More more more. More albums, shall we dance around it all again, Did we say that last time? And the time before? Where were we? Hey, too many albums not enough time, and (some of) these things do demand proper time and anyway, and, and then, and the Art Car Boot Fair, and you do know we only have time for the good ones don’t you? Well most of the time, then again sometimes, well sometimes. And you do know no one reads the editorial bit at the top, well why would they? Here’s some more albums, there are so many, the one’s that weren’t delt with yesterday are now all lost underneath the ones that arrived today and that rather good album that landed here last week is burried way down in the mountain with all the others that are demanding time and attention…

The Male Pattern – I Was Shot in the Heart! – Well now, it could be a funny thing, it probably is in reality rather sad, it is kind of compelling, a book you can’t put down, it is life, well hopefully not yours or mine; “I Was Shot in the Heart! tells the story of an unnamed suburban dad as he navigates his acrimonious divorce, spends too much time watching TV and on the computer, gets addicted to pills, loses his job as a mortgage broker, shoots and kills a small-time drug dealer, finds God, and commits suicide by cop at a 24/7 Stop and Shop in White Plains, NY” It is kind of like watching the television (the whole world window), or maybe scrolling through life on the internet and getting away with drinking beer at lunch (I counted four IPAs at least) and yes it is rather like Ween or a very laid back Neil Young or maybe more Bruce Springsteen’s look at life and no, tell me he didn’t watch Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear while cranked! Watching Clarkson can’t be good for anyone at anytime (I detest the idea of anyone anywhere in the USA even knowing who he is!) and anyway, stick ’em up, reach for the sky. Actually there really is something about this album, it is of course far from beautiful but it almost is beautifully real, a portrait of life, of every guy ever and being free to make the same mistakes again. “How could something so sad be so beautiful” he sings, he is right… 

“The songs are character-driven and satirical. I drew on the work of Terry Allen and Randy Newman, while combining disparate influences like the narrative craft of a Bruce Springsteen ballad and the prurience and silliness of Ween” so says Will Schwartz, for this is the rather excellent work of Will…     

“I started writing these songs after spending about a decade developing my fiction, both in workshops as a graduate student and then as a university teacher, and on my own. There is a pressure, perhaps self-enforced, in the workshop model, to develop work that appeals to the people around you, aesthetically and morally, in the most immediate way possible. I had the feeling that most writing in this environment becomes an advertisement for yourself and your virtues. There is importance and beauty in writing characters and stories that are filled with the good you wish to see in the real world, but sitting around a table of like-minded individuals doesn’t always leave a lot of room for narrative art that is ugly and weird. The story I’m telling is ugly and weird. It’s mean-spirited, it makes fun of its characters, it’s violent, and I go for cheap laughs. The songs that emerged for this project, the first I’ve written in over a decade, probably speak to an urge to make art like that, which I’ve likely repressed in my fiction writing for polite academia and peer-to-peer workshopping….”   

And if only he had got a break and that job doing the security and that guy hadn’t copped such an attitude and every time we log on it really like Vietnam. This is an excellent album, these are fine songs, tales, Trumpian Americana, and that sword was a real red flag. It is a book, it is something you probably should take the time to checkout (rather than turning the television on). It is a beautiful album even if the horn broke and he couldn’t turn it off and….   Bandcamp

Coyote Man – Prosthetic Memories – A nice set of (mostly) instrumetal metal tunes (very much tunes, enjoyable ones, there is a little bit of a spoken word element to end things), a nice set of powerful tunes from the powerful Chicago three piece – “Our aim is to make the listener more susceptible to the complexities of their own feelings and breathe new life into the established paradigms of metal music” – Not sure how much new life they’re breathing into anything, they are rather stylish though, refined. At times they are that cinematic journey of hope, conflict, introspection and maybe even triumph they talk of. Bits of colourful groove, power and yes, dynamic intensity; they need to make it intense to make it work, never brutal though, never agressive, they don’t need that, Coyote man are a little more intelligent than that. A more interesting Russian Circles with the power of Mastodon and a healthy hint of progressive colour… Bandcamp / Facebook

Unstoppable Sweeties Show – USS R USS – Musically and lyrically totally hatstand as well as rather secretive, Liverpool maximalists Unstoppable Sweeties Show have a new album (that they don’t appear to want to tell anyone about). They are rather insane, at times insanely good, excentrically so. A five-piece self described avant-garde punk slash jazz band, she sounds like she’s been eating banana moons or the wrong cereal with too much sugar on it, they could indeed be the nation’s foremost practitioners of operatic, saxophone-led, light-hearted speed-prog, but then they probably are in a field of one, standing on the inside looking on the inside and spending Christmas with who? They probably have poisoned electrick heads, they probably know a wizard of twiddly or two, they’re probably laughing and crying at the same time, that and almost going off and things and her dog is almost certainly a cat, a cat that’s always falling up the stairs and landing properly on her feet and those saxophone noises are rather good, rather goose (I typed goose rather than good, I rather liked it, Unstoppable Sweeties Show are rather goose). She does like to scream, she is a rather noisy creature, she might be too much at times, then again there might be times when you want more more more of her. And someone has eaten all the what? Gong, Buntychunks, touches of early Cardiacs and a spick and span kitchen where, at breakfast time she has her lunch, they are rather good… Bandcamp

S.C.R.A.M – Coma Filament – Been listening to this album for a good few days now, it goes on in the mornings and thought almost immediately starts to turn to other things; to painting, a quick listen to the news, the Test Match, this and that and there the album is just doing whatever it is doing. It has kind of been quietly burbling and frothing and moving along at a pace that’s all to itself for hours, almost lost in a dark corner and then I realise it had been on all day like some kind of lifeform in the background not wanting to be disturbed, not wanting to impose, just quietly doing whatever it is it wants (or needs) to do without attracting too much attention.   

The Oakland, California-based synthwave whatever it is, a band? A person? Someone or something going by the name of S.C.R.A.M. (Safety Control Rod Axe Man) with his (or their) latest output, the “ambient sci-fi horror-inspired Coma Filament”, a full-length album that’s apparently due for release on the Fall Equinox to use the old English term  for the Autumn that American’s still employ (and we no longer do over here). It is a mostly instrumental album of work, occasionally some spoken work will sneak in or a strangely-tongued voice singing Something that sounds a touch alien (or maybe demonic) Hang on, let’s pay attention to the press release:

“Formed in the isolation of the 2020 Covid lockdowns, S.C.R.A.M. is the solo project of Pranjal Tiwari. Known for his work with the long-running cult doom metal band Cardinal Wyrm, Finnish-language hardcore band Ransu’s Revenge, psychotropic techno outfit Warday, and more. Tiwari utilises this project to create cinematic, experimental, ambient, electronic, and heavily instrumental passages, focusing tension and negative space to create immersive auras. With four albums, an EP, and a split record with Gridfailure, the outfit’s fifth album arrives with Coma Filament….” 

Okay, well it does sound like some bloke in his studio, isolated, just him and his music that has turned into some kind of dark mass of a blob that is in the process of taking him his mind and his body over, something that will eventually become him, consume him, replace him and it has been the only album I’ve played (for hours at a time) while I’ve been painting and the cricket has been on the radio, while the news has come and gone along with the first rain for months, I did put it on late this morning and it is now dark and well past 8.30pm and it still on, it has been playing for hours now just as it did yesterday

We are talking dark sometimes foreboding sci-fi/horror soundtrack, there are some rather tasty synth sounds, there is that underlying sense of brooding and existential terror that you let creep up on you, it does have a David Lynch touch or two and certainly a John Carpenter feel and you kind of know that when the people from his other bands go to find out where  Pranjal Tiwari has got to it will be too late and this collection of pieces of music (with titles like Seven Mansions of the Black Tortoise or Derelict Spacecraft) will have consumed him completely…  Bandcamp

30,000 Monkies – Super Rebound (FVN Kult Rekords) – I don’t think there’s 30,000 of them like there never was 10,000 maniacs but there is enough of them to make a rather big noise, it certainly sounds like there’s more than four of them: “For more than a decade, the Beringen quartet have occupied a unique corner of the European underground. Emerging from the Belgian noise-rock scene, 30,000 Monkies built their reputation through a series of increasingly adventurous releases that balanced cathartic chaos with an unmistakable sense of fun. From the dizzying riff storms of Somewhere Over The Painbow to the manic experimentation of I Ate Myself To Grow Twice As Big and Honesty Integrity Friendship Passion, the band have consistently refused to follow conventional paths.,,,”

Not sure about that sense of fun that is supposed to be here, Super Rebound does sound intensely rewarding though and not without a less obvious colour or two once you get into the meat of things. Oh, the advance listening promo thing has decided the album has been listened to too many times, that’s not fun, are we only allowed to listen three or four times before we commit ourselves to a review? Well it was sounding like it was full of optimism and musical adventure when most alt.noise and hardcore really isn’t, they sounded like they wanted to be different, at times a locked-on relentlessness there jousting with the mostly screaming vocalist who for once really didn’t annoy in that way screaming hardcore vocalists can. It does sound like “an action packed record with an unsound hero at the wheel” but they stopped me listening too many times and they only want to let you hear two tracks on their Bandcamp page at the moment even though the album was released a couple of weeks ago now (bit like trying to buy a new shirt but the shop will only show you one sleeve of said garment), those two tracks are on the heavier side of their colourful light and shade and that I’m afraid is where this review has to end, on to the next one, this is a nonstop operation. Do like the way that title track hangs there in the air repeating itslelf while the pressure to change gear builds….   Bandcamp    

And while we’re here, Zzebra…

Zzebra were “a British fusion and afro-prog / high-life band, active in the early to mid-1970s. Former IF members Dave Quincy and Terry Smith, as well as Loughty Amao (who had worked with former band members of Ginger Baker’s Air Force), met at Ronnie Scott’s Club, and decided to form a band. At a recording session they met John McCoy and Liam Genockey, and an ad in Melody Maker brought in Gus Eadon, and the band began playing as Zzebra in December 1973, releasing their first album the following year….”