THE SCRUBS - SKULLS AND DOLLS (Area Pirata Records CD, D/L).

New from Area Pirata Records, the home of Italian Garage Rock, comes the debut album from fuzz fans The Scrubs. Rooted in classic Garage/Punk, The Scrubs effortlessly mix together 60s Beat and Garage influences with an harder edged 80s Punk Rock snarl to create a very modern sounding Rock n Roll record that pulls together groovy, Nuggety retro vibes and electrifying punky riffage in a mess of sound that just don’t quit movin’ your feet. Touching base with fuzzed up Garage/Punk greats such as the Flamin’ Groovies, The Damned, The Fuzztones, The Sonics, The Gravedigger Five and The Stooges among others, The Scrubs prove that primitive wild and raw Garage Rock never ages, adhering firmly to the tried and tested maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” as they tear through 14 tracks in a fast and furious 25 minutes.

After a well received debut single a few years back, The Scrubs have spent studio time honing their raw and urgent sound into the cohesive new LP Skulls And Dolls. Packed full of blistering Garage/Punk, this ain’t going to win prizes for pushing at musical boundaries but for fans of the genre it’s a thrill ride though familiar surroundings. What Skulls And Dolls lacks in originality is amply balanced by the sheer exuberance of the songs and the band’s obvious love of the music they play……….from the jumping album opener ‘Misery Girl’ through to the swaggering ‘This Bag Is Not A Toy’, The Scrubs ain’t shy showing off the influence of 60s Beat bands, American Garage/Psych and the Bluesy Rock n Roll of the Stones and Pretty Things have had on their sound. Check it out People, it’s a really cool record.

Skulls And Dolls is out NOW on Area Pirata Records available on CD or as a D/L from cool record stores, the usual suspects on line or direct from the label’s web site or Bandcamp page here………………..

https://areapiratarec.bandcamp.com/album/skulls-and-dolls

where you can stream the album.

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THE NOISE FIGURES - TELEPATH (Inner Ear Records LP, CD, D/L).

Stripped down to the bare essentials of just guitar and drums, Greek Garage/Fuzz duo The Noise Figures are back with a new album of dirty Psych/Blues and frenetic fuzzed out Garage Rock mind melters that comes on like a seriously minimalist Black Angels record. Three years after their last LP on Inner Ear Records, Aphelion, George Nikas (vocals, drums) and Stamos Bamparis (guitar, vocals) release Telepath into the Psychedelic universe………ten tracks of amped up, distorted and freaked out Garage goodies that has to be considered their best release to date. Connecting modern day Athens with the Psychedelic heritage of Austin, Texas, The Noise Figures have a compact retro sound with restless fuzz guitars flirting with old-fashioned Garage but also with contemporary Blues, amps with plenty of spring reverb and dirty overdriven vocals that with a heavy tribal backbeat form the music spine of the album, capturing the duo’s dynamic energy forged by hundreds of live performances.

A concept album of sorts, inspired by the theory of spiritualism and influenced by personal experiences, Telepath delves deep into the psyche of The Noise Figures  and with its swinging moods of bright to dark undertones we are beckoned into the dreamy delirium they intensively describe in their lyric sheet, sunk into a ritual vortex of hypnotism. Propelled by thunderous drumming of George Nikas, Telepath is a 35 minute dizzy wild ride of hard and heavy Blues, twisted Psych Garage and sky scraping fuzz vertigo that never lets up. Primitive and sparse but focused, intense and with tuneful sensibility the album carries no excess baggage with all ten tracks being around a mean and lean three and a half minutes long with a ton of killer tunes with the real stands out being ‘Out Of Touch’ the Garage Rock stomp of ‘Healing Light’ and the bluesy heavy Psych title track. If you dig the bluesy Psych of classic International Artists releases, The Black Angels swirling fuzz outs and the stripped back spook blues of bands such as Pretty Lightning you are going to love this.

Out NOW on vinyl, CD or as a digital download via Inner Ear Records, Telepath by The Noise Figures is available from seriously tuned in record stores, the usual suspects on line or directly from Inner Ear. You can check it out/stream it/by it from Bandcamp here………………………..

https://innerear-thenoisefigures.bandcamp.com/album/telepath

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MONKS OF DOOM - THE BRONTË PIN (Pitch-A-Tent Records CD).

Spinning off from Camper Van Beethoven’s weird orbit, Victor Krummenacher, Greg Lisher, Chris Pedersen and David Immerglück, collectively known as the Art/Psych/Prog band Monks of Doom, have been intermittently releasing strange and beautiful records since 1986. Seen as a opportunity to go beyond Camper’s brand of Folk Rock and Sixties influenced Pop Psych and deep into the type of diverse experimental music played by kindred spirits Henry Cow, Snakefinger, King Crimson, Richard Thompson, Fred Frith and a host of other iconoclastic artists, Monks Of Doom have built a small but very impressive discography over the years with their last LP, the covers collection What’s Left For Kicks?, seen as a career spanning collection of recordings interpreting some of the bands most obvious and most obscure influences. The typically diverse selection of artists represented included Neu!, The Kinks, Rahssahn Roland Kirk, Nino Rota, Wire, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Hillage, and Roy Harper among others……………a bizarre blend of influences/inspirations that seems to perfectly encapsulate the Monks’ own unique sound. Due for release next weekend, the new Monks Of Doom album, The Brontë Pin, simply picks up where they left off in 2005 with their album of covers with more spontaneous forays into the worlds of improvised music, adventurous instrumental work, dystopian paranoia and mind melting psychedelia and bar an excellent cover of Sandy Denny’s ‘John The Gun’, it’s their first album of all new material since 1993’s Forgery.

Slowly evolving from studio sessions starting way back in 2009, The Brontë Pin highlights both the bands improvisational skills with dynamic instrumental passages and their more concise songwriting talents where Bert Jansch and Richard Thompson are imaginatively channeled. Mixing together swirling Psychedelia and Prog Rock with more gentle Folk Rock influences just for starters, the album is by measures more aggressive and more laid back than previous recordings, continuing in the grand tradition of this exceptional yet reclusive group of musicians, melding myriad influences into a virtuosity hard to define in the world of current music. Opening with the swirl of ‘The Brontë Pin pt. 1’, Monks Of Doom take the scenic route from A to B (no doubt going via L, S and D along the way) though 12 brilliant tracks gloriously twisting and turning through Psych/Prog and Acid Folk while occasionally taking imaginative detours into Eastern flavoured psychedelia (with the mind blowing ‘Duat! Duat!’) and supercharged Post Punk. Steeped in the culture of Acid Rock experimentation/improvisation, the Monks mix hazy West Coast Cosmic jams with more complex Prog Rock structures as instrumental tracks spin off in tangents but always economical and measured, never self indulgent. The massive influence of late 60s/early 70s British Folk Rock is more than evident on the stunning ‘Boar's Head’ which infuses the Folk tradition with weird electronica, ‘Osiris Rising’ which sounds like a long lost Richard Thompson track and the aforementioned Sandy Denny song. As with What’s Left For Kicks?, Monks Of Doom have incorporated their assortment of 60s, 70s and 80s influences and their very cool taste in tunes into an album that defies any sort of categorization, however with The Brontë Pin the range of material is wider, and the abilities of the band seem so much more accomplished than before. For fans of early Island Records releases, “Classic” Rock/Prog, seminal 60s/70s Cult underground music and innovative/more experimental 1980’s Post Punk bands this is well worth your time. One of this year’s essential records.

Due for release via Pitch-A-Tent Records on 23/03/2018, The Brontë Pin is available on CD from all good record stores, the usual suspects on line or direct from Monks Of Doom here…… http://www.monksofdoom.com/music.

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MALADY - TOINEN TOISTA (SVART Records LP, CD, D/L).

Down in our psychedelic basement we absolutely love the lush organic sound of old Mellotrons and Toinen Toista, the new album from Finnish Prog Rock band Malady, is completely bathed in the sweeping string and flute loops of this iconic instrument, evoking the early 70s era of the classic BritProg bands such as Yes, King Crimson, Camel, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Caravan among many others. As if escaping from a time capsule marked “1971”, Toinen Toista, along with lavish Mellotron washes, has all the other necessary elements in place (growling Hammond organ, fluttering Mini-Moog, soaring guitars and a supple, Jazzy rhythm section) that will make any serious ProgHead go weak at the knees. Malady’s 2015 eponymous debut album was a deserved underground hit, a beautifully realised piece of original Finnish Progressive Rock with their very British influences glazed with the kind of homegrown sweetness only vintage Scandinavian Prog Rock can provide………….the new album ups the ante somewhat with an epic, multi-layered 23 minute track that channels the shifting soundscapes of Close To Edge era Yes along with four other fantastic tracks with their roots very firmly in the golden age of 1970s “progressive” music.

Fluid and beautifully mellow, Toinen Toista opens with the stunning title track where Hammond organ and guitar coil around each other seductively evoking the sound of early Camel before melting into the short violin led neo-classical interlude ‘Laulu Sisaruksille’. It’s all comfortingly familiar, Malady have cherry picked all the best moments from your favourite 70s Prog records and created an album, although not stunningly original, that strips away the excess that gave the genre such a bad name towards the end of the 70s. It’s a very skillfully crafted LP and Malady are not afraid to mix it up either, ‘Tiedon Kehtolaulu’ mashes together 70s Space Disco bass lines with swirling Moog and Etsijän Elinehto takes its inspiration from mid-period…..erm…..commercially viable Pink Floyd with Rick Wright’s organ sound running through its core and topped off with a scorching Gilmour-esque solo. Flip the disc and check the 23 minute track 'Nurja Puoli' that ebbs and flows through different moods and textures. This is where Malady’s many influences/inspiration really show themselves, mixing the more gentle side of King Crimson with Steve Hackett’s fluent guitar runs then adding the shifting complexity of Yes to this potent brew just for starters. Never tipping over into self indulgence as it shifts through the gears, ‘Nurja Puoli’ is an epic journey through Roger Dean landscapes, distilling the essence of genre that still has the power to be genuinely thrilling nearly 50 years on from its heyday. For the dedicated Prog Rock fan who thought the day the music died was when Gentle Giant announced they were splitting up, this is an essential purchase.

Due to be released via Finnish label SVART Records on LP and CD on 30/03/2018, Toinen Toista by Malady is available to pre-order from the SVART website now. You can check out the album, stream or buy the digital download here…………….

https://maladyband.bandcamp.com/

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STATUE - KASPER (FONS Records/Jezus Factory LP, CD).

For fans of the mesmerizing guitar interplay of Television, the kinetic Post Rock grooves of Battles and the noisenik squall of early Sonic Youth there is a new album from Belgian Post Rock/Psych Rock instrumental band Statue landing imminently. With a  line up of guitar + guitar + bass + drums + guitar + guitar, Statue’s “shock and awe” approach mixes a heavy wall of massed guitars with a tight and nimble rhythm section that is an intense “guitar-extravaganza-experience” yet fluid and danceable, with their dense sound having previously been compared to Post Rock titans such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Already building a reputation on the Belgian alternative music scene with two previous excellent long players and having played eye catching shows at the Pukkelpop festival and the Eindhoven Psych Lab, Statue’s third release, Kasper, could be the breakout record that will bring the band to the attention of a much deserved wider audience.

Smart and clever without ever disappearing in a fog of unlistenable pretentious bullshit, Kasper works on many different levels…………….there are echoes of the glacial guitars of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd that elegantly fused together during Television’s greatest moments and the quiet, loud, very loud Post Rock dynamics of bands such as Mogwai mixed with elements of Prog Rock and layers of fuzzed out sonic sprawl that are offset by pulsing motorik bass lines and hyperactive drumming that rocks like a bastard, having much more in common with muscular new Psych Rock bands such as RMFTM and Causa Sui than Space Rock jam bands that are more Grateful Dead than Cosmic Dead. Very modern sounding and taking their inspiration/influences from different sources, Statue have avoided all of the clichés that can blight a new record………………there is no Stoner Rock Sabbath riffing, trips to deep space or the recycling post Psychedelic vibes but an intelligent, economical conceptualization of instrumental Post Rock/modern Psych Rock. No doubt sequenced to work as a continuous piece of music, the album flows beautifully with guitars soaring and spiraling into infinity over nine brilliant tracks as Statue explore what kind of glorious noise you can make with four guitarists. Sharp, urgent and crammed with monster grooves, Kasper is a fantastic record that demands your attention.

Due to hit the racks on 16/03/2018, the new Statue album is an LP/CD joint release by the London label Jezus Factory Records with the Belgian label FONS Records and will be available from the more adventurous record stores, on line from the usual suspects or directly from the Jezus Factory and FONS websites.

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HELIGOLAND - CORIALLO EP (Commission 45 CD, D/L).

With a new album on the way, produced by the Cocteau’s Robin Guthrie, there is a wonderfully strange and beautiful EP from Heligoland for you to check out. Working at the margins of Dreampop/Shoegaze and Post Rock, Heligoland’s music is characterised by expansive, layered arrangements and the soaring vocals of Karen Vogt and has been described as a combination of “the emotive ethereality of The Cocteau Twins with the stark balladry of Low” which perfectly encapsulates the glacial beauty of the Coriallo EP. Featuring five shimmering songs that embody the fusion of “post-rock soundscapes with ambient textures and drone laced melodies” that Heligoland have built their reputation on, Coriallo is there strongest release to date and will leave fans of the band eagerly awaiting the release of the new LP.

With echoes of Slowdive at their most ethereal, the Coriallo EP is the perfect blend of ambient soundscaping and Alt-Rock stripped down to it’s purest essence. Having more in common with the late night ambiance of modern Post Rock influenced Americana than the squall of MBV and The Jesus & Mary Chain, Heligoland are taking Shoegaze far into uncharted lands. With Alt-Country guitar textures swamped with reverb, the opening track ‘Ełk’ and the crystaline ‘Anavo’ sound something not unlike The Cowboy Junkies from another planet……….elegantly minimal with Karen Vogt’s vocals surrounded by a swirl of guitars the songs sparkle before slowly leaving a diminishing vapor trail. With every play of the EP uncovering more and more subtle textures, Coriallo is stunningly beautiful and essential listening to any fan of quality Shoegaze and atmospheric American Alt-Rock.

     

Out NOW on limited edition CD and download via the Paris based boutique label Commission 45, you can check out/stream/buy the EP here……………

https://heligoland.bandcamp.com/

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GREEN SEAGULL - SCARLET FEVER (Mega Dodo LP, CD, D/L).

Green Seagull first introduced themselves last year with two very groovy 7” singles released by the good folk at Mega Dodo. A London Psych Pop “supergroup” of sorts including members of New Electric Ride, Magnetic Mind and The Lysergics, Green Seagull are 60s Psychedelia obsessives, (cut them and they will bleed Paisley), and would be the first to admit that they are not pushing the envelope or breaking boundaries but are playing the music they love. Their harmony-laden Baroque/Freakbeat sound draws upon influences such as the Left Banke, the Kinks, and the Association and exists trapped in a time bubble somewhere between 60s swinging London and the psychedelic daze of 1967 S.F.. Landing at the end of the month, it would be fair to describe their debut album, Scarlet Fever, more of a sum of their influences than Green Seagull having stamped their own distinctive mark on the Neo-Psych genre, sounding more like a classy homage in the style of The Dukes Of Stratosphear than taking the late 60s as a starting point and exploring their own sonic path…………..but, hey, nothing wrong with that and Green Seagull’s retro sounds fit the ethos of Mega Dodo perfectly.

Stylistically Green Seagull mix the suburban psychedelia of late 60s BritPsych bands with the more expansive sound of the Folk Rock/Baroque Psych Pop American bands such as H.P. Lovecraft, Serpent Power, Sweetwater and Daughters Of Albion……with a bigger recording budget Scarlet Fever is the kind of record that would likely be bathed in Mellotrons and woodwind arrangements. It’s a pretty accurate facsimile of the period where the Psychedelic sounds from the States were being filtered into the consciousness of the more creative British bands. In an era when most new Psych LPs sound like Hawkwind, CAN and Sonic Youth fighting to the death in a distant galaxy, Green Seagull are still partying like it’s 1967 and seriously digging it. Comprising of 14 self penned tracks, including the early singles ‘Scarlet’ and ‘(I Used To Dream In) Black and White’ with their respective B-Sides, Scarlet Fever is a very solid debut record on the whole and Green Seagull are definitively a band worth keeping an eye on for the future.………..however the album has been front loaded with the best tunes on the first side, starting to run out of steam towards the the end of the flip side and would have maybe worked better as a mini-album. There are going to be better records this year, but for any discerning fan of the more gentle, less freaked out sounds of 60s, the groovy first full release from Green Seagull is well worth checking out.  

Due for release 30/03/2018 by Mega Dodo Records on limited edition run of 300 copies on green vinyl and also on CD available from groovy record shops, groovy on line retailers or pre-order it from the very groovy Mega Dodo shop. Also check it out/stream it/buy it from Mega Dodo’s groovy Bandcamp page here………………..

https://megadodo.bandcamp.com/album/scarlet-fever

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