The venerable coupla yr old institution that is the Outsideleft Week in Music bumps up against a bumper box of releases this week it feels like and this isn't even the half of it here... The rest? I am not saying they were even trash. Soon it will be over. But for now hear them all, do it, do it now, knowing all too well that soon it will be over and you won't have to do this anymore.
SINGLES
THE RHYTHM METHOD - Have a Go Heroes (Moshi Moshi Records)
by Toon Traveller
EAMON THE DESTROYER - We'll Be Pirahnas (Bearsuit Records)
by Ancient Champion
We'll Be Pirahnas is the title track from Eamon the Destroyer's new LP which you'll find on Bandcamp. Of the purest of joys in listening to Eamon the Destroyer is the feeling that there is no blueprint. And each track spends part of the time fruitfully not finding one, but, as if looking. If that's a foible then so fucking what. This is incredible music with the emphasis on their incredible making, not my hearing. Eamon is in control when all around him, are maybe not.
STEVE WILSON - Beautiful Scarecrow (Virgin)
by Toon Traveller
ART FEYNMAN - All I Can Do (Western Vinyl)
by Toon Traveller
DANNY O'KEEFE - Well, Well, Well (Sunset Blvd)
by Toon Traveller
YAYA BEY - the evidence (Big Dada)
by Tim London
It’s a bassline and a mood, that’s all. But the way the bass battles the kick and the way the voice is just ineluctably there… and, a BIG AND, for the video, which is how I want my videos done these days, with minimal production, well dressed humans and hold the miming.
TWIN TRIBES - Monolith (Self released)
by Alan Rider
Twin Tribes are a Dark Synth/Goth duo from Texas, and don't they look the part! Though tbh I'd have said that black lipstick paired with a twirly moustache is not the best look to go for. Interesting video though of a friend of their doing a rather poor job of repainting their room. Never ask your friends to help with painting when they are clearly possessed by the devil I say. Its competent, if predictable, synthy Goth fare. Sub Sisters of Mercy/Mission, and so on. At the risk of sounding jaded, all this stuff sounds the same to me and the videos always look like poor rip offs of low budget horror films. Fear, horror, possession, everlasting dark nights of the soul, etc. There just isn't a lot of fun happening in doomsville industrial goth land these days. Just crack a smile once in a while guys, won't you?
BROWN HORSE - Shoot Back (Youtube)
by Toon Traveller
THE VELVET HANDS - Meet Me In The City (KRAUTPOP RECORDS)
by Alan Rider
Supergrass seem to have been reincarnated with different members and a different name but the same set of tunes. Funny that.
ADAM MILLER - Camera (Bandcamp)
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
CLOSETJUDAS - Mael-Strom (Bandcamp)
by Lee Paul
This is the sound of Mississauga or Winnipeg or both. Something's going on here and I am going to let ClosetJudas explain it to you. Closet Judas has a nice line in suburban post Cobain moan and says, 'Maelstrom is based on the 2020 videogame the last of us part ii by naughty dog. main loop kill bill drums in mæl by kyle krysa with additional royalty-free drums sourced via looperman. voice in strom taken from the youtube video “empathy: philosophical debates and phenomenology” by dr. ellie anderson. All of the money from this non-profit endeavor goes to Tiny Changes. stems from the amalgamated song "mælstrom" available here for people to make their own remixes.' (available as a compilation on january 1, 2024): go here. This is the kind of thing I like.
SARAH MARY CHADWICK - If I Have It In Me At All (Kill Rock Stars)
by Toon Traveller
THE PLEASURE DOME - Insane (Hound Gawd Records )
by Alan Rider
Gosh, this actually looks quite exciting. The singer takes his shirt off. Its hot and sweaty. It looks a lot of fun. Its filmed in Paris at a club called Supersonic, which is a great name for a club. Almost makes me wish I'd been there too.
AMIGO THE DEVIL - Cannibal Within (Regime Music Group)
by Toon Traveller
JULIA HOLTER - Sun Girl (Domino)
by Jay Lewis
As introductions go 'Marienbad' (2012) by Julia Holter was an ideal. I'd assumed that the song was a reference to Alain Resnais' beguiling film ('Last Year in Marienbad') and felt that the dream-like textures and broken poetry of the song were as mysterious as the film itself. I came to find that, as with so much of her work, it was poetic, strange, and soulful. And 'Sun Girl' is as extraordinarily experimental as anything she has done to date. It is more a series of vivid musical landscapes than an actual conventional song. Holter claims that she has recently been 'trying to create states of mind, colours, and human feelings in sound...and a little less storytelling'. With 'Sun Girl' she has created a piece of playful weirdness, as disorientating as it is delightful. And the six-minute long animated video may well be a masterpiece too.
CRYPTOSIS - The Silent Call (Self Released (so no label))
by Alan Rider
Oh Fercrissakes! If I have to sit through another one of these screamy thrash metal demonstrations of macho bullshit I may as well become as psychotic and deranged as all thrash metal bands would like you to think they are. 'The Silent Call' spreads a whole new layer of cliche onto an already cliche rich musical field like so much manure. I despair, I really do.
DISTRICT 97 - Stay For The Ending (Cherry Red)
by Alan Rider
Stay For The Ending apparently addresses the ever-shifting, omnipresent threat of Covid-19 in its many variants and forms. Not that you'd know. It just sounds like overly twiddly rock music of the sort I thought we'd seen the back of in the mid 70's. Way too much showing off for me. Musos!
YAEJI - easy breezy (XL)
by Tim London
It’s so easy breezy for Yaeji’s generation to meld sound and vision and fashion and living into one THING. Not a brand or a promotional video or PR or even a pop song. It’s a single entity that is hard to discuss - it just is. And what is it? It’s a few chords, minimal production, fruity loop beats and cutesy-pie singing. It’s a cultural artefact containing music, dancing and ageism. It’s not for you, you’re too old. Go away. Too old, too fast. Relax. Speed up the footage not real life. Think of the bananas. Won’t someone think of the bananas?!?!?
EPs
ASBESTOS WORKER X NAW - F@ck You (Learning Curve Records)
by Alan Rider
Of course what they really wanted to call this 10" EP is 'Fuck You' but they were just too scaredy cat to spit it out, which somewhat contradicts the sentiment in the EP's title I'd say, and belies their intention to "thrash out three well-crafted nuke-core tracks" filled with "beautifully venomous lyrics". Yet despite all that they just couldn't bring themselves to say the words "Fuck You" in case it harmed their sales, whereas here at OL, we say whatever we feel like, whenever we feel like it. So I'm giving five hearts to us for having no fear and not being too timid to say the naughty word, and a feeble one heart to Asbestos Worker/Naw if only for giving me the idea. The EP itself is bog standard shouty hardcore by the way. If I was you, I'd just say "f@ck you" back at them and move on. (I couldn't find an accompanying video on Youtube for this release btw so instead here is a video on identifying asbestos hazards when carrying out building work by a nice chap in a High Vis jacket called Jimmy.)
LPs
THE BUG CLUB - Rare Birds: Hour of Song (Bingo)
by Jay Lewis
I usually end up regretting the kind words that I give to the records that make me smile or even, heaven help me, laugh out loud. Sooner or later those jokes will all wear thin and I’ll be left with the memory of times my life fell apart like wet cake. I know that one day I will pick holes in ‘Rare Birds: Hour of Song’ the second album by South Wales trio The Bug Club. One day lines like ‘Nothing worth saying rhymes with marriage…except for garage’ and ‘I wish that I was (as) funny as a hardback book about jokes’ will seem awkwardly hollow. And the twenty-three short poems that are interspersed between so many of the tracks will just start to grate. But that day hasn’t arrived yet and the band’s punkish exuberance really charms me. And maybe I’ll always find something adorable in the tender lo-fi acoustic numbers ‘In My Hour of Song’ and ‘Mister Do You Have The Time For Sittin’?’ All know is that today, I need and adore The Bug Club.
LEATHERETTE - Small Talk (Bronson Recordings)
by Alan Rider
Leatherette caught my eye as the warm original version of their name is one of my all time favourite songs. The sax driven piece of social commentary about our drowning in a sea of bureaucracy, which is the single 'Bureaucracy Apocalypse', is what Sleaford Mods would sound like if they were any good (ie if they were not Sleaford Mods!). Leatherette's sound is an odd sort of tooty angry jazz tirade, short and straight to the point. Jazz agit punk? I'm sure that's a genre now. If not, it definitely should be. The 80's were full of indie bands like this, often hailing from Leeds. Gang of Four could be a reference point here. Delta Five too, especially the track 'Isolation', the opening riff of which is stolen directly from Delta Five (I'd sue). Despite that, 'Small Talk' is well worth a listen. The good news is that through the magical generosity of Youtube, you can listen to the whole thing for free there right now.
FLESH FIELD - Voice Of The Echo Chamber (Metropolis)
by Alan Rider
Kicking off with an impressive and powerful set of pounding drums and guitars, its pretty clear that Flesh Field want to stand out from the crowd, blending elements of orchestral and metal together. Anthemic and impeccably produced, 'Voice Of The Echo Chamber' explores the stages of the radicalization of individuals toward political violence. Its a heavyweight topic, but very relevant to the shit show we are witnessing on the news every day. Where art imitates life, it is important not to trivialise or resort to cliche to make your case. Fortunately, Flesh Field manage to do that and the resulting album is an impressive and thoughtful work, where others would have resorted simply to volume and histrionics to make the point. There is a definite evolution over the course of the album to fit with the theme of gradual radicalization. It works. Its been almost 20 years since the last Flesh Field release, which is way too long, so its good to see them back with a definite bang here with 'Voice of The Echo Chamber'.
DAVID BENJAMIN BLOWER - Kindness Is Solid Stone Violence is a Heavy Loan to Pay (Bandcamp)
by Tim London
A new DBB record is always a thing of joy and ambiguity, see Tim London's review right here.
DEAD VOICES ON AIR - Dadu (eMERGENCY heARTS/UMP)
by Alan Rider
Alan Rider sees Dadaism in Dadu as you can see over here
SAY SHE SHE - Silver (Karma Chief Records)
by Jay Lewis
As we hurtle towards the end of the year, or the impending apocalypse (whichever comes first), it’s probably not much consolation to know that before all societies collapse in on themselves, there were a few good funked up, retro disco flavoured, soaring harmonized, ridiculously eclectic records to listen to – and that they were all made by Say She She. I wonder if I will still wake up singing 'Astral Plane' on the days that I have to go and search for food in a nearby skip or recall how I listened to ‘Cest Si Bon’ on repeat before the sirens started to wail.
Some may moan that, at 16 tracks and over an hour in length, Say She She’s sophomore album is far too long. Just think of it as generosity and that, after the rationing starts, no album will ever be that length again. Cherish it.
SUPPLEMENTAL PILLS - Judgement Time (Bandcamp)
by Toon Traveller
PRUILLIP - Pruillip (Cortizona bandcamp)
by Alan Rider
PRUILLIP are a two piece guitar and drums Belgian 'sludge band' (their description!). They remind me very much of a more intense, low fi and exposed early White Stripes or maybe Earth. Distorted feedback guitars and basses, rattling drums echoey screams and vocals, heavy, doom laden, loud. You get the gist. The single 'Botherham' is a wonderful slice of in-yer-face puglilism. The intro to the album is the very definition of plangent (you may need to look that one up!). Pruillip have a great red raw sound that grates and rattles and shakes the bars on the windows in all the places that Jim Jarmush's SQÜRL also do (if you know them). Rough, ready and other-wordly in some parts, bass guitar heavy and repetitive thuggery in others, its a heady mix, not over produced as many releases now are, and avoids the obvious in favour of a surprise round every musical corner. It's good. If you can't find it, it's on Bandcamp, here
Other Materials
WILCO - Loft Sans (OTF)
by LamontPaul
The Wilco font, they says it like this: "We worked with SimpleBits to create a unique typeface for the band. Inspired by an iconic "GUITAR" sign hanging in The Loft (the band's Chicago recording studio). Wilco Loft Sans is an all-caps, high contrast sans serif. We took the handful of letters found on the sign blow molds and expanded those into a full alphabet in 4 weights: Treble, Midrange, Low End, and Bass." And this is okay I think. I can see using it when some kids get the fake version up on google fonts or somewhere for free. So long as you don't mind your print display pieces being mainly remarked upon for their Wilco font.
JONI MITCHELL - Both Sides, Now (Reprise)
by Jay Lewis
Joni Mitchell is 80 years old this week.
Recently I’ve had to contend with being forced to listen to aged pop singers returning to songs that they made them famous decades ago. It’s been a rather unedifying experience, in re-recording their old material each act failed to bring any new insight, understanding or meaning to their old words. But, then again, you don’t look to something as ephemeral as pop lyrics for depth do you? Do you?
But Joni Mitchell may just be the exception to that rule. Her songs are like paintings that can be understood from so many angles, their meaning can change in the light or over time. It’s what great singer-songwriters do. When Joni wrote ‘Both Sides, Now’ it seemed so precocious (she was 23 when she wrote it – apparently inspired by a line in Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow...not everyday source material for a pop song), she returned to it when she was 57. And without changing a single word, it became a totally different song. It ached with all of the reflection at all opportunities grasped and missed, of remorse and self-acceptance and of coming to terms with yourself.
And she wrote 'Both Sides, Now' before recording ‘Blue’, ‘Court and Spark’ or ‘Herija’. I’m going to reach for that word genius now and feel totally justified in using it. Happy Birthday Joni.
ESTHER ABRAMI, HER ENSEMBLE - Shirley J. Thompson: Semplice Sempre (Sony)
by Ancient Champion
Shirley J. Thompson will always be known as the first woman to conduct and compose a symphony in 40 years for her landmark and incredible piece celebrating London's history, New Nation Rising, A 21st Century Symphony which was written back at the turn of the century. Exceptional use of the cowbell on Marshes, Hamlets and Roaming Cows. (Oh and later the vibra-slap too - personal fave). All of her music is amazing, gorgeous, sumptuous. Maybe in the world only the American, Jeri Lynne Johnson, founder of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra - who has put strings together too for the like of Jay Z, is a contemporary of her stature? Here Esther Abrami just plays Shirley J. Thompson composition, Semplice Sempre. Get an amp and some some speakers with a great bass response to figure this out. Oh man it is enough to make a grown woman or man cry.
Essential Information
Main image Joey Bradbury and Rowan Martin from The Rhythm Method
