Good evening, on the Fighting Boredom reviews page today we bring you the untouchable cool debonair poise of Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds. The strange weird electronic nightmares of Gazelle Twin. Call Me Amour with their ‘Mixing dark electronica with sonic guitars’. FACS with ‘the last album engineered by Steve Albini.’ Bloke with their ‘noise and psych rock project’. The glorious Goth Metal of Lacuna Coil. The ‘complex and discordant blackened death metal sound’ of Pyrrhic Salvation and the ‘psychedelic frenzy’ of Sounds of New Soma. Read what we thought below and don’t hold back on arguing, we’re not always right you know.
Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds – That Delicious Vice
In The Red Records
Not only do you get the effortless cool and poise of the Kid, member of two of the best bands in the world ever, you also get Alice Bag. I mean if that isn’t enough for you to hunt down this record like a rabid dog after a squirrel then I don’t know why I’m here. It’s a sleazy, shimmering rockabilly tripped out fuzzfest of a record. It just makes absolute perfect sense as soon as you drop the needle, a brilliant collection of grooviness. The last song is seventeen minutes long and is a blissful drugged out floating classic. This is just too cool.
Gazelle Twin – Black Cab
Invada records
The latest Gazelle Twin soundtrack is a menacing, strange affair. Enough weirdness to keep you on your toes and lots of throbbing stress. The main thing it is though is disturbing. Don’t listen to it in the dark, don’t listen to it while driving in the dark and for goodness sake don’t have it on your headphones during a peaceful walk in the country, light or dark.
Call Me Amour – Call Me Amour
Circular Wave Records
This is lovely shiny pretty boy nu metal emo and it’s great for what it is. That is, a band for the kids to turn them on to the world of dressing in black, dyed hair and ill advised underaged tattoos. They do quiet, loud quiet quite well but the vocodered growly vocal is awful. Recommended to all the kids far too cool to read this.
FACS – Wish Defence
Trouble In Mind
There’s a delicious restraint to this, it’s angular slow and wonky. The vocal, is for the most part, monotone and the feel is post everything. It’s clear and loose which makes for a held back urgency in its groove. A great record.
Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire
Century Media Records
Right, imagine for a moment that what you really really need in your life is a massive dollop of epic, magnificent, darkly majestic Goth Metal. Because, on the evidence of this record, you really really do. Fantastic crashing music and an admittedly irritating gravely vocal leads into a revelation as Cristina Scabbia lets rip and I feel it all. What a great big stupidly over the top record. Wonderful.
Bloke – Living Without Exceptions
Tonzenon Records
Anyone remember sleazy glam rock? Bloke certainly do, this is a stomping grungy glam infested groove with a wonderfully fey almost whispered vocal. I mean they do stray into the realms of Krautrock but prove that they are great at doing that too. It’s mainly sleazy, sweaty rock with a feather boa. Even the lovingly played harmonica on the blues at the end fits brilliantly. More please.
Pyrrhic Salvation – When Society Crumbles
This release appears to be at least two vocalists having a violent argument about who’s supposed to be singing which bit as the band have a fist fight behind them breaking everything in the room in the process. The recording sounds terrible but I’m not saying I don’t like it…
Sounds of New Soma – The Story of Sam Buckett
Tonzenon Records
Psychedelic Prog album about a scientist who disappeared into the stars. Yes it is as strange and weird and wonderful as you think it is. Suspend your punk sensibilities for an hour or so, turn the lights off, lie down and drift off into the cosmos. It’s got everything, whittling, swooshing, plinking, fuzzing and buzzing, it’s well worth a punt, really it is.
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Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds are on Facebook and Instagram.
Gazelle Twin’s website is gazelletwin.com, she is also on Facebook and Instagram.
Call Me Amour’s website is callmeamour.com they are also on Instagram and Facebook.
FACS are on Facebook and Instagram.
Lacuna Coil’s website is lacunacoil.com, they are also on Instagram and Facebook.
Bloke are on Instagram and Facebook.
Pyrrhic Salvation are on Facebook.
Sounds of New Soma’s website is soundsofnewsoma.de, they are also on Facebook
All words by Adrian Bloxham.
