Skating Polly - Send A Priest

Clearly the most intense of Skating Polly's recent output, 'Send A Priest' is unyielding and unforgiving. The press release describes it as "brutal". A self lacerating 'who's using who?' tale with guitars that slash like knives, drums that pound unrelentingly and Kelli Mayo's most ferocious snarl.

Their new album, Chaos County Line, was released on the 23rd of June. 

Current Affairs - 'No Fuss' (Official Video)

While they sounds like a fist fight between Girls At Our Best! and the Mo-dettes as orchestrated by the Avengers with X watching on, Current Affairs are in fact based in modern day Glasgow and Berlin (no, I don't know how that works with band practice either...). This comes as no surprise given that fair Scottish city's impeccable history of scuffed punk and post punk bands.

The bands debut LP, Off The Tongue, is due out on the 14th July and a full UK tour follows the same month. The bands early singles promise good things and, if nothing else, they sound like they'll be great fun live. 

“hinako omori - “in full bloom" (live piano version)"

This gorgeous piece from Hinako Omori is her first new release since last years critically acclaimed album a journey... The live piano version of 'in full bloom' feels sparse and intimate, fragile and complex. It suggests a continuation and expansion of the composition approach deployed on a journey... If this is a sign of what is to come, it bodes well.

Mandy, Indiana - Pinking Shears (Official Video)

Warning: This video contains flashing images

Manchester's most talked of, Mandy, Indiana released their debut album, I've Seen A Way, back in May. Their eclectic brand of sound seems to have captivated critics equally as much as they have struggled to label it and it really seems best to recommend that listeners just find it and dive in. 

Single 'Pinking Shears' sounds vaguely as though it was recorded in 1982 by the French equivalent of Rip, Rig and Panic had they returned from a sojourn to Manchester. It is startling, unyielding, heavily percussive, weirdly atmospheric and echoey and... oddly memorable. Perhaps the oddest ear worm you will encounter this year.

My Ugly Clementine - Playground (Offical Video)

With a slick grunge sound that harks back to bands like Veruca Salt and the Breeders, My Ugly Clementine seem to have arrived fully formed. Exuding cool, sass and attitude the band are a Viennese super group made up of Sophie Lindinger, Mira Lu Kovacs and Nastasja Ronck who are due to release their second album, The Good Life, on the 11th August.

The confident swagger of 'Playground' underscores a quietly expressed takedown of gender roles and stereotypes that is delivered with a kind of effortless confidence. Their variety of sunny grunge rock will play well this summer.

The Regrettes - Dancing On My Own (Official Music Video)

Earlier this year, The Regrettes released their (very fun) version of Robyn's iconic 2010 hit 'Dancing On My Own'. It went down well and, in recognition of the popularity of the cover version, the band launched a call for fan generated content of people dancing to 'Dancing On My Own'. They were "overwhelmed" with clips and tried to use as many as possible when collating and creating the video for the song.

"Dancing On My Own? More like dancing with all our fans!!" they concluded as they revealed the finished video, which is an absolute joy to watch.

Album review: Press Club - Endless Motion

It feels like there has been a slew of extremely strong female-fronted punk bands coming out of Australia and New Zealand over the past five years. The obvious example would be the formidable Amyl and the Sniffers, but also worth a mention are the seemingly-short-lived Miss June, Dave Grohl and Kim Gordon's favourite band of 2021, Kills Birds, and Press Club who, with three albums under their belt now, are clearly here for the long haul.

Press Club are Iain Macrae on bass, Frank Lees on drums, Greg Rietwyk on guitars and Natalie Foster on vocals. They hail from Brunswick and, as their biography on Discogs has it:

"Their roots lay in a city in a state of flux, experiencing decay, demolition and development on a mass scale. Press Club is the musical embodiment of the attitude of a generation experiencing impermanence in every way."

2022's Endless Motion album follows on from the much loved 2018 debut Late Teens and it's equally frenetic 2019 follow up, Wasted Energy. The band toured the UK in November 2022, and word of their incendiary live show seems to have added to the buzz around them. As they told NME last year, they were forced by Covid to put aside their usual fast approach to songwriting, hence the delay in the arrival of this album.

This longer songwriting approach hasn't impacted the rawness of their music, which has always been at the more melodic end of punk in any case, but it has perhaps made them a bit more reflective while at the same time making them tighter than ever.

There are frenetic punk pogo anthems here, notably 'Glasgow', 'Endless Motion' and the fantastic 'Less These Days', but there's also more thoughtful and/or sprawl-y, stream of consciousness fare such as 'Untitled Wildlife' and 'Cancelled'. 

The album begins with the breezy and euphoric guitar driven 'Eugene', which contrasts strongly with the eviscerating rant of 'Coward Street', the latter inspired by a trolling Porter received after a high profile solo TV appearance. 'Untitled Wildlife', meanwhile, has an upbeat and bouncy tune that belies the highly political lyrics as Porter sings of the wildfires of 2020 and the woeful government response to them. "We're feeling hopeless, we're feeling sad" she sings in the bridge into the chorus, adding "This sunburnt country's getting burnt to the ground". They may not have intended to write an anthem here, but they have done so all the same. 

Both 'Endless Motion' and 'Cancelled' strongly reflect the sound of a band in lockdown, and the despairing howl at the end of 'Endless Motion' is very telling. 'Cancelled', meanwhile, strikes a more experimental note with the gentle tick, tick, tick used at the start and within the song perhaps reflecting time going to waste. Lyrically, it's very stream of conscious in nature, showcasing Porter's approach to writing in lockdown, where she felt stifled by the lack of stimulus and turned to journalling. At times the guitars nod to Sonic Youth at their most expansive, at other times, they go full on hardcore. 

Striking a different tone altogether is 'Lifelines', which fades in with menacing drums and dark foreboding bass. Porter's vocals are drawn out snarls here, suggestive of Stooges era Iggy Pop and John Lydon in the early days of PIL. The guitars lift the song out of the darkness briefly, but it seems hellbent on returning there, with lines like "I'll never make it on my own, a new obsession every week, I'll never make it on my own, nothing sticks to me." 

The tight-as-fuck 'Afraid of Everything' comes with bouncy clipped guitars and energetic drums, complemented by the initially muttered vocals. It's less demonstrative than some of the other tracks and feels more like an angsty indie punk pop anthem than a hardcore punk feast. Then, the chorus kicks in and they really let rip. Insanely catchy and highly pogo-able to, this is a song about depression and self loathing that seems to share lyrical territory to Arlo Parks' 'Black Dog' only voiced from a different perspective, that is, from within a relationship, not a friendship.

Heavy guitar riffs form the basis for 'I Can Change', coupled with melodic vocals. Of all the songs on the album, this is the most obviously rock with a capital R, and there's some lovely melodic guitar work in the middle before the drums begin to build and it kicks up a gear again. 

Closing track 'Less These Days' fades in like a new dawn before seeming to stutter to a stop before re-starting, ferocious and faster than ever. While this is another of the shouty pogo punk songs that the band do so well it's also highly melodic, highly catchy, and is one of the strongest tracks on what's clearly a very high quality album. 

Endless Motion is a tour de force from a band who can always be relied upon to deliver, and who should be around for some time.

Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (Official Lyric Video)

Fresh off the back of its inclusion in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 this year, 'Dog Days Are Over' has returned to the UK charts, fifteen years after its initial release. 

Originally released in 2008, the second single by Florence + The Machine and the most famous of the Welch/Summers compositions to date, peaked at 21 in the charts. Following on from the phenomenal resurgence in interest in Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' last year after its inclusion in Stranger Things, there is a yearning desire amongst the Florence + The Machine fanbase for 'Dog Days Are Over' to also climb to number 1 this time around. 

This new found interest in 'Dog Days Are Over' reflects the enduring appeal of a song that, on one level, feels deceptively simple while, on another, also feels extremely heartfelt. Like many of the songs on Lungs, there is that sense of it being a song whose underlying emotion is almost too big for it. There's the by now immortal opening moments provided by Tom Moth's harp, the handclaps (which have always been a bit of a Florence + The Machine staple), the soaring vocals in the middle... and an unmistakable sense of an artist finding their sound for the first time. It is still, fifteen years on, an intoxicating listen. 

Rosa Linn - Snap - (Official Video)

Rosa Linn's 'Snap' was Armenia's Eurovision entry in 2022, where it came 20th, losing out to the unstoppable force that was Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra.

What's interesting though is what happened next.

While 'Snap' wasn't a winner at Eurovision, it was a hit with the public. It went viral on TikTok and sold well around the world, including across a number of European countries. It reached number 8 in the charts in Germany and number 21 in the UK.

Listening to it now, over a year after Linn performed it at Eurovision, it's easy to see why it would do well commercially but not do well at Eurovision: It's a great song, but it's too subtle for Eurovision. It's catchy but it's not showy enough to entrance on the Eurovision stage. 

Linn's songwriting is reminiscent of Good Advice era Basia Bulat. It's disarming and seemingly effortless, classic sounding but innovative and observant. 'Snap' has strong hooks and a great chorus. It will live in your head for days, and it will have earned its place there.

Daði Freyr - Whole Again | Liverpool Songbook | Grand Final | Eurovision...

This years Eurovision Song Contest was something of a special one. Partly because the UK hasn't hosted the festival since 1998, but mainly because we were hosting it because Ukraine (last years winners) were unable to. 

Interval programming can be on the variable side for Eurovision, and it's fair to say that this years interval wouldn't have been to everyone's taste... It it did kind of work, even if the songs selected were a somewhat random selection of 'classic' Liverpool cuts. Set that aside and the central idea of inviting previous Eurovision contestants to perform classic songs from Liverpool artists was basically sound, on paper at least.

There was what felt like a rather tepid 'Imagine', there was an exuberant Israeli take on Dead Or Alive's 'Spin Me Round' courtesy of 2018 contest winner, Netta, and... there was Daði Freyr, who represented Iceland in 2021, performing what can only be described as a highly inventive synth pop take on Atomic Kitten's smouldering ballad 'Whole Again'.

Setting aside the switch from female to male vocal, it was the change in tempo that really made the cover go off with a bang. The original version of 'Whole Again' was, if anything, underplayed both tempo and vocal wise. Freyr's decision to up the tempo from lacklustre to manic electro pop, coupled with a much more powerful, and sonorous, vocal gives the song an edge it never previously had. 

The crowd in the arena were clearly delighted. You can hear them singing along. And, yes, he has released it as a single.

Jorja Smith - Little Things

A fun party song from Walsall queen Jorja Smith, who always delivers. The songs video tells the story of the song, with a boy and a girl attending a party, eyes meeting across a crowded room... and so on. This tale of giddying attraction is wrapped up in a highly energetic dance track that has carnival echoes and strong dance floor potential. A perfect summer anthem.

The Drums - "Plastic Envelope" / "Protect Him Always"

I haven't been into The Drums previously, but I was struck by the poignant beauty of 'Plastic Envelope' (a song about having your trust violated and feeling you might never trust anyone again) and the sheer devastating power of 'Protect Him Always' (about Jonny Pierce's desire to protect his younger self). They are simple songs, but incredibly vulnerable in nature, and extremely powerful as a result. 

Grace Savage | Lively Eyes | Official Music Video

Sometimes you hear a song on the radio and try to track it down online, only to discover that you can't hear it yet because it's not released for another eight weeks.

So it was with Grace Savage's beguiling slice of electro minimalism,  'Lively Eyes', which I randomly encountered back in March, but which wasn't released until early May.

I had heard Savage's work before, but I hadn't really felt compelled to explore her work until hearing the hauntingly sad, soaringly beautiful 'Lively Eyes'. But I definitely will be doing now.

The Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters

The hype created around The Last Dinner Party earlier this year was as interesting as the actual sonic output has turned out to be: I completely take my hat off to both the band and Universal for managing to whip up such a level of expectation in the ultra connected world of 2023.

In a world where a song or an artist is only ever a few clicks away, it was refreshingly nostalgic to be hearing incredibly exciting things about The Last Dinner Party but not to be able to find a damn thing about them online. Including music. All there was to go on was a media buzz seemingly created by a handful of gigs, and some press photos. 

Yes. The photos.

Looking at them, it was possible to discern a certain gothic Victoriana sensibility, which always chimes well with me. My hunch as to their overall sound and aesthetic was confirmed when they were booked to support Florence + The Machine at the Musgrove Park gig this month.

Then, the single came out. And it was exactly what I had been expecting all along.

Imagine, if you will, a classical soprano with a penchant for Sarah Brightman esque drama, who doesn't continue with her classical studies but who instead falls into a sort of gothic netherworld where she is mentored by Katherine Blake (Miranda Sex Garden, Medievael Baebes) and Melora Creager (Rasputina). That's pretty much what 'Nothing Matters' sounds like.

It'll be interesting to see if both the live show and future singles can keep the momentum going but, judging from the high profile of some of their gig bookings (they are playing both Glastonbury and the Isle of Wight Festival this month, as well as the Florence gig in Cork), and from this single, it's looking good so far.

SBTRKT - NO INTENTION (feat. Leilah) [Official Lyric Video]

SBTRKT's new album, The Rat Road, features multiple collaborations with a range of artists, including George Riley and Sampha, Toro y Moi and Anna of The North. It also includes this silky, low key collaboration with Leilah, whose assured performance makes it sound waaay too easy.

A masterclass in highly atmospheric, soul flecked electronica, this has all the hallmarks of a classic piece. 

PASHA - CROSS THE EARTH

Following on from yesterday's slice of summer, it felt only right to continue the theme, albeit with a more thoughtful, less frenetic, less hedonistic piece.

Pasha is based in New Orleans and emerged from the ashes of the band Joy. 'Cross The Earth' is taken from the album Beacon of Excess, which you can buy on Bandcamp.

Confidence Man - Holiday (Official Video)

This solid summer anthem was released last summer. It's hard not to just bask in the sheer energy of the song, which has a real sense of clubland past and present about it, not to mention evoking holiday euphoria and a real sense of frenetic hot summers that never end. Tremendous.

Indigo De Souza - Smog [Official Music Video]

The second single from De Souza's new album, All of This Will End, 'Smog' is a scuffed indie electro bop that is adorably catchy. Although the self depreciating lyrics invoke terrible insecurity, the melody and excitable beats suggest dance floor and while this can be disconcerting (a duality reflected strongly in the video) it's also highly enjoyable. First single 'Younger And Dumber' garnered a healthy amount of praise and attention (rightly so) but 'Smog' has its own charms and deserves a listen.

Hatchie - Rooftops (ft. Liam Benzvi) (Official Visualizer)

A bonus track from last years Giving The World Away album, the uplifting indie pop of 'Rooftops' features the talents of US singer/songwriter Liam Benzvi, whose voice undercuts Harriette Pilbeam's crisply sweet lead vocal perfectly. As with the rest of the album, the track is pop orientated modern shoe gaze, but there's a euphoria and optimism about 'Rooftops' that is particularly infectious. It's jangly guitars and beguiling vocals create a sense that, if you get up high, you'll find a space to breathe.

Heartworms - Retributions Of An Awful Life (Official Music Video)

Heartworms Jojo Orme comes across very much as a young woman who doesn't take any shit. Witness the icy stare in the video to 'Retributions Of An Awful Life', the standout track on her debut EP A Comforting Notion. She also survived a Production and Performance course at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, without being crushed by the naked hostility of her fellow students and has lived on her own since she was 16. When asked to describe her sound in an interview for Fred Perry she opted for "Gothic military fairy?" which feels like as good a summary as any.

'Retributions Of An Awful Life' combines these icy elements with crunchy goth infused industrial sounds, scratchy, choppy guitars and a terrible sense of foreboding. She's signed to Speedy Wunderground, has been playlisted on 6Music, and the future looks bright for such a dark artist. The album, whenever it happens, will be very keenly anticipated.

Gerry Cinnamon - Belter (Live at TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow, 2018)

Taken from a live set at Glasgow's TRNSMT festival in 2018, this rendition by local boy Cinnamon of the always rollocking classic 'Belter' represents a perfect moment of unity between artist and crowd. And it is beautiful.

DEBBY FRIDAY - SO HARD TO TELL (Official Video)

Debby Friday's debut album Good Luck was released in March, showcasing the Vancouver based artist's journey from DIY releases to arrival on Sub Pop. 'So Hard To Tell' was the first single from the album, and it's perhaps the most obviously commercial track to be taken from the sprawling and experimental electronic soundscape. 

With 'So Hard to Tell', you get the sense that Friday is writing a letter to her younger self while at the same time witnessing the same struggles and difficulties in other young women around her. 

"Is this heaven or hell?" she asks "When it gets like this, oh it's so hard to tell."

The result is at once eerie and weirdly comforting.