Dutch indie rock band Hister keep it close to home with shows in Winschoten and Groningen. They sing in their local tongue, a version of the Low Saxon dialect spoken in their hometown Groningen, but their musical language - punk and New Wave, and gnarly Nineties alternative rock, is universal: "Think The Cure meets Dinosaur Jr, with both of them on steroids".
Imagine being an Austin trio eyeing the sound the cream of the crop of English bands - they name the Damned and the Arctic Monkeys as prime examples - and trying to come close to that. Yup, can't be done, so The Schisms added a bit of goth to their psychedelic blues single I Learn To Love instead. Plenty of swagger in the main melody, plus a leftfield coda that will confuse the dancers. It is the lead single for their Tejas EP, due for release on October 2.
Watch the Jon Madof Trio video for Invisible Alchemy (for John Zorn), a track from their Netzach album: "Madof steers his trio along all the sights, paying tribute to his heroes John Zorn, Nick Cave and Derek Trucks, who also carved their own niche. The mood is both joyous and introspective, going through hills and valleys. The musicians reach for the sky, fully aware that the destination will remain out of reach. The neverending journey ensures that more of these adventurous and intricate compositions will see the light of day in the future." The clip was directed Elijah Rappaport.
Live date:HCTF review of Netzach
Australian rock singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett stopped by American radio station KCRW's Annenberg Performance Studio in Santa Monica again. This time she and her band barrelled through ten songs, most of them from her latest album Creature Of Habit.
Setlist:
Outsider Americana artist Johnny Dowd will perform for three days in a row at the Fringe Festival in Rochester (September 15-17). He will be playing @ The Biltmore Bar and Lounge at 7:45pm.
HCTF review of Is Heaven Real? How Would I Know
Xavier Palau, member of post-punk quintet HERE[IN], has collected the pieces he recorded since 2020 for his one-man project Xavier MONAX. The result: an introspective album called Music for the Basses that will be embraced by fans of the Cure in their Faith / Pornography phase. Palau has carefully stacked the instruments (mostly guitar and bass) to give voice to his inner thoughts that keep him awake at night.
Wiht such a long creation process, it is quite surprising that he managed to lay down consistent compositions that somehow fit together. It is obvious that he has given each piece a lot of thought before pushing "rec". The eerie spoken word bits that pop up every now and then will have listeners strain their ears trying to make out what he is saying.
The world is full of musicians who can play great, and you wouldn't cross the road to see them. It's people who have this indefinable attitude that are the good ones.
Nick Lowe
Watch all-female post-punk band,Mo-dettes lipsync their way through their of the Rolling Stones Paint It Black on the Granada Fun Factory TV show broadcasted on July 5th, 1980. In 1981 they were billed as the Bomberettes when they provided backed vocals for Fighter Pilot, a track on John Cale's Honi Soit album.
Garage post-punkers Lemongrab will be on tour in Europe to promote their Another Kind Of Freedom EP: "They can do really fucking fast (Pay To Play) and detached without a care in the world as well (Necessary Condition). It makes the four tracks on their new EP unpredictable in a good way. It is fuzzy, decidedly lo-fi music, wherein separation and careful balancing of the instruments is laughed at".
Italian experimental ambient musician Abul Mogard (nom-de-plume of Guido Zen) made good use of the acoustics of Mimerhaven, a huge former mining structure, when he played the tracks of his Quiet Places as a continuous piece as part of the Norbergfestival in Sweden on July 10th this year. He let the layered synth soundscapes and drones set up a whispered conversation, with a bit of natural echo as part of the proceedings.
The full performance was recorded for a live album, so now this immersive sonic experience can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home. Best enjoyed with a pair of decent headphones or a good sound system in a room with a high ceiling.
Steven Wilson announced the release of his new album Requiem for a Village with a video for the title track, played in the studio with Randy McStine (guitars, backing vocals) and Russell Holzman (drums, percussion), a prog rocker that brings back the sound of his Grace For Drowing and Hand.Cannot.Erase albums.
Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee sticks to what he does best on his new single I've Been In Trouble Before, another melanchiolic, slow paced art rocker that comes close to a crooner ballad. He blames himsef for making the same mistakes all over again - mostly lying - causing another relationship to fall apart. His daughter Viv lend a hand, providing an extra layer of jazzy "La-La-Las" backing vocals.
Country noir musician Jim White will be on tour in the UK in May next year. Top shelf storytelling songs, plus a healthy dose of humouristic banter.
Live dates:
Swiss instrumental post-rockers hubris. used immortality as personified by Tolkien's elves as the starting point for their new album White Shores. Living forever is no picknick, according to these mythical creatures who refer to death as "the gift of men". That outlook on life (no pun intended) offered some solace for the band's songwriter Jonathan Hohl, who was quite shaken by his grandfather’s passing. The album goes through six seamless movements>.They are lined up as a continuation: Death. Is. Just. Another. Path (the latter in two parts).
Going through the various stages of grief, Hohl leads the band through the fond memories and the stories his grandfather told him, keeping him alive within his mind's eye, using tinkling ambient textures, shards of metal and gentle electronic elements. The music does all the talking, because sometimes words fail, but carefully constructed sounds will take over to get the message across.
Atlanta mutant disco quartet Go Public wrote a track about the grippling anxiety of a gambler. Craps Tempo is pushed forward by simple but highly effective drum beat, before the guitar, bass and sax join in for a punk-flavoured floor filler. Sean Rawls, Adrian Finch, Sam Gunn and Jay Domingo have been part of the underground scene for decades, before getting together to play a spicy mix of leftfield indie.
Garage post-punkers Lemongrab have a not so secret weapon on their new Another Kind Of Freedom u EP: the shared vocals of Gaëlle Cordeau and Léonie Dishaw. They can do really fucking fast (Pay To Play) and detached without a care in the world as well (Necessary Condition). It makes the four tracks on their new EP unpredictable in a good way.
It is fuzzy, decidedly lo-fi music, wherein separation and careful balancing of the instruments is laughed at. Lead single Yoko serves as a well-deserved reappraisal for an artist who has been dragged through the mud for decades. The unrelenting Jaki Liebezeit-inspired backbeat of the final track No Receipt brings a bit of Krautrock to a band who obviously were inspired by X-ray Spex and the Au Pairs.
Melbourne-based Things We Built make a plea for leaving the grind and boredom of a day time job and hit the dance floor instead on their Daddy's Gone Disco single. O, and he is not going back ever.
It starts out plain and simple enough, but once they have reached the middle-eight they chose wisely and kept it going for quite some time for a prolonged adventurous break, before circling back to the safety of the basics to bring the track to a close. What the fuck just happened? Better play it again.
Steven Wilson has posted a short video for his ninth studio album Requiem for a Village. It feaures spoken word by actor David Tennant, with a link to an old school website for the imginary village. It includes this announcement:
The parish clerk reminds residents that the September observance in The Village falls on Friday 11th September this year, as it has on the same date in every year for which the parish holds a record. The Village Hall is booked for the entire day for an unnamed musical act. The event is not listed on the spring fête calendar and is not organised by the parish council. No public programme has been issued. Enquiries to the clerk's office regarding times, locations, or participation have been declined in previous years and will be declined again. Residents who have attended in the past are asked to observe the usual custom. Traffic on Chapel Slope may be heavier than usual after dusk. No further notice will be posted.
The album will be released on November 6th (2LP, CD). Further details TBA.
Mancunian post-rock trio Dead Sea Apes do things differently on their new Psychic Tension, with the drums and bass upfront, as a dare for their guitarist to make himself heard. It is a game of tension and release, well mostly tension in fact, going through the dark back alleys of noise rock with a bit of psych trying finding its way in during a lull in the title track. It will kill the mood at a party within a minute, but those who choose to stay are rewarded with a towering in-your-face excursion that they don't want to end.
Even when they slow down a bit in Ursa Minor, they retain a kind of intensity that is both troublesome and alluring. Amidst all the chaos and subsequent emotional turmoil that reigns supreme in todays politics, the band tries to find a way out, looking fro an escape from the shit storm. They don't have any answers, but their wordless screams of righteous anger and agony will drown out the whispers of one's inner demons for sure.
English quintet The Fierce & The Dead are gravitating to a blend of shoegaze and metal on their new album Regional Theatre. The post-rock leanings and forays into progressive rock are still there, but not as prominent as before. It makes it a bit easier to digest for people who are not familiar with the history of the band. They started out in 2010 as an all-instrumental experimental trio with the long-form track Part 1. Over the years their sound has shifted slightly with each release. The big surprise came in 2023 when bass player Kevin Feazey stepped up to the mike for the News From The Invisible World album. Textures gave way to "proper" songs albeit with a twist. Start with Hypernormalisation which covers all the bases (caveat: they are a lot of them).
Fast forward to 2026 and the band have found a new common ground for coming up with melodies that can sit comfortably on top of intricate rhythms - a track Somehow may sound radio-friendly, but there is plenty to enjoy for people who can appreciate the layers that are not so obvious. Black Sabbath will love the rumbling Hey Nightmare and their ode to rock 'n' roll The 1234 could be their ticket to long overdue airplay.
