Chubby and the Gang are a West London punk troupe comprised of members of various bands associated with The New Wave ofBritish Hardcore, among them Violent Reaction, Abolition, Big Cheese and more. The band – helmed by local electrician Charlie Manning – developed a cult following in the UK, largely rooted in the cross-pollinating nature of the punk scene.
Knock, knock – they’re back. “Lightning Don’t Strike Twice” is a three-minute ride through the band’s entire mood board – opening with lap slide noodling before steering into anthemic pub rock with snarling lyrics. The video was directed by Jasper Cable-Alexander, and takes inspiration from ’90s internet cafés. “Lightning Don’t Strike Twice” is part of a double A-side 7″ out on May 28th that will feature another new track entitled “Life’s Lemons.”
Lead singer Chubby Charles offers: “I wrote this song about social inequality. Not mine but the people I saw around me. I feel like the whole premise of poverty is presented like this game in which if you play your cards right you can escape. In reality it’s more like playing a game of dice when they’re loaded against your favour. Constantly being struck by lightning and being told that it will never happen again. I remember witnessing someone’s telephone voice where they had to change their voice when conducting business or applying for jobs so they don’t come across as if they are from a lower class.
I wrote the last verse about that because it disgusted me that in a system supposedly created on meritocracy a human being has to change their identity to try and shake unemployment. I’ve had very few jobs that required me to go for an interview. No one really cares who you are when you drive a minicab or lay out cables so I’m lucky in that sense. But many people aren’t.”
This double A-side 7″ contains “Lightning Don’t Strike Twice” (available as an instant download when pre-ordered) and “Life’s Lemons” – released 28th May 2021.
It has been eleven years since Cathal Coughlan committed his voice to record – and the moment you hear it, you will be painfully aware of how much you have missed it. He has a voice like no-one else, expressive and sullen while somehow not coming across as grumpy. Originally from Cork, Ireland, Cathal Coughlan is the co-founder and singer of acclaimed 80s/90s groups Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, and widely considered to be one of Ireland’s most revered singer/songwriters, beloved by fans of caustic literate lyricism and erudite songcraft.
Although I still prefer his work in Microdisney together with Sean O’Hagan to his Fatima Mansions and solo records, the new album is certainly the best thing he has made since those days.
Maybe the renewed inspiration is related to the fact that Coughlan was instrumental in reforming Microdisney for a number of concerts, Not only do some of his old mates appear on this record; the songs are great, there is lots of drama in the arrangements, and the intense lyrics are filled to the brim with chaotic pictures expressing the life of alter-ego Co-Aklan.
The high point on the album is probably ‘The Knockout Artist’, what a pop song! It is also great to hear Sean O’Hagan contributing some synth on it. O’Hagan reappears on the closing track ‘Unrealtime’, this time on vocals.
A real keeper.
Recorded in London, the album features contributions from members of long-time collaborators the Grand Necropolitan Quartet as well as Luke Haines (The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder), Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney, The High Llamas), Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti), Eileen Gogan and Aindrais O’Gruama (Fatima Mansions).
I was never a fan of East India Youth although that was William Doyle in everything but name. However, his first proper solo album ‘Your Wilderness Revisited’ totally and absolutely floored me, Whereas that was a perfectionist album in every sense, William Doyle is now back with something quite different.
His hard disc crashed and he then had to piece together the album based on cassette copies that he had made. Or at least that is how the story goes, because who really backs their recordings up on cassette these days? Whatever the truth is, these songs are definitely more spontaneous, and definitely represent something that is a bit muddier timewise. Initially, you don’t notice, as the two opening tracks are crisp and pretty great pop songs. But then you are thrown into something that sounds more like a collage. There are more good pop songs further into the album but there are interspersed with more experimental – or maybe I should rather say unfocused – pieces.
Apart from the track ‘Semi-bionic’, which literally starts out sounding like a hard disc crashing, the sound quality on the album isn’t muddy or full of tape hiss, but you definitely get the feel that some of tracks aren’t still finished. While that does lend the album an air of spontaneity, it also makes for a somewhat stumbling listening experience. But when it clicks, it is clear that Doyle’s sense for melody combined with ambient drama is intact!
It’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, “Total Strife Forever”, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.After self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – “Your Wilderness Revisited” arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. Just over a year later, as he turns 30, Doyle is back with Great Spans of Muddy Time.
Born from accident but driven forward by instinct, Great Spans was built from the remnants of a catastrophic hard-drive failure. With his work saved only to cassette tape, Doyle was forced to accept the recordings as they were – a sharp departure from his process on Your Wilderness Revisited, which took four long years to craft toward perfection. “Instead of feeling a loss that I could no longer craft these pieces into flawless ‘Works of Art’, I felt intensely liberated that they had been set free from my ceaseless tinkering,” Doyle says.“The album this turned out to be – and that I’ve wanted to make for ages – is a kind of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the verdancy of the country’s pastures looking for some sense,” says Doyle. “It has its seeds in Robert Wyatt, early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, and Syd Barrett.”
Doyle credits Bowie’s ever-influential Berlin trilogy, but also highlights a much less expected muse: Monty Don, presenter of the BBC programme Gardener’s World, Doyle’s lockdown addiction. “I became obsessed with Monty Don. I like his manner and there’s something about him I relate to. He once described periods of depression in his life as consisting of ‘nothing but great spans of muddy time’.
When I read that quote I knew it would be the title of this record,” Doyle says. “Something about the sludgy mulch of the album’s darker moments, and its feel of perpetual autumnal evening, seemed to fit so well with those words. I would also be lying if I said it didn’t chime with my mental health experiences as well. ”Lead single “And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)” is representative of the album as a whole: eclectic and unpredictable, but also playful and properly danceable. On top of the gently pulsing electronics, soothing harmonies and glowing melodies, there’s a ripping guitar solo that ricochets around the song like a pinball. “I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts,” Doyle says. Elsewhere there’s the synth pop strut of “Nothing At All”, pulsating static on “Semi-Bionic”, incandescent synths and enveloping soundscapes in “Who Cares”, and the ambient glitch groove of “New Uncertainties”. Great Spans of Muddy Time is a beautiful ode to the power of accident, instinct and intuition. The result, however, is far from an anomaly: this celebration of the imperfect album is one that required years of honed craft and dedicated focus to achieve, “For the first time in my career, the distance between what I hear and what the listener hears is paper-thin,” Doyle says. “Perhaps therein reveals a deeper truth that the perfectionist brain can often dissolve.”
Ed’s first album came out in 2017 on Lost Map Records. His music has regularly appeared on BBC6 Music and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, which included The Uncle Sold in their Top 12 albums of 2017. His 2nd album, “The Obvious I” is out now on Needle Mythology.
It has been four years since Ed Dowie’s debut album ‘The Uncle Sold’. I liked that very much and although maybe his new album is a little less experimental, I like it every bit as much. With arrangements very much designed to lift Ed’s strong voice to the fore, it plays like a synth pop album for those of us who never liked synth pop albums. It is all here, sampled instruments, blips and blurbs, programmed drums and more. But done with restraint and a sense for the rather straightforward songs on the album. In 2017, Ed released his feted debut album ‘The Uncle Sold’, prompting The Quietus to hail him as a “bold and starry-eyed visionary” and The Skinny to praise his “beautiful… stolen snapshots of glimpsed futures and lost pasts.” and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction made the record one of their albums of the year. Now, four years on, Ed is to return with an album that will surely find him new followers alongside long time fans such as Lauren Laverne, who described its predecessor as an “absolutely extraordinary” achievement.
And while there are many layered sounds here, they never unnecessarily take over the soundstage, allowing for much space between instruments, sometimes even creating a cavernous yet simultaneously clear sound for the vocals to inhabit.
So whereas there are clear homages to the sounds of the 80s here, and the 8-bit cover art had me worried, Dowie has delivered a powerful album of gentle pop that really shines.
‘The Obvious I’, the second album from Ed Dowie, is the second new master release from Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides. “The Obvious I” was co produced by pioneering British experimental musician and sometime member of Polar Bear “Leafcutter John” Burton “John’s become something of a hero of mine over the years. Way back when he was in Polar Bear, I approached him after a couple of gigs, and he’d remembered me from those days. And really, his presence on the record was invaluable. He lent me equipment and gave me advice, then when I finished recording, I sent him the stems and he mixed the album.”
‘Bad Time’ is the new EP from Peeping Drexels. The London based 5-piece, who have been together since they were sixteen, have to date released a series of singles on the Permanent Creeps and Fierce Panda labels. This is their first release on BY Records. They’ve previously received support from the likes of Steve Lamacq, DIY, So Young among others, performing live with the likes of Shame, Goat Girl and Public Practice.
Baby Blue 12″ Vinyl limited to 500 copies worldwide
Having all lived in London for most of their lives, the band are now just a ‘stone’s throw’ from each other, with daily walks to maintain contact and the occasional shout from a balcony. The friendships dating back to college led to open conversations about playing together, and when the drummer leaving Alex’s previous band timed well with the group moving nearer to each other, Margot was formed. ‘We kind of talked about playing together. Rob and I had done some stuff together so it kinda made sense’, explained Alex. ‘I especially admired Alex’s songwriting, the way he was writing lyrics and singing in his band… so I thought that would have been fun to work with him’, Ben added. The quiet respect that they have for each other and their craft was evident throughout our conversation as they gently jibed each other with affectionate, dry humour and sarcasm.
It’s about a mate. It’s certainly a tragedy. He’s had a hardship of sorts. He’s got a life to look forward, for sure, and so do all of us, but things external, out of his control, took over. He had started to rebuild, to see beyond the internal damp colours, he had a life back. And after losing the comfort of the person he loved, and after coming to terms with all of the pain and the rubble, all the regret, he had a pandemic. Lost job, no soulmate and back living with his family at 27.
He dreamed of an ideal life; he dreamt that he could change his circumstances, he fought against a raging brute that cared little for his dreams, for his determination. He just had to sit and wait, sit and wait, and be still with his ambitions. It’s about fear, loss, uncertainty, pain, hope and then the recoiling turgid desire for familiarity.
With all of the band members taking influence from various genres of music, the ‘music that [they] bonded around was American indie bands, like Real Estate, and Gear Hunter. That kind of 2010 guitar,’ Ben explained. ‘We all have very eclectic tastes you know,’ Mike continued. ‘I love jazz, and hip hop, and then I love indie music, even though that’s such a broad genre. Khurangbin and Andy Shauf, to shout out a few names!’
The vinyl release for Falling in Between Days and Walk With Me is one to look forward to on 19th February
With a stream of singles released in their first two years as a band, followed by the release of Margotzeko at the beginning of early 2020, Margot have continued to be ‘on it’, despite the difficult times.
Writers – Rob Fenner and Alex Hannaway with Alby Cleghorn, Ben Andrewes, Michael Webb
Marie Naffah is certainly on a hot streak. Bashing away the typecasting of sound that could pigeonhole an artist and fresh from the release of the 2020 boisterous singles ‘The Cage’ and ‘California’, Naffah returns with new single ‘Wasteland’ a procession of nostalgic Californian seventies-sounding-sass with what may be the most devilish bassline since Foals dropped ‘Inhaler’.
On ‘Wasteland’ Naffah demonstrates admirable confidence in lyricism – “am I everything you want?” – that partners advantageously with an evident desire to seek out one’s own extraordinariness; Naffah herself has stated that she hopes the song assists listeners in discovering their own ‘Wonderland’ in 2021.
The dynamic hook, “lower your lids, loudly promise me this” truly fires up the motor of the song and Naffah’s raw but profound vocal delivery throughout, loaded with sentiment and neat vigour; sketches a rebellious attitude.
There’s a lot of fun to be had on ‘Wasteland’ and it quite rightly declares Naffah as a musical force capable of thrilling and unexpected things.
The B-side – a cover of Mark Fry’s “The Witch” whose album “Dreaming with Alice” released in 1972 is a cult classic. The Chemistry Set have given the song a twist, with a Gregorian Chant intro, that is taken from The Bee Gee’s acid drenched 1967 song “Every Christian Lion-Hearted Soldier”. Mellotron flutes, Iranian Setar and Acoustic guitars abide, faithful to the original vibe but then heads into “Freak-out” territory a la “Interstellar Overdrive” meets The Red Krayola. which, even this early in the year, is going to rank this among everyone’s top singles of the year, a folky, spooky, haunted slice of occasionally Floydy psych (it’s that organ) that morphs so gently into a pounding freak out of the kind you wish every record sounded like. The Chemistry Set have always rated high on the Modern Psych-o-meter, but this time, they’ve hit the nail so hard on the head that a time machine could not make you happier.
Flip it over – and oh, what the hell, let’s pretend it’s a double a-side. Because “Paint Me a Dream” effectively picks up where “The Witch” left off, with the Set already sparking alchemical magic, but this time heading towards a shoe-gazey kind of Byrdsy sound, with guitars on stun and a dynamic guitar solo spilling fuzz all over the carpet. this is truly wonderful.
Brand new single from The Psychedelic Scientists – released 29th January on the Los Angeles “Hypnotic Bridge” label. Limited edition 7″ vinyl. Available in the UK –
Armed with a freer, more collaborative approach to both writing and recording, Teleman‘s 11-track album “Family of Aliens”, is a fluid collection of glorious pop-songs fluent with new electronic textures and united by the sharp lyricism, buoyant guitars and instantaneous melodies that are synonymous with Teleman.
Teleman’s third studio album is the alluringly named Family of Aliens.
“We want to keep evolving and keep discovering. This band is one long journey for us, and we never want to stop developing and finding new ways of creating music. I’m always wanting to better what we’ve done before. To go deeper, to find something more beautiful, more catchy, more challenging, more interesting … just more.”
It’s evident the much-loved quartet have evolved, cultivating and honing their sound as a very-welcome and anticipated proposition for 2018.
London’s Dry Cleaning have announced that their debut album is on the way: “New Long Leg” is out April 2 via 4AD Records. The follow-up to their 2019 EPs Sweet Princess and Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks features the new song “Strong Feelings” is the 2nd single from upcoming debut album
Dry Cleaning recorded the album during the pandemic, with each member demoing their individual parts on a four-track Tascam recorder they passed to each other through the window of a car, disinfected each time with antibacterial wipes. They went on to work with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey) at Rockfield Studios in Wales to put the record together. “Strong Feelings,” vocalist Florence Shaw said in a statement, is “about secretly being in love with someone who doesn’t know it, and Brexit’s disruptive role in romantic relationships.”
One of the standout albums for 2021. It’s everything you expected and more. Simply amazing. Dry Cleaning will release their debut studio album “New Long Leg” the 10-track long-player, which includes last year’s single ‘Scratchcard Lanyard’, was recorded over two weeks last summer at Rockfield. “New Long Leg” is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Shaw says, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”
Dry Cleaning was formed by friends Tom Dowse, Nick Buxton and Lewis Maynard after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired a collaboration. They wrote instrumentally to begin with until six months later Florence Shaw, a visual artist, university lecturer and picture researcher by day – with no prior musical experience – turned up to a band rehearsal armed with reams of her own collected writing and a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music. Before long she was the group’s frontperson, contributing words of her own, and serving as the perfect foil to the band’s music.
Florence Shaw: (frontwoman) said about the LP: “I found the lockdown played into some of the themes I was interested in anyway, living in a small world, a feeling of alienation, paranoia and worry, but also a joyful reveling in household things. It’s not just sheer pent-up energy all the time in the way that the first two EPs were. I feel more confident with leaving gaps.”
There is a Bonus CD – Featuring two extra tracks Tony Speaks! and Hm.
The Fat Angel Sings 