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Post-punk meets jazz blues in The Illucid’s defiantly protestive single, Stone Cold Soldier

Posted on 2 March 2022

Taken from their debut EP, Somebody Else, The Illucid’s jazzy post-punk standout single, Stone Cold Soldier, couldn’t have fallen onto our radar at a more sobering time. The catchy rock hooks from the British Indie band almost feel like an act of defiance in today’s chilling geopolitical climate.

On the basis of the frantic bluesy piano keys, the theatrical vocal lines and their ability to squeeze euphoria from darkness, The Illucid almost becomes the thinking man’s Nekrogoblikon while they deliver their Magazine-style enigmatic energy in the single that shames the cold inhumanity behind the eyes of stone-cold soldiers.

Not many bands can convince me that they’re worthy of seeing live with just one single, but the Illucid are easily one of the best outfits to come around since Melt Yourself Down. Get them on your radar.

Stone Cold Soldier is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

DR SATSO – Sour Milk: Sonically Frenetic Psych Post Punk

Posted on 26 December 2020

‘Sour Milk’ is just one of the riotously dark and psychedelic tracks to feature on DR SATSO’s debut album ‘A Sour Milk Experience’.

For the non-discerning fans of Psych who stay in the safe confines of the overhyped works of the Beatles and Pink Floyd, the soundscape may be as pleasant as ingesting sour milk, but those with an affinity for truly mind-warping, rhythmically disturbing alternative music will definitely want to delve into this monolithic feat of Psych, Post Punk, Garage Rock and Punk.

As the bouncing frenetic guitars emit enticing similarities to the Oh Sees, the rest of the instrumentals coalesce to bring a cold cutting energy to the galvanizingly pioneering soundscape while the vocals will be a hit with any fans of Poison Ivy, Magazine and SERVO.

While Sour Milk hasn’t done my need to witness fuzzy and frenetically insurgent music live any favours, it did affirm that DR SATSO is undoubtedly one of the most viciously revolutionary artists to hit the airwaves in 2020.

You can check out Sour Milk along with the rest of DR SATSO’s sonically visceral album via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Ruby Tears launch their first ‘Satellite’ and are about to hit orbit

Posted on 29 November 2020
https://therubytears.bandcamp.com/track/satellite-2

Formed at the start of the first Covid 19 lockdown in March by Manchester musician and former frontman of John Peel punk-pop picks The Bloody Marys John Goodfellow and Jeff Skellon (former bassist with 80’s Liverpool favourites Lalabambam), ‘The Empty Heart EP’ – the third (yes count ‘em) release from The Ruby Tears – shows just what can be achieved by ‘remote working’, Goodfellow and Skellon not (yet) actually having met in the flesh.

Working instead from their respective home studios during the pandemic, with ‘Satellite’ the pair have crafted a piece of classic, seventies-styled-yet-updated New Wave pop-rock in the vein of The Attractions, The Stanglers, or Magazine.

There’s some stellar guitar work from Skellon, all percussive muted strumming and mellow, ‘woman-tone’ lead, Goodfellow’s vocal laid-back and gruff in the way that all good rock music should be, the ‘with the words you never said’ refrain sticking around long after the final notes of Skellon’s guitar have died away. ‘Classic’ is an overused word these days, but ‘Satellite’ is a slice of classic New Wave in the best possible way; climb on board with The Ruby Tears, because there’s every chance this is going to go stellar.

The ‘Empty Heart EP’ drops across streaming platforms on the 4th December. You can listen to ‘Satellite’ on Bandcamp, and follow The Ruby Tears on Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes

Yellow Nymphos give us A Handful Of Something Sticky

Posted on 11 November 2020
https://yellownymphos.bandcamp.com/track/a-handful-of-something-sticky

Yellow Nymphos is Makain Wiginton (guitar, synths, vocals) and Calvin Brown (Bass, Vocals, Synths) from New Orleans – plus drums from ‘The Machine’, of course.

‘A Handful of Something Sticky’ is three minutes of dark, moody alt-rock from their ‘Crooked Inhale of The Bung Donkey’ album, all meandering bassline, deep-spoken vocals, and a ripped-speaker-cones-distortion of a guitar-part for the finale.

Released, appropriately, on Halloween, and coming on like tarmac jelly or jellybean-flavoured crisps, this is disturbing, unsettling indie for people who like their music just a little more left-field than the acres of generic, pseudo-alternative sanitization that passes for the majority of modern rock n’ roll.

‘A Handful Of Something Sticky’ might just possibly be the aural equivalent of waking up post-party to find one of your eyebrows has been shaved whilst you slept, but since when has that EVER been the sign of a bad thing?

Check out Yellow Nymphos on Bandcamp and Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes