Outsideleft Week in Music on the Morning After All Hallows Eve

We loved the album 'Slow Motion Apocalypse this is taken off.  Putting out an edit of one track as a single after the fact, though, is a little baffling, and tbh, everything on 'Slow Motion Apocalypse' works best as an element of that entire album.  Pulling single tracks off it out of context is never going to have the same level of impact.  I still play that album (rare for a reviewer) and this sits perfectly within that, which is by far the best way to listen to it, I'd say.

"Sorry to be the one that spills the tea" spits frontwoman Nastassja Giulia.  The video looks just like a party I went to last weekend (still recovering from that one btw) too.  So far, so good.  Spilt tea? Tick.  OTT Halloween party?  Tick. Shouty bald bloke? Tick. Plus, potty mouthed Natstassja looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth as she kicks you in the nuts. Tick.  To complete the perfect Halloween circle, we get the opportunity to use the F word in the title of this review.  Tick,tick,tick! Well, I'm happy about this.  How about you?

Although Mereba's LP, The Breeze Grew A Fire won't make it out until Feb... The alt.r'n'b star states pretty clearly here on the first track to make it out from it that it will be the business. The arrangement is lush, loose and tight... a gently drifting sonic delight. The video, well, I can't resist the padding around the neighbourhood in the sun. Even with a scary shadow.

This is a rare beauty from well, the giants that are Maribou State. Contemplative, temperate, involving and bursting with very now energy. Bloom with Gaidaa is a fabulously spare and immersive mix of layers and vocal loops. Wow.

"Boundary-pushing electronic artist"?  That is the sort of phase that always, always, raises several eyebrows here at OL Towers.  As expected, this pushes no boundaries, or even buttons for that matter.  It sounds like any of a hundred thousand near identical tunes currently cluttering up the internet and sapping the planet of it's finite and precious resources, and for what?  For this?  Its depressing, that's what it is.

Linea Aspera were responsible for (in my view) one of the most perfect debut albums I've heard, 2012's self titled 'Linea Aspera'.  The 2020 follow up, 'Linea Aspera 2' followed a similar template, yet failed to ignite in the same way.  Ditto for this. As is common with many acts, they are very good at creating a certain sound, but you only really need the one album of that.  If they don't progress, then that perfect moment is all you have.   That is the case with Linea Aspera. I will always love that first album.  It will always be a perfect thing.  It's just that has now become where it starts and ends for me for Linea Aspera.

As threatened in announcements for their previous two track releases (as reviewed here), Connecticut based heavy duo Turkey Vulture have released their promised "deadly folk song". Briefly, as we predicted before, "Jill the Ripper" has indeed been worth waiting for. Penned during the pandemic by guitar/bassist Jessie May it's her response to reading "depressing posts in a women’s FB group" about dating men who failed to offer friendship or any of the other facets of a normal healthy relationship and were only after the proverbial "one thing". In short, a salty, boozy cautionary ballad of what might happen to lusty young men who casually "swipe right" and wind up with someone whose desires they aren't interested in satisfying. Boasting the promised accordion, banjo and "grimly humorous lyrics" it's firmly in the vein of the Be Good Tanyas take on Townes Van Zandt's "Sitting Round to Die" and The Dead South's "In Hell I'll be in Good Company", and it's release just ahead of Halloween surely can't be a coincidence. The remaining three tracks from Turkey Vulture's "On The List" EP have also dropped to Youtube and also prove well worth the wait. Again, there's a surely non-coincidental horror theme to all three, with the lightning fast rapping of the 47 second long "Adults Destroy" proving the most "horrific". The two longer tracks, "Dollhouse" and "Harvest Moon" boast interesting key and tempo changes and lyrical delivery which switches between rapid fire staccato, sea shanty and nursery rhyme. An odd but engaging mix which more than deserves an audience.

A one-off Helloween holiday hit from Senestra. Their first new music since the acclaimed Stanford Prison Experiment LP  and a precursor to a new album in 2025. The horror builds and builds. It just does. In an overstated Ben Wheatley way. There's something troublesome about a relentless close up of an eye. All very Georges Bataille I think and no one's going to be disappointed about that.

Cosmic black metal/EDM from Belgium, Druon Antigon, produce the sort of confusing sub genre racket that is neither one thing or the other.  It is so indistinct as to barely exist at all, despite their bluffing about the cosmic importance of what they do.  For all I know, his could well offer the answer to the mysteries of the universe.  Shame no one will ever hear it.

Throbbing Gristle, it seemed, recorded every second of their existence, so every performance, demo, rehearsal, and blurble is fully documented and lined up for release.  This one is taken off the TG Berlin box set chronicling a series of live events at the Volksbühne in 2005/2006. Never one to miss a trick, Mute are incrementally releasing recordings from the re-formed TG to keep the gravy train rolling for them and the two surviving members.   This is heady stuff, bubbling away, interrupted by dischordant screams from Genesis, and embellished by improvised clanging and monologues.  At 11 minutes, it is stretched out for too long, which is a flaw with much of their output, but is still atmospheric and arcane for all that.

There are figures who will always demand attention, when they write or sing, when they walk into the room, when they quit music, the media beats a path to their newly opened coffee shop - as happened with Kathleen Edwards. Famous since 2022's 'Failer' that perfect piece of Americana. Latterly the music comes with swirls instead of musicial grit, leaning into the laconic, but her observations are as keen as ever. And so I guess Kathleen spotted this Tom Petty song somewhere. Whatever. It's good to have her back.

Los Angeles-based musician and producer Kanga was a featured singer on this track from ‘Signs’, the 2023 album by Canadian electronic duo  Delerium (aka Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly), Dutch darkwave pioneers Clan of Xymox  have now breathed new life into it with this remix of the watery hit, along with a fresh, Halloween friendly video.  Ethereal and low tempo, but with a driving drum track and glassy guitar line, it is nicely timed for the time of year when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest.

Afrobeat scion Seun Kuti has released a new live video of Emi Aluta, the standout track from his recently released seventh LP Heavier Yet (Lays the Crownless head) - reviewed here. The video was recorded live in session in Rio de Janiero with Egypt 80, the band that Seun inherited from his father the legendary Fela Kuti. As such it doesn't feature Zambian rapper, singer and lyricist Sampa The Great, whose "rapped" verses provided a neat interlude in what was otherwise a classic afrobeat studio take. Live in session Emi Aluta is a deal rawer and more visceral. The sound quality is not the best due to the wriggly-tin roof of the rehearsal space the video was filmed in, but you can all but feel the sweat running down the walls from what is a full on performance.

Iggy Pop appearing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival once more?  Jumping around with his shirt off in front of a horn section?  AND still knocking it out of the park? The man is 77 years old ferkrissakes!  And if that's not both a miracle, and a powerful advert for the benefits of a rock and roll lifestyle of booze, drugs and total disregard for your own personal safety, then I don't know what is.  "I'm Only Five Foot One" he sings. "I've Got A Pain In My Neck" he complains.  I tell you what, Iggy, the only pains in the neck around here are those who don't love everything you've ever done (apart from those car insurance ads, naturally). The man is a force of nature.

Tunde Adebimpe is savvy enough, and always has been capable of surprise with his uncanny ability to take the edge from his punk-inflected compositions, thus sharpening the edges. Here on Magentic the vibe owes as much to classic girl band pop melody as it does to electric punk pioneers Suicide. How intriguing is that? Press play, good friends.

Generally the tags "sounds like" or RIYL (recommended if you like..) appended to the press release of new music by otherwise unknown artists is an open invitation for a Panto-season response of "oh no it doesn't"... Vancouver band, Slip-Ons new single, Graystone however, does - as suggested, sound not a million miles from Hüsker Dü, The Lemonheads and Ash - albeit with maybe a dash of Raw Power era Stooges for good measure. The band, who have been around for some years - the press release neglects to share exactly how many - includes Brock Pytel formerly of 80s-90s Canadian band The Doughboys and Brian Minato who has worked with Sarah McLachlan. Written by Pytel, Graystone is a nostalgic "reflection" on the legendary Detroit venue of the same name, appearances at which by The Doughboys were apparently rarely less than "an adventure". A bit self referential and naval-gazey, perhaps but it's more than made up for by a rocking good tune which really does press the required buttons.

We hear such a lot of this stuff these days that it's easy to forget that it all had to start somewhere, and Nottingham's Pitchshifter, along with acts like Ministry, Godflesh, and Napalm Death were instrumental in the creation of the death metal/industrial crossover genre.  Iconic DJ John Peel was an early champion and these two sessions recorded at BBC's Maida Vale studios for his show capture the band at their best at the times of their first and second albums and showcase exactly why they have earnt their reputation.   Despite the fact that, for many, they later lost their way, Pitchshifter nonetheless make a glorious noise on the six cuts presented here.  To quote Mr Peel (and he should know), this is "top hole stuff".

As I am casting around for something to write about, I get an enthusiastic message from Christopher's excited publicist, talking about a new record that makes a lot of sense on a rainy day. Pretty much that's all I have seen in a while. Kismet then. A moment then. And so it is, Christopher Whitley's new LP Almost As Soft As Silence is as beautiful in the myriad of ways rain scutinised, rolling down a window can be. I am a fan of inclement weather when sheltered from it. Torrents on the car are thrills. Last year, Christopher Whitley stacked up the plaudits or the LP Describe Yourself. The sessions that produced that album also provided us with the quielty, entirely improvised Almost As Soft As Silence. Beautiful, slight and daring. Played on a violin more than 300 years old - that attachment to a history pouring from the woods of Antonio Stradivari, contributes so to the understated joy of listening here. I am breathtaken at... moments. "Whitley unfurls a cohesive set of vignettes that demonstrate both his keen ear for timbre and texture and his gift for melodic/ harmonic contouring." I can't write that better from the depths of my immersion in this beatuful, stately and unique recording.

Gary Mundy of Ramleh and Breathless announced several years ago that he planned to do a solo CD every year for as long as he could. This has manifested as one a year for his solo guise as Kleistwahr, which he fired up  in the early 1980s as a noise/post-industrial-inspired project.  A few cassettes came out on his own Broken Flag label, until Fourth Dimension took over and reissued them on vinyl and CD, as well as committing to help him fulfil his album a year promise. Kleistwahr has since been through a number of sonic evolutions over the years, centred around grizzled electronics, before settling on the current distorted guitar, vocals and organ based sound with a drum machine thudding away in the background, desperate to make itself heard above the melee.  That results in a dense, almost impenetrable wall of sound and feedback that builds to a near crescendo on each track.  With sound hanging so thick in the air that you could slash at it with a knife, its a visceral experience and this latest instalment in the Kleistwahr canon moves the dial one step closer to midnight.  Sporting a sleeve image of one of photographer Chris Low's classic surreal urban images of a doll floating in a murky, oily canal, 'Where The Word Is Never' is possibly the best of the series yet.  Intense and powerful, the dense layers of tortured guitars, coupled with Gary's distinctive vocals make a lasting impression.  Each new release builds on the last, so where this takes Kleistwahr next will be an interesting proposition, well worth the anticipation.  Can't wait.

Lamented lost classic of laments, Paul Quinn and the Independent Group's soaring album of baroque pop, Will I Ever Be Inside of You, is 20 years old now.  Brilliantly and ambitiously epic in every way.

Many of you will know of the record label ZTT, run by Paul Morley and home to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Propaganda, and (not un-coincidentally) The Art of Noise. Tony Fletcher's latest Substack post on the work of the early 20th century modern art movement, Italian Futurism, describes the creation of Zang Tumb Tumb by the instigator of the movement, poet and agitator Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.  "While working for the Paris newspaper Gil Blas  during the First Balkan War, he [Marinetti] sent a letter directly to [Futurist artist and musician] Russolo “from the trenches of Adrianopolis,” as the recipient put it, containing a prose-poem called “Zang Tumb Tumb,” utilizing a style that Marinetti called “onomatopoetic artillery,” in which the rhythm and sound of words both real and imagined imitated the rhythm and sounds of modern battle. "   This is where that name came from. Here is a rare recording of Marinetti himself reciting “Zang Tumb Tumb” in 1913.

I was adding this here, from the Truckers' American Band LP, which came out a while ago. Then I noticed the LP's been reissued with live material and all that. Meanwhile it's election week, What It Means. What are you thinking?

Because we can, we have. But really, this has all of the terror evoked by regifted seats for a short run West End musical. I know what you're thinking, sadly not the 13 minute version. Pants panto season starts early at Outsideleft.

The sparkling sound of Ipswich? Bob Vylan's great LP 'Humble As The Sun' made it out in the spring and you can currently seen them on tour. Go! They really are as exciting as you can imagine. Class and racial poltics, social consciousness, punk rock, rap, grime... That breadth and depth and flexibility makes them the most exciting and least predictable among the UK bands that say to have some to say right now. The bands that claim they have some reason to be heard right now. Me? I love them. That's probably not going to change their lives. Bobby Vylan puts me in mind of early Michael Franti's music. They can do anything they want. What can't they do is tell us what their names are. Which is fun too.