Today we give you, ‘DIY punk five-piece’ Marcel Wave. The ‘electrifying fusion of hardcore punk and avant-garde grindcore’ of Squid Pisser. The ‘collaborative release between the founding member and the vocalist of Tomorrow’s Rain and the cult Berlin-based singer/composer Yishai Sweartz/ Mona Mur’. John Carpenter collaborator Daniel Davies. Bimbo Core royalty Scene Queen. ‘Math rock trio’ Upright forms. MAbH with tone poems and real poems that meet in a very personal record. The dub-infused, cosmic music of Score and an ‘exploration of ambient and experimental soundscapes’ from R.Y.N. Have a read and listen below.
Marcel Wave – Something Looming
Upset the Rhythm
This took me a little while to get into, it’s angular post punk guitars and odd rhythms with British lost political content. It starts off feeling quirky but soon you come to realise that there’s nothing quirky here at all. It’s just reflections on a life tainted by the world around us, this is story telling but not nice fiction, it’s the dry reality that is life in a Northern town in the UK at the moment. Think Dry cleaning, The Fall, beginning of the Arctics and the brilliant Dragged Up. Let me be clear, it’s an attitude and emotion they share with these bands, not a sound or a genre or anything as crass as that. It delves into local Bradford history, people being conned out of their money. Life stories about ordinary people trying to get along with less in an increasingly crumbling red brick and concrete environment. It’s essential.
Squid Pisser – Dreams of Puke
Skin Graft
Right, let’s think of a stupid vaguely offensive phrase: shout it over and over and create an insane electronically enhanced squiggling thrash nastiness around it. Then get progressively more offensive, louder, faster and more demented throughout the course of the record. This isn’t much of a step away from the last album that I reviewed but it’s still ace!
Daniel Davies – Ghost of the Heart
Sacred Bones
Daniel comes from Rock royalty, he is the son of Dave Davies from the Kinks and the Godson of John Carpenter with whom he has created the last few albums of themes from Carpenter. This is a solo record which is okay but did lose me as it went on. The great big Zeppelin riffs are great but then it goes all synth driven soft rock and it’s just boring. There’s a dabble into Alt rock which is just entry level really for the kids but all in all it’s generic and didn’t hold my attention at all.
Yishai Sweartz/ Mona Mur – Clouds of War
Soleilmoon Recordings
Harrowing, emotional and horrific account of the Jewish experience during the Second World War. The spoken accounts of slaughter in the Ghetto’s people turning on each other, trying to escape, the resistance in the forests and the relationships that grew amongst those who survived. The sound goes from English, Hebrew and German spoken word to deep female singing, whispering lullabies and sad lost piano music. I can’t do it justice in words, you have to listen to it. Harrowing.
Scene Queen – Hot Singles in your Area
Hopeless Records
Bimbo-Core. Who knew? Every song title is filthy, every track is choc full of massive metal riffs and short sharp shocking vocals, either sexual or men hating. Every track is bloody ace too. It’s over the top filth and it’s eye scorchingly flame-thrower brightly brilliant. As for the song telling bands that the girls on the bus should be eighteen plus, it’s about time. The lament that ends the record is perfect too. Bright neon pink punk rules.
Upright forms – Blurred Wires
Skin Graft
A hard driving angular spiked up post punk emotional record, it’s got a great howling vocal and it’s very alternative in the old school sense of the word. I like this a lot. It’s like a lot of other bands and maybe is just another band but right on this album they have struck a chord with me, worth listening to.
MAbH – Wolves Windows and Curtain
Cruel Nature
Poetry and drone. Six poems in a mesmerising voice about the state of his life. Without quoting them it’s hard to describe, but it feels right and true even if you don’t want to hear what he says. It’s billed as ‘The sound of struggle, nostalgia and ennui.’ which sums this up perfectly.
Score – Temporary Arrangement
Cruel Nature
I haven’t heard a release from Score that I haven’t thought was either beautiful or mesmerising, or indeed both. This borrows from dub and echoes yet manages to feel like sunshine is pouring into your ears and love is being syphoned into your head. It’s wobbly and wonky in places and repetitive and circling in others, but all I really need to say is that Score has produced one of my albums of the year right here. Try it.
Y.Y.N. – Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Cruel Nature
Two pieces of just over seventeen minutes each and one of nine. The first consists of noise, the sound of industrial fire and behind that, God only knows. It fluctuates between that, clangs and clashes and an ambient drone that is layered with too many sounds and that my brain finds strangely comforting. The second piece feels like ground mist swirling round your ankles, low and insidious, it grows and is just there swirling around your head and then it very slowly fades away. The last piece is a densely layered foundation of noise that becomes another long drawn out drone. It’s broken but curiously right.
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Marcel Wave are on Instagram.
Squid Pisser are on Instagram, Facebook and X as @squidpisserband
Yishai Sweartz/ Mona Mur’s album can be found on Bandcamp.
Daniel Davies is on Instagram.
Scene Queen is on Facebook, Instagram and X as @scenequeenrocks.
Upright forms’ website is uprightforms.com, they are also on Facebook and Instagram.
MAbH is on Bandcamp.
Score are on Bandcamp
R.Y.N. are on Bandcamp.
All words by Adrian Bloxham.
