The Fat Angel Sings

Seattle’s National Honor Society only appeared on my radar recently thanks to the excellent God Is In The TV Zone website, but their new LP has been on my turntable since. It’s the soundtrack to your summer you didn’t know existed or that you needed. Straight off the bat there’s an infectious riff that you’ll be humming allday on ‘As She Slips Away’.

Coming from the North Western States more known for having a climate similar to ours but just with even more rain, they’ve found the cracks in the clouds. They’re also self confessed Anglophiles, and you can certainly hear the influences scattered across the LP in jangle pop from the 80’s and 90’s, but there’s also a big slice of a certain close harmony group from the 1960’s that spent a fair bit of time surfing on the same west coast but just a bit further south where it’s warmer and sunnier most of the time. A close contemporary reference would be We Are Scientists, their ear for pop hooks with indie rock sensibilities. ‘Jacqueline’ has a distinct feel to it, right down to its guitar solo.

There are so many highlights to this record, ‘The Following’ has a psychedelic edge but then brass chimes and they croon their way home. ‘The Trigger’ has something of britpop feel to it. The harmonies are more layered and has a cyclical lyric that spins and spins without out staying it’s welcome. Their debut was one of the unlucky ones to appear in the depths of the first lockdown and now their second album has the feeling of the release of those shackles, a brighter, sunnier outlook, like those 90’s summers that went on forever.

“The Following” was the 3rd single from the album “To All The Distance Between Us“, out April 21, 2023 on Shelflife Records, Discos De Kirlian, and Subjangle

After the success of the Talking Heads’ ground-breaking concert film, “Stop Making Sense” the group has decided to mark its 40th anniversary with a newly restored 4K version of the movie, which will return to theaters for a global run with A24. Rhino Records will also release a deluxe soundtrack version of the complete “Stop Making Sense” concert on August 18th. 

Rhino will also delivered two previously unreleased tracks from the film adaptation of the album. Included are takes on “Cities” and “Big Business / I Zimbra.” As a preview of today’s announcement, they’re shared “Cities.” Along with the audio, the limited edition vinyl version features a 28-page booklet with previously unpublished photos and new liner notes from all four band members: Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison.

The inspiration for “Stop Making Sense” arrived when director Jonathan Demme saw Talking Heads during their 1983 tour for “Speaking in Tongues”. Afterward, he approached the ensemble with the idea of making the show into a concert film. 

They agreed and worked together over the next several months to finalize the presentation. Ultimately, Demme filmed three concerts at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983 to create the video. 

“Stop Making Sense” focuses mainly on music by Talking Heads but does include a few songs recorded with member adjacent acts, like Tom Tom Club’s “Genius Of Love” and “What A Day That Was” and “Big Business” from Byrne’s 1981 album, “The Catherine Wheel”. In addition, the film captures classic performances of staple tunes like “Burning Down The House,” “Girlfriend is Better,” and more. 

Via press release, Byrne offered: “We had done a live album before this, but coupled with the film, and with the improved mixes and sound quality, this record reached a whole new audience. As often happens, the songs got an added energy when we performed them live and were inspired by having an audience. In many ways, these versions are more exciting than the studio recordings, so maybe that’s why a lot of folks discovered us via this record.”

Based out of Chicago, Anna Holmqvist has been sharing music under the Ester moniker for a decade and counting, first as a solo project and more recently with a full band. The band’s debut album, “Turn Around”, was released back in the Spring of 2020, Anna and her bandmates started 2023 with their first new material since their debut, double-A single “Red Rover/Change Is Allowed”. The band are announcing a new EP, “Laundry”, set for release on Audiosport Records, as well as premiering the record’s title track.

“Laundry” was recorded with Anna’s long-term collaborator, cellist Katelyn Cohen, creating a beautiful contrast between the more processed tones of Anna’s guitar runs, against the rich swells of Katelyn’s sonorous strings. The track was inspired by a slightly unlikely visitor attraction, as Anna recalls, “I wrote ‘Laundry’ after visiting the world’s largest laundromat in Berwyn, Illinois”. While not obviously about doing your washing, the song does have a sense of freshness and re-invigoration.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Nick Broste
Music and lyrics by Anna Holmquist
Cello and backing vocals by Katelyn Cohen

“Laundry” EP is out in November via Audiosport Records. released July 7th, 2023

Moin are London’s latest post-punk industrialists ready to brake amplifiers with their scorched DIY aesthetic. Like Dry Cleaning on bad acid with the feedback turned up to full. Sadly represses of their first two LPs have been and gone quicker than a whizzed up milkman (fingers crossed they might be reissued next week – hit that wish list button baby!), but upon the time of writing there were a few copies of their new EP “Clocked Off!” left.

With a new EP from Moin – London’s hottest new post-punk and industrial outfit. Consisting of Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead (Raime / Blackest Ever Black) as well as long time collaborator and percussionist visionary Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga / Vanishing Twin); two LPs precede this EP (2021’s “Moot!” and 2022’s “Paste” – both repressed and available this week). 

An opportunity for the various contributors to lose themselves in freeform jams, aided and abetted with refined studio techniques; its a non-linear excursion into distortion, live drums, spoken word vocal utterances and wild experimentation. Imagine if Dry Cleaning consumed a load of dodgy LSD and turned up the feedback…

An underground hit already, their first two LPs are fiendishly collected (hence the repress) and we imagine this new set of tracks will equally be hunted down by those who like their shit gnarly and scuzzed out. Most recommended. 

AD 93 is a London based record label run by Nic Tasker. Initiated as a platform for off-kilter leftfield techno, the label has evolved over the years to become an eclectic outlet for unique creative visions and collaborative experiments. The label has forged lasting relationships with its roster of artists and designers, providing a platform for projects in the arts, sound, film and fashion.

Singer/songwriter and ace guitarist Nils Lofgren has never hit the big time, but he has never been far from those who have. Working next to Neil Young on “After the Gold Rush” when he was just 18, co-penning tunes with Lou Reed, and (since 1984) joining Springsteen’s E Street Band, Lofgren has carved out a career for being best known as a side man for others.

But that shouldn’t dismiss his clutch of occasionally terrific, solo albums from the mid-’70s, in addition to years as frontman for the bubbling-under but never boiling band Grin in the early part of that decade. Nevertheless, Lofgren stayed busy in music even if he never broke through commercially on his own.

Assisting on these ten songs are legends like jazz bassist Ron Carter (on the lovely ballad “Only Your Smile”), the late David Crosby for one of his final album appearances, Neil Young (providing subtle harmonies on the love song to Nils’ wife “Nothing’s Easy”) and Ringo Starr who brings drums for one tune and momentary vocals to the thumping pop-rocker “We Better Find It.” That track also includes, for better or worse, a children’s choir.   

Lofgren’s strength lies in upbeat compositions like “Won’t Cry No More” (dedicated to Charlie Watts), the mid-tempo rocking opener “Ain’t the Truth Enough” and its follow-up, the slower yet insistent pumper “Only Ticket Out.” The latter is enhanced by an organic, bluesy guitar solo and soulful, often intense approach to a song about an alcoholic who has reached the bottom and is looking for a way out. Lofgren goes to church for the touching love song “Back in Your Arms” bringing in a full gospel choir for arguably one of the finest, most moving, and fully formed items in his catalogue. It deserves to be a hit. Maybe Bruce will let him sing it at a show.

But the set suffers maybe suffers from an excess of ballads. Some, like “I Remember Her Name,” a song about searching for love that he finally found with his wife, are well-meaning but hew towards the cheesier side. Other piano-based narratives like the closing “Angel Blues” are delicate, pretty, and charming, but edge dangerously close to schlocky and don’t play to Lofgren’s tougher talents.

On this album, his first of original material in over a decade, he is credited with keyboards, bass, drums, vibes, and even harp. And of course guitar, an instrument on which he has established a specific, identifiable sound through the decades. Add a distinctive youthful voice and you have the potential for a credible one-man band. It helps to have your own studio for overdubbing at will, and inputting others’ contributions when needed there’s enough solid material here displaying Lofgren’s impressive vocal, instrumental, and song writing qualities.

Swedish rock band GOAT are to release their soundtrack to the recent BBC Television programme “The Gallows Pole” digitally through Rocket Recordings on July 7th.

There was plenty of noise on social media from prog fans while the programme, penned by sometime , given the proggy nature of the music and the quasi mystical and pagan backdrop of the programme. “The Gallows Pole” was adapted for television by acclaimed director Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England).

“In the beginning, we would get inspiration just through reading the book, trying to get a sense of its vibration and then translate that into music, with passages from the book as a springboard for those jams,” the band explain of the writing process for the soundtrack. The themes and imagery of Benjamin Myers’ source novel seem to be the perfect fit for GOAT’s mystical, pagan aesthetic.

“The Gallows Pole” is GOAT’s second soundtrack release, following their score for the 2017 British independent horror film Double Date. The album includes five brand new tracks from the score and three existing tracks director Meadows selected from their back catalogue.

The series, which was based in rural 18th century Yorkshire, tells a fictionalised tale based on the true story of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners, which became the biggest fraud in British history.

Like a lucid Shane MacGowan fronting a frazzled house band, YOWL are a South London based 5 piece band of menacing-indie storytellers, swinging from intense proto-punk to swooning balladry. Born from the grit and gristle of South London, their debut album is both a curdled, anxiety-riddled reaction and a bitter antidote to our times.

The South London group YOWL are ready to introduce debut album ‘Milksick’.

The band caused a ruckus with 2019 EP ‘Atrophy’, with their sludge-driven proto-punk sound aiming for the jugular. Taking time out, YOWL have now uncovered fresh focus, and return with some razor-sharp material.

Out on September 14th, debut album ‘Milksick’ is the result of endless late night sessions, with YOWL pushing themselves to the brink. In a note, the band label the songs “a collection of outlandish cautionary tales, uneasy odes to imaginary characters and late night pedal-fuckery”.

New scorcher ‘Idiot Daughters, Idiot Sons’ is out now, with Gabriel Byrne’s unhinged vocal performance taking the band to fresh heights of oblivion. He comments…

“This one’s about those introspective times you spend lying awake at night sometimes, head buzzing with wasted time, missed opportunities and the chastising carousel of humiliating moments that nobody except you probably noticed or remembered. It’s self-flagellation via upbeat falsettos, a cheery groove dedicated to times when personal resentment turns into a maddening cycle of internal finger-wagging.” 

Our debut album ‘Milksick’ is out on the 14th September.

The Wytches need very little introduction, but it is with no little excitement that we welcome back Brighton’s purveyors of melody for album number four – all raucous and unruly, yet glistening with jagged edged poetic wistfulness and undeniable emotional clout.

The former Transgressive/ Heavenly Records act return with their fourth studio album in September on Alcopop! Records this year – and it’s definitely their best yet, all raw-throat punk, stoner/doom psych, riffing swagger, and perhaps just the tiniest hint of delicious folk twinkling… Just get it in your ears. It’s glorious.

LIMITED DINKED EDITION
Black & White, Half & Half Vinyl / 5” x 2” Glow-in-the-Dark Album Patch / Individual, Original Super 8 film cells from the ‘Maria’ Video on a signed collectors card / Limited Pressing of 500

Released: 22/09/2023