quête:lock up

1000 black vinyl LPs. London-based ‘indie-supergroup’ SUEP announce their long-awaited debut mini-album Shop, a collection of 6 oddball, car-boot-sale pop songs with a sprinkling of theatrical storytelling. Led by Georgie Stott (of Porridge Radio, Garden Centre) and Josh Harvey, SUEP was born out of a near-decade of playing in sheds and barns with like minded personnel, holding a mutual love for Paul McCartney, Jona Lewie, the B-52s, Devo and other performative freaks enjoying themselves. Following a move to London from Brighton, the pair added George Nicholls (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), Will William Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and Ollie Chapman (Boil King) to the line-up. The 5 piece take turns writing songs and taking the lead vocal duties in a wonderfully playful but coherent collaboration, with their debut being a kaleidoscopic off kilter pop ride, taking the listener through haunted castles, deprived encounters, days lost to the imagination in bed, and through the integral friendships that give SUEP the energy to keep dancing to their own beat. The album was arranged and recorded in the Red Lion Boys Club, an ex-youth centre in which Georgie and Josh both lived. Using equipment collected by Josh in his travels as a bootsale and market trader, the sports hall was transformed into a makeshift studio for a few days, with sessions conducted by producer Matthew Green (Sniffany & The Nits, The Tubs, etc.) Mark Riley (BBC 6 Music) described SUEP’s debut single and album opener, ‘Domesticated Dream’ (2021) as “perfect pop music.” The joyfully kitsch track brims with a 70s Yamaha disco beat, deep bass, nostalgic drum machines, and hooky melodies. Possibly the most psychedelic and infectious track born out of lockdown, it tackles homelife, drinking too much, and making big plans that never come to fruition, but with a big technicoloured positivity for the future of the human-race, with the chorus’ refrain, “the psychedelic 4000s,” predicting the return of the psychedelic Age of Aquarius in a couple of millennia time. The following single ‘Misery’ (2021) is pure cosmic swing-pop wizardry in part inspired by spy music and The Supremes. Ollie, The track’s baritone vocalist, describes it as “A love song disguised as a song about loss. It's about cherishing the things that matter but it’s also about having the courage to say goodbye,” with each line of the song a small story about a different character. Whilst latest Shop taster ‘In Good Health’ is darkly euphoric like a pleasantly strange meeting of Siouxsie Sioux and Jona Lewie. It’s a playfully discombobulating mix of 80s jangly guitar, chirpy keyboard and moody post-punk tackling mental health, drug addiction, and the power of friendship, written after the song’s vocalist Georgie came out of hospital following a mental health crisis. “I wanted to write a song that encapsulated how important my relationships with my friends and boyfriend were at that time” she explains “…and one that also felt dark like I did at the time. I couldn’t go outside due to anxiety surrounding my health so I stayed inside for weeks. People would visit and watch films with me or let me tattoo them or make music with me. My community helped me recover.” Elsewhere on Shop is ‘Just The Job’ fronted by Harvey and described by him as “About the relief of accepting a menial existence, and allowing life to be boring - but (within that) how the small things are the important ones, how pulling a sicky or extra long lunch break are important things to do for yourself. It’s an anthem for working people who’ve had enough - and a crowd favourite at SUEP gigs. The darker undertones and post-punk angles of the Georgie-fronted ‘Onions’ is inspired by the crapness of cliques, with the band calling the song “A cry of welcome to all;” and finally the hooky ‘Friend of Mine,’ described as “A love letter to all the people that come and go throughout your life no matter how long you know them”. SUEP have received coverage in Independent & Clash, (among many others), with big support from Mark Riley and Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music) for early singles.

Cacophony is the second Rudimentary Peni album. Released after the band returned from their first hiatus following a series of personal events that changed the band forever. The thirty track LP keeps turning heads 34 years after its release. Far from writing another “Death Church” the band embarked on a truly bizarre quest - to record an album based on the life and writings of horrors absolute king H.P. Lovecraft. A dense cacophony of total free songwriting. Dark, gothic, intricate, unexpected head-scratching punk. The short bursts of music twist and turn at every corner - the vocals are part classic Blinko and part spoken word, the guitar is full of distorted awkward tones and the very inventive bass and drums are locked together creating a truly unique album. Cacophony is the benchmark of outsider Punk and the influence and cult nature of this album grows with every passing year. This reissue stays close to the original version, with Nick Blinko’s incredible cover art, including a 11” x 11” 8-page lyric booklet.

Korea Town Acid (Jessica Cho) is wildly creative. She is an electronic artist at her core, but that barely scratches the surface of what her sound encompasses. Citing influences as UK future bass, glitch, jungle, and alternative hip hop, KTA fuses these sounds with concepts of movement and texture, to create multi-faceted works that go beyond the club. Born in Seoul, Korea, Toronto based DJ/Producer Korea Town Acid maintained a fierce but mindful schedule amidst pandemic induced lockdowns. With the ease of restrictions and the gradual return to a version of normalcy, KTA continues to thrive, without hitting pause. In 2021 she released her full length LP Metamorphosis, a self produced ten-track record, featuring collaborations from Toronto based artist DESIIRE, U.K based Korean pianist and rapper Pianwooo, Seoul rapper PNSB, L.A beatmaker Dreamdave, and New Jersey MC, L.J The Alien. She swiftly followed that up six months later with the release of Cosmos, another self produced full length LP that boasts the 2022 Juno Award nominated track, ‘Sobriety’. She also contributed to Cadence Weapon’s 2021 Polaris Prize winning record Parallel World, producing the track ‘Play No Games’. Despite touring restrictions in 2021, KTA delivered a notable hardware set as part of Hinter Live, showcased at POP Montreal, and continued her monthly online residency at The Lot Radio in New York. Korea Town Acid released her latest LP, Elephant in The Room, via URBNET. The twelve track self produced and mixed album, was mastered by East End Mastering in Toronto, ON, and features a lineup of Canadian guest collaborators, including Zander Miller, Khrono K, and Hood Joplin. In anticipation of the release, KTA has been actively securing live performance sets to showcase new tracks, with recent appearances at Vancouver’s Wonderment Festival, Montreal’s MUTEK Festival Toronto’s Summer of Seoul festival at the TIFF Atrium, Peprally, and Promise Cherry Beach series

Always fun house craftsman Ali Renault secured another big tune with his 'Piano For The People' which is a chuggy groover that locks you in with its rich atmospheres. Now it gets offered up with remixes from, firstly, Aikhi, who flip it with laidback downtempo drums and some classic and well known chords. Calm then brings his Mellow Acid Dub to sink you in even further and last of all Double Geography bring some more crunchy drum textures and psyched-out synth sounds with echoing vocals and dark, late night sense of mischief.

Ready for a bit of new rocking punk with just a touch of garage psych thrown in for good measure? Well, if you are, then The Mundaynes debut album 'Love It' should do the trick. Recorded during Summer 2021 on the front line of Bexhill-On-Sea, 'Love It' is stuffed to bursting with 15 great new songs. During lockdown, Bevis Frond frontman Nick Saloman, having little else to do, found himself writing loads of songs. Some were used on the Fronds’ ‘Little Eden’ album, many were discarded, and some were kept with a view of doing something with them in the future. Nick felt that a batch of these songs were pretty good, but not really suitable for The Bevis Frond, maybe being a bit too punky. However, wanting to record these songs, he called up his mate Tony Page, the former lead singer with vintage punk bands The Ploy and Apocalypse, to see if he fancied doing some vocals. Tony was only to pleased to take part. Then Nick asked bandmate Paul Simmons if he’d do all the guitar parts. Paul agreed and the three of them went into Bexhills’ Graffite Studios and laid down the tracks. The results were so good that the trio decided to put them out as an album. The impromptu band needed a name, so they became The Mundaynes, thought up by Tony because it was a Monday! Bearing in mind that all three guys played in punk bands, Tony as mentioned above, Nick with The Von Trap Family & Room 13, Paul with The Cravats and Jello Biafra, and, of course his own band The Alchemysts, the pedigree here is pretty solid. So what do we have here then? I guess it’s a loud, angry, melodic, wry punk rock album full of great tunes. Hope you ‘love it’, and if you don’t, well, that’s life.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation’s seminal 1975 album Tales of Mozambique in an expanded double album/single CD/digital format, fully remastered and with the inclusion of two bonus rare single-only tracks, full sleevenotes, exclusive photographs and interview.

Count Ossie is the central character in the development of Rastafarian roots music, nowadays an almost mythical and iconic figure. His importance in bringing Rastafarian music to a populist audience is matched only by Bob Marley’s promotion of the faith internationally in the 1970s.

Count Ossie’s drummers performed on the first commercially released single to integrate Rastafarian traditional music with popular music: the vocal group The Folkes Brothers’ groundbreaking song ‘Oh Carolina’, recorded for producer Prince Buster in 1959. In 1966 his drummers greeted the momentous arrival of Haile Selassie at Kingston airport.

His legendary jam sessions up in his Rastafarian compound in the hills of Wareika, Kingston, are famous for the many Jamaican musicians who attended including The Skatalites players – Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Lloyd Knibbs – and many others.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari formed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, a union of Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers – variously known as his African Drums, Wareikas or his Afro-Combo – and the saxophonist Cedric Im Brooks’ horns group, The Mystics.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the defining group in bringing authentic Rastafarian rhythms into the collective consciousness of popular music, their unique music is at once rooted in the deep traditions and rituals of traditional drumming and chanting alongside a forward-thinking, even avant-garde, artistry influenced by the likes of John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and other pioneering African-American jazz artists radicalised and charged by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Tales of Mozambique is a truly unique and fascinating ground-breaking album.

Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the central group featured on Soul Jazz Records recent "Rastafari - The Dreads Enter Babylon” a collection showing the influence of Rastafari in Reggae and Jamaican popular culture.

Soul Jazz Records will also be releasing Count Ossie and The Rasta Family 'Man From Higher Heights’ in the near future.

* Bonus tracks

REVIEWS

" All roads in Rastafarian roots music lead to Count Ossie.He’s the lead character in this compelling subplot, the musician who was one of the first to put Rasta tenets into the heart of popular music.

He did so from his camp in the hills above Kingston, Count Ossie and his drummers casting a spell on the musicians who gathered to check him out and then went on to spread the word about the powerful nyabinghi rhythms and mesmerising percussion.

This is a reissue of the 1975 album Count Ossie made with his Rastafarian drummers and saxaphonist Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’s group The Mystics.

It’s a groundbreaking, majestic work, by turns righteous in tone and joyous in execution. It’s the sound of Ossie and his ensemble narrating a history lesson and you’d be daft not to want to find out more." IRISH TIMES

Hot off the heels of Official UK no.1 and soundtrack to the first summer after lockdown Afraid To Feel, skyrocketing duo LF SYSTEM satisfy fans' cravings for a powerful disco anthem with follow-up single Hungry (For Love).

Still relishing in the success of Afraid To Feel, the duo have now earned over 150M total global streams, landed Clara Amfo’s ‘Hottest Record’ on BBC Radio 1 and certified Platinum, all before being crowned the Official UK no.1 after rocketing past Beyonce, Harry Styles, Drake, George Ezra and knocking Kate Bush off the no.1 spot.

Remaining there for eight consecutive weeks as the longest running no.1 record of 2022 behind Harry Styles, Afraid To Feel is the longest running dance no.1 in chart history, matching Calvin Harris’ One Kiss and cementing the nation’s appetite for a credible dance smash.

Now set to share a slice of Scotland across the UK with their new release, LF SYSTEM will host the ultimate pattie parties with pop up raves at independent fast food chains across Edinburgh, Manchester, and London. Meanwhile, later this month LF SYSTEM will give 100 fans a chance to hear Hungry (For Love) for the first time in an exclusive live set at Metropolis Studios with a special vinyl pressing that features Afraid To Feel on the b side, marking the first time the smash hit will be available on vinyl since its release.

For Conor Larkman and Sean Finnigan of LF SYSTEM, their success follows humble beginnings in the Scottish countryside, playing football against each other as teenagers on rival teams and raving at Scotland’s best clubs. They give credit for their dance hits to home village parties, soundtracked by Motown where Sean's Dad would share classic 70s records with them to dig into. Naturally, LF SYSTEM soon dropped disco edits of their own in 2020 including Dancing Cliché, which Danny Howard discovered and played for nine weeks on his BBC R1 show, earning over 4M streams and further plays from Sarah Story and Charlie Hedges.

Since then they have captured the attention of the whole industry and have played a bucket list headline Boiler Room set in Edinburgh, marking a full circle moment for the lads who were previously club residents for its promoters FLY CLUB. Continuing a flourishing tour schedule across the summer, LF SYSTEM graced BBC Radio 1’s Dance Party Weekend in Ibiza, played b2b with Danny Howard at Amnesia and sold out their first headline show at Night Tales in London.

Hungry for their next anthem, LF SYSTEM demonstrates a soaring dexterity of two ambitious producers deep in their creative prime, now whisking up a weapon exuding vibrancy and disco-edged orchestral joy. Sampling Sandy Gang’s bubbly 70s record Hungry and featuring warm sonic textures blended with rousing strings, Hungry (For Love) is set to leave fans drooling for more.

'What if Blitz hailed from Los Angeles and sang in Spanish’ isn’t a question you hear all that often. Fortunately, we don’t need to ask - the answer is provided by Generacion Suicida’s latest album, which rages and rattles in all the right places, drenched in the memorable brilliance that powered the Killed By Death compilations (ask yer dad - and if he doesn’t know or care, burn his terrible records and make some space to track down the KBD LPs). The band’s slogan is ‘musica del barrio, para el barrio’ - music from the neighbourhood, for the neighbourhood - but it sounds like they could use these hooks to take on the world. That’s a pretty accurate sentiment as well, because this album was written during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, while the world bubbled over with carefully managed misinformation, police violence and the sickening overspill of white supremacy’s foul brew. If Regeneracion sounds potent, it’s because there was a lot to be angry about, and the result is arguably their best album yet. Those chorused-out guitar lines carry shades of deathrock, hints of Manchester circa 1980, elements of something you might call goth if it was several degrees less furious. But there’s no doomed romance to this music; it’s an all-out attack. Street punk with the smarts turned up and an ear turned to the lessons learned from post-punk (but crucially, not the ‘post-punk revival’ that is essentially shirtless beardy lads chanting non-sequiturs over landfill indie). Chiefly, it’ll make you wanna get out of your chair, unite your local community and march on down towards your government’s centre of operations with a simple-to-use molotov cocktail kit. Its rage is infectious. It’s inspired by bleak moments in our recent shared history, but it revels in humans’ capacity to find strength in each other. And the tunes? Oh damn, they’re good.' Will Fitzpatrick.

Eclectic Italian quartet Eugenia Post Meridiem are ready to reveal their sophomore full-length record, a rather magnificent musical masterpiece. The gloriously kaleidoscopic, dazzling celebration of sound ‘like i need tension’ is available everywhere now. Demonstrated over eight tracks, the all encompassing, musical odyssey, ‘like i need tension’ features initial single ‘willpower’; which burst across our radar with lashings of personality, and became the introduction to the now familiar Indie outfit. Next up was the punchy and fearless ‘around my neck’ and last but by no means least came the intriguing, alluring ‘whisper’, the calm before the sophomore album storm. Gifted with a further five previously unheard gems, listeners certainly have plenty to sink their teeth into. With focus track ‘crucial spring’ traversing the spectrums of shadow, the progressive and percussive ‘unchained will’, the slow voluminous ballad ‘ocean flows’ and the infectious, chaotic energy of ‘tiny perspectives’ and ‘mazes of gazes’. Oozing with iridescence, flavour and texture, there’s something to suit all manners of music fans. Completed over a span of two years plus a two week post-lockdown writing and recording stint, it was then that like i need tension truly came to life in a small converted barn near the village of Montaldo Bormida, in northern Italy. “It was a totally collaborative process... All the composing was done together, right there in the room.” and thus, like i need tension was born. “Tension is a powerful force. It drives things forwards, its friction producing interesting and unexpected results. Above all, it fuels creativity, inspiring and focusing in equal measure.” Such togetherness and chemistry as a band truly shines through across the eight track project. There’s a bold, fearless tenacity to experiment and to go against the tide as each track is filled with quality, curiosity and ingenuity. With purpose and intention studded throughout, like i need tension is as poetic and reflective as it is meditative and utterly transcendent. Placing its roots somewhere in the mystical universe of Hiatus Kaiyote, Christine and the Queens, PYJÆN and Tame Impala. Eugenia Post Meridiem’s sound holds an intrinsic synergy, refreshingly intangible, allowing space for the listener’s own interpretation and understanding. The depth they venture as a collective rewards those who journey beyond the initial passive listening. With technical structures, composition and developed time signatures just waiting to be unearthed, depicted and understood, Eugenia Post Meridiem offer a treasure trove for the adventurous and devoted musical palate yet still remain accessible and incredibly generous to all those who decide to listen. “And so it is that all eight tracks hang together beautifully, linked not by some overarching concept or narrative, but simply a band exploring their talent and the vast space afforded by an open-minded approach.”

Spills is the debut album from Spairs (made up of Jonn Penney and Dan
Worton of Ned's Atomic Dustbin) and features mighty riffs, emotion and
rock/moshability one would expect from such pedigree
This prolific lyricist, combined with the multi- instrumentalist talent that is Dan
Worton, has created something very special. This isn't a Ned's Atomic Dustbin
side project, this is a totally new beast born out of lockdown.

The Locket is the coming together of two masters of their craft to create something hopeful in a time of unrest. Its title track refers to memories of happier times: “we fill a locket with memories we protect, and don’t forget to keep it round your neck.” It’s a reminder to focus on positivity in the face of adversity. A collaborative project designed to be enjoyed together. A celebration of music, unity and looking ahead. It couldn’t have come at a better time. The Locket features ten tracks cut from sessions that span over eighteen months. It’s sunshine-dappled, psych-tinged, hip-hop flavoured, leftfield pop. Samples and beats, bars and this unique sort of retro futurism that zips from sepia-tinged to full technicolour almost as fast as Barney’s flow. So many reference points that burst at the seams trying to pick a genre. Perhaps most importantly, it’s an utterly joyful listen from start to finish; invaluable in a time when everyone is hard-pressed to find ways to brighten their days.

Welcome to the Parish. Come, gather round dear lambs, as today’s sermon is about to begin. Crypt of the Wizard proudly presents the highly anticipated debut LP from pastoral proto-metal power trio Parish, available to pre-order on vinyl now. The two years since the release of their EP God's Right Hand have proved to be no fallow period for the band, who used the time to write and hone the 10 songs laid out on their self-titled debut. They returned to the majestic Holy Mountain to record the album. Making use of the studio's bumper crop of vintage equipment, Parish were able to unearth a sound that draws on the roots of heavy metal. The band's lyrics continue to revel in notions of the pastoral. Themes concerning the works of witches and the changing of the seasons are explored with economic and elegant storytelling. Songs of villagers besieged by strange travellers and poor wretches locked away in gaol conjure up a feeling of uncanny dread. Elsewhere, other songs suggest a sacerdotal attitude towards the earth and those who walk it. Parish stir up sweet memories of those subtle moments of perfection found deep in the discographies of heavy metal’s historic luminaries. Their sound reaches into places previously ventured by the likes of Wishbone Ash, Pagan Altar and Budgie, as well as folk revivalists Fairport Convention - a less obvious resource for heaviness, but a fine repository for musical depth. With any luck, Parish will in time join the aforementioned bands whose records will be played on repeat, locked in the unchangeable hearts of those unbothered by novelty and changes in musical fashions. Now our sermon has come to a close, peace be with you, and go forth in glory.

Light Became Light is the debut album from Puppies in the Sun, a project composed of Alberto Cendra (synthesizers) and Cristóbal Pereira (drums), both originally from Peru and currently based in Rotterdam. Friends since childhood, they crossed paths again in Barcelona by sheer coincidence. This spontaneous pulse is also what dictated the beginnings of the project's characteristic sound: lengthy improvisational and sound exploratory sessions which are summed up in the project's first two EP's (Unheard EP and The Church of Puppies in the Sun, 2018). Like other well-known duos, Puppies in the Sun maximizes their compact instrumentation to establish themselves as a (noise) rock band without the presence of guitars or bass guitars. Far from being a limitation, this has provided them with great freedom. The lower end of the album's soundscape is triggered on Cendra's synthesizer scheme by Pereira's drums. This being one of the characteristics that emerge from the organic, minimal and spontaneous style of the band. As if it was a rocket, Light Became Light takes off in search of a sound and a space that pays tribute to cosmic rock and synthesizer music without leaving the melodic rawness of noise rock or even black metal behind. Some might also perceive an atmosphere that owes its existence to techno parties and a slight wink towards folk imagery. If there is anything that makes their sound iconic is the call for constructing wild and festive ambiances, state of trance and agitation. Light Became Light was recorded and mixed by Oscar Moreno at El Purgatorio (Madrid, Spain). In the middle of an intense heat wave, Puppies in the Sun locked themselves through the course of two weeks to record and process various analog and digital synthesizers, pianos, drums and vocals, to later mix Light Became Light in a classic analog console. Light Became Light is being published by Buh Records on 12" Vinyl in a limited edition of 300 copies. The artwork was done by the band itself and designed by Fernanda Binvignat.

Rounding off the year on Redstone Press, Debba comes correct with a varied 4 tracker laden with hefty subs and lock tight percussion.

The A-side starts out with fast-paced staccato kicks and the oscillating, warped bassline of ‘Called Up’. These elements soon develop into a twisted, energetic romp, showing Debba’s innate knack for upfront, low-end percussive work. Continuing with this theme ‘Direction’ adds reverb drenched vocals to the mix and ups the bass weight, with gritty, looping subs throughout. These two will put that soundsystem you’re dreaming of playing on to the test!

The B-side is more restrained and meditative but retains the heavy subs, opening with the downtempo and introspective chords of ‘I Said’. The drop in pace gives Debba’s signature beatwork and melodic flourishes space to breathe with the dreamy synths of ‘Subtle’ building up, then breaking down into a low-slung UK Techno roller.

Limited to 100 copies. DON’T SLEEP!

Bongos, bouzouki and Farfisa organ galore ! The explosive cocktail of rock'n'roll and traditional Tsifteteli hailing from 1960's Greece is still alive thanks to Deli Teli : the Marseille-based quartet performs a string of forgotten hits that once set Athens on fire, with a contagious energy and a subtle dose of Mediterranean drama.

Half a century ago, while French seasiders would dance to « Yéyé » sounds and dig the Beatles or Pink Floyd, a whole other scene was happening further along the coastline. Notably, Greek artists were a huge influence beyond the Mediterranean cradle ; Aris San's version of « Boum Pam » (a.k.a. « Bros Gremos Kai Piso Rema »), brilliantly interpreted by Deli Teli on this record, was a n°1 hit from Southern Europe to the tip of India ! Far from being an exclusive Greek sound, Tsifteteli music has travelled through borders for centuries and means « double string » in Turkish. In the 1960's, it mixed with rock'n'roll, surf and Latin-american influences, and gave birth to the typical « Laïko » sound.

With their powerful electric bouzouki (Greek lute) and the distinctive sound of the Farfisa organ, Deli Teli have carved their style while digging through the incredible goldmine of the late 60's and early 70's Tsifteteli/Laïko singles. The 4 musicians met in 2019 with a burning desire to dive into electric sensations – bassist Christos Karypidis used to play oud and keyboardist Arthur Bacon played accordion in most of his former projects – and made the most of 2020's « lockdowns » by building their repertoire and thinking up Deli Teli.

On this mini-album, they also interpret Koko's « Chily Chily », a groovy belly-dance mover ; « Ekso Dertia Kai Kaïmi », an intoxicating and frenetic floor shaker ; « Tsiftetelli 1969 », a cool organ-lead surfing instrumental ; and 2 slightly freer and more psychedelic numbers, « Taksim Deli » (improvisation) and « Bournelis », a creative re-arrangement of 2 tracks by Leonardos Bournelis.

Deli Teli preach a collective, sensual and solar hip-wiggling across the continents and beyond ; they are ready to shake our minds and bodies until we all gel together... Join the « Tsifteteli Club » now !

red/clear splatter vinyl

Shake Chain will also be performing at Marina Abramovic’s private view at Modern Art Oxford on September 23rd.

Shake Chain have been busy demolishing audiences and expectations for the best part of three years. Vocalist Kate Mahony sets that standard by starting each live performance by crawling from the back of the room through a disbelieving crowd’s legs in a shiny yellow raincoat. The resulting questions that frantically arise of ‘what’s going on?’, ‘am I hallucinating?’ and ‘is this part of the show?’ are hallmarks of how Shake Chain approach making their unruly, lyric-bespattered rock music.

The four-piece from London are completed by Robert Syres (guitar, synth), Chris Hopkins (bass, synth) and Joe Fergey (drums), all artists hailing from Goldsmiths College, Nottingham Trent and Wimbledon, University of the Arts. A mutual love of thought-provoking performance art and a yearning for disruption have helped Shake Chain lock into their wayward sound. Twitchy guitar lines jolt and jerk, synths burble noisily and tack-sharp drums pin things down for Kate’s reeling vocal to vault and slur. Kate’s singing has drawn comparisons with Yoko Ono, Su Tissue and even a seance with it’s unique embrace of flights of atonal fancy, head-first repetition and ecstatic frenzy. Opinion-dividing arguably, but singular in making Shake Chain dauntingly brilliant.

Shake Chain’s debut album ‘Snake Chain’ was recorded in the New Forest’s Chuckalumba Studios early in 2022. The tranquil setting only slightly skewed by the intense extratropical cyclone occuring outside. When asked to sum up the album the group collectively settled on it sounding like “crying in a Catholic sex dungeon with Eastenders on”, perhaps only half tongue in cheek given the soapy dramatics of opening track ‘Stace’. ‘RU’ is a stompy triumph of ad lib monotony, heavy and wonky, its vocal slowly unwinding into residual sense. Shake Chain’s songs are populated with cowboys, cherry-pickers, content-addicts, private investments, a careless driver called Mike, architects and by much lamentation at the state of our confusing existencies. This last point underlined in luminous marker pen with slow-building vortex ‘Highly Conpeptual’ and whispered closer ‘Duck’.

‘Copy Me’ races along with radiant headbangs of dynamic abandon, one part tumble, two parts pummel, “hold your breath til something changes” commands Kate whilst everything of course is in hammering flux. ‘Second Home’ is similarly coruscating yet bouyant, whilst ‘Arthur’ feels like it could tear inside in two amid sobbing wails and the twining of its disparate parts. Throughout all the unhinged freakouts, found sounds and blasting rhythms though is Kate’s questioning, resilient presence, anchoring everything. On bruising creeper ‘Birthday’ she asks most tellingly “Do we speak language or does language speak us? Is there a mouth in the middle of the desert? Do you ask how cups are designed? Would you say yes when you really mean I don’t know”? Shake Chain are cathartic and absurd, humorous and deadly serious yet always inspired. Its this tightrope walk which makes their album such a thrilling, vital listen.

With her skill in carving melodies and shreddable moments from rock foundations, songwriter Skye Wallace is an expert at proving herself in every room, at every turn. Wallace knows the way is paved with second-guessers, and encounters with unsolicited advisors are plentiful in this world. In truth, the harshest critic is usually within. Shaped by an upbringing of constant motion, with collapse and rebuilding at the core, Wallace is at home with the idea that change, especially in oneself, is a constant. This truism has shaped her new songs, finished during lockdown but dealing with a time when staying in one place was wishful thinking. For Wallace, there's both comfort and conflict in remembering and reconciling the versions of herself formed at the many stops along the way.

Jon K and Elle Andrews’ MAL imprint returns with a new LP from one of the London experimental underground's best kept secrets, Rory Salter aka Malvern Brume. His music is rare, eccentric and mysterious - somewhere between Coil's bleak ritual magick and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's most experimental, minimal fringes. 

Malvern Brume operates just beneath the radar, occasionally turning up at Café OTO lineups and on a smattering of releases for Low Company, Alter, Infant Tree and Kasual Plastik - but he’s never one to shout too loudly about his work. ‘Body Traffic’ is his most interesting set to date, laying bare a process melting found sounds, field recordings and spoken word into throbbing, pulsing rhythms. It’s an evocation of a fraught mindset during the early weeks of lockdown in 2020; sequestered in his flat next to a trainline, the infrasonic - and more audible - rumbles of rolling stock and a nagging sense of dread infecting his ambiguously discomfiting recordings.

Operating in a headspace that values world-building and vivid, visual emotionality, Salter’s careful melodies are familiar - the distant, weeping melancholia of 1970s British TV hangs off the recordings like net curtains, and his atmosphere loops into experiments that weave through bare traces of industrial music, blank-faced electro pop, and hedonistic Brummie techno, all reduced to a cinder. 

The mood is set on the bellyaching resonance and crawling walls of the title tune, while 'Through Beaked Fog Horns' is drowned beneath morning mists: lopsided synth drones choke and drift, percussion mutates into inebriated bubbles, and tape-f*cked environmental whirrs create an atmosphere that’s hard to decipher in one take. 

‘Moss Spines Clenched’ follows cryptic stains on peeling flocking, and the icy creep of ‘Tense Branches Waver’ quivers beyond a cracked windowpane. The artist’s voice appears from beneath a cardboard box fort in the imaginary world of ‘Cornered Into Sleat’ as a distant drum beats out a marching thud and traffic squeals are sculpted into chirpy whistles, before ‘Bri Dun’ resolves the eerie tension in an OOBE-like ascent above the dado-rail and across the tracks, watching himself fade into a dissociative bliss.

"All chatter falls quiet…” Salter murmurs thru saturation and white noise. It’s a sound that’s gonna stick with us for a while.

At the time of this recording, Mingus had been working regularly with the piano-less quartet of Eric Dolphy, Ted Curson and Dannie Richmond. The same group featured on the 1960 Candid release, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus. The Mingus album, also recorded that year, features one track, "Stormy Weather," recorded with that same quartet, and two tracks recorded with a larger group featuring piano and additional horns. Of note, "MDM (Monk Duke & Me)" consumes the majority of this album. The piece consists of three intertwining themes - Duke Ellington"s "Main Stem", Thelonious Monk"s "Straight, No Chaser", and Mingus" "Fifty First Street Blues." Released in 1961, and recorded in the fall of 1960 by Candid A&R and Producer Nate Hentoff at the Nola Penthouse Sound Studios. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes written by Hentoff, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these magnificent performances.