Post-Punk is back with vengeance in Night Gallery’s new album, Caught Hiding, which features the standout single, Suddenly.
The Peter Hook-Esque stabbing basslines and chaotically kaleidoscopic sonics of Poison Ivy pull together to create the ultimate anthem for those ailed with the kind of off-kilter psyche that is so accurately portrayed in the lyrics. The portrait of the tendency of mental tilts creeping up on you at whiplash speed and the toll that takes is as striking as it is resonant.
Night Gallery found the perfect balance between emotionally raw and sonically finessed with Suddenly. Few post-punk revivals hit the mark as urgently and viscerally. Ben Nelson’s ability to vocally boomerang from Ian Curtis to Julian Casablancas-style energy is something no one will be quick to forget.
Caught Hiding will officially release on October 14th. Check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.
Kablamo self-proclaims their debut self-titled EP to be personal, genuine and, at times, indulgent; I can fully attest to the indulgence being universal once you slip into the seminal single, Unnatural.
Unnatural unravels through dreamy guitar melodies, glassy synths and ragged post-punk basslines beneath the dream pop vocals which mellifluously breeze through the sentimentally heartfelt release, which all too readily imparts the emotion. An evocative response to the kaleidoscopic colour of Unnatural is non-optional.
Any fans of Deerhunter, Beach House, Tame Impala and Wild Nothing will undoubtedly want to sink their teeth into this paradoxically ambiently striking release.
The debut self-titled EP hit the airwaves on September 9th. You can hear it for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.
Taken from their critically acclaimed album, The Body Abdicator,Vukovar’s standout single, Place to Rest, is a neo-gothic dream. Laden with poetry, “death becomes the absence of the self/ it’s all in the mind”, shoegazey reverb, and strident Jack Ladder-Esque electronic percussion to feed energy into the expressive ennui of the darkened synth-pop track.
In their own words, their 2022 LP is a ‘metaphysical and esoteric wasteland disguised as a pop album’. If the IQ of an artist got them to the top of the charts, Vukovar would be unstoppable in their ascent. Anyone with an affinity for existential philosophy, Echo and the Bunnymen, House of Love and The Chameleons won’t want to let this luminously talented act slip them by. One hit and the swoon-worthy single will affably haunt you for a lifetime.
Check out the official video for Place to Rest via YouTube.
It is a bitter-sweet time for post-punk with most modern outfits becoming a parody of the pioneers by fixating on assimilating sonic texture over bringing the same substance that made us fall in love with the genre in the first place. Palais Ideal, consisting of John Edwards and Richard van Kruysdijk, who have previously collaborated with members of Wire, Bauhaus, Christian Death, Coil, Legendary Pink Dots and Swans, are the refreshingly existential antithesis.
The Netherlands-hailing duo’s seminal 2021 album, Negative Space, is an existential howl into the void where the façade of common sense, decency, and dignity existed. Every high-octane hook that draws you deeper into this manifesto of an LP resonates as an act of resistance.
With its Kessler-Esque guitars cutting through the caustic overflow of the vintage synths, the harbinger of an opening single, The Overseer, makes a meal out of your rhythmic pulses as the lyrics and vocals affirm that not every sane mind has been cowed into radio silence.
Results is a riotously electric post-punk indie earworm with enough anthemic power to minuscule the production on your dust scattered records paired with an intuitive mix of light and dark aural ephemera, the kind of balance that allowed the Smiths to reign indie supreme. Metaphorically, this maturation of the Sweet and Tender Hooligan has picked up plenty of vitriol since he declared that in the midst of life, we are in death, and rightly so. There is no abyss deep enough to absolve the sins committed through our collective lack of self-awareness.
With a Richey Edwards-style lyrical opener, “self-obsessed is so indulgent, why live in oblivion?”, Reject the Anaesthetic instantly became a paradoxically enlivening highlight. In contradiction to the demands of the title, the even-kilter guitars, melodic basslines and percussion that is tighter than the government’s welfare budget start to deliver the psych-tinged soporific aural medicine to prove just how easy it is to pacify people into suggestibility.
The Voice of Reason is so beautifully just that. Just when you think you have Palais Ideal pegged, the compassion starts to pour, coming from a well of unequivocal understanding for ultimate sucker-punching consolation.
Anything for a Thrill is a frenetic continuation of Reject the Anaesthetic, which strips the glamour right off the back of the libertine. It is gorgeously bold in its unapologeticness when holding people accountable for chasing highs after their dreams have disintegrated around their own self-destruction.
Concluding with the moody industrial post-punk Posthuman cry, Age of Intransigence, Negative Space fades to a final close and leaves you wondering how you are going to contribute to society beyond passivity, ego, insecurity and pedestrianism (on a good day). If Palais Ideal started a cult, I’d be the first in line with goat blood on my hands.
If your indie post-punk playlists need a shakeup, the jagged, complex time signatures in the standout single, down.up.down, from the three-piece powerhouse, [glazier] will do exactly that.
While most artists experimenting with unorthodox time signatures usually do so with an air of inaccessible pretension, [glazier] take a more affable route by ensuring that there’s as much emotion to connect with as there is experimentation to get excited by.
With drums that will easily win over fans of The Walkmen, the sweetness of Elliott Smith, the hooky magnetism of Queens of the Stone Age and the chill of Interpol, [glazier] really are the entire package. It is only a matter of time before they find themselves presented with a major-label deal.
The official video to down.up.down premiered in May 2021; you can check it out for yourselves on YouTube.
If you could imagine what it would be like to experience Desert Mountain Tribe, Oh Sees, the Fall and the Jim Jones Review simultaneously, you still wouldn’t come close to anticipating the brooding eclecticism of The Maitlands’ freshly cultivated sound in their first release of 2021.
With their double A-side, Diving in at the Shallow End / Bobby Driscoll, they’ve thrown a significant proportion of their humble indie rock swagger to the wayside to find more room for their artistic fortitude.
Mark Winterburn’s (Nine Black Alps, Plan B, Don Bronco, The Script) production, engineering and mastering brought a cinematic flair to the singles with symphonic motifs decorating the signature affably despondent style from their earlier releases. But honestly, I feel like I’ve just experienced the darkest post-punk glow-up imaginable.
Diving in at the Shallow End starts with desolate desert rock tones before the percussion starts speaking to you on a primal level, and discord starts to amass in the psychedelically arranged single until it breaks into a frenetic feat of dingy garage rock n’ roll.
Bobby Driscoll is a conceptual exploration of identity, loss and tragedy inspired by the story of the Disney child actor who wound up in an unmarked grave. It starts by stripping hubris away with the simple yet disarming question, ‘Do you ever feel like you’ve become a caricature of yourself?” As someone who frequently navigates the world in a dissociative state trying to uphold the image I project, it’s safe to say the compassionate narrative hit hard as it unfolded around the walls of shoegazey guitars and percussion that thrashes its way through, managing to reflect the inner turmoil that anyone with a hint of self-awareness feels.
Both singles released on September 3rd; you can check out the singles on Spotify, Amazon and iTunes via this link or connect with the Maitlands via Facebook.
If Tom Smith broke away from the Editors and started a solo project, we’re fairly certain there would be stark reminiscences to singer-songwriter Corey Mejai’s latest release, Stuck inside a Lost Dream.
The downtempo release allows the acoustic guitar chords to dominate the minimalist instrumental arrangement that is laced with trippy ethereal effect to add even more mesmerising beguile to the post-punk tinged indie-folk single.
Stuck Inside a Lost Dream is due for release on July 21st; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Soundcloud. For more info, head over to Corey Mejai’s website.
London-based singer-songwriter John Lion has followed on from his lockdown debut with the stellar slice of alt-rock, The Sun is Up.
With a slight post-punk snarl to the vocals that find themselves in between the stylings of Cornell and Gallagher along with the definitively British jangle pop indie guitars that are laced with Seattle-style-sludge, The Sun is Up is a fiercely energetic revival of the alt-90s, we can’t wait to hear more. You fall into the scuzzed-up, cutting track, instrumental hook, line and sinker.
The Sun is Up is now available to stream via YouTube.
Perth, Australia’s most promising indie post-punk outfit, Tube Amp 101 are set to release their sophomore EP, True Friend which features their mesmerising lead single, Strawberry Smile.
Fans of Echo and the Bunnymen, Desperate Journalist, Big Thief and the Smiths are sure to appreciate the overdriven tones overlapping snappy, fervent percussion to create a bed for the dream pop-style vocals that add a stunning sense of vulnerability to the release.
Living in Manchester UK, I’ve heard my fair share of post-punk and indie jangle pop, but it is safe to say that nothing flows in the same lusciously dark vein as Strawberry Smile.
You will be able to check out Strawberry Smile from June 18th via SoundCloud.
‘BABY LOVE’ is just one of the three tracks that feature on the latest EP, ‘MOVEMENTS’, from WE ARE MONROE, a Canadian-based alt-rock powerhouse making waves by showing the softer, more affable side to post-punk.
With Kessler-style cuttingly angular guitar notes over danceable beats and shimmering synths, BABY LOVE is an enliveningly authentic track that proves why WE ARE MONROE hasn’t failed to gain plenty of momentum with their euphorically dark indie sound. With Gus Van Go (Arkells) on production, it comes as no surprise that BABY LOVE boasts an anthemically absorbing feel that you’ll want to delve into time and time again. BABY LOVE will undoubtedly be a hit with any fans of Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Spector, Bloc Party and Kasabian.
BABY LOVE is now available to stream via SoundCloud.
