The variety on display in this weeks selection is marked. It just happens that way sometimes. What I am pleased about is that these artists do not pay heed to what the so-called “music experts/pundits” tell us we should be listening to. Following trends has never been a particularly fruitful career move. That’s why I loath the idea of tribute bands. Anyhow, enough grumbling from me, sit back, relax and listen to some excellent sounds.
SHOW AUDIO
SHOW PLAYLIST
Junk Props - Johnny Lament - Johnny Lament
Zion Train - Corridors of Breath - Dubs Of Perception
Push Puppets - This Whole Endeavour - Tethered Together
Pyres - Mononeurvosea - Yun
stef.in - Aku San Zab - Icterus II
Evidence Of A Struggle - Give Us A Kiss - Eddy Derecho
Severed Heads - Goodbye Tonsils 12 Inch - City Slab Horror
The Go-Betweens - The Mountains Near Dellray - G Stands for Go-Betweens Volume 3
2 Lost Souls- Want More - Bird
The Dave Graney Show - I Don’t Know Anything - Heroic Blues
Smoked Salmon - Untrue - Smoked Salman
Kim Salmon, Masami Kawaguchi - And The Church Bells Ring, Into Space We Sing - Blossoming
Rubi Ate The Fig - Your Story - Your Story
Robert Forster - Strawberries - Strawberries
Moff Skellington - The Machinery Of Flinch - A Book Of Fretful Chums
Neural Dance - Psychogeography - Psychogeography
Ecce Shnak - Shadows Grow Fangs - Shadows Grow Fangs
Pink Turns Blue - Can’t Do Without You - Black Swan
Galan Trio + Zacharias Tarpagkos - George In Paris - Embrace
Gentles - God - Soft Hands
SHOW NOTES
Junk Props - Another side project of The Red Propellers James Dick. Stroud's record shop owner Sean Roe and James have been writing and performing songs together for years. They finally got around to recording Johnny Lament with William Stokes of the band Voka Gentle. He engineered and produced it. Sean's shop Klang Tone Records was recently cited by the Financial Times as one of the best in the world. James advises that The Red Propellers are going strong with gigs and will return to the studio late May early June.
Zion Train - A new studio album produced by Neil Perch in the Alte Ziegelei studio and features the world reknowned Zion Train brass section along with vocals from Zion Train singer ‘Cara’ and the award winning poet Roger Robinson. Featured on several tracks is Paolo Baldini playing guitars and bass guitar alongside veteran musicians – Trinny Fingers, Blacka Wilson, Dreada One and Professor Skank who hails from Crete. For this album Zion Train return to their roots with copious amounts of analogue Dub mixing performed by Perch on his TAC Scorpion vintage mixing desk.
Push Puppets - This melodic indie pop-rock outfit presents 'This Whole Endeavor', the second single from their new long-play album 'Tethered Together', set to release on May 16 via Flowering Tree Music. Based in Chicago, Push Puppets is the creative outlet for singer-songwriter and guitarist Erich Specht. The five-piece band creates songs with earworm melodies and shiny production that belie the often bittersweet sentiments in the songwriting. 'This Whole Endeavor', a rocker about a relationship that has ended, draws you in with an instantly memorable piano hook. This song describes the ebb and flow of a relationship in a flowing lyric style that comes across as sincere yet engaging. After a reflective bridge and breakdown, the song powers on with a driving finale. Push Puppets is fronted by Specht on lead vocals and guitar, and rounded out by Kyle Magnusson (keyboards), John William Lauler (bass) and Greg Essig (drums), as well as Tommi Zender (backup vocals and guitar) for this track.
Pyres - Canadian sludge/hardcore outfit PYRES released their second full-length, YUN, on March 7th via Hypaethral Records. The record marks the band’s first new output in over a decade and serves as the follow-up to their critically lauded Year Of Sleep debut. Formed in 2010, PYRES began as the three-piece collaboration of Andrew Wilson, Devin Lamere, and Matt Sloetjes. Driven by a shared passion for uniting the crushing tonality of sludge and doom with the ferocity of hardcore punk, the band spent their first year shaping a sound built around drop B tunings and relentless experimentation. As Wilson’s songwriting evolved, harmonized, melodic guitar riffs increasingly became a hallmark of PYRES, prompting the addition of longtime friend and guitarist Marc Delparte. His influence helped expand the band's dynamic range, contributing dual guitar harmonies reminiscent of Thin Lizzy while introducing progressive structures. By the time of their first Toronto show in 2011, PYRES had distilled their efforts into six powerful tracks that would form the core of their debut LP, Year Of Sleep. However, tragedy struck shortly before the album’s release. In April 2013, Wilson’s sister was lost to a murder-suicide. His father passed away quietly, precisely one year later. The band continued to perform, but the momentum behind Year Of Sleep stalled under the weight of grief, depression, and anxiety. Although songwriting persisted, the drive to produce a follow-up album was overshadowed by Wilson’s struggle to navigate trauma and loss. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic silenced live music and brought another significant blow: the departure of founding drummer and visual artist Matt Sloetjes, who relocated cities to prioritize family. With unfinished material left behind and no clear path forward, the band quietly slipped into dormancy. When live music returned post-pandemic, the band unexpectedly found new life. A chance introduction brought Wilson together with drummer Aleks Hara (Sarin). A few rehearsals confirmed the chemistry, and no further auditions were needed. Reinvigorated, the band set out to excavate unfinished material from their darkest period. Much of the music had been written in the aftermath of personal tragedy, compelling the band to confront old wounds and shape a cathartic narrative from the ruins of grief. YUN, was recorded, mixed and produced once more with Greg Dawson at BWC Studios (OLDE, Sons of Otis, Panzerfaust) over the Winter and Spring of 2024, with percussion tracked by Simon Larochette at The Sugar Shack in London, Ontario. Mastering for the album was handled, to crushing effect, by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege Sleep, YOB, Corrosion of Conformity). The result showcases a band transformed. PYRES’ sound has evolved, embracing a broader palette that spans melodic sludge metal, hardcore, doom, grunge, and post-rock.
stef.in - Featuring
Robyn Gray— Guitar
Patrick O'Reilly — Guitar
Mark Godfrey — Bass
Stefan Hegerat — Drums
Miles Davis' much-touted 'electric' period was widely credited with birthing so-called jazz fusion, and because of this it can be easy for one to forget the true breadth of its influence. A crucial ingredient in Miles' cauldron of styles during this time was Karlheinz Stockhausen, whom he first heard in 1972 (and later collaborated with in a yet-unpublished session). This fact provides an important reminder that the binding agent in Davis' singular blend of jazz and rock was experimentation—with texture, electronics, form, and other parameters.
Toronto-based Stefan Hegerat's group stef.in is not a fusion band in any traditional sense, nor do they directly resemble anything produced by Miles during the aforementioned era, yet their mixture is plucked from a similar array of elements—rock's heft (and sometimes its groove), improvisation, as well as various forms of abstraction. Hegerat, the band's composer, leads the outfit from behind the drum kit, while Patrick O’Reillyand Robyn Gray's pedal-mangled guitars variously tangle, flail and float across Mark Godfrey's sturdy bass-work. The group has been active since 2017 and the year after their founding, they released their debut album, the first instalment of Icterus.
This LP, their second release, was written and recorded some five years after its predecessor and while it's a clear descendent from the earlier album, it also veers even further off a math-rock path to delight in strange nuances of colour and atmosphere. Hegerat cites grappling with the complexities of mid- and post-pandemic life as crucial background to these compositions, especially themes of socio-political upheaval and mental health. And while there's clear angst and confusion driving this music, these uneasy aspects are palpably tempered by a certain ecstatic element, doubtlessly honed throughout the group's extensive tour history. "This project is very much a vessel for making music with my favourite artists," reveals Hegerat. "Writing for Robyn and Patrick has always been as simple as penning some bizarre, half-finished musings and then letting them blast off into outer space."
Indeed the key to this ensemble's chemistry is their dovetailing of skewed, propulsive riffage and improvisational forays. Both O'Reilly (collaborator to Language Arts, Christine Duncan, and the late Justin Haynes) and Gray (Jessica Ackerley, Colin Hinton, Ky (Constellation)) have enormous palettes on the guitar, spanning all the way from No Wave-ish laceration to plumes of ambience and from microtonal meanderings to distortion-laden chug. As Hegerat notes "Mark is our rock, holding down jagged, rhythmic vamps and anchoring the whole thing firmly to the ground," yet that's not to say Godfrey's contributions remain exclusively in low-end lockstep either. The album's weightless passages—and there are numerous—often wrap themselves around the award-winning bassist's lyrical melodic contours, situating him as a different sort of focal point.
Evidence Of A Struggle - Chicago alternative rock outfit Evidence of a Struggle presents their controversial new single 'Give Me A Kiss', the second offering from their eponymous sophomore album, out May 9 via The Glue Factory and The Orchard, following the lead track 'Eddy Derecho'.
Centred around the musings of multi-instrumentalist W P C Simmons V a.k.a. Rev. Billy Simmons, Evidence of a Struggle has grown since releasing their 2023 eponymous album to also involve Matt Walker (Smashing Pumpkins, Morrissey, of1000faces, Garbage, Filter) on drums, synths and bass, and John Airo, who provides visual art for the projects. The new album is a lyrical departure from Evidence of a Struggle's 2023 debut instrumental album.
With recording, mixing and final production by Sanford Parker (Voivod, Russian Circles, Yob, Eyehategod, Wovenhand, Darkthrone), this album sees notable contributions by bassist Alan Berliant (Chris Connelly, Mavis Staples, Saint Asonia) and Solomon Walker (Liz Phair, Bryan Adams, Morrissey) with Grammy-nominated sound engineer Chris Gelin (Smashing Pumpkins, Trent Reznor, RZA, Tom Morello, Korn) handling post-production and mastering.
As in previous weeks there is music from Severed Heads , The Go-Betweens, 2 Lost Souls , The Dave Graney Show , and Smoked Salmon. Kim Salmon appears again with a new album with Masami Kawaguchi
Rubi Ate The Fig - In advance of their new album - DESERT ELECTRIC - Rubi Ate The Fig share the first single "Your Story". They say “Everyone has a story. Sometimes, those stories are marked by pain and struggle; it’s in those moments that we find our true strength. Rubi Ate the Fig has always been about telling stories – the raw, unfiltered truths of life. Music has been our way to heal, and it’s our way to help others heal too. The essence of “Your Story” is about having compassion and love for the people close to us that are overcoming addiction, battling their demons and finding recovery - It's about having compassion for ourselves and knowing that we are doing the best we can; And it's about the realization that no matter how dark the night, the dawn is always closer than we think ...”
Robert Forster - new album coming, here’s the first offering. Tickets acquired for his gig in Manchester in October
Moff Skellington - from 2009 and one of the half dozen or so albums Moff released with Invisible Girl Records
Neural Dance - another new track from Neil who continues a relentless gigging schedule with ex Four Candles guitarist Mark Taylor. Subject matter which is close to my heart.
Ecce Shnak - fromtheir newly-released debut EP 'Shadows Grow Fangs', released via Record Man, Records - five tracks that showcase incomparable ingenuity and limitless invention.
Pink Turns Blue - European post-punk stalwarts Pink Turns Blue present their new album 'Black Swan', a term used for an unexpected event that is retrospectively rationalized as if it could have been prepared for. Out February 28 on limited edition vinyl, CD and digitally via Orden Records. 'Can't Do Without You' is a song about the increasing polarization of society, the counterproductive nature of dismissing opposing viewpoints and a plea for unity and understanding in a world marked by division.
Formed in 1985 in the first generation of gothic rock, today Pink Turns Blue is Mic Jogwer (vocals, guitar), Paul Richter (drums) and Luca Sammuri (bass). Named after a Hüsker Dü song, they debuted with 'If Two Worlds Kiss', a seminal post-punk album that also advanced the darkwave sub-genre. Known for their trademark blend of post-punk, alternative rock and new wave, they have released a dozen full-length LPs since emerging from the fear and uncertainty of a divided Cold War Germany.
Galan Trio + Zacharias Tarpagkos - Created by Classical composers from seven nations (including the UK, US, France, Portugal, and Russia), the eight pieces on Embrace beckon listeners to experience the light of Greece shining upon the Parthenon; the Paris that Gershwin explored; a springtime at Lake Ladoga in Russia; the forest home of the Fenghuang of East Asian mythology; the American Dust Bowl era of work, worry and war; the nurturing water flowing from the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland; an extravagant garden where a lover’s question is contemplated; and a humoresque inspired by the personalities of the playful performers.
Not ones to shrink from tonal harmonies and soaring melodies, exquisitely performed, this new-wine-in-old-bottles collection serves as a rich reward to those who feared that living composers have not been speaking to – let alone embracing – them.
The Athens-based piano trio, Galan Trio is known for their passionate and energetic interpretations of a wide variety of original chamber music. Joining them in this program is star flutist of the Greek National Opera, Zacharias Tarpagkos.
Gentles - The last in the trilogy of the Gentles (Melbourne) back catalogue. Another unapologetic set of rock songs with swagger, not an adjective that gets bandied around much in guitar music these days.
