Our review of the best new releases of the past month, also featuring Gag Salon, Plutoz Beach, HONK, Kissing Gate, The New Eves and Wilshaw.
Photo: TTSSFU by Henry Collier | Words: Lloyd Bolton, Magnus Crawshaw, Isabel Kilevold, Otis Hayes
In the midst of festival season, you'd be forgiven for missing a few new releases here or there, but with a brilliant month of music behind us you'd be remiss not to catch yourself back up. Alongside box office releases from Water From Your Eyes, Radio Free Alice and The New Eves, some of our favourite underground releases include astoundingly original collections from Plutoz Beach and Kissing Gate and much more besides.
TTSSFU – 'Blown'
The latest collection from Manchester's bedroom tour-de-force TTSSFU takes her sound in a new direction informed by the live set. Having had a huge couple of years in which her music has finally started to get the widespread recognition it deserves, TTSSFU has found herself on the road more than ever. The grungey feel of this EP seems to be a direct product of that, as is the undercurrent of alienation and anxiety within the lyrics. Songs like 'Cat Piss Junkie' and 'Sick' push the sound more towards the sludge indie territory of The Breeders and contemporaries like new Partisan Records labelmate Blondshell, while 'Forever' has that dreamy, Alvvays quality that really made her reputation on recent releases like 2024's 'Me, Jed and Andy'. As a whole, this EP treads the right balance of raw vulnerability and pop compositional nous. (Lloyd Bolton)
Water From Your Eyes – 'It's A Beautiful Place'
'It's A Beautiful Place' is a record that bristles with tension but shines with optimism, a triumph of attention-deficit perfectionism. Originally from Chicago, Water From Your Eyes moved to New York as the city's scene began its best run in twenty years. Geese, Frost Children, James K and myriad others have all re-established New York as one of the capitals of weird rock and weirder pop, and there is no odder among them than Water From Your Eyes. 'It's A Beautiful Place' veers between experimental pop and dance-punk, conveying scattered vignettes of confusion and conflict over pristine mixing and uncomplicated four-on-the-floor. Its sonic palette could be compared to a y2k meal, its eclectic side dishes crudely wrapped into a tablecloth and hurled directly in the face of the listener. It takes the odd synth line from a Britney song, splices that with a disembodied nu-metal riff, throws some Yeah Yeah Yeahs production into the mix, and turns up the heterogeneity until the dial comes off. For any other band, this level of musical overstimulation might feel diffuse, musique concrète lacking concrete statement. In the hands of Racheal Brown and Nate Amos, however, it becomes an illuminatingly abstract collage. (Magnus Crawshaw)
Abridged from original text. Full review here.
Radio Free Alice – 'Empty Words'
Since forming in 2020, Melbourne/Naarm-based Radio Free Alice have been carving out their place in the post-punk landscape with a sound that is sharp, urgent, and relentless. Their new EP 'Empty Words' is brimming with raw emotion and nervy momentum. Opening with the title track, first released back in March, 'Empty Words' sets the tone with a biting line, "They say that everything has changed / But nothing has happened," delivered with jarring, unfiltered vocals. The sharp, witty lyrics add a tangible texture to the gritty and tightly wound instrumentation, which is feverish without ever losing precision. Radio Free Alice do not shy away from dissonance, letting noise and euphony collide, embracing the tension. On 'Regret', a searing guitar bridge slices through rasping yet melodiously restrained vocals, delivering lines of visceral confession that feel both intimate and confrontational. Then, closing the four-track EP, 'Chinese Restaurant' is led by a persistent guitar melody underpinned by steady percussion. Learmonth's vocal performance carries a restrained depth reminiscent of The Cure's Robert Smith, giving the track a timeless and unsettled energy. The raw urgency of the EP reflects the chemistry of four creatively ambitious musicians in their early twenties, forging a sound unbound by genre. Radio Free Alice are building something entirely their own, vital, unfiltered, and alive with possibility. (Isabel Kilevold)
Abridged from original text.
Gag Salon – 'You Have Been Killed'
Gag Salon's audacious debut album expands their punk theatrical sound into what feels like its natural form, an impressive feat that few bands achieve on the jump to full-length. Through the blitz of styles, we pick up hints of glam, Britpop (see 'Backing Track') and an XTC similarity that really comes into focus on 'Throwing Up'. The overarching effect is something a little like an erratic version of DEADLETTER, one with a more unpredictable sense of humour. The tracks are brought to life with lurid pulp fantasy lyrics, and urged on by an ingenious rhythm section, the whole thing moves. 'You Have Been Killed' is perhaps 2025's most perverse party album. (Lloyd Bolton)
Plutoz Beach – 'SOFT.CORE.HORSE.PORN'
The debut EP from uncategorisable DIY sensation Plutoz Beach is a brilliant elucidation of her inspired chaotic spirit. Songs like 'Delusional Lover' and 'Nobody Loves Me' are meticulously crafted, a classic feel undercut with moments that negate our most basic expectations from recorded music. 'Empress' New Dress' wriggles along with verses delivered almost impossibly quickly over Mo Tucker-style cymbal-less drums, while 'Yankee Candle' feels a little like an unvarnished Last Dinner Party track (a 3 year old Soundcloud demo shows it is the product of a shared cultural milieu rather than simple imitation). 'Nobody Loves Me' is the perfect conclusion, concentrating the compositional mania of the rest of the EP into one jaw-dropping stream of consciousness against a bizarre series of musical mutations. (Lloyd Bolton)
HONK – 'Closing Down Sale'
Named pessimistically in answer to the band's debut, 'Grand Opening', HONK's second EP does not feel like a swan song, rather the continued evolution of the band's own form of scuzz country, which lands somewhere between the grime of Country Teasers and House Arrest and the singalong jangle quality of bands like fellow Mancunians Autocamper. 'Duck Duck Goose' is an floor-filling slice of grotty rockabilly, while 'Vine-Glo' is the all-round standout from this breathless collection. Singing LFO synth throughout takes the sound from pure barroom floor grease into new territory, and draws out the catchy melodies at the core of each tune. (Lloyd Bolton)
Kissing Gate – 'Funny Dream'
Kissing Gate have emerged as one of London's best live acts of the past couple of years, their reputation steadily growing with every show. The band are something of a supergroup, pooling members from the intersecting pools of acts like Dog, Ava, Kaspar Hauser and Conus Sp. Bent and formed of four songwriters, Freddie Firth, Ed Oaks, Wil Pritchard and Alex Goodall. The band's lead singer Ed Oaks takes on primary lyric-writing duties, but listening to the band one can feel each performer carving out their own individual narrative through the curves of its arrangement. Pritchard's violin often picks up where the vocals lead off, guiding the emotive power of the extended instrumental sections that proliferate across the record, while Firth's drumming is so various it almost rewrites each song in real time. This debut invites comparisons to the likes of caroline, 'Ants…' era Black Country, New Road and contemporaries Tapir!, but more than any of these it sounds like a statement of the band's own unique intent. (Lloyd Bolton)
The New Eves – 'The New Eves Is Rising'
The New Eves pull together an uncompromising collection of nine tracks on their debut album, 'The New Eve Is Rising'. Released via Transgressive Records, the long player relishes in the Brighton quartet's ferocious live sound, striking a healthy balance between the unrestrained and unruly and a controlled sense of calm. Throughout its entirety, The New Eves lure you in with introspective songs set against tales of the universe, mountains and volcanoes, all attentively wrapped around what has become the group's signature sound. Certain New Eves inspirations feel clear cut: Patti Smith, The Raincoats, The Slits and The Velvet Underground all immediately come to mind. The band do not conceal these references in the shadows of their songs, instead embracing the challenge of evolving the work of their predecessors while adding their own fresh take. Unafraid to express themselves in this authentically personal manner, the band establish their own take on an exciting and eclectic mix of musical styles collaged together, all the while holding up a light for others to follow suit. (Otis Hayes)
Abridged from original text. Full review here.
Wilshaw – 'i don't know anything you don't'
Wilshaw's debut EP lands firmly in the tradition of catchy slacker indie, drawing on the immediacy and wry antiphilosophy of Liz Phair and Pavement with shambling, guitar-driven tunes and clever lyrics. A hushed, Elliot Smith-style quality to the vocals invites a natural intimacy that makes tunes like 'hard month' and 'far too well' so emotive, while strains of lap steel appeal to the grandness of the eternal, the universal. 'i don't know anything you don't' is an assured first collection, announcing an exciting new voice in contemporary songwriting. (Lloyd Bolton)
No comments:
Post a Comment