The Fat Angel Sings

London based four-piece Palace are a self-described alternative blues-rock group with an extremely laid-back style. The band formed in September 2012 and comprised Leo Wyndham, Rupert Turner, Will Dorey, and Matt Hodges. Their debut EP caught the attention of notable DJs and fellow London-based artist Jamie T.

The “Chase the Light” EP was released in 2015, and led to the band being championed by Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe and BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens. The release also caught the attention of Jamie T, who reportedly hand-picked the band to support him at his London comeback shows in 2015. This hyped-up London four-piece live, breathe and record in a musical squat, but their converted space might as well be keys to the kingdom. Given near-unlimited space for the first time (they cite hours and precious pounds spent on crummy Camden studios, back in the day), they’ve settled into their groove. “It’s a complete saving grace to have this place,” says frontman Leo Wyndham. “In the beginning, we hardly practised.

Straddling arena-ready indie with something more subdued and mellowed out, the songs on the four-piece’s ‘Lost in the Night’ EP inhabit their own space. They don’t burst into view. There’s no desire to get heard right here, right now. It’s a subtle kind of routine. Anthems by those who’ve stumbled upon them.

Palace’s music might not assault the senses, but the way it latches to the conscience is frighteningly effective.

On ‘Bitter’, their simmering away standout, they sound like Wu Lyf brought up by a planet-saving cult. ‘Lost in the Night’ doesn’t give a great deal away, in sum. Instead it points towards a group that are winning people over when they least expect it.

“So Long Forever“

Palace set about recording their debut album in 2016 at the North London space the Arch. “So Long Forever” was produced by Adam Jaffery (Mount Kimbie, Django Django) and received favourable comparisons to artists like Jeff Buckley, Wu Lyf, and the Maccabees upon its release in November of the same year.

Going all drifty and introspective on us, and verging on Fleet Foxes melodic territory at times, Leo Wyndham sings of loss and grieving over piling textures. “You’ll be just fine, I’ve seen holy smoke out the windows,” he sings, saying goodbye to a loved one.

“Someone once told me that when someone dies you have to open the window to let their soul escape,” Leo said in a press release. “The Holy Smoke“. This song is about being in that situation which I was, not that long ago. It’s about losing someone close to you, and experiencing something quite spiritual in the moments after death – when by their side.”

“Life After“

The follow-up to 2016 debut ‘So Long Forever’ finds London’s Palace in solemn mood. They describe ‘Life After’ as “an album about loss and a manual to moving on,” referring to broken relationships and the forging of new bonds. But while they claim it is a “deeply optimistic” album born of “hope” it’s not exactly a feel-good record. With the band now a three-piece, following the departure of bassist Will Dorey, there’s an organic warmth to the arrangements on “Life After”, Rupert Turner’s guitar and Matt Hodges’ drums foregrounding Wyndham without ever stealing the spotlight, even on the more strident “Running Wild” (don’t be fooled by the title: it doesn’t represent a departure into freewheeling debauched rock-piggery). If there is a criticism it’s that, “Martyr” and “Running Wild” aside, there’s too little that really grabs the attention. Still, not many bands do better emotionally literate, melancholic indie that good at the moment.

Palace’s songwriting is mature and poignant, and pervasively sombre – as clearly signposted by the titles of the opening and closing tracks, ‘Life After’ and ‘Heaven Up There’. Both provide standout moments, with the former’s grandiose strings providing a foil to Leo Wyndham’s yearning lyrics: “after she’s gone I’m fragile like porcelain, I’ve been writing this song to help you breathe again.” The latter, meanwhile, floats through dynamic peaks and extended plateaus for a brave seven minutes.

There are some moments of respite to the heavy atmosphere. The pulsing snare and clean guitar arpeggios on ‘Younger’ provide a brighter alternative to some of the album’s more lumbering moments. ‘Running Wild’, meanwhile, is the most carefree offering on the record – a mid-tempo pop nugget that even features a guitar solo at its climax.

While Palace’s 2016 debut, “So Long Forever”, was an accomplished enough slice of grown-up indie, it did feel a little half-hearted in places. Although the songs concerned themselves with bereavement, the marital breakup of frontman Leo Wyndham’s parents and similarly weighty topics, at times there was a detachment to his delivery that seemed at odds with the subject matter. Loss is once again a recurrent theme on the London-based group’s follow-up – not least on the opening title track (“She’s watching from heaven/ She’s always beside you”) and epic closer Heaven Up There – but pleasingly, Wyndham sings with far greater confidence and conviction this time.

With the band now a three-piece, following the departure of bassist Will Dorey, there’s an organic warmth to the arrangements on Life After, Rupert Turner’s guitar and Matt Hodges’ drums foregrounding Wyndham without ever stealing the spotlight, even on the more strident Running Wild (don’t be fooled by the title: it doesn’t represent a departure into freewheeling debauched rock-piggery). If there is a criticism it’s that, Martyr and Running Wild aside, there’s too little that really grabs the attention. Still, not many bands do better emotionally literate, melancholic indie at the moment.

“Shoals”

Brought to life by the UK’s scattered lockdowns, ‘Shoals’ embraces a far more existentially reflective side of Palace. The glassier tracks float freely through; ‘Gravity’ ironically spirals out into the atmosphere with pining guitar rings dancing under vocalist Leo Wyndham’s languishing passages, while album coda ‘Where Sky Becomes Sea’ brings us down neatly to solid ground. Cadence is established on ‘Fade’ and is not matched again in the project, but deftly exhibits the capability of Palace to mobilise their intensity into different shades.

Palace release their third album “Shoals” via Fiction. “Shoals” is a profound and pensive album, boldly exploring some of life’s greatest questions over its 12 mesmerising tracks. the album deftly explores three main existential dilemmas against a broader backdrop of wonder at the vastness and power of the ocean, concluding its arc with the stunning opus ‘Where Sky Becomes Sea’. through diving into themes of the subconscious, dreams and existentialism, “Shoals” is broadly a record about living with and processing fear. the album’s title is inspired by the seemingly unpredictable behaviour of shoals of fish, shifting rapidly in much the same way as our fears and anxieties of the world around us.

‘Shoals’ suffuses a sense of somnambulism, where Leo’s longing cries fill expanses of sonically rich moments, splashed with reverb-heavy chord progressions and speculative melodies. A more pure and intense sound, less manufactured and acutely heartfelt.

Palace have their biggest North American headlining tour to date, with 18 shows in 1,000+ capacity rooms across the US and Canada, including nights at Brooklyn Steel, DC’s 9:30 Club, The Wiltern in Los Angeles, and over a dozen more. Alongside the tour announce, the band shared “All We’ve Ever Wanted,” their first new music since the acclaimed 2022 album “Shoals“ “All We’ve Ever Wanted’ is about dreams and desires,” explains singer Leo Wyndham about the track that straddles the anthemic, lighters-aloft sentiment of Britpop’s finest and an artfully applied sheen of shoegaze noise.

“It’s about wondering if things ever can come to pass exactly as we’ve pictured them in our mind’s eye, and confronting the reality that things often don’t move in a predictable straight line. In the end, new growth seems to occur from the soil of the unexpected.” The track is taken from a new EP due for release this spring.

Palace have released the next single ‘How Far We’ve Come’. This song is the second track to have been taken from an as-yet-untitled EP, scheduled to be released sometime this summer. Speaking about the song, Palace frontman Leo Wyndham has said: “‘How Far We’ve Come’ is about an anxious and fearful glance into the future at what’s to come, with a sense of anger at the chaos we’ve created. It’s about the helplessness and hopelessness we can all feel sometimes knowing that time is ticking.” The previous single was ‘All We’ve Ever Wanted’, the first new music from the London band since their 2022 album ‘Shoals’, their third studio LP. 

“Lost In The Night” EP

Remastered version of the debut Palace EP. The blues is one of the most distinctive, instantly recognisable forms of music around. Yet this can often make it difficult to musicians to truly impact their own personality, their own beliefs over its legacy. Slowing down the tempo to a codeine funk, London newcomers and latest buzz band Palace have their own defiant take on the blues. Stumbling as if caught in syrup, the group have a spectral, sparse sound. It’s darkly beautiful, with twilight seeming to break through every note.

The blues structure is in there – from the deft triples on the drums to the slide guitar solo – but the group utilise this to craft something new, something strange and unerring. Think a mix of Buffalo Springfield and Come.

Released October 20th, 2014

On their second EP, ‘Chase the Light’, North London four-piece Palace go beyond initial buzz with a serious first step.

The follow-up to last year’s ‘Lost in the Night’ sees Leo Wyndham and co. furthering their spacious, romantic and effect-doused pop going up a few notches. Our second EP represents our development as a band really. It’s only our second ever EP and I feel it’s a more impressive body of work. It represents our progression musically, but also remains very much a Palace sound. It represents Palace in the present, how we feel and how our music seems to manifest itself, with lots of variation and range.

On the one hand, songs like opener ‘Head About The Water’ and stirring lead ‘Kiloran’ are potential arena-dwellers, but they’re also night lurkers, strangers tracing back their own steps when everyone else is fast asleep. It’s big, epic and ethereal – but also has it’s more tender moments, as heard on ‘Chase In The Night’ and ‘Settle Down“. It’s very much guitar music, a modern sound with a vintage twist.

Someday, Somewhere EP

‘I’ll Be Fine’ is out now to download and stream so go listen if you haven’t already. For anyone who’s been wondering what the artwork crops have been about for the last release ’Someday Somewhere’ and the latest track ’I’ll Be Fine’, they were taken from this painting, and these tracks are going to be part of an EP along with a new track called ‘Flesh To The Fallen’ that was released in October 2020. It’s going to be a digital release, but for the vinyl collectors out there we’re also doing a limited 12” vinyl edition which will include the bonus track ‘Trouble On The Water’ from the ‘Hoxa Sessions’ acoustic EP.

“Lover (Don’t Let Me Down)” 

Lover (Don’t Let Me Down) might be the band’s most affecting release to date. “Lover (Don’t Let Me Down)” opens the fold with wandering electric reverb, grounded by a softly secure drum pattern that reveals the 6/8 time signature. “Said it straight from the heart”, Leo Wyndham sings, like his life depends on it. In an interview with NME, the singer opened up the writing process, following a nine-month battle with COVID-19. “I felt very lethargic and heavy. I had terrible chest cramps. I started to fear it might even threaten my career”

The emotional significance of returning to music rings through in the dreamy track, giving the single a cathartic pull. Wyndham pulls in and out of falsetto, lifting your spirits up, and crushing them down all at once. Lyrically, the track deals in absolutes; “I love you I love you till the end of time”, offering profound proclamations of hope. However, all this powerful love is shrouded in Jeff Buckley-inspired electrics, shrouding the tale in melancholy.

At a galloping pace, the drums and gentle guitar embellishments ride us through the motions of love at its most intoxicating. You know it – that feeling when you can’t break free from the tunnel vision of one another.

The band have released an impressive array of 12″ singles

EPs

• Lost in the Night (2014)
• Chase the Light (2015)
• Someday, Somewhere (2020)
• Gravity (2021)
• Lover (Don’t Let Me Down) (2021)
• Fade (2021)
• Where Sky Becomes Sea (2021)
• Shame On You (2022)
• Friends Forever (2022)

Fust’s first record “Evil Joy” was a self-described bitter domestic drama obsessed with the kitchen-sink passage of time measured by moments of leaving, returning, leaving, and returning. With “Genevieve”, we find a different kind of leaving: leaving behind, leaving one’s old ways, starting anew, a small life together, in “Family Country.” Thus, “Genevieve” an historical name for both the saintly and the ordinary, the peasantry and the family, the community and the wife, extreme devotion and absolute forbearance. While sonically and instrumentally louder than “Evil Joy”, “Genevieve” is thematically more quiet about its pains—more settled in its ways. It is a collection of pathetic love stories written in dedication to “small life,” moving from gentle exceptions (“I can take the late hours if you’re with me”) to pitiful admissions (“I’m never going to change when I leave…”). What comes with a quiet life? The highest forms of beauty, but we also find here songs of unspeaking companions, the sublime dread of having children, the balance of humility and humiliation, playing the fool for the greater good, and… budget birthday parties. With these stories of possible growth, “Genevieve” can’t help but also feature tried and true examples of crisis and repression: seeking a bygone lifestyle in an old friend who hasn’t changed much over the years, pissing contests, search parties as the form of community for melancholics with no clue what they’ve lost, old flames you won’t let go and dying flames you won’t admit.

“Genevieve” is a road movie and a local theatrical production of and by a community struggling to hold itself together, a record of too many names and too many places: Sarah Lee, John and Angel, Jimmy, Sam, Rockfort Bay, New England, California, Jackson, Silent City, Bridge Street, Fourth Avenue, and of course “Genevieve”. How do we keep up with everybody, how do we stay close to those we love?

“Genevieve” is the studio debut of Fust, recorded throughout 2022 and early 2021 (mostly) at Drop of Sun recording studio in Asheville NC. It was engineered, mixed, and mastered by the great Alex Farrar. You can hear his patience in every corner of this record. The painting by Sasha Popovici is exactly right: a domestic scene yet unfinished. Many friends helped near and far to make it much better than it was without them—Xandy Chelmis, Michael Cormier-O’Leary, Indigo De Souza, MJ Lenderman, Courtney Werner.

released June 16th, 2023

Hailing from Detroit, Bonny Doon served as Waxhatchee’s backing band on the Saint Cloud tour; the band’s Bill Lennox and Bobby Colombo also worked with Katie Crutchfield on that album. Throughout the ten tracks in their new album ‘Let There Be Music’, you can hear the spaciousness Bonny Doon allowed themselves since their 2018 sleeper cult-classic ‘Longwave’. Their latest musical journey is one that has big payoffs for devoted followers and undeniable rewards for anyone just stumbling across the band for the first time. After extensively touring ‘Longwave’ by supporting Band of Horses, “The experience raised the ceiling on our imagination,” Colombo said in a statement. Bonny Doon’s new album, “Let There Be Music”, was led by “On My Mind” and the title track. This June we hear from men who have made it to their California. Or a different space in Detroit. Men who found love, toured, and await the new world to be born.

On their long-awaited third album, we get a glimpse into the pure joy of Bonny Doon. The album serves as less of one conceptual story, and each song as their own individual offerings of putting words to the ordinary experience of being alive. The band is at their most dynamic and the songwriting deftly explores new terrain. ‘Let There Be Music’ is brimming with small truths – both profound and mundane, comforting and difficult – and we are invited to revel in them all.

released June 16th, 2023

Produced by Bonny Doon and Brian Fox
Mixed by Jarvis Taveniere and Bobby Colombo

“The Unstruck Bell” is the first new Pines of Rome album in two decades. The Rhode Island slowcore band comprises Songs:Ohia’s Matthew Derby on vocals and guitar, High Aura’d guitarist John Kolodij, drummer Rick Prior, and bassist Steven Kimura. The quartet announced the new LP with lead single “Slick Enhancer” back in March and has since shared the scuzzy rock cut “Redacted.”

The Pines of Rome is a slowcore band from Providence, Rhode Island, who’ve been exploring the frontiers of Cosmic American Music on and off for the past 25 years, dialling down the tempo and turning up the volume to create tidal walls of sound that surge and break like the turbulent Atlantic waves that batter the shores of the smallest state in the Union.

“The Unstruck Bell” is the newest offering from John Kolodij (guitar), Matthew Derby (guitar/vocals), and Rick Prior (drums) since playing their last show over 20 years ago. Recorded by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets, it is the result of a year of unbridled creativity for the band during an era of unprecedented crisis. “If you think about a bell as an alarm, and all of its tolls are stored as potential energy in its atoms…that just feels like the time we’re living through right now,” Derby says of the album. It is a record of caution and hope, a hymn for the future that contains the band’s strongest-ever work.

We’ve played with Songs:Ohia/Magnolia Electric Co.,Richard Buckner, Bonnie Prince Billy, June of ’44, Shipping News, Lullaby for the Working Class, the Promise Ring, Jets To Brasil, Rainer Maria,Joan of Arc,Silkworm, Bright Eyes..

Released May 26th, 2023

“Through both his work being the front man of The Commotions and his solo career, Lloyd Cole established himself as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the post-punk era. Undergoing several artistic shifts, from minimalistic to folk-rock-inspired to electronic, Cole’s work never compromised the high creative value that he has proven to provide over his distinguished career. His artistic integrity and proven divergence make him one of the most capable and remarkable songwriters to this day. Cole’s latest work On Pain — his 13th solo album consists mainly of electronic sounds. Once Cole had formulated a sonic picture of the record he wanted to make, the arrival of each new song gradually brought that picture into focus.

His distinguishable voice and sophisticated lyricism invite the listener into the mindset of someone who has reached old age and is coming to terms with this. At times, the experience of listening to “On Pain” is akin to sitting in a sleek, state-of-the-art departure lounge, unsure of quite where you’re waiting to go.”

Brooklyn quintet Geese’s sophomore album “3D Country”  was co-produced by the band and James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Shame). The album’s 11 tracks are an explosion in both scope and vision for the group. In the summer of 2021, Geese emerged from out of nowhere, sparking a hype cycle unlike anything that had been seen for a young American rock band in recent memory.

Suddenly a band that had previously planned to release some music, break up, and go away to college was touring the world. And during this entire process, that very same band everyone was getting to know ceased to exist. On a practical level, Geese are still the group we were introduced to in 2021: Vocalist Cameron Winter, guitarist Gus Green, guitarist Foster Hudson, bassist Dom DiGesu and drummer Max Bassin. But spiritually, Geese have returned as an entirely different prospect. 

I liked their first album a lot but I have a feeling “3D Country” is gonna propel them to new heights. So far in the two singles you can hear a lot of maturing from this band in songwriting and technique, especially Cameron’s singing, which sounds possessed compared to the first album

“3D Country” is the sound of a restless, adventurous band redefining themselves.” The new album “3D Country” out June 23rd, 2023 on Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam.

Militarie Gun are a truly uncategorizable band. Led by vocalist Ian Shelton, the band’s debut full-length album “Life Under The Gun” is almost impossible to describe without bouncing between contradictions. Is it abnormally aggressive pop music or is it unusually catchy hardcore? Is it deeply intellectual or is it satisfyingly primal? Is it a vulnerable attempt to unpack lifelong cycles of hurt, or is it a collection of world-beating, absurdist punk anthems? In the end, the answer is obvious: it’s all of it. It’s Militarie Gun. Since forming in 2020, the group have been releasing music and touring at a startling rate, and “Life Under The Gun” feels like a culmination of this recent hard-earned momentum. The album’s 12 tracks take all of the best parts of Militarie Gun’s earlier work and amps them up to the highest possible degree.

It sounds massive without sacrificing the punk spark–full of driving drums, distorted bass lines, and of course Shelton’s instantly recognizable roar–only this time everything is bigger and even catchier. “This is what I thought we sounded like all along,” Shelton laughs. “It’s always felt like a melody-forward band to me, but I think now we’re finally achieving what I was always setting out to do.”

Over the past decade, Portugal. The Man have established themselves as one of rock’s most prized possessions and a live phenomenon, with over 1,600 shows under their belts and a storied reputation as festival favorites. Originally heralding from Alaska, the now Portland-based band soared to new heights in 2017 with the release of their platinum album “Woodstock”. The album was marked by the astounding success of their infectious single “Feel It Still”, which earned the group a plethora of new accolades — including a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, a seven-times platinum certification, a record setting 20-week residency at No. 1 on alternative radio, and an inescapable presence on the Top 40 airwaves.  “Chris Black Changed My Life” is the band’s first full length album since “Woodstock”.

Our new album “Chris Black Changed My Life” coming June 23rd, The album is dedicated to the band’s late friend and honourary band member Chris Black. 

The Alarm’s 21st studio album, “Forwards”, is out now on their own The Twenty First Century Recording Company label. The Welsh punk survivors have released “Forwards”, which follows last year’s “Omega”, which had been written and recorded over 50 days in early 2021 during the pandemic. With a dark irony, “Omega” could well have been their last following sole original member Mike Peters’ well-publicised battle with pneumonia and a serious leukaemia relapse during 2022; a condition which has first been diagnosed in 1995.

Thankfully that wasn’t to be the case, and we now have the optimistic, life-affirming “Forwards”, written while the artist was receiving treatment at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd Hospital in Rhyl. “I literally took my guitar into hospital with me,” says Peters. “I was on the ward for such a long time, I started writing the songs for “Forwards” in between IV sessions and the first people to hear the music were, literally, the very people who were trying to keep me alive.” The album was recorded in between hospitalisation periods, the singer taking the band into the recording studio with producer George Williams, despite barely being able to speak due to the debilitating effects of chronic illness. 

He says, “I’ve been to places only deep suffering can take the human spirit and, in the darkness, I clung onto every piece of light I could find to work my way back to life. This was the energy that drove me to write and record “Forwards.”

Before we go forwards (sorry, bad pun) let’s take stock. The Alarm, since the early 1980s had 17 Top 50 UK singles, including the magnificent “68 Guns; Spirit of 76” and “Rain In The Summertime” and have sold over six million albums worldwide. The band split in 1991, however Peters performed as a solo artist, with projects such as Coloursound with Billy Duffy and returned to the ‘Alarm’ name in the early 2000s. I’ll be honest I’m not qualified to summarise the artists lengthy career, but what I will say is the bands website is one of the best I’ve ever seen with clearly a lot of time and attention paid to it, with interviews and documents dating back to early days as The Toilets and also Seventeen.

 The other thing that jumps out from the site is what a bloody great bloke Mike Peters is. Whilst he’s been knocked down on occasions, he’s got up again. As well as a savvy operator, arguably one of the first artists to set up his own label to release his music and control his catalogue, he’s also constantly in touch with his fans. Since the lockdowns, his Big Night In online broadcasts (via YouTube) have attracted thousands of views from all corners of the Earth. The love for the artist and his music has also been celebrated at ‘The Gathering’ each year. This year it celebrates its 30th anniversary attracting fans to North Wales, and next week Peters is flying out to New York to perform, chat, and meet and greet for 4 sold-out days, from June 22nd to 25th. As well as being a bloody great bloke he seems to be a very humble one too. How many readers are aware of the amazing charity work (with wife Jules) via their Love Hope Strength Foundation which promotes innovative, music-related, outreach and awareness programmes for leukaemia and cancer sufferers, survivors and their families?

Truth be told I am lapsed Alarm fan myself, The albums “Eye Of The Hurricane” and “Electric Folklore Live” The dynamics of the tracks always grab the attention as Mike Peters soulful yet occasionally coarse vocals carry you along.

“Forwards” hits you with an urgency and pent-up restless energy from the off. The opening title track sets the tone for the album, which offers reflections balanced with a desire to live throughout. The first track fades in as if you’re returning from the darkness into the light of hope. Peters explains the track was, “Written for, and in the moment that I found myself trying to stay alive. I was in hospital and searching my heart and soul for clues to how I could survive. My instincts told me that whenever I had a moment in between IV sessions I should not stay still and at least try and walk some steps along the corridors of the hospital. This was generally at night when the place was deserted and the lyrics are informed by all the fleeting glimpses I would get from seeing other people on my route down the long corridors sometimes stricken with grief or like myself, clinging to life itself. I was looking for the way forwards and when I decided to go public and post the news about what was happening to me on the Alarm website, I signed my message off with the single word ‘Forwards’. I knew right away that was going to be a song and an album title”. It’s a call to arms and a hook which will pull you in.

“Forwards” is naturally dominated by the artist’s experiences over the last year, with key themes of love, hope and strength throughout. After a few listens some of those stand out, such as the opening line of “The Returning“, a track written for Jules and his sons Dylan and Evan, “Dream out loud if you want to stay alive,” or the defiant “Whatever’s trying to kill me…. makes me feel alive” in previous single and “Next” which closes side one of the album.

“Another Way” gives you an insight into the working of the writer’s mind, and also his resolve. “There’s always another way; is a mantra and a phrase that has proved itself to me time and time again. Even in the most simple phases of life when a door seems closed, or life impacts on your direction of travel, I’m a believer that there is always a solution,” which seems to pay off on the following track, “Love And Forgiveness“, the singer commenting, “I’m always amazed when I find myself on the other side of life’s challenges, grateful to be alive and to have received the love and forgiveness to continue…” This is possibly my favourite track on the album, it’s a mid-tempo piece, almost Dylan-esque.

The opening track on the second, “Whatever”, was born out of John Lennon’s Whatever Gets You Thru The Night being played on hospital radio one day, Peters took his idea of getting through one night, and applied it to a longer intent Whatever Gets You Through Life? He remembers, “When I was in Ward 11 with a drain attached (through my back), into my lung, I had to lie still and on one side for 7 days while 5 litres of blood was extracted from my partially collapsed lungs. To stay sane I started to imagine what a new Alarm record would sound like and what kind of songs I would need to populate the space between the record cover and also get me through this predicament. As soon as I was out of hospital, I set up my recording gear and the songs burst forth from my imagination. It was as if they were writing themselves, and I knew the music had got me through and back to a place where I could begin to live again”.

“Transition” is perhaps the most open, raw and brutal song on the album, written at a point, “literally in a place of transition between life and death.” The opening verse makes it clear. ‘There’s a line / I have to cross tonight / If I want to stay alive / Live for a second time’. Midway through it musically lightens and you get a sense of hope on the horizon, especially when the guitar riff kicks in which at one point sounds not unlike I Will Follow.

“Love Disappearing” is the oldest piece on the album, written before hospitalisation but recorded after. It’s got a bit of everything. The open section making having a Spanish feel to it before turning into a tub-thumper, “Its content is easily explained, especially as the concerns about global warming are all around us and everywhere. Here in my small Welsh village, it seems as if life has taken a turn and the summers are not how I remember them as a child growing up, with winter becoming more severe with every passing year.”

The penultimate, “New Standards” is looking to the future, a song ‘about changing attitudes to life, the impact of social media and the dynamic between society and authority’. After charting the trauma of his time in hospital it’s positive that Peters can focus on what happens next. He says of the track, “Humanity is setting new standards every day, and I hope we can all learn to live with and by them, together”. Closing with the track X, it’s up to the listener to make of it what you will. “I wrote the lyrics in one pass and it was all there. I had no title but called it X as it was the last song on a ten-track record”.

Many may come to “Forwards” as a result of Mike Peter’s recent battles, it is a great place to return to The Alarm. I’m sure seasoned followers will question where I/we have been, and it’s a fair question, it’s us that have been away, not the band. There’s plenty to catch up on, over 400 songs, and I intend to start now. It seems that that opening line written 40 years ago was prophetic… “and now they’re trying to take my life away…”. ‘They’ did, and are still trying, but thankfully Mike Peters is a survivor and still here to tell the tale.

Night Beats have revealed another track from the new LP – check out “Nightmare”, one of our favourites off the album! Danny and his band have always blown us away with his guitar, vocals and songwriting, and this track is pure magic.

The new record “Rajan” is out July 14th. We’ve got a Tri-Tone vinyl dream for your turntable – our Levitation Edition pressing is limited to 300 copies. Following recent singles ‘Thank You’ and ‘Hot Ghee’, Night Beats are dropping their new single and video ‘Nightmare’. A slice of soulful psychedelic R&B, the track is the latest to be lifted from LA-based Danny Lee Blackwell’s sixth Night Beats album,

On ‘Nightmare’, Blackwell writes: “I wanted to hear sounds and cries of unconditional, blind love. I wanted swirling, fitful guitars, speaking in tongues, thrashing around in a chest trying to break free. A call and response to the blood curdling voice of a lost soul, ringing out, pleading for understanding. ‘Rajan’ is laced with distant, layered choral groups, exploring pathways paved by Isley Brothers, David Ruffin, Grace Slick and other psychedelic soul pioneers of the time. I wanted to hear the sounds of service to the ones you love, even being blinded by it. This song creates a circle, if you’re listening. A cascading roadmap through a nightmare. Thunder and lightning, flashing neon blue lights, rhetorical puzzles.

‘Nightmare’ is lifted from Night Beats’ new album, ‘Rajan’, due out July 14th via Fuzz Club and Suicide Squeeze Records.