Outsideleft Week in Music the Campaign for Christmas in July begins here

You have to feel at least a bit sorry for the offspring of rock stars.  They grow up in the shadow of their famous parents and their equally famous rock star pals. They get taken around on tour with them and spend their childhood hanging around backstage, being fussed over by smacked out groupies.  At home, every visitor is famous, a photographer, or an agent.  They probably hardly see their dad (in this case Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan), but read stuff about them in the Press they'd rather not know.  Once they become a teenager, they want/expect to emulate or exceed the success of their parents through their own efforts, yet know they are riding on their coat tails a la Stella McCartney, or rely on mum/dad to give them a leg up by adding them to their band (Ringo Starr/Gary Numan) or constantly talking them up in interviews. Stella Rose (now there is a solid rock star offspring name) is a case in point.  Her PR just has to mention her way more famous father.  She apes his moves, as she feels that is what you do.  She feigns druggy cool, but probably hates drugs after seeing what they have done to those she loves.  Yes, its hard.  The song?  Its fine, but without the connection to her famous dad, I might not even have noticed.

SINE, the brainchild of US Drummer/multi-instrumentalist Rona Rougeheart, releases a stunning single ‘Trauma Bondage’. Immediately, I was hooked by the lush sounds of the dark synths and the deep and abstract lyrics. I felt a thrilling rush coupled with a chilling undercurrent of unease. The song follows a protagonist who seems to be seeking a thrill, a desire to escape or perhaps having a tendency to deceive themselves. The title ‘Trauma Bondage’ could perhaps allude to the dark cloud of protagonist’s trauma is remerging, looming over her as she meets someone new. The song kicks off with droning, hypnotic synths, paired with deep kick drums and a distorted bass. The synth breaks into running rhythms, the drums breaking into dance with deep, punchy snares. In the chorus, the synths thicken with alluring patterns tinted with aggression and distortion, illustrating the brisk touch of the sublime. I thoroughly enjoyed this song. The vocals paired with interesting, abstract lyrics are eerily beautiful, creating a sense of haunting the listener. The powerful instrumentation creates a gothic darkwave vibe with an industrial edge. I highly recommend SINE to anyone who really enjoys that vibe or if you just want to have a little dance.

Definitely a 'meh' record. Mumbled, sludgy, self pitying Goth rubbish really. Boring video too, featuring CoCo The Clown in Tokyo.  I am really struggling to find any bright spots in this weeks crop of releases.

In Hinduism, Garuda is a divine eagle-like sun bird and the king of birds. Garuda represents birth and heaven, and is the enemy of all snakes.  I love a good back story, and Brainstorm do a pretty decent job of it here, if in a rather predictable sword and sorcery Heavy Metal way.  The video is the usual bunch of tatoo'd hairy biker types playing in someone's living room (although in this case, one with some nice Eastern furnishings).  Even after all these years, there is still a huge market for Heavy Metal, especially in the US and their native Germany, as well as Scandanavia.  Its a primal thing I guess.

The second taster for Luminescent Creatures is an acoustic ballad that sees her reflect on the waxing and waning (‘michikakeru’) of the tides and on the wonder of natural processes. It's all-abstract, but in tones all-soothing. Fine for my flu-ridden self. Lucifèrine's lush orchestrations made a more immediate impact, but Flag's reliance on Aoba's voice shows an ability to make Instant Calmer. Dont mock. You may need it. Taken at the right time, it's a cure for multiple maladies. Particularly for the young, Japanese life can be harsh. Flag may work for poor overworked souls as well as those already convinced of Aoba's therapeutic powers.

This came out last week, recorded at Stonehouse Sound in Mahone Bay, NS. Is NS... Is that Nova Scotia? Sadly I don't think I've had a chance the interrogate the sounds of Nova Scotia before. If this is that, that may be what makes this is a very special record. Here's the band, see whether you notice and special features.... Composition by -Nicola Miller - Alto Sax, Frank Gratkowski - Bass Clarinet, Doug Tielli - Musical Saw and Trombone, Nicholas D'Amato - Bass Nick Fraser - Drums... Anything? Saw perhaps? Improvised all the while Nicola stays steadily at the helm, steering towards the rocks, letting her ship run aground and break up in the mud. What a sound that is.

We love to support local live scenes here at Outsideleft.  Two fingers up to the corporate mega event, with its VIP packages, rip off drinks prices, and car parking fees. 'Coastal Electronauts' initially began as a lockdown radio show in 2020 but has since developed into a popular regular monthly live event currently held at the Waterfront Club in Whitstable.  Up to a dozen short sets are played each month by a collective of musicians that include local artists featured on this 2 x CD compilation,  such as Shape Navigator, AnalogueMechanic, Sophie Sirota, OSVoS and Sebtic Smile, usually accompanied by live projections.  Its a beautiful thing to see the grass roots springing up.  That is matched by the sheer variety and quality of talent on show here, with Vol 1 collecting together live performances from the first year of operation.  Vol 2 will follow at the end of 2025 I assume. Peter Coyte (Shape Navigator) and Sophie Sirota, who between them run Coastal Electronauts, also provide some of the album highlights, along with Analogue Mechanics and the late Gagarin.  Ambient in nature, all tracks are often instrumental with an improvised vibe that shines through.  It all hangs together nicely and is proof positive that there are vibrant local electronic music scenes springing up all over, with Kent and Coastal Electronauts leading the way.

The newie from the long-running London outfit leaves the hooks at the door and offers up a collection of sleepy-eyed ambient jams. It's generally pleasant, mostly anonymous mood music: the songs forget to leave much of an impression, and the album as a whole is left feeling like a collection of interludes. Music for soundtracking the latter hours of a middle-class wine and cheese party in a £1.5 million three-story Camberwell townhouse.

Michael Cashmore was a former member of Current 93, who are not a band I have particularly strong feelings about, in fact  I'd even say they may be overrated. 'Until The End Of Vibration' comprises 23  instrumental 'vignettes', and is a real mixed bag.  The opening track ' The Eternal Universal Vibration' is a badly recorded and mixed mess, as are a few others here.  However, there are also some wonderful, filmic pieces included too. Its confusing.  All are too short, so if you like a track, it is all over before it has really got started, leaving you high and dry.  I get what he was trying to do here, weaving short snippets into each other to create an overall tapestry and creating a series of moods.  That is an admirable and interesting aim, but he is no Brian Eno and it just doesn't work and ultimately leaves you with a feeling of frustration above anything else  Several pieces are also simply not worthy of inclusion, feeling more like rough demos.  Others could and should have been longer. Throughout, the recording and mixing sounded a bit tinny to my ears, and sometimes even distorted and grating, and I have the feeling that was not by design.  So a disappointing release overall, sadly not up to Fourth Dimension/Lumberton Trading's usual high standard. 

The incomparable Aquabats. Filled Southern California venues with fun. Here, on Yo Gabba Gabba as the Super Music Friends Show special guests.  Unsurprising, as Christian Jacobs, known for his stage persona The MC Bat Commander was a co creator of the show.

Katie Crutchfield is Waxahatchee, and this is their second NPR Tiny Desk Concert.  You mgiht wish to know that these songs are from her aching-heart GRAMMY®-nominated album Tigers Blood and the entirely massive 2020 record Saint Cloud. Lovely listening.

One of the undoubted achievements of the HBO (Home Box Office) box set mini-series format was Rome.  I have it on DVD in a wonderfully packaged box that unfurls gloriously, a masterpiece of DVD packaging design that streaming cannot possibly compensate for the lack of. You really should hunt that series out, at least on download. Jeff Beal's soundtrack is an added bonus.  Soundtracks are often hidden benefits, concealing some of the most original and free thinking music you will find anywhere, yet still constrained by scene lengths and themes, Director's briefs, and the editors scissors snip snipping them down.  Maybe that's what makes them so good.

Aili and Orson a Japanese-Belgian conglomeration of two have been thrilling all year, at least since Feb when their LP Nandaake? came out on Eskimo Records. Not your parents EDM, but quite like it.

What if God. Well maybe not God. What if there was a band that were too good? What if you could hear the things you'd loved before layered drop down in the mix. I heard Mermaid Chunky back in the summer  and in the midst of one of my recurring ear infections I couldn't get it at all. And now, antibiotics. Stars of the Summer festivals in 2025 for sure right. Something's gotta be happening here since this is can run to over 8 minutes and I've been listening over and ovre again. I love it and am seriously Mesmerised. Great.

If you can't beat them! Funny Fact: the first single I ever bought was 'Super Womble'. They were signed to CBS, same as The Clash - what a tour that would have been! When The Wombles turned up at my school to open the summer Fete, I really believed it was actually them sweating inside those furry suits in July and not just some day rate, out of work actors earning themselves a bit of beer money.  I'm sure Mike Batt, Chris Spedding and Co probably had better things to do than have their furry noses pulled by a gang of Coventry 12 year olds in any case, as The Wombles were bigger than The Beatles back then. I got Uncle Bulgaria's autograph though.  I probably still have that somewhere...

Great review from our newest contributor Mickey, of Jungles live in Japan. It's Must Read...

Okay, so, when my daughter was tiny child one of the first things she noticed on TV was Yo Gabba Gabba and it quickly became on of our favorite shows. I think at some point the people behind Yo Gabba Gabba didn't want to be what their TV network wanted them to be and stopped so it's kind of nice to hear these silly songs all over again. I mean, who can't love Hold Still. But where's DJ Lance Rock?