Browsing Tag

post-punk

Sonic Indie and Celestial Soul Collide in Nikola’s Transfixing Alt Indie Rock Single ‘Pink Lights’

Posted on 22 December 2020

After spending years successful touring bands, Minnesota-hailing artist, Nikola Hamilton, released their ground-breaking EP ‘Darling’ and established themselves as one of the most luminary singer-songwriters who have made their debut in 2020.

The standout track, Pink Lights, will allow you to imagine what would happen if Interpol chose to team up with Hozier. You get the cold, cutting sonic style with the almost celestial vocals which tear though the darkly atmospheric soundscape and speak directly to your soul.

If Nikola made a bigger impression with their sleek Darkwave debut, we’d have concussion.

You can check out Nikola’s EP for yourselves which was released on November 13th, 2020 via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Just Dance’ with Action Doll Joe

Posted on 20 December 2020

Hailing from ‘the dusty deserts of California’, Action Doll Joe – AKA Elijah Barrera – has just dropped his debut EP, ‘Hello!’, from which ‘Just Dance’ is taken. It’s a bouncy, frivolous, affair, all good fun and light-hearted, story-telling lyrics, with heavily fuzzed-up guitars and keyboards and punky, cracking drums. It’s a great playful-sounding record, and ‘Just Dance’ is a perfect leader from it, a great introduction to the four songs on offer – a storytelling piece, led by whispered and charmingly spoken vocals, a sing-along chorus, and a bass-line that simply won’t go away once the track’s ended.

It’s quirky, it’s silly, it’s reminiscent of early Green Day or Blink 182, and it’s simply jolly good fun.

Check out ‘Just Dance’ on Spotify. Follow Action Doll Joe on Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes

West Wickhams – Where the Creatures Rule: Horror Noir Has a New Sound

Posted on 27 November 2020

There’s no better introduction to the Psychedelically-inclined Dark Punk duo, West Wickhams’ sound than the horror noir single ‘Where the Creatures Rule’.

The entrancingly dark single will undoubtedly enthral any fans of Bauhaus, while the accompanying music video pays ode to one of the greatest horror films ever made, Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’, obviously.

I can’t help but feel that Where the Creatures Rule has very ‘2020’ connotations. As the artistically inclined creatively document the movements of the masses, the populous prove that Romero’s anxiety about unrest and wariness in the 60s was spot on.

You can check out the official video to Where the Creatures Rule via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

West Wickhams – Who’s Out There: Mind-Altering Blood-Chilling Psychedelic Garage Rock

Posted on 27 November 2020

Scilly-hailing, Surrey UK-based Dark Punk duo West Wickhams’ has dropped their most transfixing track to date, ‘Who’s Out There’. From the first fiercely chilly note, the Surfy, Psychy Garage Rock hit will leave you psyched. (Pun kind of intended).

With elements of Post Punk found within the antagonistic vocals which practically effervesce with aggressive zeal, there are some reminiscences to the likes of Magazine, but you’ve never quite heard an infusion of Psych, Post Punk, and Garage Rock quite like this before.

If you got excited about Fontaines D.C, West Wickhams might just leave you with palpitations.

You can check out Who’s Out There which dropped on October 26th on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Yellow Nymphos give us A Handful Of Something Sticky

Posted on 11 November 2020
https://yellownymphos.bandcamp.com/track/a-handful-of-something-sticky

Yellow Nymphos is Makain Wiginton (guitar, synths, vocals) and Calvin Brown (Bass, Vocals, Synths) from New Orleans – plus drums from ‘The Machine’, of course.

‘A Handful of Something Sticky’ is three minutes of dark, moody alt-rock from their ‘Crooked Inhale of The Bung Donkey’ album, all meandering bassline, deep-spoken vocals, and a ripped-speaker-cones-distortion of a guitar-part for the finale.

Released, appropriately, on Halloween, and coming on like tarmac jelly or jellybean-flavoured crisps, this is disturbing, unsettling indie for people who like their music just a little more left-field than the acres of generic, pseudo-alternative sanitization that passes for the majority of modern rock n’ roll.

‘A Handful Of Something Sticky’ might just possibly be the aural equivalent of waking up post-party to find one of your eyebrows has been shaved whilst you slept, but since when has that EVER been the sign of a bad thing?

Check out Yellow Nymphos on Bandcamp and Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes

Samuel H James – Summer: Tenderly Nihilistic Darkwave Murder Folk

Posted on 1 November 2020
https://soundcloud.com/samuelhjames/summer

Portsmouth, UK-based Multi-Instrumentalist, Composer, Artist and Producer Samuel H James has released their entrancingly chilling darkwave murder folk single “Summer”. Considering the Summer we have all just endured, the despondence and tender nihilism ensure that Summer is one of the aptest new releases that you’ll hit play on this year.

Any fans of the macabre lyrical styling of Nick Cave, Arab Strap and Jack Ladder will definitely want to give the cutting Post Punk track a listen. As the powerful beats retain tribalistic rhythmic momentum, Samuel H James seeks dramatic vengeance for the loss of a fictional lover, allowing you to get wrapped up in the atmospheric imagery which is crafted from the verses which run through as pensively cutting meta poetry.

Summer is available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lucas Penner has taken Post Punk to a seriously slick new stratosphere with “So Well”

Posted on 27 October 2020
Lucas Penner

You’d be hard-pressed to find old-school crooning alongside cold Post Punk tones and slick Setzer-style rock n roll grooves anywhere other than Toronto-based artist Lucas Penner’s standout single ‘So Well’.

So, you may as well hit play on the beguilingly masterful release which puts a neo twist on baroque. The styling may be on the archaic side, but you can expect a retro-futuristic earworm to crawl in your ear from the outset.

Any fans of Nick Cave, Tom Waits or Fable Cry will definitely appreciate the insidious air to the murder folk-style lyricism which will allow you to feel like you’re being aurally dragged into a hellish stratosphere.

You can check out So Well for yourselves from October 27th via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mercury Teardrop – Noise in a Vacuum: Sonically Dystopic Post-Rock

Posted on 22 October 2020

If you’re looking for aural escapism, Mercury Teardrop’s mesmerising 2020 album ‘Blinded by a Dark Star’ serves as the perfect divergence from reality.

‘Noise in a Vacuum’ efficaciously sets the cold tone for the second album released by the Vancouver-based Experimental Post Rock artist. If Bauhaus gives you chills, prepare for your skin to prickle under the command of sonically dystopic tones.

The soothing instrumental melodies bring the comfort while the entrancing reverb-laden effects paired with Rosalie Sonsalla’s vocals bring an atmospheric intensity to the soundscape which borders on Avant-Garde, but there’s plenty of accessible grounded realism to ensure that the evocative message behind the single still resonates.

You can check out Noise in a Vacuum for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sun Lite has dropped their Psychedelically Entrancing Cold Wave single “M.O.T.H.E.R.”

Posted on 3 October 2020

Belgian solo artist Sun Lite is here with their mesmeric era and genre-blending single “M.O.T.H.E.R.” Hit play and prepare to fall down the entrancing rabbit hole which was dug out with elements of Blues, 60’s Psych, Funk and EDM.

It transcends stunning. It’s an aural exhibition of harrow orchestrated with nothing more than a laptop, a keyboard, an acoustic guitar and Sun Lite’s intensely phantasmal vocals which are sure to be a hit with any fans of The Chameleons and Peter Murphy.

With hints of tribalism, your rhythmic pulses will be efficaciously arrested by the soundscape which leaves plenty of room for mind-warping experimentalism.

In short, M.O.T.H.E.R. is an obsession-worthy track for any staunch fans of psychedelia. Unlike so many Psychedelically-inspired artists, it’s more than just an ode to the past. The darkness which crawls through the single will stay with you for long after the psychedelic cold wave single has faded to a close.

You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Shining Tongues – Make Us Eat: Experimentally Phantasmal Alt Rock

Posted on 30 September 2020

London-based newcomers The Shining Tongues cooked up a darkly entrancing progressive Alt-Rock hit with their latest single “Make Us Eat”.

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is an indulgent shot of absinthe for any Peter Murphy fans. The reminiscences may be there, but there is no disputing that The Shining Tongues cooked up their own authentic gothic aural alchemy with Make Us Eat.

Make Us Eat kicks off with doom-laden melodicism before seamlessly meandering into an Avant-Garde feat of psychedelically beguiling Alt Rock.

After a cathartically serpentine start, choral tones start to creep in, allowing Make Us Eat to boast light and optimism-grappling allure before the soundscape descends into phantasmal experimentalism.

You can check out Make Us Eat which was released on September 24th for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast