Category: Buzz Chart

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Buzz Chart

Hogslayer

HOG
Hogslayer
‘Despiser’
Undergroove Records

Hailing from Cardiff, Hogslayer churn out the kind of coma-inducing noise that can only be described as pure filth, and fortunately for you they’re releasing a brand new album brimming with it on May 4th via Undergroove Records.

First cut from the album, ‘Despiser’, rests on a low-slung, down beat groove that’s heavier than Torche playing in an ironmongers. Their doom-ridden riffs entwine to form a truly intoxicating sound, one that rests on the bands decision to recruit two down tuned bass guitars, rather than your standard six string silliness.

With a name like Hogslayer, a music video that’s basically five-minutes of a screaming beard, and a frontman who calls himself Lord Bastard, you simply can not refuse this offering of pure sludge.

Watch the video here and catch them on tour at the dates below.

Tour Dates:

March
25th Kraak, Manchester
26th Downstairs, Aberdeen
27th Cerberus Bar, Dundee
28th Gorilla Studios, Hull
29th The Moon, Cardiff

April
5th The Moon, Cardiff
11th Hollowfest Doom All-Dayer, Bristol

May
2nd Red Sun Festival, Cardiff

August
20th The Wheatsheaf, Oxford

Categories
Buzz Chart Single Reviews

VANT

VANT
‘Parasite’vant_band
 Self Released

Mixing the rock n’ roll formula worn on the famous sleeves of the likes of the Dead Boys, MC5 and Iggy’s Stooges on speed, UK 4 piece VANT have arrived in our ears this week on recommendation with kick-ass new track Parasite that spans a minute twenty five only and packs high energy, sneering vocals and a dose of unadulterated malarkey.

Join them on their mammoth spring tour at a British venue near you soon, they sound like they could fuel a great drunken night out.

Dates here.

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Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Doctor and the Crippens

Doctor and the Crippens
Raphanadosis
Boss Tuneage

doctor_

There are certain albums from the 80s that bring back so many incredible memories that you just have to re-buy them – Raphanadosis is definitely one those. From the grinding blast beats of ‘Garden Centre Murders’ to the zombie intro of ‘Braindead’, (still one of the best intro’s to a hardcore record of all time) this 22-track masterpiece full of nightmares comes packed with super-fast, quintessentially British hardcore with humorous subject matter that will be an anthem for many.

The gritty, monstrous vocals of ‘My Brother Is A Headcase’ still sounds like a vegetarian is tied up in a basement being force-fed bacon whilst listening to ‘Henenlotter’ on repeat. The eerie build up in ‘Button Moon’ still retains a creepy cesspit of misery before you are blown into outer space.’The Kid With The Removable Face’ is still being used as a frisbee (and still making me LOL) and ‘8 Years in Office’ and ‘Extreme Noise T’ are still the best shortest songs on the album. More records should also have titles for the A and B sides too. Side ‘Insecticide’ was always followed by Side ‘Fungicide’ with this release, you could never just listen to half of it. Brilliant stuff.

I feel like ‘Wurzel Gummidge on acid’ listening to this again, a feeling most would probably avoid. Maybe that’s what Raphanadosis actually means. I never knew what it was when I was 16 listening when this was on my record player, in fact I always referenced is as SNIT which seems to have disappeared from the brilliant front cover art. It’s probably gone for a good reason that I don’t understand and that is exactly why this album is so damn brilliant. I never wanted to know who Doctor and the Crippens were really. So stoked I’ve caught Raphanadosis 26 years later.

Top marks to Boss Tuneage this month who have decided to get this classic out of the punk rock vaults and re-package it for the exploding cabbage appreciation society that followed this seminal bunch of laugh-a-minute punks.

Pick up the re-issue from here. It’s a must have double vinyl and CD package that comes with 15 extra tracks from their John Peel Show in (1989), the North Atlantic Noise Attack comp LP and Avant Gardening 12” EP. All that for £8!

Zac

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Buzz Chart

Gengahr

gengahr

Gengahr
‘She’s A Witch’
Transgressive

Following in the footsteps of 2014’s spectacular ‘Powder’ / ‘Bathed In Light’, Gengahr immortalise their mesmerising new single ‘She’s A Witch’ in a new, Monty Python inspired music video. Main man Felix Bushe reveals, “We wanted to make a video that John Cleese would have been proud of – it was heavily influenced by our love of Monty Python.”

Watch the video below and catch them on tour through March and April.

Tour dates:

March
25th Bleach, Brighton
26th The Boston Arms, London (tickets)

April (w/ Circa Waves)
2nd New Slang, London
8th Riverside, Newcastle
9th Garage, Glasgow
10th Leadmill, Sheffield
11th O2 Academy, Liverpool
13th Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
14th The Library @ Institute, Birmingham
16th Wedgwood Rooms, Portsmouth
17th Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London

Categories
Buzz Chart Single Reviews

METZ

metzII

METZ
‘Acetate’
Sub Pop

After what feels like an eternity, Toronto’s most wanted are back. These three peddlers of noise have had us all on tenterhooks since their 2012 debut shook the earth with a colossal helping of riffs, rawness and power, and today marks their triumphant return in the form of ‘Acetate’, the most frenzied four-minutes you’re guaranteed to hear this week.

‘Acetate’ picks up right where tracks like ‘Wet Blanket’ and ‘Wasted’ left off. Their unmistakeable guitar and bass grind fused with head busting drums creates a sound only describable as manic. The track leads METZ’s second album, fittingly titled METZ II, which is due May 4th via Sub Pop and will feature the artwork pictured here.

Watch their new pancake-focused visual below and do whatever you must to get a ticket for their sold-out show at The 100 Club on March 3rd.

Metz II Track Listing:
1. Acetate
2. The Swimmer
3. Spit You Out
4. Zzyzx
5. IOU
6. Landfill
7. Nervous System
8. Wait in Line
9. Eyes Peeled
10. Kicking a Can of Worms

Categories
Buzz Chart Reviews

Destruction Unit

Destruction Unit

Destruction Unit
‘Final Flight’
Sacred Bones

Forever kicking and screaming their way to the forefront of modern noise rock, Arizona’s Destruction Unit blew our minds when they were last in London for the release of Deep Trip in 2013. Now, they bring us a new music video that recalls the mayhem of their live show perfectly. Directed by Cali Dewitt, the visuals on offer here are nothing short of mesmerising, transcending to a higher realm by way of a warped desert ritual, growing increasingly intense as layers of feedback and fuzz are built sky high.

Those who reside stateside can catch them on tour through March at the dates below. We eagerly await their return to the UK.

March Live dates
8th Las Vegas, NV
9th Albuquerque, NM
10th Dallas, TX
11th Memphis, TN
12th Nashville, TN
13th Chicago, IL
14th Columbia, OH
15th Austin, TX
16th Austin, TX
17th Austin, TX
19th Phoenix, AZ
20th Los Angeles, CA

Categories
Buzz Chart Single Reviews

YAK

yak
YAK
‘Hungry Heart’
Fat Possum

Landing with the might of a thousand jackhammers are London’s most exciting young noisemakers, Yak. Their debut single, ‘Hungry Heart’, is a three minute opus that will have you clinging onto the bandwagon as soon as it comes careering out of their filthy garage rock den.

Their simplicity is bold, brash and charming, never straying from fiercely repetitive bass motifs that could have had even Noel Redding in a tizz. Lyrically, Yak come kicking and screaming at will with a testosterone fuelled mantra of “again and again and again” as their potent chorus rains down on your ears in a haze of fuzz.

Live, the three-piece put on a whirlwind display fizzing with action, be sure to catch them at their single launch on March 3rd at Stoke Newington’s Waiting Room.

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart Reviews

Hey Colossus

Hey_Colossus_In_Black_Gold_sleeve_art4Hey Colossus
‘In Black and Gold’
Rocket Recordings

Over the last 11 years, Hey Colossus have become something of an institution in the UK’s noise-rock scene. They’re absurdly prolific, this is album number nine, devoutly experimental – and heavy as a sack of spanners.

Their growing esteem and popularity likely has much to do with the band’s sharp changes in tone and style from LP to LP. Each one takes them into uncharted ground, exposing them to new audiences along the way. Recent releases have even garnered glowing reviews by broadsheets determined to assert their ‘cool’ – what more could a band so uncompromising and antisocial-sounding ask for?
Yet with ‘In Black and Gold’, the follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed ‘Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo’ they’ve managed to deliver a record that pulls beauty from their copious wreckage more so than ever before.

Much of the tonal shift on this latest LP can be attributed to guitarist Jonathan Richards stepping up to provide more of the song writing than on previous outings.

A skateboarder since 1988, Richards intimates that much of his material was developed in his head while on-board: ‘The songs feature lots of banks and transitions that came directly from skating. The changes in rhythm and pace as I skated helped develop the blocks of sound that I would eventually translate to guitar when I got home.’

The result is a record that takes in a wide range of styles and moods, whilst managing to retain the trademark meditative aggression the band have developed in recent years.

Live, Hey Colossus have earned a reputation for show-stealing performances that are as unpredictable and confrontational as they are hypnotic. With a UK tour ahead to promote ‘In Black & Gold’, there’s a chance to experience the wall of sound created by this 6-man worrying proposition for yourself.

James Barry

Download the album at Rocket Recordings.

Last two shows sold out in Bristol and London this past weekend. Don’t miss out on the rest of the tour dates!

14th Feb – Brighton
18th Feb – Birmingham
19th Feb – Newcastle
20th Feb – Edinburgh
21st Feb – Nottingham
6th March – Manchester
7th March – Shipley

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

POND

POND_Man_It_Feels_Like_Space_AgainPOND
Man It Feels Like Space Again
Caroline

”Soulful pop in a seashell dress, except the sea in question is the one from that bit in ‘Interstellar’ on the perpetual wave-machine planet.” – anonymous

That is just one way that the new offering from big ol’ buddy pals POND has been described to me since its release. It sounds like the sonic interpretation of having a really great time with some close friends, except that you all have the ability to transform into lava-lamps, and that’s what you do all night, every night for a week straight.

Three tracks into ‘MIFLSA’ (as I call it) you’ve been dragged aboard the Pond Rocket depicted on the cover and are heading into uncharted cosmic territory that somehow still feels like a sofa bed in your cool friend’s mum’s basement. Friendly, but slick grooves are split up by oases that float you down gently from the sonic equivalent of the East Australian Current (as seen in the 2003 computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film ‘Finding Nemo’), and out into tepid waters, where you can look back and have bit of a think.

Penultimate track ‘Medicine Hat’, however, sounds like something off Exile On Main St that was recorded in the bottom hull of the aforementioned Pond Rocket as it soars past Saturn. Other highlights include an insanely cool guitar sound in the second quarter of the behemoth title track that figure skates right over your shoulder and into your heart.

All in all, this album is pretty nuts and pretty great. The fact the centerpiece of the album is called ‘Heroic Shart’ basically sums it up – don’t take it too seriously and that makes the quasi-cosmic journey all the more fun.

Charlie Pelling

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

The Living Eyes

living_eyes

The Living Eyes
Living Large
Agitated Records

The Saints have come back and are marching in, but Australia’s The Living Eyes don’t wanna be in that number, they wanna do their own number. And that number isn’t the D4, erstwhile and ersatz garage punks. This lot sure as hell know their product and they totally own it. In fact they sell it hard. While Tame Impala and Pond do the hippy dippy do, with thousand yard stares and degrees in distortion, The Living Eyes combine the song writing sass of The Clean with the bare knuckle vigour of The Hard Ons. And if King Gizzard did garage psych, this lot do garage psycho. Less likely to hit the superfuzz pedal than do a super big piddle on your shoes.

As you might imagine from the title this is a party record, and one which Andrew WK the professional party idiot might approve. Hooky as hell, it recalls compatriot’s Eddy Current Surpression Ring, and last year’s excellent Meatbodies album, and wouldn’t be out of place in San Francisco or on Castle Face, In The Red or Goner Records. But in fact they’re on Agitated Records. This is their second album but their first was put out on bandleader Billy Gardner’s own Antifade records, a man staking his claim as a Melbourne Ty Segall by also playing in bands enticingly called Ausmuteants and Wet Blankets.

Stand-out and hair on neck stand up song ‘Guilty Pleasures’ starts off like Adam & The Ants’ ‘Antmusic’, goes all Dick Dale and ends up like The Damned before dying abruptly in a brick wall of feedback. I won’t pretend that this is high-brow, in fact it’s more like deep set monobrow but it’s one furrow that I don’t mind ploughing.

Nick Hutchings