The Fat Angel Sings

Black Country, New Road barely waited a year after putting out their acclaimed debut, For the first time, to follow it with Ants From Up There. Just ahead of its release, singer/guitarist Isaac Wood left the band, citing mental health issues, and while his loss will certainly be keenly felt going forward, his presumably final statement with the band is a glorious whirlwind, 58 minutes of ambitious, anthemic art rock and chamber pop that captures your heart and doesn’t let go. “I’ve kind of accepted that this might be the best thing that I’m ever part of for the rest of my life,” bassist Tyler Hyde says. “And that’s fine.”

Black Country, New Road‘s sound is bold and progressive, unconcerned with imitation or revivalism. The six-piece paint classical and jazz instrumentation on a deconstructed rock canvas, layering atop nuanced lyricism that conveys sharp narratives and achingly-sincere emotions.

It’s a heady combination, but one that makes a riveting antidote to their post-punk peers’ seemingly-endless obsession with aping genres that lived and died 40 years ago. It’s hard to overstate just how good “Ants From Up There” is. It’s not quite Black Country, New Road’s masterpiece, as the band are too young and raw for it to be that perfect. However, it’s tough to find much fault with it. The sprawling nature of the tracks, especially the final two, makes for staggeringly compelling listening.

The disregard for conventional structure and instrumentation, combined with the adroit, sincere lyrics, makes “Ants From Up There” one of the richest and most emotionally-honest albums released by a young British band for quite some time. In a world that seems content to reanimate the past perpetually, Black Country, New Road are daring to dream up something different.

Leeds’ Yard Act are one of the UK’s most hotly-tipped acts right now. The sudden rise of Yard Act during the pandemic isn’t something I think anybody could have expected. In less than three years, a band of anti-capitalist, sonic experimentalists became major label darlings during a time when the live music industry was nonexistent. On their debut full-length “The Overload”, they’ve managed to craft a distinct sound that’s refreshing enough that any comparison sounds a little farfetched but also recalls most eras of post-punk’s history at one point or another.

Go on the band…From: Leeds, UK, For fans of: Do Nothing, John Cooper Clarke
Yard Act will have you in stitches with their fiercely humorous lyricism which they couple with the catchiest post-punk grooves around.
You’re going to love them: “We’re gonna knock through the kitchen wall though, even though it is a lovely bit of Tudor”, Yard Act frontman James Smith stabs on one of 2020’s greatest indie singles ‘Fixer Upper’, it’s comedic genius as he assumes the role of a proud two homeowner disgruntled with the world around him. Going by the incisive and equally impacting other airings so far, this band are reinvigorating modern post-punk with a much-needed sense of humour.

The outlandish storytelling and deadpan delivery frontman James Smith transforms Yard Act from just another indie band to exciting propositions. Songs like “Fixer Upper”, “Peanuts” and “The Trapper’s Pelts” are satirical takes of life in West Yorkshire, neoliberalism, and a fictional obituary to a bloke called Graeme, all tightly delivered over unrelenting guitars and bass lines.

Many of the current successful indie rock and post-punk bands are still harkening back to the genre’s period of mainstream success in the 2000s. Yard Act definitely occupy a similar place in the genre to Black Country, New Road, Mush, or Black Midi in keeping the “post” in post-punk going through rampant experimentalism. However, Yard Act have songs that are more accessible to a mainstream audience than much of that scene.

Bill Ryder-Jones of The Coral and Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Working Men’s Club) have both produced Yard Act tracks released this year, so they’re in very good hands.

The Brattleboro, Vermont trio Thus Love stand together, a bond cemented by their experience as outsiders looking in. For Thus Love, DIY is an ethos that reflects not only their musical vision but their very existence as three self-identifying trans artists. From the band’s inception, Echo Mars (she/her) , Lu Racine (he/him) and Nathaniel van Osdol (they/them) have lived together under the same roof, designed and produced their own merch, and created their own recording studio from scratch.

The band was just starting to regularly headline renowned local venue The Stone Church when everything came to a screeching halt. Rather than idly wait, the band decided to take their future in their own hands. Armed with nothing but YouTube videos and her innate curiosity, Mars constructed a makeshift studio in their apartment, recording during odd hours when their next-door neighbours were out and about.

Their resulting debut, “Memorial”, is a stunningly accomplished album. The hallmarks will be unmistakable to anyone who has ever obsessed over classic LPs from indie and post-punk’s progenitors—everything from the chiming, Marr -esque guitars on opener “ Repitioner ” to the pugnacious rhythmic punch on lead single “ In Tandem ”. But even more impressive and exciting is how Thus Love manage to tap into this celebrated lineage to find their own unique voice and tell their own story. Ultimately, despite the many difficulties and setbacks, the story of Thus Love and “Memorial” is one of triumph. Of seeking meaning in struggle. Of embracing community and love. Of finding joy in rebirth.

For fans of Dry Cleaning, Bambara, Ought, Television, The Church, Echo and the Bunnymen.

Guided By Voices‘ “Crystal Nuns Cathedral” is a startling late-career classic that brings back the welcome string arrangements from the last record and flaunts some of the most uplifting, imaginative rock songs of recent memory. Robert Pollard raises the stakes yet again with a hi-fi indie rock record for the ages and one of Pollard’s finest works. Here in-house producer Travis Harrison (known as the sixth member of Guided by Voices and now the equivalent of a George Martin for the band) delivers the most cultivated production possible, the latest iteration of the band sounding like an arena-tested live institution of the highest order.

The mighty Guided by Voices are set to unleash upon the world their 35th and quite possibly…BEST album, “Crystal Nuns Cathedral” . How do they do it you might ask? Well we don’t know how they do it, but we certainly do know WHY they do it. They do it because quite honestly we NEED them to do it. The world needs The Rock, and we need loud guitars, we need anthemic songs, we need a reason to raise a rock fist in the air and give a “Hell Yeah”! On “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, the band delivers all of this and so much more.

On “It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!” slick production moves such as the fade-in to “Black and White Eyes in a Prism” and the underwater static of guitar riffs on “The Bell Gets out of the Way” perfectly wedded a hi-fi sound with a lo-fi ethos. This same mindset saturates the solid rock edifice of “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”. It’s an album indie fans won’t sleep through. Albeit brief, with “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, Pollard and co. have struck gold once again, delivering a hi-fi record that proves itself to be just as virtuosic and inventive as any indie rock album of recent memory.

This record is a statement, a challenge, a monument, a call to arms. Top this one if you can, this is the new benchmark. Who will best it? Who will try? Listen to “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, and report back to us. We will be eagerly waiting. 

released March 4th, 2022

All songs written by Robert Pollard, Needmore Songs (BMI)
Produced by Travis Harrison
GBV: Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr., Mark Shue, Kevin March

On their stellar debut, “The Great Regression”, Brighton’s five-piece DITZ come out hard and dark. They deliver an intense and sonically invigorating assault on the superficial politeness that masks systemic inequality while exploring the elements of personhood that cast some from the mainstream.

There’s an ominous build to these songs that results in each of them progressively morphing into pummelling, pounding, riffy anthems – an indomitable & incendiary force.

We’ve worshipped at the Ditz altar for a few years (they came together in Brighton in 2015), through their various line-up changes & developments in sound but 2022 finally delivered their debut album…& what a fucking incredible achievement it is!! even those of us who came to this with the highest of expectations have been left awestruck.

Their dynamic, experimental punk is savage, cacophonous & urgent but complex, layered & considered, so every listen will deliver new thrills & previously unprocessed aural assaults whilst also revealing a surprising & obverse melody & warmth.

Abrasive but accessible, their music carries themes of personal identity, particularly within the context of masculinity & femininity & insecurities around gender. ‘the Great Regression’ is full of anger, rage & despair but it also showcases their love of childish jokes, literature…& pedals. many, many pedals contribute to the ever-growing pile of equipment they gathered in order to make unusual sounds during the recording process.

Singer Cal Francis wrote that the track “I Am Kate Moss” is about “the separation between your visual and personal identities, particularly within the context of masculinity and femininity”. This separation of mind and body comes across in the album’s ten tracks, which balance cerebral spoken word and somatic song structures via familiar rock riffs. With cues from Foals and Ireland’s Gilla Band, DITZ place themselves on post-punk’s heavier, metal side. Their riffs are dark and simple, in the vein of Korn or Slipknot, but with artistic sensibilities more in line with Deftones and At the Drive-In.

“A vital reminder that, in order to embrace therapeutic progress, you need to regress. a taut, well-honed package it’s a brutal assault on the senses” – loud & quiet

released September 23rd, 2022

Spielbergs‘ twilit punk-pop is robust and immediate, coming at you like a sonic snow plow. Hailing from Norway, and naming their sophomore album after a suburb of Oslo in which they grew up, the trio make music that approaches the beefy riffs and emotive vocal refrains à la Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American not from sun-scorched Arizona but frosted-over Scandinavia. Indeed, there’s a sense of geographical dysphoria permeating the songs on “Vetsli”—of which the anthemic “When They Come for Me” and plaintive intermission “Goodbye” are standouts. As frontman Mads Baklien puts it, “You can leave Vestli but Vestli never leaves you.” Provided it falls into the right hands, the record may achieve the same.

“Spielbergs‘ twilit punk-pop is robust and immediate, coming at you like a sonic snow plow”

released August 19th, 2022

Booter‘s first record is a kind of spiritual sequel to the Weakerthans’ first record. The guitars have a similarly warm and woody tone, lightly sparked with overdrive. That likable, rough-around-the-edges production style makes it easy to imagine you’re there in the practice room as snow blankets a sleepy Winnipeg, their mutual hometown. The songs are short and fast and indicate how both bands would expand their sound on following releases. Lastly, both bands take their time, with “10/10” produced sporadically over two years by none other than Weakerthans collaborator Cam Loeppky. 

Connections to the retired indie rockers aside, though, Booter’s is an accomplished record in its own right—and a deeply thoughtful and open one at that. Vocalist and chief songwriter Alannah Walker, who is queer, sings of crushing on straight girls. She laments how dissolved relationships continue to affect us, and contends with modern capitalist struggles while exploring who she is outside of a relationship. Music such as Booter’s doesn’t have the inclination to change the world—but ask any Weakerthans fan if the band changed their life, and the answer will always be yes. Given time, Booter may do the same. 

released September 9, 2022

all songs by Alannah Walker, except seventeen by Brendon Yarish

Booter is:
Alannah Walker
Brendon Yarish
Ian Ellis
David Schellenberg

Atmos Bloom’s music is all shy smiles across crowded rooms and half-remembered strolls through city parks. The power of these seemingly inconsequential scenes is foregrounded in the Manchester duo’s pastel-hued pop songs, collected in their debut mini-LP Flora. A pandemic project that “bloomed into something a little bit more special”—as their Bandcamp bio winks—Flora may exude the nervous energy of a meet-cute in a florist, but the ease with which Tilda Gratton and Curtis Paterson converse could lull even the most concrete skeptic into believing they’ve been at this for years.

Bouncy pop-punk tracks such as “Daisy” are disguised beneath sheets of reverb. “Picnic in the Rain” (was there ever a more poignant name for a song?) evokes The Cure at their bubbliest. And “Morning Sun”’s languid groove archives the ache that comes when we lose part of ourselves. In a subway carriage already oversubscribed with Cocteau Twins advocates, the self-christened dreamgazers are pushing their way to the front. 

Atmos Bloom is the dreamy, gazey duo made up of London-based musicians Curtis Paterson & Tilda Gratton. the project began as a means to escape from a lock-downed world… but later bloomed into something a little bit more special…Like being transported to the early 90’s, warm summer days, curtains closed, The Field Mice playing on a dusty 33 rpm.

released July 15th, 2022

When one of today’s best songwriters has a new album, anticipation is high. Julia Jacklin delivers on “Pre Pleasure”, gifting us with her best sounding LP so far.

The production gives extra punch in ‘Love, Try Not To Let Go’, where the anxious rush of the chorus lyric is matched by a crescendo of instruments, before pulling back to the calm of a piano line. It’s a perfect sonic message of Julia’s inner thoughts, that duck paddling madly under water, it hit me for six when I first heard it.

I love getting tangled in her stories, making them my own while also thinking about the stories she tells us with every new work, the chapters of her life. Her compulsion to share and understand herself is such a gift for us to experience as art. 

Press Club‘s third record begins with what sounds like a strike of a match and a winding high pitch. It sets the sense of anticipation high for what’s to follow with lead track ‘Eugene’, a song that flares up like a flame hitting something combustible.

The pace barely relents from there with the forward thrust of ‘Coward Street’, the surging rhythm and sneer of ‘Untitled Wildlife’ with its declaration ‘This sunburnt country’s getting burned to the ground’.

There’s barely contained fury, razored exasperation and a firm middle finger defiance that races throughout this taut collection of songs. It’s very much the sound of a band cutting themselves loose, getting shit off their chests, and revelling in running their own race at their own adrenaline pumping pace. 

Press Club under exclusive license to Hassle Records Released on: 2022-10-14