Fighting Boredom bring you a brand spanking new album reviews page for you to get your teeth into and take chunks out of. I’ll let the band’s press releases describe the releases to start with and then you can read our opinions underneath, enjoy! This time around we give you Enduser with ‘ An album driven by the tension between isolation, sound, and emotional extremity.’ Scattered Purgatory 破地獄 with ‘a heady mix of heavy rock, experimental jazz elements and shuddering, thundering electronics.’ Hanabie’s new EP that is ‘brimming with delicious melodies, feral riffs, devastating vocals and some of their catchiest work to date. Empty House’s new tape ‘continues their long-standing engagement with dub and krautrock heard on earlier releases’ Middleman’s first album that ‘despite sonic echoes of previous eras, their songs feel fresh and current, mirroring the album’s lyrical exploration of how being chained to the past can hinder your forward momentum into the future’ Would-Be-Goods who say they are ‘Elegant and melancholy indiepop with a BBC accent.’ Zu who’s new release ‘combines the complexity of progressive rock, the grit of industrial music, the precision of metal, the spirit and energy of punk, and the freedom of jazz.’ Blackwater Holylight’s new album is ‘ refining a strain of heavy, ethereal doom and shoegaze.’ Hawkwind’s first album ‘Released in August 1970 on the Liberty label, the album was recorded in March and April of that year and established Hawkwind as one of the most exciting and original bands to emerge from the UK Underground scene.’ Finally the compilation Killed By Deaf with various punk bands covering Motorhead. Read what we thought below and let us know which one’s you will be exploring more.
Enduser – Unquiet
Decay Recordings
This is liquid sounding drum and bass, with a menacing undercurrent. It’s over an hour and quarter long, is drum and bass the new prog? Excellent slippery wet feeling music that coils around you like a snake, and never lets you get completely comfortable, there always seems and edge to the album, like it’s glitching underneath, static creeps in around the edges and as it gets faster it gets more discordant, but it all works together so very well. Then the stuttering, glitching and static create a moment of pure beauty and you know that you will be listening to this an awful lot.
Scattered Purgatory 破地獄 – Post Purgatory
Guruguru Brain
A glitchy, sample heavy album stuffed full of weird electronics. Strange and fragmented, it feels like walking through a broken, ruined concrete and steel cityscape in twilight when everything is monochrome and shadows are deceiving. It’s strangely beautiful but also frustrating when things fizzle out rather than escalating. The odd vocal moment adds nothing, they are better without voices.
Hanabie – Hot Topic
Sony / Music For Nations
This bunch of Japanese women have smashed kpop and metal into itself to create some sort of Frankenstein’s monster of an EP, cute or terrifying? Electronic or guitars shredding your face? Who the hell knows and how can she sound like that and then that?? I mean it’s befuddling and brilliant. They say they are “Harajuku-Core” band with roots in metal, hardcore and Japanese idol pop. An excellent mixture.
Empty House – Tao and Zen
Cruel Nature
Empty House give us a mixture of deep dub echoes and Kraut rock repetition, both types of music that naturally sit together. They have created a beautiful, mesmerising and natural eeriness that reflects loneliness and empty spaces. Which leads to the title track, ten minutes of repetition and light and then their tribute to Patti Smith which is sublime guitar over a primitive drum beat, which is just beautiful.
Middleman – Following the Ghost
Evil Speaker Records
A bunch of young delinquents playing fuzzy fast grooves with urgent vocals, what’s not to like. An urgent punky punchy sound and with a nod to the gods of distortion, this is a treat of a record, the mellower moments are cool too, a breath taken and held before the fuzz kicks in again, an ace album
Would-Be-Goods – Tears Before Bedtime
Skep Wax Records
Would-Be_goods give us a well spoken, perfectly pronounced female vocal over very British indie-pop verging on the theatrical, I didn’t know they still made albums like this. A perfect afternoon in the sunshine drinking tea sort of record. Like a cuddle. Gentle and easy to get on with. An album about not being young anymore and still having your heart broken. A collection of stories and emotions with an extremely dry sense of humour running through the middle of them all.
Zu – Ferrum Sidereum
House of Mythology
The PR email describes Zu as ‘Italian Experimental Trio’ and halfway through the first track you kind of agree. Halfway through the second your brain is fried, is this Jazz, dub, hardcore, Post Punk, some sort of intelligent dance music or just Doom? Who the hell knows, I just know that it’s an hour and twenty minutes of Zu doing exactly what they want which is, although I had no idea before listening, almost exactly what I want right now too. You want a track by track dissection? Sorry, you have to do that for yourself because you will get something different from this every time you listen.
Blackwater Holylight – Not Here Not Gone
Suicide Squeeze
I’m a sucker for this fuzzy dreamy rock with an ethereal female vocal, so it’s no surprise at all that this is, in my mind, great. To be honest, of course it’s good. Fuzzed, distorted and slow. It’s also bloody heavy in places, deep doom heavy. Suicide Squeeze Records love this sound too, recommended.
Hawkwind – Hawkwind
Cherry Red
Busking then synth waves and what feels like one long improvised space jam, it’s wonderful and at the time must have been groundbreaking, ace vibes and feel, the saxophone and electronics turn it into something very special and from this very solid tripped out base came all the rest of the madness. This 3 CD and Blu-Ray special edition contains new mixes of the album and a brilliant archive live performance. An excellent reissue.
VA – Killed By Deaf
BMG Recordings
Okay, this sounded intriguing, Motorhead covers by punk bands. Although Motorhead were more Punk than most of the bands here. They all do stirling jobs of covering the songs but they lack the dirt, the filth under the fingernails, the throaty roar of Lemmy’s voice and bass, the incredible guitars and drums that accompanied him over the decades. They’re just not there. It’s cool to hear a female sing Love Me Like A Reptile, but Girlschool did Motorhead better. It’s just a bit empty. It might be that they are looking for more people to sell Motorhead songs too and to open up the Punk market. We all knew they were part of that thing all along. The redeeming feature is the band that had Lemmy on bass, The Damned duet with him on Neat Neat Neat which is, of course, not a Motorhead song and the best thing on the album. Go figure. In the end, it’s all just Rock’n’Roll isn’t it. Buy some Motorhead.
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Enduser is on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
Scattered Purgatory 破地獄 are on Instagram, Bandcamp and Facebook.
Hanabie’s website is hanabie.jp/en/, they are also on Facebook and Instagram.
Empty House are on Bandcamp and Instagram.
Middleman are on Bandcamp and Instagram
Would-Be-Goods are on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
Zu’s website is zuism.net, they are also on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
Blackwater Holylight are on Bandcamp and Instagram.
Hawkwind’s website is hawkwind.com, they are also on Facebook.
All words by Adrian Bloxham.
