Theatre: Incarnate

photo: Cian Mac Coille

Irish quintet Theatre go for a widescreen sound on their debut EP Incarnate, which fits lyrics wherein the emotions run high. They put folk, post-punk and shoegaze in a blender and topped it off with the crystal clear lead vocals of Maeve O’Shea. Whether she tackles bittersweet childhood memories (You Are), religion (Messiah) or twists the meaning of 16th Century hymn (Gaudete into something dark and foreboding thanks to Dara Gooney's inspired guitar licks, it is never straightforward.

This is a band that is not feeling around where they want to go. They have hit the ground running, fully formed, with a bunch songs that earned them a place on the rock club circuit pretty damn fast. All they need now is more material for a full-length and their label to shell out the money for a physical release.

In Loom: Great Start b/w Yellow Red & Blue

Dutch musicians Gijs Kerkhoven (Showdog) and Sander van Munster (No Ninja Am I) have found the time to enter the studio again for another double A-side single. Great Start goes through hills and valleys, with a fuzzy shoegaze guitar making way for dreamy post-rock interludes and eerie bits of dialog that sound like they were captured from a vintage transistor radio. Yellow Red & Blue starts out as a radio-friendly pop song, before making a sharp left into leftfield psychedelica.

It is a 101 for barebones shoegaze, using only a bass, a guitar and a bunch of choice effect pedals to create a sound that bigger bands are hoping for when they want to go back to basics.

The Guzzlers: The Drunken Tales of Gerry MacLean

Irish punk folk duo The Guzzlers keep it up with releasing good-natured drinking songs. The Drunken Tales of Gerry MacLean is basically a story how it came to pass that downing pints became such a huge part of their lifes and not feeling bad about that at all - not even when they ended up in a fight and the police came knocking on their door.

Taxi Girls: "Secret Handshake" video

Montreal based garage rockers Taxi Girls have made a video for their Secret Handshake single about a Summer fling: "All that's left is a bit of muscle memory and bittersweet thoughts of what could have been, knowing full that it was not supposed to last."

» taxigirls.bandcamp.com

HCTF review of Secret Handshake

Scatterchild: Ocean

Manchester based alternative rock band Scatterchild is led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Plent who wears his heart on his sleeve. The new single Ocean finds him in the midst of emotional turmoil after a breakup and having no clue how to go on. There is a bit of the baroque pop side of Marillion in there, but also the grit of a slightly distorted guitar.

His mate Quentin Wylie, singer of Getner, stepped up to the mike as well, because that's friends do: help out when the shit has hit the fan. As a come down after the vocal pyrotechnics, the instrumental version puts a spotlight on the music as such, with the strings leading the way.