album waiting over there for gawd sake, this damn pile of demands never ends.
Wolves have let loose a brutal blistering hardcore metalcore whatever-you-want-to-call-it-core album here, a forward looking uncompromising album, an angry album, an album, that if you let it, if you give it time, reveals itself as something that sands out a little from the crowd, a little more than just another band digging a a hole to the pit of your soul then, an impressive album that isn’t as obvious as you might think on first encounter…
Intercourse – How I Fell In Love With The Void (Brutal Panda) – Connecticut’s self-deprecating noise rock entity Intercourse are set to deliver their crushing new full-length, How I Fell In Love With The Void, on September 12th via Brutal Panda Records (nothing fierce we trust). is that the album artwork? It would put an extra slant on things. “Music for aliens, made by mutants”. Intercourse formed in 2013 and have, so they say, “been annoying people ever since”. Hang on, my cup of tea is brewing, doesn’t sound that alien to me here in the Hackney bunker.
“With the lofty (or pointless, depending on who you ask) goal of ditching the pretension of noise rock and fusing it with the immediacy of hardcore they’ve managed to release a record per year since 2014. The 2023-released Halo Castration Institute helped the band reach a new level of notoriety with positive reviews across the board. With the release of a last year’s EP Egyptian Democracy, the band is sure to become the high watermark for annoying adults who dress like they’re seventeen and simply will not quit”
Preaching something about the sex life of insects? I never really found noise rock pretentious, maybe the chin strokers who score points over it though, yes, they arer annoyingly pretentious and yes, if this annoys them then count me in – “oh but I saw June of 44 before you did, you know nothing about anything”.
I know nothing about Intercourse, well I doa little bit, I just wanted to say that, I know nothing about this band, I know my tea is stewing and he’s been gazed into the the abyss for so long and you think you’re better than me and yes, I like Intercourse (capital I) and I really did once see the Pistols down the ‘undred Club, the Rotten ones, there is no other version and I am kind of stalling here for what is there to say about this album other than it is screamingly intense and the lyrics are, well look at those song titles and yes it is, to quote Neil Diamond, a beautiful noise coming up from the streets. It would be very easy to fall in love with their void (where did I put my cup of tea?) and who is that stranger in his mirror and if that was the cover art it would surely be a little disturbing but then the whole experience is.
“For fans of Unsane, Deadguy, Eyes, Cherubs, Jesus Lizard, Great Falls, Chat Pile, Couch Slut, Coalesce…” reads the press release, it is relentlessly intense, it is straight in for your throat, it is annoyingly good, and now my tea really has gone cold. That’s a big riff, something to do with Running A Cemetery Without A License and I can’t help but wonder what actually is in the hedgerow and should we be alarmed about it? Hey look, Intercourse have made a hardcore noise rock album, an unpretentiously brutal one for serious hardcore heads (the unpretentious ones) who really can’t help but wonder. It is brutally noisy, it is damn good, the lyrics are probably not very wholesome, the band certainly are and my work is done here for today. Time for a tea break, it really really is a beautiful noise, catch that riff right there, that one, the one that just screamed past and do please look after those fingernails if you’re gonna climb their walls…
Bandcamp / Linktree / Brutal Panda /
Oh look, those high fiving MFs Local H are on Brutal Panda, they’ve not crossed our path in years, good to see thety still exist…
Back in 1996 and Def Jam and yes, we have been around long enough to have covered this when this first came out…
THE ORGAN 