Browsing Tag

Nirvana

Timothy and the Apocalypse took his listeners to alt-electro ‘Nirvana’ with his latest release

Posted on 15 September 2023

The Australian alt-electronica augmenter Timothy and the Apocalypse took his sound to new celestial heights with the release of his latest single, Nirvana; the merit of it is almost enough to dissipate the synonymousness between Kurt Cobain and the track title.

With the opening vocals resounding with a spiritually ceremonial timbre across the lush layers of reverb, the artist and producer set the bar transcendently high from the intro, and still managed to rise above it with the shoegazey dream-pop guitars which bring introduce the solid backbeat that affixes a strong gravitational pull to the ever-ascending melodic lines.

Midway through the track comes a euphoric uplift, which defies all expectations of Timothy and the Apocalypse. Since 2021, he’s held dominion over the ambient trip-hop scene and dominated the associated playlists. With Nirvana, he broke new ground by progressing his new release into a track that could fill a floor and rhythmically drive it into fervour. Amalgams of IDM and deep house don’t come much more electrifying than this.

Stream Nirvana and the THOLEMOD Remix, which hit the airwaves on September 8th via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The dust of desert rock gelled with the sludge of grunge in Jeremy Phillips & The Ozark Grunge’s latest single, Hell Into Home

Posted on 31 July 2023

We’ve scarcely returned to the 21st century after revisiting the 90s with Jeremy Phillips & The Ozark Grunge’s single, Crazy. Proving that they’re more than just a one-trick sonic pony, they’ve dropped another nostalgia atom bomb with their lamentatively exhilarating single, Hell Into Home.

If Kurt Cobain had a little more of a Southern twang to his vocal lines and arrestively brashy swagger to his guitar hooks, Nirvana’s seminal hits would have swum in the very same vein as this epitome of an earworm.

The tight instrumentation lends itself effortlessly well to the grungily cosmic songwriting that entices you into the centre of the dusty-with-desert-rock-atmospherics hit that mourns the loss of a home becoming a house in the absence of the person that made the brick-and-mortar a place worth coming back to.

Stream Hell Into Home, which was officially released on July 21, via Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Call To The Void rampaged the UK rock scene with their eclectically experimental debut single, Uncontrollable

Posted on 25 June 2023

For their scuzzy garage rock debut, Uncontrollable, the Southeast, UK-hailing prodigal sons, Call To The Void, pierced protestive proto-punk energy with a gothy 80s atmosphere that will beguile any fans of Bauhaus.

Doused in Nirvana’s Bleach with a touch of the New York Dolls’ rancorous attitude and fleeting Pantera-esque guttural vocals, the eclecticism of Uncontrollable is an achievement in itself. With each member bringing their own sonic penchants to the table to blend into the same soundscape, their heavy, raw, and haunting alchemy was always an inevitability.

After operating as a duo under the moniker, DENY ALL, the brother duo enlisted the boundless dynamic vocal prowess of the frontman, Jack Osborne. His ability to switch between post-punk crooning in the same vein as Echo and the Bunnymen, PIL-reminiscent snarls and Kurt Cobain on a vehement day is a gift that will undoubtedly see Call To The Void go far.

Uncontrollable is now available to stream on Spotify.

Follow Call to the Void on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK alt-rock act Sustinere bit back in their fuzzed-up hit, Rabies Part 2

Posted on 13 April 2023

Brimming up from the North Wales Borderlands, the grungy alt-rock duo, Sustinere, implanted more idiosyncratically electric energy onto the airwaves with their latest single, Rabies Part 2.

After coming together through a love of Royal Blood and Nirvana, making pulverising stripped-back rock became a cornerstone of their manifesto, and Sustinere effortlessly succeeded with this hook-rife hit that will melodically tattoo itself to your temporal lobe from your first rendezvous with it. The zany croons across the monolithically scuzzy guitars proved to be an addictive recipe that only these artisans of angst can concoct.

It is more than refreshing to find an act who only takes their sound seriously and leaves all pretension at the door of the recording studio. Their tongue in cheeky cheek energy and aesthetics is the antithesis of what you would expect from your run-of-the-mill artist; Sustinere practically detonated the factory with their single that revolves around the morbidly endearing reprise of “I had to put my baby down”.

Watch the hilariously self-ironic music video for Rabies Part 2 by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Tim Lukic orchestrated the soundtrack to love & loss in the grungy alt-indie single, YOU WERE HERE

Posted on 13 October 2022

‘YOU WERE HERE’ is the latest grungy lo-fi single released by the Swedish alt-indie artist Tim Lukic, which melds the ennui of Nirvana with the melodic style of Grandaddy to provide the soundtrack to the complexity of love and loss.

The rhythmically composited single, influenced by the likes of John Maus, Frank Zappa, and John Frusciante, allows bitter-sweet gratitude to transpire from the world-tilting loss of someone that provided stability in an endlessly giving relationship.

Lyrically, it’s a deeply personal cry into the void left behind, but one that is sure to hit anyone that has experienced loss will resonate with. The sense of loneliness that permeates our psyches artfully echoes in the intricately woven instrumental layers in YOU WERE HERE. It’s an evocative ride, but there’s some comfort to be found in the knowledge that you’re not alone in even the most harrowing emotions.

YOU WERE HERE is now available to stream on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Condition Baker delivered a tenacious exposition of coming-of-age disillusion with their pop-punk hit, One Thing

Posted on 21 September 2022

The Holbrook, MA three-piece, Condition Baker, lace their pop-punk sound with an alt-90s twist; their latest single, One Thing, is the perfect introduction to their uniquely grungy and punchy sound distortion.

The infectious coming of age of lament unfurls around massive guitars fed through layers of frenetic distortion, drumbeats inspired by the Seattle grunge era and lyrics that are hooky enough that you can hang your coat on them before you head to the pit and enjoy the classic pop-punk choruses that keep on giving with every listen.

Any fans of Dookie-era Green Day, Jawbreaker, Descendants and Alkaline Trio will undoubtedly want to delve into this tenacious exposition of adulthood disillusion and exhaustion.

One Thing is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Donate Your Friends drops that memorable auditory compensation demo to swim inside your veins with on Devil Animus

Posted on 19 September 2022

Attempting to take away the hurt of billions of lost souls within us all, Donate Your Friends seeks us out with those words we will try to figure out was hollow or not with Devil Animus.

Donate Your Friends is an alternative art-hard rock band who performs with a wild imagination that is truthfully spellbinding and always emotional.

”We write our songs about personal anguish, dwelling in depressive moods and about global systematic corruption within our dystopian reality.” ~ Donate Your Friends

Looking for that valuable connection that shall rivet the attention away from the dusty paths of doubt and doom, Donate Your Friends are so brilliant with that anthem you have been seeking on Devil Animus.

Devil Animus from the alternative emo art-hard rock band Donate Your Friends is one of those good shots to the chest that wakes you up. With a mysteriously Nirvana-like entrance that shall help you burrow through the cobwebs of doubt that can hide you away, instead of dealing with the hurt head-on for the better.

Finding your worth through the noise is the mission.

Listen up to this heavy experience on Spotify and follow the journey on IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

West Ridge Circle – Stuck in This Chair: The Ultimate Off-Kilter Alt-90s Ode to Ennui

Posted on 20 April 2022

Taken from their debut EP, Nobody Home, West Ridge Circle’s standout single, Stuck in This Chair, is an eclectic array of era-spanning rock nuances and modernist lyrical vulnerability.

Fans of Pavement, Pixies and Nirvana will want to drink up the 21st-century melancholy that drips through the lyrics and captures the frustration that lingers in unrelenting ennui. It’s tracks like Stuck in This Chair that prove there’s a beauty in collective misery, that now, we can hear lyrics, and it isn’t an Olympian stretch of the imagination to get on the same level. Granted, that isn’t always a given, but West Ridge Circle are thriving on the funk that is writhing through our existential hive minds.

With the J Mascis-style guitar chops, the despondent Americana blues-rock vocals that come with a tinge of the Seattle alt-90s sound and the eerily relatable lyrics, Stuck in This Chair has all the makings of a melancholy alt-rock playlist staple. We hope there’s another release nestled in the pipeline.

Stuck in This Chair is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Salfordian duo, Yakumama, scuzzed it up for their garage rock debut, Let Me Out Alive

Posted on 27 March 2022

‘Let Me Out Alive’ is the scuzzy indie garage rock debut single from the enigmatically volatile Salfordian duo, Yakumama. They’ve already caught the attention of Radio X with their promising debut that carries the buzz and the bounce of Mudhoney, the effortlessly cool swagger of Kyuss and the efficaciously sharp hooks that demand repeat attention.

The Manchester music scene has been crying out for new artists that rock the indie assimilator apple cart with their off-kilter ingenuity. Yakumama does exactly that with their post-punk nuances and the chaos that breeds at the mercy of their guitar pedals and their vicious power-pop vocal lines.

We already can’t wait to hear what is in the pipeline after this gothy plea for hope and mercy that was written to shake listeners out of moving with the tide.

Let Me Out Alive is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

James Gale sings the ‘Summer Blues’ in his resonantly seductive debut EP, Medicine

Posted on 1 March 2022

If James Gale’s debut 2021 EP, Medicine, passed you by, you missed a sweetly psychotropic slice of alt-rock that more than has what it takes to unite fans of Nick Cave, Nirvana, Elliott Smith and the Beatles.

The standout single, Summer Blues, which has now racked up over 14k streams on Spotify, is an indulgent cocktail of psych, blues, indie, and grunge. The dark narrative is delectably handled by the Bruges, Belgium-hailing singer-songwriter and artist. The way the accordant momentum picks up under Gale’s taunting vocals that question if you’re afraid to lose control before bluesily winding the soundscape back down into kaleidoscopically choral grooves is nothing short of arrestive.

We seriously hope that there’s a sophomore release in the pipeline.

Summer Blues is available to stream along with James Gale’s debut EP via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast