The Fat Angel Sings

It’s all change for this, the fourth long-player from the Warmduscher camp. Not only have the fuzzed-out London-based outfit moved from one excellent label (Tony Morley’s The Leaf Label) to another (Simon Raymonde’s Bella Union), but there’s been a last-minute substitution in the producer’s chair.

Having been at the controls for the last two albums, Speedy Wonderground’s Dan Carey (the hardest working man in show business) was lined up for this one, but just as everyone was ready to go Carey got Covid. Warmduscher aren’t a band known for hanging around (their last outing, 2019’s frantic ‘Tainted Lunch’, was recorded in four days) so with the clock ticking they turned to Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and Al Doyle for some expert knob twiddling. The result is still very much the scuzzy Warmduscher we’ve come to love, but this time it’s super-charged with a polished funk sound. “Like stumbling home to your squatted loft after a drunken night at the local disco” say their people.

Just to lull you into a false sense of security, opener ‘Live At The Hotspot’ is a late-night smoocher. A kind of tuxe-no-bow-tie set-closing kind of tune, played in a smoky, underground, backstreet jazz bar, you know, the sort of place you’d imagine Clams Baker Jr and co to hang out. It gives way to ‘Hot Shot’, which revs like a motorbike, opening up the throttle as the pressure builds towards ‘Eight Minute Machines’, which is where things really start cooking. Its scattergun Sigue Sigue Sputnik/kosmische pulse locks down as everything they’ve got is chucked over the top.

Summed up by the powers that been: Electric transmissions from the kitchens of twitch! Busy signals, threats of bodily harm, the pan-fried doom of grandma’s palpitations, a k2 carpet ride you can’t hop off of. Pick it up Jan & Jimmy, you’re all alone!

Behold, “Twitchin’ In The Kitchen,” our latest offering to you and the gods featuring a video tale to join us made possible by the following professionals of the industry.

Warmduscher “Twitchin’ In The Kitchen” from their forthcoming album “Live at the Hotspot”

Eric Clapton has released a new song titled “Pompous Fool.” It’s an Upbeat tune bounces along a jovial beat, with Clapton singling lines such as: “Don’t you worry, don’t be blue / Let your woman, take care of you / Live your life, by the golden rule / Pay no mind, to the pompous fool.”

The new song arrived unexpectedly, with no accompanying press release or explanation. Considering it was released the same day that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson retired from office due to ongoing scandals, many fans online have theorized that the tune was inspired by the controversial politician.

Clapton has been critical of Johnson in the past, specifically on the leader’s handling of the COVID pandemic. Roughly a year ago, the prime minister announced that proof of vaccination would be required for patrons attending concerts in U.K. venues, drawing Clapton’s ire.

“Following the PM’s announcement,” the guitarist said at the time, “I feel honour bound to make an announcement of my own: I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present. Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show.”

A month later, Clapton released “This Has Gotta Stop,” which further condemned Johnson’s COVID-related rules with lines like, “This has gotta stop / Enough is enough / I can’t take this BS any longer / It’s gone far enough.”

Clapton, it should be noted, claimed to suffer “severe reactions” from the AstraZenaca vaccine. “My hands and feet were either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless for two weeks,” the rocker later detailed. “I feared I would never play again.”

Eric Clapton’s new song entitled “Pompous Fool”

Los Angeles psych-rock band Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”) have announced the July 29th release of their new album “A Round of Applause”.

Today the band shares the first take of the album by way of “A Round of Applause” opening track, “See.”  The band’s Bert Hoover notes, “‘See’ is about trying not to take life for granted. Some things are easier said than done. It’s our first song to feature Anna Wallace singing along with us and it came together rather seamlessly. It was a pretty bare bones jangle jam until the band filled it with ear candy.”  The video was filmed on 16mm at the Trona Pinnacles in Trona CA. Conceived and co-directed by the mighty Nikki Houston and Owen Summers it features aliens stranded on earth try to find their way home until things go very wrong.

Though created in large part by founder Bert Hoover, Hooveriii has grown to include Gabe Flores (lead guitar and vocals), Kaz Mirblouk (bass and synths), James Novick (synths), and Owen Barrett (drums).  
Prior to delving into “A Round of Applause” Hoveriii’s second album through The Reverberation Appreciation Society —the band had stuck to a routine of issuing about two releases a year (including singles, live albums, etc.).  After the rise of a certain five-letter word that starts with a C, they realized that time really shouldn’t be taken for granted. Finding additional inspiration via Nick Cave, who once said that dabbling with new ideas continues to fuel his near-50-year career, the band decidedly took a different approach with their new album and gave themselves the freedom to explore in the studio.  

The end result is “A Round of Applause”, an expansive and even, at times, experimental record. Whereas 2021’s “Water for the Frogs” was akin to a jam-band record most of its seven songs are about five minutes long (including a closing track that lasts nearly 10) — “A Round of Applause” could be considered their “pop” album. Occasionally paying homage to the Canterbury scene, the band consider it to be a palette cleanser of sorts. “I am not really a playlist guy or a singles guy,” Hoover admits. “I’m really into the album experience. … So yeah, we made a pop record. But also, to me, this record is very progressive as well, and I think that that provides a nice balance.”  He previously referred to “Water for the Frogs” as the band’s equivalent of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot. Playing with that idea he says “A Round of Applause” is the kindred spirit of Lust For Life.

Hooveriii derived the album title from the late-‘80s Roky Erickson song “Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play.” “That’s too much of a mouthful,” Hoover qualified. “My title, “A Round of Applause”, just came one day, and we were like, ‘Yo, that sounds like a Gentle Giant record.’”

Reflecting the mostly lighthearted and uplifting record, “A Round of Applause” closes cheekily — but not sarcastically — with the sound of people clapping. Hoover adds graciously: “We’ve been lucky so far. I don’t think we really have a, you know, ‘bad song.’ ” Maybe one will, someday. But Hoover doesn’t dwell on that; after all, his band has more records to make — and time is of the essence. 

The Wave Pictures bring to an end a four year hiatus with a double LP ‘When The Emperor Spreads His Purple Wings’. Lead single ‘This Heart Of Mine’ is a beautifully gentle, autumnal tune, inspired by Neil Young’s country-tinged output and features lyrics about memories, space and time travel. The band are known for playing a variety of styles from garage rock to jazz and blues.

With a nuance of autumn, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ references time and space travel & memory all rolled into one. Musically inspired by classic Neil Young, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ witnesses The Wave Pictures going full-on country and features cowboy harmonica from Dominic ‘Hotdog’ Brider, Franic Rozycki on mandolin, alongside Dave Tattersall’s gentle acoustic guitar strum. The first of four seasonal videos made by Nina Garthwaite for “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings” album, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ is Autumn: “The week I made it autumn was at its best, sunny and cold with long shadows. The best thing about autumn is that the days somehow feel like they contain all the autumn days that ever were, just right for a song about memories and time. I’m still exploring animation and this is much more multimedia in style than I’ve done so far – there are mono-prints, photos, paintings and photocopies and I probably got over-excited about the flicker technique! It is also inspired a lot by the bonkers collage posters Franic likes to do. Towards the end, when when the band appears as if inside a planet, brings to mind how long it’s been since they have been able to tour properly. Hopefully by the time the album is released they’ll be back, rocking, doing what they love.”

The Wave Pictures, industrious and prolific as ever, return today with ‘This Heart Of Mine’, taken from the forthcoming double album “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings”, out in 2022:

Leeds art-rock group Mush return with album “Down Tools” via Memphis Industries. The new record marks the prolific band’s third album in as many years, following hype-building early singles ‘Alternative Facts’ and ‘Gig Economy’, 2020’s debut LP “3D Routine” and 2021’s acclaimed “Lines Redacted”, which pushed their sound further.

On “Down Tools“, this voice grows again into a more brilliantly singular sound. It sees Mush getting loose, moving away from the defined moods and textures of “Lines Redacted” with a musical openness, straddling genres while avoiding pastiche. Hyndman says of the lyrics on ‘Down Tools’ that “there was a conscious decision to retreat further from an observational approach” with vocals being ad-libbed lending the record a more abstract feel. Hyndman continues: “this album is less dark than the previous one. The Armageddon obsession has eased, or at least the symptoms have become milder due to saturation. Musically there’s a lot more chill on the record – there’s a few more mellow tracks out there and the most astute listener may even be able to decipher some of the words, fingers crossed.”

While grief and work balance form themes on the record, Hyndman’s approach is largely made up of abstract, disconnected streams of consciousness and lines liberally taken from books, paintings, films and beyond. On “Human Resources”, Hyndman dramatically retells a battle he had with an HR department at a job in a David and Goliath style. The song ‘Group Of Death’, a phrase chillingly familiar to any football fan, is emblematic of the turn towards softer, more considered sounds.

Hyndman says: “In my warped imagination it just sounds like a Paul McCartney song, but it won’t to others. I initially had the idea of doing a World Cup song called ‘Group of Death’, but by the time it was written nothing beyond the title had any relevance to football. Anyway, the next World Cup is in Qatar so fuck that shit.” Northern Safari meanwhile is a song about the way the North of England has been portrayed in the media and used as a mirror to reflect some of the nastier elements of what’s going on in society, in particular vox pops around Doncaster, portraying a particular narrative of the collapse of the red wall and the disgruntled ex-miners.

“Down Tools” then sees Mush idiosyncratically ping-pong from finger picked looseners to noise-rock bangers to brilliantly entertaining effect, avoiding post punk saturation with an easy style and wit.

From the album “Down Tools” out 8th July, The band perform at Nottingham| Rough Trade instore 10th July

Canadian songstress TESS PARKS released new album ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ last April. The title refers to a quote by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche:
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear
the music.”

Following years of international touring and a lengthy list of critically-acclaimed collaborations with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe in recent years (most recently the duo’s self-titled 2018 LP), the new album will be Parks’ first full-length solo offering since her much-loved debut album, ‘Blood Hot’, was released back in 2013. Trailing the highly-praised singles ‘Happy Birthday Forever’, ‘Brexit at Tiffany’s’ and ‘Do You Pray?’, ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’

A new video for my favourite track  “I See Angels”

‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’ is out now the second single from the new album ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ which came out May 20th on Fuzz Club and Hand Drawn Dracula

Thanks to my friend Robert Ascroft for the video, which was as planned and thought out as its namesake. Robert was in London with a day to spare, so last minute we rallied up some friends who were graciously willing to spend an afternoon wearing these horrible masks.

German psych-blues duo Pretty Lightning are today releasing ‘The Slow Grinder’, lifted from their new album ‘Dust Moves’, out July 29th on Fuzz Club Records. A piece of hypnotic, swirling desert blues, ‘The Slow Grinder’.

Since forming over a decade ago, the Saabrücken-based band are now on their fifth full-length, have toured around the UK and Europe on numerous occasions and shared stages with the likes of Moon Duo, Clinic, Kikagaku Moyo and Night Beats, among many others. Arriving following their 2020 LP ‘Jangle Bowls’, ‘Dust Moves’ is the band’s first fully instrumental record and offers up a cinematic journey through meandering desert blues, strung-out psych-rock and widescreen, hypnotic drones. 

“We´ve been thinking about recording an instrumental album for a while because we particularly like the fluid movement it can create”, Sebastian Haas says, citing contemporary instrumental artists like 75 Dollar Bill and Bobby Lee as influences alongside library music and the experimental synths of Mort Garson or Syrinx. “Even if these can be considerably different in genre or style, they can share a similar mood, it’s somehow about ‘sound’ rather than ‘song’.” 

“Making this record always felt a bit more like sound explorations, less like writing songs”, he continues: “We focused on using new instruments like the mellotron, a self-made box of creepy tricks and making guitars sound like they were actually not guitars. Words or lyrics would have just had a restrictive effect here and that wasn´t what we were aiming at. In this manner, the songs on this record resulted from jams and evolved into repetitive and simply flowing instrumental pieces. It was a tonne of fun to make.”

On the new single out today which follows last month’s ‘Gewgaw For Beginners’, Haas says: “The Slow Grinder” was the first song that emerged when we had started fiddling around with the idea of an instrumental record and I think it laid down the base or structure of the entire album. Everything that happened afterwards is somehow following the same formula of repetition and sounds that build-up, swell and spread while remaining on the path. Simple music, easy to follow and to dig in, if one is up for it.”

Brooklyn post-punk/synth-pop duo The Vacant Lots are today announcing their fourth album ‘Closure’, due out September 30th .You can pre-order the new record and stream the amazing new single ‘Chase’ here: thevacantlots.lnk.to/closure, ‘Closure’ is the fourth album from the Brooklyn, The Vacant Lots and is Jared Artaud and Brian MacFadyen’s most fully realized work to date.

The record packs 8 minimal is maximal salvos into 23 minutes that coalesce into a stun-blast soundtrack for today’s shattered society. Laced with evocatively concise and lacerating lyrics delivered detached and deadpan, ‘Closure’s spine-chilling onslaught of towering guitar shrapnel, ethereal metallic synth melodies and cold electronic turbulence comes infused with shades of New Order and Jesus And Mary Chain; the kind of modern disco and post-punk grooves that pillaged New York clubs in the 80s. Inevitably, the penetrating spirit of New York electronic trailblazers Suicide haunts the new record with its subterranean gravitational pull, having previously manifested physically when the two-piece befriended the late Alan Vega – leading to collaborations, support spots and Artaud now co-curating the ‘Vega Vault’ of unreleased material and co-producing and mixing the 2021 lost ‘Mutator’ LP.

There are exclusive vinyl editions available Rough Trade and Levitation, and we’ve got some merch bundles up on our store too! The band are also now announcing November/December UK & EU tour dates alongside their September/October North America run with The Black Angels : thevacantlots.lnk.to/tickets

Deploying a minimal disco on downers sound, Jared Artaud says of the new single: “Chase” has this duality that strikes a balance between wanting to dance and taking a pill that plunges you on the couch.” Brian MacFadyen adds: “Chase” is a song about longing, about the struggle of love across time zones. It’s about the desire to close that gap of separation, but also the anticipation and excitement that builds between each encounter. It’s about a sense of knowing how it should be before it is.”

Out Sept 30th on Fuzz Club Records

Canadian shoegazing band Living Hour shared a video for their new single, “No Body.” It is the latest release from their forthcoming album, “Someday Is Today”, which will be out on September 2nd via Kanine Records. The band’s Sam Sarty directed the video.

In a press release, Sarty states: “This song is about dissociating at a restaurant and feeling completely isolated and alone in the experience. Close friends all around but you can’t reach out, you can’t say anything, hands numb, mind far away and foggy. Trying to ground myself with observations and saying my middle name; focus on something small like the rainbow floating through the glass. The background voices are calming, more positive thoughts pushing the mind into a softer world. A diner is a diner, your friends love you, the sky is still out there.”

Upon announcement of the album in May, the band shared the album track “Feelings Meeting,” featuring Jay Som. “No Body” is from Living Hour’s new album, “Someday Is Today”, out September 2nd on Kanine Records & Next Door Records.