Leeds duo Menace Beach have released the latest track from their upcoming third album, ‘Black Rainbow Sound’, out August 31st.
The fizzy ‘Satellite’ was inspired by Liza Violet’s dog.”I wrote the words to ‘Satellite’ after I came back to Leeds and saw how crazily nuanced and weird the bond between Liza and her dog had become,” says Ryan Needham.
“It got me thinking about clairvoyance in human relationships and how developed and extrasensory they would become if we constantly studied each other as much as that little guy watches Liza, or even if we just paid a little more attention to each other.”
Taken from Menace Beach’s new album ‘Black Rainbow Sound’,
Last year, after more than a decade, the Too Pure Singles Club came to an end. After more than 120 releases, including early recordings by the likes of Pulled Apart By Horses, Bear Hands and Drahla.
So after 10 years Too Pure Singles Club came to a natural end as a subscription based label in December 2017 and the label closed its doors. It was a sad day for many reasons none more so than there was now one less label championing underground UK music and generally bringing the mother flipping ruckus… Fear not Dipped in Gold is here to fill that void! We begin this momentous journey with the first release… by Leeds Art-Rockers Mush. Like Alt Facts before it Gig Economy combines a wry social commentary with spasmodic and Idiosyncratic hooks and general guitar wonderment. Mush have been causing quite the stir on the DIY scene supporting the likes of Rolling Blackouts, Omni, Ulrika Spacek, Drahla and Parquet Courts
The launch of Dipped In Gold Recordings. It’s not a monthly subscription club by Too Pure, instead sharing the most exciting new sounds they come across.
So this fresh chapter begins with a release from Mush. This Leeds four-piece share ‘Gig Economy’ – four minutes of addictive, scratchy, lo-fi art-rock. It comes out on 14th September.
The latest single by Leeds quintet Fizzy Blood, the anthemic ‘Pink Magic’ now has a video to accompany it. The ‘performance’ video, of sorts, comes with both pink and several ‘magic’ moments.
“We were really taken back by the reaction to ‘Pink Magic’,” says drummer Jake Greenway. “It’s a step in a different direction for us, and to see and hear people loving it is great. We hope people enjoy the video just as much. The idea for it was to make something that was more aesthetically pleasing and let the music do the talking rather than relying on our rather usual assault the senses. We filmed it with the guys from Fresh Cut Creative who were an absolute pleasure to work and enabled all of our stupid ideas. “Pink Magic’ is the title track from the band’s third EP, due out in September.
Some music is just meant to sound noisy, take Guillotine, the new single from Dead Naked Hippies; no matter how quiet you play it, the energy, the fizzing, noise of the piece is inescapable. The track is the Leeds-trios first release of 2018, and their finest track to date.
Walking the intense middle-ground of post-punk and grunge, Guillotine is both musically and lyrically brutal. The heavy drums, the cathartic clattering guitar-lines, the honest, vocal howl, even in the slowest, quietest section, it’s never short of full throttle intensity. Discussing the track, vocalist Lucy Jowett has suggested it is an exploration of grief, “the fine line between wanting to retaliate to someone who has caused you hurt, versus choosing to cut out the dead weight they have created in your life.” Dead Naked Hippies are a band unafraid of tackling the world’s more difficult topics, whether it’s grief, mental health or just trying to find your place in the world, they’re the sort of band who are ready to inspire another hundred people to pick up an instrument and let their music and emotions flow freely into the world.
Leeds band Menace Beach are back with details of a new album! Now billed as a duo are set to release new record ‘Black Rainbow Sound’ in August via Memphis Industries, the brilliantly bleak title track, which features Brix Smith, formerly of The Fall.
A kraut-influenced rollercoaster, ‘Black Rainbow Sound’ is an intoxicating ride, with the band pushing the limits of last LP – 2017’s ‘Lemon Memory’ – to its extremes, to stunning results. The affect is just heightened by Brix’s vicious, moving spoken word.
“We’ve always used synths and electronic elements,” the band’s Ryan Needham says of the new record, ”but for me the eureka moment in defining the sound of this record was hearing Dean Honer’s (Moonlandingz/add n to x/all seeing eye) remix of ‘Maybe We’ll Drown’ from the last record. He just tele=ported the song in another world but it totally worked not only sonically but by retaining all the wonkiness and kinda low-fi ’Menace Beach’ character. It was really inspiring that something we’d been reaching for sonically for ages, and almost given up on, just sounded so perfect.”
Liza adds: “There’s always been a bit of artistic push and pull between us on the balance of synth noise vs guitars noise and the guitars have previously always taken over by the time we leave the studio, probably because we all know now how to make loud guitars sound really exciting in a room. But lately I’ve been feeling too much reality in the sound of a guitar and I really wanted to give something more this time. I wasn’t really prepared to compromise”
‘Black Rainbow Sound’ is out on 31st August. The band have also announced UK headline tour dates.
OCTOBER
18 Derby, The Hairy Dog
20 Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
22 Glasgow, Broadcast
23 Newcastle, The Cluny 2
24 Manchester, Deaf Institute
25 London, Oslo
26 Bristol, Rough Trade
27 Sheffield, Picture House Social
Matt Hollywood and the Bad Feelings | Deadcuts | New Candys
Phobophobes | Meatraffle | Desert Mountain Tribe | Creatures | The Goa Express DJ sets from Le Crowley (Astral Elevator) & Nicki Allen (Portsmouth Psych Fest)
Early Bird tickets £10.00 (stbf) from Skiddle and See. Doors 6pm – 3am
Fizzy Blood have released their new single ‘Pink Magic’.The track is taken from their forthcoming track-titled EP ‘Pink Magic’, due later this year via Killing Moon.
The release comes ahead of the band’s packed summer schedule including festival appearances at Live at Leeds, Hit The North, Dot to Dot and Long Division.
Speaking of the single, guitarist Paul Howells explained: “’Pink Magic’ is probably the easiest song we’ve ever written. It kind of just fell into our laps when together we were messing around with a korg, we got a bit of a trance-like groove going and just decided to see how far we could take that before it became boring We never found the answer, instead we got ‘Pink Magic’.”
Band Members
Paul, Benji, Jake, Ciaran & Tim
An instantly addictive release, ‘Pink Magic’ is a swagger-fuelled single that’ll leave you eagerly waiting for their forthcoming EP
Fehm have been together for just under a year and they already sound mightily pissed off – but not in the slacker – ‘can’t be arsed’ kind of way. They started off as a 3 piece with Paul on vocals, Amy on bass and Chris on drums, Darren (synth) and Ben (guitar) joined late last year and this has seen the band take a turn into darker, more brooding, synth led, post punk.
Their sound has a tangible visceral sense of righteous anger and simmering fury. Their songs, we are told are based around themes of desperation, unemployment, anxiety and the urban decay of 21st century Britain, all of which will be showcased on their forthcoming debut EP Animal Skin, released April.
As well as post punk angst, surfing a wave of choppy guitars and dystopian synths there’s also a brooding sense of gothic menace on lead track ‘Hand To Mouth’ Imagine perhaps Bauhaus minus the pretension, theatricality and ill-advised trousers. The key to the band’s sound is the strident stentorian vocals and savage delivery of frontman Paul Riddle, which on occasion conjure up the spectre of Curtis/ Eldritch
‘Hand To Mouth’ provides a compelling snapshot of the seething anger, dissatisfaction and exasperation at life in Britain during, what are now known as ‘the austerity years.’
The Fat Angel Sings 