The Fat Angel Sings

It’s been a while (five years) but Bambara have finally announced a new album, “Birthmarks”, and here’s the first single.

‘Birthmarks’ emerges directly from the band’s favoured aesthetics and themes, but captures them with a new sense of sonic adventurousness and thematic subtlety, resulting in a collection of songs that are somehow both the band’s most apocalyptic and most poignant.

“Pray to Me” from the upcoming album, “Birthmarks”, out March 14th 2025 via Bella Union

Reid Bateh – Vocals, Guitar, Piano and Noise
Blaze Bateh – Drums, Percussion and Organ
William Brookshire – Bass, Piano and Synth

Cornwall-based UK band Low Harness release their debut album, “Salvo”, on December 6th via via Krautpop! and here’s an early taste that owes a little to Broadcast. Say the band: “Bloodplay is about the lengths people go to for pleasure, to escape from the banality of everyday existence and act out their most subversive urges. Even if we do not give in to these fantasies, or are too afraid to realise them: a place exists in our imagination where we cannot be judged playing them out.”

Channelling atonality and noise alongside expansive shoegaze and hypnotic krautrock, “Salvo” captures a sense of instability and unknown terrors; political unrest, impending and current wars, economic crisis, environmental collapse and the loss of loved ones.

“The video was shot in an abandoned leisure centre which served as a perfect fantasy backdrop for this song where the subject was able to daydream in complete isolation.

It stars “Pink Baby” local drag artist and passionate advocate for Falmouth’s queer community, Through her love of dance and adoration of the colour pink, Pink Baby explores themes of gender oppression, disability rights, and queer joy in her performances.”

A union of four seasoned DIY minds, Low Harness was born in 2023 when they met through working at Penryn DIY hub the Fish Factory Arts Space. With Hannah and Martin Pease favouring alternative tunings, it was only a matter of time before they were writing together. Joined by Ed Shellard on drums and Alex Harmer on bass, the record emerged quickly after practising in a friend’s garage, with sonic touchpoints including 90s noise rock, Sonic Youth, Wire, MBV, Glenn Branca, and Einstürzende Neubauten. To finish writing “Salvo“, they took part in a week’s residency at local venue The Cornish Bank, before heading to an old 19th century chapel to record.

This organic urgency with which the record was written lends a propulsive dynamism to the tracks. It’s also balanced with an expansiveness, a sonic landscape that sees the angular and motorik style of Hannah and Ed’s previous projects combine with Martin and Alex’s noise and shoegaze stylings. Across the album, this manifests in a rich sound palette. There’s the brooding post-punk of apocalyptic manual ‘Exit Plan’, complete with Siouxsie Sioux vocals, and the pensive pedalboard-psych of ‘Forever In My Head’, a daydreaming song about inertia. ‘Bloodplay’ sees the band musing on the extreme lengths people can go to for pleasure, with Broadcast-inspired vocals soaring over eerie pop melodies, and album closer ‘Admissions’ combines twanging, disco-punk with capacious noise, instrumental intervals featuring prominently throughout.

On the simultaneously tender and furious ‘Lungs’ – a track about grief and the loss of a sibling, Hannah meditatively drawls “if everything’s taken away/ what is love for?”. It’s a powerful and raw line that captures something of the vital essence that the band has poured into this debut; “Salvo” is a strikingly confident introduction to a band who refuse to look the other way.

The band will head out on a UK this December and today share third single from the new album, “Bloodplay”, featuring Broadcast-inspired vocals soaring over eerie pop melodies.

The Beat, from the UK, never made the same album twice during their short late-’70s / early-’80s run. Their 1980 debut, “I Just Can’t Stop It”, is a ska classic; 1981’s “Wha’ppen?” saw them exploring dub reggae, African music, and more socially conscious lyrics; and 1982’s “Special Beat Service” went more towards cosmopolitan pop and yielded US new wave / MTV hits with the singles “Save it For Later” and “I Confess.”

The double LP Deluxe Edition of “Special Beat Service” features the original album on the first LP (translucent red vinyl) and a treasure-trove of b-sides, non-LP singles, remixes and live cuts on the second disc (translucent blue vinyl), including “March of the Swivelheads,” an instrumental dance remix of the album’s “Rotating Head,” which was famously used in the “race home through the backyards” sequence in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. This RSD Black Friday exclusive is limited to 3000 copies.

“Sam’s Place” was billed as Little Feat’s first blues album. “The result is an inviting opportunity to more deeply explore one of the small, good things that always girded Little Feat. They’re very much at home in “Sam’s Place.“

“Can’t Be Satisfied” was written by blues legend, Muddy Waters. It has Sam Clayton on lead vocals, Bill Payne on piano, Kenny Gradney on bass, Fred Tackett on electric guitar, Scott Sharrard on slide guitar, and Tony Leone on drums. This song also features special guest Michael “The Bull” LoBue on harmonica. This video was filmed in at Sam Phillip’s Studio in Memphis, TN. It was directed by Grant James and Jesse Lauter.

Little Feat have composed an album that’s their love letter to the blues entitled, ‘Sam’s Place.’ “Milkman” plus many other blues classics are on this album.

“Milkman” is an original Little Feat song written by Sam Clayton, Fred Tackett, and Scott Sharrard. It features Sam on lead vocals, Bill Payne on piano, Kenny Gradney on bass, Fred on electric guitar, Scott on slide guitar, and Tony Leone on drums. The recording also features special guests Marc Franklin on trumpet and Art Edmaiston on saxophone.

The ‘Sam’s Place’ album has Sam on lead vocals for the entire record. It’s got classic blues songs by legends such as Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters plus guest vocals by Bonnie Raitt on the song, “Long Distance Call.”

‘Magneticism II’ features some of the finest ‘live’ performances by Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band, many being previously unreleased rarities.

Led by California’s enigmatic singer/songwriter: Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart), his various Magic Band were faithful in their pursuit to realise his musical visions. ‘live’ they always shone and these joyously, unforgettable performances make this a truly important collection of work, showing a unique and innovative ring master directing his collaborators in staggering form to ecstatic crowds.

These recordings also give a broad scope of the Captain’s catalogue of work with material from the beginning of his career right up to his final compositions – reminding us today why he is still regarded as one of the most important and influential musician/artists of the Twentieth Century. To quote the Captain: ‘If you got ears- you gotta listen’……..