This time on the reviews page we have the ‘joyous, uplifting “love letter to Black music.” from Sinkane. The ‘expanding on the ‘lo-fi garage scuzz with Sabbath-esque doom ethereal spoken word and deconstructed glam-punk’ Then the ‘skronk blues guitar, sax and electronic drones, cosmic free jazz, concrete exotica and dub of The Jonny Halifax Invocation. Finally the ‘art rock collective’ that is Eunuchs. Read what we thought below.
Sinkane – We Belong
City Slang
This is Sinkane’s love letter to Black Music and it’s a massive bold splash of sound. It funks across the floor, shimmies into disco and slows down for electronic protesting. There is a gospel choir and a myriad of guests. It dissolves into dubby reggae and slides sideways into jazz. It’s a great big joyful record that will make you dance, if you don’t feel your hips wiggling or at the very least your head nodding to this then you are already atrophied. It’s not all bright and open, the feeling gets righteously angry when it needs to across the tracks. I’m not saying who it reminds me of, being a love letter it’s obvious in places and subtle in others, but the final track with its slow sunshine drenched funk and huge affirmation anthem channeling black power is just sublime.
Dragged Up – High On Ripple
Cruel Nature
I like Dragged Up, for the record I bought this. It’s an oddly endearing listen, flicking suddenly from gentle strumming and singing to grungy distortion drenched riffs, then back again. It slides into dubby echoes then distorts, there’s sadness in tiny sounds and then left field happiness. Some of it is solid sounding indie pop, some bass led post punk, some strange guitar music, all with the lazy sounding vocals which just work. But in all the strangeness, the laid back grooves, the post post everything feeling of it, this is a great record. Did I mention I have bought it?
The Jonny Halifax Invocation – Açid Blüüs Räägs Vol.2
God Unknown
I don’t know about blues, I don’t know much about acid anymore but what I do know is jazz and this, my friends, is jazz. It’s drone based, darkness embracing, spaghetti western guitar playing jazz. Plus, and I can’t overstate this, it’s brilliantly crafted and will drag you down under it’s relatively calm surface into a sea of interludes, spirals and smoothness. It’s a dry, hot empty landscape underneath a swirling, endless sea of stars.
Eunuchs – Harbour City
This is just disjointed nonsense. There are ideas and snatches of grooves but then they are buried under something else or obliterated under shouting and noise. It has jazz, punk, crooning, brass, strings, guitars, every type of percussion you can think of and singing, the aforementioned crooning and shouting. But it doesn’t make any sense, it goes nowhere and has managed to alienate me completely. Chaos is sometimes good but other times it just sounds like someone trying too hard. I’m not a fan.
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Sinkane’s website is sinkane.com, they are on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp and X as @sinkane.
Dragged Up are on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
The Jonny Halifax Invocation are on Instagram, Bandcamp and X as @jonnyhalifaxxxx
Eunuchs are on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
All words by Adrian Bloxham.
