This was looking like another slow month. I had my list drawn up, I’d started writing and then five new albums I like got released on the 25th. Which is one of the reasons this is a bit late. That and a camping holiday. So here we go, the busiest month in a while.
Bossk
Migration
It’s been 5 years since Bossk released Audio Noir and I’ve been looking forward to seeing what they’d come up with next. Post Metal seems to have reached a bit of a dead end for me so I was hoping for a blast of fresh air from them.
I wasn’t really expecting this, the opening track is almost completely ambient with a guitar turning up in the last few seconds. Although this is deliberately lulling you into a false sense of calm. Track two features Johannes Persson from Cult of Luna, and this sounds exactly like what you’d expect. Huge riffage and Johannes bellow crushing all in it’s path. HTV-3 has a guest spot from Josh from Palm Reader using his hardcore vocals and it crushes hard but there is a problem here, the whole album feels slight. There are only 3 and a half loud songs on here and the rest are ambient passages. While this doesn’t lessen the album, it does make it feel somewhat insubstantial, more like an ep. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic album but I just wish there was a bit more of it.
Lafin
Umwelt
I know nothing about this band. They’re only the second band I’ve ever listened to because of a Facebook advert and I’m really glad they caught my eye.
This is unsettling music, it feels almost like a Italian horror film soundtrack. Woozy synths and creepy organs are the mood setters while the live drums give it an almost post rock feel. It kind of reminds me of Goblin’s zombie film soundtracks and that is high praise. There’s also touches of early M83 and the more intense bits of the American Dollar. So wait until it’s dark, put your headphones on and immerse yourself in a strange world of proggy, intense and spooky music.
Modest Mouse
The Golden Casket
Immediate and catchy are not words you’d normally associate with a Mouse Mouse album but here we are and I am using them. After Strangers to Ourselves I’d given up on MM and I’m very happy to report I was wrong.
While we start out with Issac in grumpy sounding form “Fuck your acid trip” it becomes obvious, pretty quickly that something seems to be going well in the Mouse camp. We are Between is a fantastic upbeat MM number that sets up the tone of the album to come. For a band renowned for cynicism there is a lot of light in here, Lace your shoes is a song about how much Issac loves his kid and not a subject matter I would have been expecting. Even Japanese Trees which has the line “Yeah, you’re twisted and you’re bent like you’re a Japanese tree” turns into a You and Me escaping the world song. The run of songs from Never Fuck a Spider on the Fly to Back to the Middle is an incredible run of songs and perfectly shows Strangers was just a misstep and that Modest Mouse are not done yet.
I’ll leave you with one of the best songs on the album with the most questionable wordplay.
Wanderings
The light Inside
Rob Tulley-Rose is a busy man. Not content with making fantastic techno as Rupture//Rapture, he’s been busy working on a side project called Wanderings. Last week he released an album called Furtive. but that’s not the one I’m going to talk about. The Light Inside is from 2020 and I’d had this earmarked for review before I knew of the new album’s existence. This guy moves fast.
The light Inside is a much prettier, chilled out sound than his melodic techno. Gentle keys mix with guitars over relaxed glitch beats to make a perfect album for lazy evenings in the sun (if we ever get sun). It’s a remarkable change of pace from Rupture//Rapture but shows a lot of skill to master such disparate sounds.
Scalping
Flood
Scalping have been bubbling under the live music scene for a few years now but somehow, this is their first ep. The fact this is coming out on Houndstooth (Fabric’s record label) is impressive for a band that is at heart a noise rock band. But don’t let that put you off, Scalping are here to make you move. There is an energy here to make even the most rockest killjoy shake their hips, there may be filthy guitars (and oh best beloved there are) but this is music for the floor and massive PAs. It may be a little beaten out of shape and a little unrecognisable but this is for dancing wildly and you will move.
I cannot wait to see them live.
Jinjé
Open Unity
Lee Malcolm is a member of Vessels, a band who were a good post rock band but at some point decided to become a much better dance act. The band have been quiet for a long time but Lee is beating his own path as Jinje for a while and has built a great sound of his own.
The ep opens up with Cinétique, an electro number with a fussy, almost Footwork beat. The fantasticality named Too Young to Zorb is more menacing, with glowering synths and oppressive percussion, but the highlight of this ep is Release in this Instance. While it’s the most straightforward of the four tracks here. This is some no nonsense techno. It’s hammered out with a slow paced, room shaking beat that pushes the track forwards for it’s hefty 9 minute run time. As the track progresses, more elements are introduced, injecting light into the claustrophobic drum sound and before you know it your hands will be in the air and you won’t have noticed it happening. I’ll just warn you now if you’re near me on the dance floor and this is played, you should give me a bit of space, there will be flailing.
Tamlin
Spiralism
I’ve gone on enough about my dislike of retro of most forms here for people to know how I stand on it. By the end of the 90’s it felt like we’d had grunge and brit pop revivals, both of which were terrible. So imagine my surprise when a bunch of people who weren’t alive in the 90’s have started to lean into 90’s dance music for inspiration. Imagine how much more surprised that I’m really into this? But I feel that this current crop is actually using the older styles as inspiration rather than musical necrophilia.
Spiralism just bangs, there is no other way to describe, the racing breakbeat just barrels along, the pitched up female vocal lifting higher the way an older artist might have used a house diva.
This is dance floor gold.
Chvrches
Try not to Drown
I never got Chrvrches. There was just something that never clicked with me, they were good live but their albums have always left me cold. It appears that all the needed to get me on board was a little Robert Smith magic. Saying that opening a song with the line “I’m writing a book on how to stay conscious when you drown” is pretty attention grabbing.
This song just does everything I always thought Chvrches lacks, the synths push perfectly, the processing on Lauren’s vocals isn’t as grating. This is just a great, somewhat dark electro pop banger that transcends because of it’s guest star. When the Cure’s signature guitar sound comes in as Rob Smith starts his verse gives me goosebumps, his voice perfectly complements Lauren as much as his guitar work complements the band themselves. This is just 5:30 of perfection that I hope will have some sort of influence on the new Cure album.
The ways of exile 