







This is another big one, with the ‘instrumental long player’ from Halma where ‘the sound structure grinds and flies’. Moral Putrefaction who ‘portray death metal against the backdrop of India’s political and socio-economic landscape.’ Daniel Jack McClennan’s ‘poignant and introspective musical journey’. Michal Gutman’s journey into ‘patchwork of harmony and disharmony’. Boneripper and their ‘brutal metallic hardcore’. The new collection of all Barry Ryan’s solo albums, Three Second Kisses first release for twelve years and the suprise release from BEAK> which ‘at its core we always wanted to be head music’. Read about them below and have a listen too.
Halma – Driving By Numbers
Kapitan Platte
This feels like prog, and to a certain extent also sounds like prog, but it also feels evil. It’s a menacing slow drive through the rubble of a broken inner city. It’s smooth and cool, but it’s also menacing as hell. Scary like a dark alleyway. Like a maze of mirrors stretching for miles, like nothing you can describe that makes your skin crawl. It’s stoned and beautiful jazz too, but it’s dark, languid and lost.
Moral Putrefaction – Moral Putrefaction
Independent
This is nothing new, nothing to catch me out and launch a spark. It’s just too dense, too easy. The grunting, throat ache vocal matches the double kick and thrashing perfectly, the best bits are the slow powerful intros or the interlude that sounds like a hot wind blowing across an endless plain as a bell tolls. But there’s far too little of that sort of thing for me.
Daniel Jack McClennan – Thou Canst Turn Thy Organ While I Sing Of Woe
Cruel Nature
A series of small musical sketches mainly played on piano, but there are elements of drones and strings. That describes what this is, but not what it does inside you. How it manages to evoke emotions with just a couple of chords or notes, how the feeling of water flowing is conjured up with a piano and crackles. How this tape can be quite so beautiful and moving and still have moments of funereal anger and pain. It’s delicate and the sounds are so tiny and insignificant I can only wonder at what Daniel has achieved here.
Michal Gutman – Never Coming Home
Cruel Nature
It’s all about the voice, that’s what this is, the richly accented singing voice makes this tape spark and explode. It’s folk music but it also has jazz and electro. It uses said voice as an instrument with strums of guitar and beats. All coming in and out of the sound. It’s odd, powerful and essential.
Boneripper – World Ablaze
Hard Core Punk, introduced with a calm spoken voice talking about power before the band just destroy their instruments and create a sound that feels like losing a fist fight. Short sharp tracks make this an excellent slice of noise.
Barry Ryan – The Albums 1969-1979
Cherry Red
Collecting Barry Ryan’s solo albums for the decade from 1969, this is a five CD box set. Although, and sorry Barry, but the first CD is the only one that’s essential in my mind, it’s overblown, orchestrated and thoroughly dramatic. It seeps with romance, soul and class. Then he starts to sing, classic posh accent and beautiful tones. In fact, just listen to it, you’ll get what I mean. The first time I heard anything by Barry Ryan was on Annie Nightingale’s show on Radio 1 when Dave Vanian from the Damned was playing his favourite records, you know what he played, Eloise. Fantastic.
But from those first brilliant albums comes a slump into just normality really, pop songs, crooning, glam are all touched on but never expanded into the heights of bombast that he captured in the first place. Not quite a national treasure but those first two albums certainly deserve rediscovery.
Three Second Kiss – From Fire I Save the Flame
Overdrive Records
This is what we used to call alternative rock, not quite grunge, unusual enough to distance itself from the mainstream even when it became the mainstream. It’s nothing new or groundbreaking but what it does do is give you a nice slice of atonal, guitar based, stuttering, bass led, post punk funky punky grooves. They will be ace to watch live and the records well worth your time.
BEAK> – >>>>
Invada Records
A surprise release, this came out a couple of weeks ago. It’s a nice collection of laid back oddly affectionately sounding music. It’s another quintessential BEAK> album, for the heads out there, just waiting for you to put on and drift away.
–
Halma’s website is halma-music.com they are also on Bandcamp.
Moral Putrefaction are on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
Daniel Jack McClennan is on Bandcamp.
Michal Gutman is on Bandcamp.
Boneripper’s webisite is boneripperhc.com they are also on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
Three Second Kiss are on Facebook and Bandcamp.
BEAK> are on Facebook, Instagram and X as @BeakBristol
All words by Adrian Bloxham.