Browsing Tag

London Rock

London’s most ensnaring indie alt-rock outfit, The Lunar Keys, have dropped their compassionately sonic hit, Stop This.

Any fans of the National will find a similar level of affection for the latest single by the indie alt-rock outfit, The Lunar Keys. Stop This was mastered by John Davis (Royal Blood, the Killers, U2), who gave the soundscape the same sonic boost that he has become renowned for.

After a gorgeously melodic bass intro, Stop This moulds into a psychedelically tinged indie rock hit that leaves you higher than the intricately angular shoegazey guitar notes. The perfectly balanced mix allows the vocals to effortlessly breeze between the ascending progressions that seem to pull you in deeper with every scuzzy synth line and clean-cut guitar note. If you have ever felt something in the same vein as “stop the world, I want to get off” when it comes to your tumultuous emotions, the lyrics will undoubtedly resonate.

Stop This is due for release on October 8th, 2021. You can check it out for yourselves via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

OGGY created the ultimate break-free 80s rock anthem with her third single, Find My Way.

OGGY’s latest single, Find My Way, shifted us from curious to obsessed before the first chorus hit. The rock-inclined London-based singer-songwriter has what it takes to leave the same impression on the airwaves as Amy Winehouse with her endlessly uplifting jazz-fused finesse.

After being born in a small, closed-minded Croatian town, OGGY (Olga Savic) found herself inspired to create the good that she couldn’t find in the world through her music. After securing some Croatian festival slots, she knew that to truly make her mark she would have to leave her hometown. After moving to the UK in 2017, she started to study songwriting in 2020 – which is when she came into her own as a songwriter and performer.

Find My Way is the ultimate break free rock anthem that follows the journey of finding new love after heartbreak. This one is definitely for the scorned romantics out there. The shimmering guitar tones, choral atmosphere and OGGY’s sultrily fierce vocals are enough for your heartbeat to fasten alone.

Find My Way officially released on September 10th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Spotify or Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rich Ragany and the Digressions – ‘Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache’ album review

Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache by Rich Ragany And The Digressions

Why is Rich Ragany not consistently selling-out theatres and gracing the covers of the likes of Mojo and The Wire? That’s a question that repeatedly came to mind during the first couple of listens through new album Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache. So, for the uninitiated, first – some history; ‘Rags’, Canadian-born but now firmly London-based, was frontman and principle songwriter with The Role Models, who gave us three great albums, the last of which – 2017’s Dance Moves – hit #25 on Vive Le Rock magazine’s Albums of the Year Top 50.

But, at the same time, Rags had a “bunch of songs that weren’t very Role Models-like”, and – with the help of guitarists Gaff and Kit Swing, and a plan to just do “a little solo thing” – they grew into the first Rich Ragany and the Digressions album Like We’ll Never Make It, and a band completed by the excellent additions of Andy Brook (keyboards), Ricky McGuire (bass), and Simon Maxwell (drums). Tours followed with The Lemonheads, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Whitfield Crane, and Warrior Soul, and a slated slot as main support for Status Quo’s Backbone UK tour. Then…lockdown.

So, with plenty of time and ample supplies of talent on hand, the band got busy writing, arranging, and recording a bunch of new songs. The result, then, is this; Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache. There’s a poignancy to that title that’s reflected throughout the album; September 2020 saw the sudden, tragic death of Rags’ older brother George, aged just 57, from Glioblastoma, an aggressive and fast-developing form of brain cancer. That led to last year’s From Nowhere To You single, a touching tribute to George in aid of The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada, but you can hear George’s presence throughout Beyond Nostalgia…particularly in the slower, more reflective Sleep and album opener Sometimes You Can Hear The Voices.

That’s not to say that Beyond Nostalgia… is melancholy, though; far from it. This is a record about hope, about finding the light in dark times, and about bright futures; it’s uplifting, instantly familiar and yet fresh and light and scintillating all at once. There’s pop sensibilities in here hand-in-glove with the rock, along with touches of Country Rock and Americana, and that airiness that seemed to come from Minneapolis bands like Hang Time-era Soul Asylum, Husker Du, and The Replacements; in fact, it’s Paul Westerberg that springs to mind most often whilst listening to Beyond Nostalgia…, both in terms of Ragany’s vocal delivery and lyric writing and in the deliciously well-crafted song-writing, the upfront arrangements, and the instant catchiness and ear-worm hooks of songs like It Was Lonely At The Time, Fade In Blue, and the rockier Marionette, little flashes of the lyrical poetry of Dave Pirner and the road-trip rock choruses of Ragany’s compatriot Brian Adams.

Guitarist Kit Swing delivers some stunning, soaring co-vocal work across the album, notably on Heartbreakers Don’t Try, Blackout ‘Til Tuesday, and album closer This Is How You Spell Tonight, and there’s some subtly gorgeous guitar work and tasteful, retro-feeling Hammond and Rhodes piano work throughout, but ultimately – despite the masterly performances – this is primarily a record about songs. And it delivers them in spades.

Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache is a stunning, beautiful record, inspiring and optimistic, positive, comfortable, and immediate. Catchy, hummable, and full of songs that glue themselves inside your head as if they’ve been old friends for years, Beyond Nostalgia and Heartache could just be the album The Replacements never made.

9.5                               Alex Holmes

Ride the sonic crescendos in Fuzz Skyler’s latest indie piano rock single ‘Recall’

Fuzz Skyler

Not only do international piano-rock powerhouse, Fuzz Skyler break the monocultural mould, but they also thrash against every restraint which rock artists need to break through to create a sound that is capable of taking your breath away.

Their latest earworm, ‘Recall’ is filthy enough to make your ear canal feel defiled as you listen to the salaciously-charged, theatrically charismatic vocals paired with vintage-inspired instrumentals which affirm, quite definitively, that modern rock isn’t ready to be buried just yet.

The sonic crescendos which nod toward the timeless styles of Bowie, Muse and Queen are simply unforgettable. Recall speaks to my soul in a language I never even knew I was fluent in.

Recall was released on February 19th. You can hear it by heading over to Soundcloud.

Keep up to date with Fuzz Skyler’s latest releases via Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast