On with the year, and well, same as last year, who needs a damn editorial let alone a new one? Who needs what? No time for editorials, let the actual music do the actual walking and the actual talking. Exact same thing as last time once again, another five (or so) slices of music that have passed our way recently, five slices of music cherry picked for your delight and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of peaches and…
Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying swordfish out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Cake oil? Snake oil? Bake the oil, everything must go somewhere 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, we never should have done 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 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 music further down the page, 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 on these Five pages we reguarly post?
Here we go, five more slices of music that have recently come our way, the second five of a new year, this time we start in Norway with Poor Babi
1: Poor Bambi and something called This One Is For Free, something new from the band from Stavanger, Norway, something that just landed here in our inbox today, never heard of them before, something from their forthcoming debut album and “As an oil spill, Poor Bambi rushes out of the oil capital in Norway, Stavanger, polluting everything they encounter on the way with noise and controlled chaos. The hard-hitting trio delivers brutal, punk-infused, and intense noise rock, fronted by vocalist Sarah Hestness who brings both aggression and attitude”. Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
This One is For Free “is written as a homage to the British punk scene, the song is inspired by real-life events from the singer’s study years in London. Built around British slang, sneering vocals and nasty guitars, it’s the most playful and sarcastic track on the album…”
Poor Bambi’s upcoming debut album Skyscrapers Soaring, Yet We’re Drowning, is out on February 6th…. And here’s some more…
2: James Adrian Brown – Sidestep is the crisp new single from James Adrian Brown, taken from the debut album Forever Neon Lights, releasing on January 30th, 2026 via Castles In Space. More details via jamesadrianbrown.com
3: Maria BC – Listen to Marathon, from their forthcoming record Marathon out February 27th on Sacred Bones Records. Here’s a Link Tree, here the Bandcamp, we’ll dig some more information out in a moment, it is actually their third album, that is a rather dark lush piece of delicious music, it comes with a sense of determination, a desire, so they say, to make the most of things. More later, the days are too short and the painting light goes so quickly, no time for anything else….
4: Sleaford Mods Ft. Aldous Harding – Now this is a little different in terms of the Mods (I really really hope no one ever calls them that!), rather like this, it still sounds very very on it and very Sleaford Mods but it ain’t just about them this time…
“We knew Elitist G.O.A.T. was a goer as soon as the vocal went on. It’s something a bit different for us, but Andrew’s beat pulls it right back into Sleaford Mods. Aldous Harding is brilliant on it. That day in the studio felt special, like we’d really accomplished something. One of my favs on the album. The visual, directed by John Minton, is a feeding frenzy of images – vampires and sharks chomping through themes of infighting, herd mentality, privilege, fear and escapism. Get taken for a ride. Outright”.
Here’s the video, and I still didn’t get a TCR track for Christmas. The new Sleaford Mods record The Demise Of Planet X, is out on January 16th, here’s a link or two
Here, here’s another slice of the new album, they probably don’t need us sharing slices of their new album, but hey, these Sleaford Mods collaborations are sound good….
5: Haute & Freddy don’t need us sharing their music either but what’s in your heart and how good does this sound and how much do we need (pop) music like this right now? We are going to delight is sharing it (again)
“Dance The Pain Away is out now. Our debut album Big Disgrace is officially available to pre-order and (will be) all yours March 13th!”
Here’s some more…
Previously…
While we’re here, something from the previous Maria BC album
THE ORGAN 