Browsing Tag

UK Post Punk

Alba Fury decoded the agony of candour in their acane post-punk triumph, This is Why

Posted on 7 February 2025
Alba Fury

Alba Fury sliced through the mundane with their latest single, This is Why. Hailing from West Lothian and Edinburgh, this four-piece alt-indie/post-punk outfit—comprising Michael Ward on lead vocals, Sam Greig on guitar, Jamie Thomson handling bass and backing vocals, and Fraser Plumb on drums—has quickly made a mark following their debut, Out of Time, in November 2024. Drawing inspiration from Fontaines DC, Sprints, Young Fathers, and Joy Division, they forge a sound that is both raw and incisive.

Few new post-punk artists manage to add their own signature to the genre’s tried, tested and exhausted formula, but the hair-raising intensity in This is Why is an undeniable attestation that Alba Fury is one of the few new acts tuning into. The atmosphere is arcane, every instrumental has been sharpened to a jagged edge, and the snarled with magnetism vocal lines allow you to imagine a meeting of minds between Arab Strap and Fontaines DC. This is Why is the kind of track you slam through your speakers once, and you instantly go searching for when you can get the full experience by catching Alba Fury live.

The single confronts the anxiety of revealing one’s true emotions with a driving, motoric rhythm, tom-heavy drums reminiscent of Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings, and a rollicking chorus that haunts the psyche beyond the final note. Recorded partly in Aberdeen and polished in Edinburgh, the DIY spirit remains at its core. The release, arriving on 7th February 2025, aligns with their upcoming live slot at The Old Dr Bells Baths in Leith, supporting The View’s Kyle Falconer.

Now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

[SCRAP] pierced the post-punk innovation veil with their debut, All in Blind

Posted on 31 March 2024

With their debut single, All in Blind, the nefarious alchemists, [SCRAP], found the affecting middle ground between post-punk and post-grunge, the result is a culmination in artfully dark volition that will ensnare you from the first verse.

Reaching the epitome of deadpan seduction with the cadence of the devil may care spoken word lyrical delivery which cuts across the dark grungy pools of bleak ingenuity, [SCRAP] broke the post-punk mould with All in Blind.

In their own words, All in Blind puts you in the mind of a 21st-century East of England Joy Division, but even that is selling themselves short. They broke the spell of post-punk assimilation that has vexed the scene since the departure of the iconic Factory Records outfit with the rhythmics of All in Blind; especially when the unholy matrimony of the outro guitar solo affirms that, as a powerhouse, [SCRAP] is worth its weight in gold.

All in Blind hit the airwaves on March 5th; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Tearless Life – Conversations with Angels: Heart-String-Tearing Post-Punk Transcendence

Posted on 14 August 2023

In the same way, Suicide, Joy Division, and Echo and the Bunnymen singles stir scintillating alchemy into melancholic souls, The Tearless Life’s seminal single, Conversations with Angels, is capable of the very same heart-string-tearing post-punk transcendence.

The cleverly intended imperfections in the production of the release from the East Lancashire outfit, which was founded earlier this year, only serve to add to the glitchwavey artfulness of the disjointed by dissonance single, which unravels as a lost-in-transmission call into the void.

While some howl into the void, others seek comfort in the realm of the celestial for comfort. If you can relate to the latter, your aural voyage into Conversations with Angels is guaranteed to be a visceral one.

Conversations with Angels was officially released on July 22nd; stream the official music video on YouTube, or purchase the single with the B-Side, Your Just Touch, via Bandcamp.

To keep up to date with the band by following them on Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dream in the existential poetry of Vukovar’s meeting of death pop and post-punk, ‘Place to Rest’

Posted on 25 July 2022

Taken from their critically acclaimed album, The Body Abdicator, Vukovar’s standout single, Place to Rest, is a neo-gothic dream. Laden with poetry, “death becomes the absence of the self/ it’s all in the mind”, shoegazey reverb, and strident Jack Ladder-Esque electronic percussion to feed energy into the expressive ennui of the darkened synth-pop track.

In their own words, their 2022 LP is a ‘metaphysical and esoteric wasteland disguised as a pop album’. If the IQ of an artist got them to the top of the charts, Vukovar would be unstoppable in their ascent. Anyone with an affinity for existential philosophy, Echo and the Bunnymen, House of Love and The Chameleons won’t want to let this luminously talented act slip them by. One hit and the swoon-worthy single will affably haunt you for a lifetime.

Check out the official video for Place to Rest via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dr Void & The Skinjobs launched a darkwave post-punk attack on ‘Generation Snowflake’

Posted on 9 April 2022
When Did The Boy's Decide This Was Fun? by Dr Void & The Skinjob's

The Glasgow-hailing post-punk outfit Dr Void & the Skinjobs is fresh from the release of their atmospheric socially dissecting darkwave single, Generation Snowflake.

Even as someone that constantly gets referred to as a snowflake for having actual human emotions from their boomer father, Generation Snowflake still hit the dark and moody spot. There is plenty worth protesting in 2022; mass social media psychosis is decidedly one of them. The droning keys and spacey synths create the perfect platform for the hostility in the vocals, which are enough to make Peter Murphy sound tame.

Check out Generation Snowflake for yourselves by heading over to Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Oliver Marson reached the epitome of aural satire with his darkwave post-punk music video, Manipulator.

Posted on 29 March 2022

Taking the most frustrating threads of our social fabric and weaving a hypnotically euphonic darkwave post-punk earworm with them is no easy feat; by bringing his best Patrick Bateman energy to his sinisterly shot video for Manipulator, London’s Oliver Marson succeeded. The late-stage capitalist state of 2022 couldn’t ask for a better aural satirist.

Though visually, he makes a convincing sociopath that thrives on the stupidity of the prolifically dull minds and their emotion-driven tendencies. There’s no hiding his affable soul that always contrasts his dark textures and themes in his consistently addictive and eccentric tracks.

While the angular guitars reminded me why I fell in love with Interpol (Turn on the Bright Lights, obviously), the Editors-ESQUE anthemically crooned post-punk vocals drive up the hooky energy around the drone of the 80s vintage synths and the beats that are always snapping the lyrical heels of lines such as “there’s nothing left besides what you hate”.

It’s almost been three years since Oliver Marson appeared on our radar with the ultimate hedonist’s love song, Cocaine Romance. We never know what to expect, aside from resistance to conformity and unapologetic theatrical flair. As ever, we can’t wait to hear what follows.

The official music video for Manipulator premiered on March 29th. It is now available to stream on YouTube or add to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nadine Shah brought her broodingly veracious post-punk-tinged soul to the Barbican in a one-off performance of her seminal album, Kitchen Sink.

Posted on 19 July 2021

In our depressively dystopic times where nothing seems to hit the same, Nadine Shah made sure she was the exception from the ennui; from the moment she walked on stage to the tune of synthesised jazzy discord, the atmosphere became just as electric – despite the social anxiety that mostly muted the audience aside from rapturous applause.

In her one-off performance at the Barbican in London on July 18th, she played her jazzy post-punk record, Kitchen Sink, in its entirety before playing what she claimed to be (they are) her ‘hits’. The critical acclaim she received following the release of her album in June 2020 had little impact on her infectious humility that radiates from her unfiltered stage presence.

As a proud owner of all of her records, I still somehow managed to underestimate the immensity of her vocal talent. There are few things in life more visceral than hearing her resounding, Jazzy vocal timbre and Pete Wareham’s demonic sax solos complemented by the acoustics in the Barbican.

Within the male-dominated realms of post-punk, Shah’s misogyny-challenging latest album, as with all of her music, comes with a sense of vindication that feels like a nuanced extension of the Riot Grrrl era. If anyone can kick ass with class, it’s Nadine Shah.

The deliciously rich brooding tones in her fourth studio album are a far cry from the abrasiveness of most artists striving to inspire through their lyricism, and they are all the more efficacious for it.

Grab yourself a copy of Kitchen Sink via Nadine Shah’s website.

Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Review by Amelia Vandergast