Can everyone hear those sirens right now? Because it is going OFF. Bandcamp Friday is back. We’re only two months into the year and already so much has happened: Convoy protests, aging hippies turned Amazon marketing reps campaigning for the censorship of a bullheaded American man, Damon Albarn failing his Twitter diplomacy test, the presumed immortal Bogdonoff twins giving in to the grim reaper, Dazed and Confused magazine writers still pretending to enjoy K-Pop, Mcdonalds plant burgers, and the ever-looming threat of more Matrix sequels! I’ve seen enough, I’m climbing back into my cave. The world’s on fire and I’m not coming out until the screaming has stopped.
This month I am joined by a formidable trio – Jordan Dowling (J.D), Thomas Mannay (T.M) and Max Mazonowicz (M.M). There’s lots of gloomy experimental stuff, punk, post-punk, ambient-dub (pretty sure that’s a thing, right?) plus a Wu-Tang and Beatles mash-up.
TV Colours – Purple Skies Toxic River
I’m not sure what happened to this band, all traces of communication via their social media channels seem to have fizzled out over the course of the last two years. But, a couple of years back I like them enough to bother ordering a t-shirt and a downloaded copy of this album from them. TV Colours were a grungy, skate punk band who had a tendency to utilise the distortion setting in a way that sounded a bit like early Wavves and Teen Suicide. There’s always a place in my heart for that kind of thing. (K.H)
Deathcrash – Unwind
In the same manner that Black Midi and Black Country, New Road have given a new lease of life to the early post-rock schematics of bands like Slint and half-dragged them back into the mainstream consciousness, Deathcrash look set to do the same with the sound of early 90s slowcore. Like Black Country, New Road their references are both musical and lyrical, with Deathcrash quoting a lyric from the Galaxie 500 song ‘Fourth of July’. However, drilling into the scene the London-based quartet sound much closer to Bedhead and Codeine – slow, comforting, bewitching. (J.D)
Eleventh He Reaches London – Bānhūs
Criminally unknown outside of Western Australia (they won best hard rock/metal act two years running at the West Australian Music Industry Awards, and a couple of other awards before then). Wikipedia lists this as post-hardcore, but the album also encompasses elements of doom metal, folk, and a smidge of post-rock. ‘Bānhūs’ pairs these influences with lyrics that paint a bleak picture, centring on themes of misery, despair, and death. A very introspective listen. (T.M)
Wu Tang Vs The Beatles (Tom Caruana Remix Projects) – Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers
There’s a lot of remixes around and a lot of them are really good but this one is God tier. I always find myself coming back to this album. This mix is masterful, it combines snippets from Beatles interviews and songs as well as music from Wu Tang’s seminal 13 Chambers album. Each track combines both artists to somehow create a superior version of the individual songs. It sounds so effective that you’ll be kicking yourself for not having had the idea of pairing them together before. (K.H)
Adia Victoria – A Southern Gothic
A terrific melding of the classic American genres, A Southern Gothic is a throwback to different times that still sounds totally contemporary. Laced with imagery from the southern USA, ‘Magnolia Blues’, ‘Far From Dixie’, and ‘Carolina Bound’ are powerful and catchy. It’s a winning blend of heart and soul. (M.M)
Muslimgauze – Return of Black September
Who would have thought that ambient music could have so much bass? The titular opener, named for a Palestinian terrorist organisation from the 70s, thrums with a low frequency pulse underlying hypnotic percussion and a plucked melody as it establishes the ominous, Middle Eastern-tinged atmosphere of the rest of the album.
Muslimgauze’s style pulls from dub techniques and sounds downright psychedelic at times as sounds are layered up and taken away, percussion and metallic clangs echo out, and (in ‘Thugghee’) voices chatter in Arabic. The Bandcamp version of the album includes a couple of extra tracks that were previously available on the ‘Jerusalaam’ CD. (T.M)
Cloakroom – Lost Meaning
Dissolution Wave, the third album from American trio Cloakroom, sits halfway between the desert and the stars. Opener ‘Lost Meaning’ is the heaviest offering from the album and bears more than a passing resemblance to the spacey stoner-rock of Hum and the made-for-the-road riffing of Swervedriver, but it does so with more focus and with less meandering than either band. This works for Cloakroom on both this track and on the album, which clocks in at under 40 minutes. Not every drive needs to be a long one. (J.D)
Little Girls – Cults
Should you be a fan of dark, minimalist post-punk then you, like me, will very much enjoy this album by Canadian duo Little Girls. Despite receiving some exposure in the mainstream press at the time of release, this album has been largely overlooked by the indie community. Their songs have been described as ‘bass-driven incantations to the ghost of Ian Curtis‘ by YVYNYL and which judging from the number of people I see wearing Joy Division t-shirts these days should spark some fires. (K.H)
Ken Pomeroy – Christmas Lights In April
So let’s clear this up straight away, Ken Pomeroy isn’t a man and Christmas Lights In April isn’t a festive album. What it is is an affecting ten songs, showcasing the power of Ken’s songwriting and her voice. It’s stripped back and all the better for it. The songs are all beautifully done but ‘Rain’ has a particular spring in its step while ‘Flannel Cowboy; is as raw a song as you’ll hear in 2022. (M.M)
World’s End Girlfriend – Black
Katsuhiko Maeda, better known as World’s End Girlfriend, has spent the last couple of years offering fractured, elongated takes on a range of genres from the glitchy post-rock perfection of ‘Meguri’ through to the cyclic ambience of his side-project Fatal Defect Orchestra. At the heart of Black Box Fake Fact is a euphoric trance melody that could be the backbone of a dancefloor filler if it wasn’t constantly cut-up and interspersed with bursts of white noise. (J.D)
Detriti Compilation No. 2
A compilation of obscure lo-fi Eastern European post-punk (with some short excursions into disco and dream pop). From what I can tell it’s a mix of newer and older bands, though you’d be hard-pressed to figure out which recordings are from the 90s and which are from just a few years ago. For example, I had thought that Kumle were a fairly recent band as their track on this compilation has shades of Interpol, but whilst doing some quick research about this compilation I found out they were actually from the early 90s. (T.M)
Amythyst Kiah – Wary & Strange
Amythyst Kiah brings a real fire to her second solo album. Fresh from the terrific super-group formed with Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla and Rhiannon Giddens, Wary & Strange includes Amythyst’s reimagined version of ‘Black Like Me’. There’s a renewed confidence that shines through on standout songs such as ‘Fancy Drones (Fracture Me)’ with its industrial blues and the gospel like tones of ‘Tender Organs’. If you like your Ameriana varied and honest, then this is for you. (M.M)