Getting Smarter

Different Noises 124

I thought about a year end retrospective but there has been so much new stuff that it would have been about six hours long. Instead more new things plus more selections from the recent albums that have risen to the top of the best of list….kicking things off with an exciting new single from TAB-D featuring the ever excellent Boz Hayward and the return of the wonderful Bikini Test Failure. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

AUDIO

PLAYLIST

• TAB-D - Get Smarter ¹

• Bikini Test Failure - When Your Heart’s Not In It Anymore ²

• Origami Horses - Scenes ³

• The Conspiracy - Dungeness ⁴

• Loudhailer Electric Company - Flight Path ⁵

• The Red Propellers - Can’t Un-Pull A Trigger ⁶

• Julian Loida - December Dreams ⁷

• Grouper - Close Cloak ⁸

• DNAR - Already Dead/17 Days ⁹

• The King Canutes - Red Hook Sunset ¹⁰

• The New Existentialists - Bad Astrology ¹¹

• Total Hip Replacement - Jakub Reggae MF Dub Mix ¹²

• Fingerless - Grotesque ¹³

• Geiger von Muller - Europa ¹⁴

• Quatuor Mémoire - Insides ¹⁵

• The Go-Betweens - Don’t Touch Anything ¹⁶

• Dave Graney ‘n’ The Coral Snakes - The Birds And The Goats¹⁷

• Ember Rev - Bewilder ¹⁸

• Moff Skellington - bune flotch compusid ¹⁹

• Inca Babies - Jericho ²⁰

• Mark Snarski - The Gun Shop Girl ²¹

• The Dream Syndicate - Bullet With My Name On It ²²

• The Apartments - Death Would Be My Best Career Move ²³

• 2 Lost Souls - Me And My Big Mouth ²⁴

• The Fall - Before The Moon Falls ²⁵

NOTES

1. New single - all details HERE

2. James is back after a bit of a break with a new single which commemorates the 40th anniversary of him making music. “More, cheerful, silly, jolly, melancholy, fun, annoying, dark, entertaining, philosophical, existential whimsical, Retro-Noughties, Indie-Guitar Prog-Pop you can dance to, in your kitchen,” VIDEO

3. A long established band from Canterbury with a new EP. The usual scant regard for promotion from Metal Postcard leaves me with no choice but to direct you to BANDCAMP

4. Metal Postcard again who say “Back again with their final ep for 2025. As always sounding like the bastard children of Soft Machine, The Mob & John Betjeman.”

5. Loudhailer Electric Co. release their first single with their new line up on New Year’s Day 2026. Recorded at Hurton Audio studios, ‘Flight Path’ drops on the band’s DHM record label, with the preview video available on YouTube and from Bandcamp now. The Hull based original psychedelic band have a big history on the indie scene, featuring Lou Duffy-Howard of recently reformed indie chart-toppers Red Guitars, lead guitarist Jeff Parsons of post-punk guitar band Dead Fingers Talk, rhythm guitarist Richard Duffy-Howard and drummer Mark Hurton. Expect original psychedelic sounds, an eclectic blend of rebel rock from across the ages, with tacit nods to garage punk, psychedelia, Americana and acid folk/rock. Band singer and songwriter Lou Duffy-Howard said: “Flight Path came about when I heard that some birds changed their flight pattern to avoid the war over Ukraine. The song is about the leader of a flock of birds flying over beautiful countryside and oceans, and also aware of war zones and devastated nations. The bird leads the flock, observing the world below.”

6. Another track from a forthcoming 6 tune EP - no details available as yet

7. With his signature blend of cinematic texture and emotional depth, Boston-bred/LA-based composer, percussionist, and producer Julian Loida unveils “December Dreams” – a lush, g winter ballad merging folk, neoclassical, and ambient elements into something wholly unique. Featuring Don Mitchell of Darlingside, the song captures the liminal beauty of longing, reflection, and the hazy calm of winter nights.

8. For the first time in more than 15 years, the debut album “Way Their Crept” by Grouper is being made available on LP and CD, reissued in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the original release. Officially out now via Kranky. To mark the occasion Grouper have shared a new video for “Close Cloak”.

9. A new project from Andy Black of Turning Black Like Lizards - further details are elusive

10. Some fifteen years in the gestation and three years in the making, debut album ‘Eastern Seaboard, Perfect Summer’ is a testament to the tenacity of Keir Woods (vocals, electric and acoustic guitars) and Richard Alwyn Fisher (vocals, backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars), capturing and expanding on their unique visions of this songwriting duo. The King Canutes make intelligent, skewed pop with echoes of early 80s-90s Australian and Scottish pop, British folk and Midwestern indie rock, all melted in the current cosmopolitan cauldrons of New York and London. Having met in the early 2000s amidst NYC’s cosmopolitan pop / indie rock scene, they debuted with their ‘Last Callers and Losers’ EP in 2008. With the dynamic tension of dual singer-songwriters, their music sits somewhere between The Go-Betweens and the long-distance, long-haul commitment of The Postal Service.

11. Bad Astrology, released on 14 November 2025 by The New Existentialists on Zelle Records, is a 12‑track vinyl LP led by George D. Henderson, with contributions from Andrew Moore, Jamey Holloway, Ned Bycroft, Matthew Heine, and others. The record blends Henderson’s underground Dunedin legacy with sharp alternative rock structures, weaving social commentary and surreal imagery across songs such as Last Days of the Internet, Operation Pedestal, and the title track.

12. The Aarhus-based musicians cultivate relaxed yet energetic beats, enriched with elegant grooves, fine percussion, a driving rhythm section and highly sophisticated brass. Musically, they are extremely versatile, combining reggae with soul, jazz, and African rhythms – depending on the needs of each song. On the last two of their four albums, “Anyankofo” and “Would It Be The Same,” they collaborated with musicians from Ghana, which resulted in significant highlife influences.

13. Inspired by the pure drama of artists like the Cocteau Twins, Love, the Stone Roses, and The Cranberries, ‘Grotesque’ is the new single by Meanjin/Brisbane’s Fingerless.

14. New slide guitar experimentation from Geiger. He is currently planning a release programme for older and newer works.

15. The Montréal-based ensemble Quatuor Mémoire released their debut recording on December 12th. Chronos, Kaïros et Aiôn, offers up new string quartet works by some of Montréal’s most exciting emerging composers Florence M. Tremblay, Louis-Michel Tougas, and Olivier St-Pierre. Each of these remarkable young composers has their own distinctive voice, yet the program presented here is satisfying in its cohesion—doubtlessly a result of the shared set of musical concerns that the three of them orbit. All of them make engrossing use of various microtonal approaches as well as playing techniques that accentuate the enormous timbral capacity of bowed string instruments. And while each of these pieces also reflect the influence of a modernist, gesture-oriented approach, they’re also united by an underlying patience in their unfolding and an affinity for sonic intimacy.

16. “Don’t Touch Anything” is a rare track by The Go‑Betweens, included in *G Stands For Go‑Betweens: Anthology Volume 3*, released by Domino Records on 13 December 2024. The box set compiles the band’s later albums (*The Friends of Rachel Worth*, *Bright Yellow Bright Orange*, *Oceans Apart*) alongside demos, radio sessions, and unreleased material, situating the song within their post‑2000 reunion era and highlighting the enduring legacy of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan’s literate, melodic songwriting.

17. “The Birds And The Goats (Live)” was performed by Dave Graney ‘n’ The Coral Snakes at the Homebake Festival in Sydney in 1996, capturing the band’s theatrical art‑rock style with Graney’s distinctive delivery and the Coral Snakes’ layered instrumentation. Originally the opening track of their 1995 album *The Soft ‘N’ Sexy Sound*, the live version was later preserved in the 30th anniversary deluxe edition, reaffirming its place as a standout in Graney’s repertoire.

18. Another track from the bands outstanding new album - see HERE for details

19. *Glottal Stalk Cadets*, released on 31 October 2025 via Bandcamp, is Moff Skellington’s collaboration with The Lembryon Popstars, presenting 14 tracks in his surreal Edoddi style, including “bune flotch compusid.” The album strips back to a chamber‑like sound using eccentric instruments such as the eddodibow, huttyphone, and eddodiner, with lyrics in the constructed language Lembryonic, aiming for what Moff describes as “Eddodi ground zero” — a raw, unadorned expression of his experimental folk aesthetic.

20. The 2025 version of Jericho by Inca Babies appears on their album Reincarnation, released 28 November 2025 on Black Lagoon Records, where the band re‑recorded and reinvented selections from their back catalogue. Running 4:26, Jericho (Reincarnation25) blends the group’s raw post‑punk energy with updated electronic sequencing and studio polish, produced by Harry Stafford and Simon “Ding” Archer, reaffirming their Manchester death‑rock legacy in a modern context.

21. *The Gun Shop Girl* is track seven on the *Stay* disc of Mark Snarski’s 2025 double album *I Like To Leave A Place As If I Never Stayed*, released on Mr. Bones Records in Spain. Produced with Héctor Moriv, the song continues Snarski’s tradition of narrative songwriting, offering a noir‑like vignette within a collection that also features contributions from Coo Jarvis and Matt Walker across the two discs.

22. Track five on The Dream Syndicate’s 1984 album Medicine Show, produced by Sandy Pearlman. Running on dark, paranoid imagery and dense guitar interplay, it exemplifies the band’s shift from the raw immediacy of their debut toward a more cinematic, expansive sound, and became a staple of their mid‑1980s live sets.

23. Track six on The Apartments’ 2025 album That’s What the Music Is For, released 17 October 2025 on Talitres. The song, produced by Tim Kevin, reflects Peter Milton Walsh’s enduring themes of transience and legacy, with lyrics meditating on the impermanence of performers and the persistence of music itself. Running just over three minutes, it sits at the heart of the album’s narrative, balancing Walsh’s literate songwriting with understated arrangements.

24. The opening track from Sail the last in the four letter word series -

25. Before The Moon Falls is track five on The Fall’s 1979 album Dragnet, showcasing Mark E. Smith’s cryptic lyricism and the band’s abrasive post‑punk sound. With jagged guitars and surreal imagery, it captures the urgency and paranoia of their early work and features the classic “Fiery Jack” line‑up of Mark E. Smith, Marc Riley, Mike Leigh, Craig Scanlon and Steve Hanley.