Wu Tang’s Ghostface Killah is back, and he’s back with a bang. Fishscale is a monster of a rap album, with exceptional production from all across the spectrum, from MF Doom to London’s own Lewis Parker [who produces Shakey Dog, the track you can stream here] and of course brings in some tight flows from Ghostface himself.
Always energetic and bringing the rhymes with a voice that has as much physical presence as a Lennox Lewis punch, Ghostface doesn’t let up on this album, especially on the standout tracks The Champ, Shakey Dog and Be Easy. Another bonus on this album is the reuniting once more of the entire Wu Tang [including ODB], on the track 9 Milli Bros. It’s always great to hear New York’s premier crew hitting the bars with their distinct style.
Ghostface has always been able to produce great tracks but sometimes his consistency has lacked a little, but not on Fishscale. He brings a great mix of party tracks, slower songs and always gets that head nodding, a sure fire way of being a smash. Cop this album as soon as you can, it’s a banger.
It’s hard not to love this record. Featuring members of The Locust, Swing Kids, Give Up The Ghost, Over My Dead Body and Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, Some Girls must hold an all time record in scene points and punk pedigree.
For the first part of the nineties, Monster Magnet were the most mind-blowing, freak-flag waving, gloriously fucked-up drug rockers on the planet. Their vision of seventies rock excess, warped comic-book Manson family murder madness and punk rock anger was never more fully realised than on debut full-length ‘Spine Of God’ and hypnotic follow-up ‘Tab‘.
If you don’t already own these albums, here’s your chance to fully redeem your record collection. The bad news is for the people that already do.
‘Kill Your Own’, eh? Don’t worry, it’s not a new Ted Nugent autobiography, it’s just the title of Hundred Reasons’ third album; a record which should hopefully bring the Surrey quintet the success and acclaim that they’ve long deserved. Produced by their guitarist, Larry Hibbitt, ‘Kill Your Own’ is arguably the band’s heaviest effort to date, but it retains the immediacy and variety that made their debut ‘Ideas Above Our Station’ such a success.
There are not many artists out there that can say they have 18 albums out there that have changed a part of musical history but Stereolab can and this latest offering from the cooky, indie specialists is simply beautifully crafted from every angle.
Having taken a year out of the spotlight, Brian Molko and co. finally return with what is arguably their best record since 1998’s ‘Without You I’m Nothing’. The trio rediscover the guitar-driven urgency of their early records on songs like ‘Drag’ and ‘One Of A Kind’ but still retain their love of experimentation, particularly evident in the looped beats and beautifully expansive melancholy of ‘Pierrot The Clown’. The angst-fixated lyrics of yore have also given way to more reflective, outward-looking subject matter, although old-school fans need not worry; Placebo are still along way off from ‘jolly pop song’ territory.
Endearingly old-school, Boston skate-core quartet Bones Brigade hark back to the days of flipped-up baseball caps, big shorts and Suicidal Tendencies records. This, their latest record, sees them blasting out thirteen songs of gurning fast and thrashy early eighties hardcore with thrash metal influences.
Here’s yet another incredible album of rock action from the fine folk at Deranged Records who just keep on pumping out the hits. Following hot on the heels of recent godlike releases from Career Suicide, Dead Stop and Fucked Up, Brutal Knights effortlessly fuse the sheer speed and raw power of early eighties hardcore with the gurning garage punk of bands like Zeke and the New Bomb Turks. 
Well, just a few times a year do you unwrap a jiffy bag and out leaps something bigger than your record collection! Yep, this is the first of the year for me. OK, let’s start at the beginning, this band are from Denmark and they fucking rock. They rock in a way that Hendrix, Iggy and Hawkwind would have liked to in 2006 – full of drug-filled drop outs and heavy shit like you have never tasted it before.
Featuring J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr fame on drums, Witch was born when J and his longtime friend Dave Sweetapple were interested in forming a hard rock band. Although Mascis is obviously more famous in rock circles for his genius guitar playing and song-writing, he actually started out as a drummer in early eighties hardcore punk band Deep Wound and is more than capable of handling himself behind the ole’ pots n’ pans and dustbin lids!