Plus essential new releases from SILVERWINGKILLER, Dog Saints, Melody's Echo Chamber, Lemondaze and Vogues.
Ulrika Spacek by Anya Broido | Words: Hazel Blacher, Isabel Kilevold, A.L. Noonan, Brad Sked, Elvis Thirlwell, Lloyd Bolton
Ulrika Spacek - 'Build A Box Then Break It'
Perhaps one of the most quietly masterful bands from the last decade, London's Ulrika Spacek have returned once again with their new single 'Build A Box Then Break It', announcing their new album 'EXPO' in tandem, due for release in February via Full Time Hobby. Loose and lingering with the trip hop sensibilities of Portishead – in keeping with the genre's en masse revival this year – the track hovers with an almost meditative lustre, swinging from musing, hypnagogic verses to bright, lucid choruses with a years-wisened command and dexterity. 'Build A Box Then Break It' serves as the first single from 'EXPO', a record that sees Ulrika Spacek take on a new structural and sonic approach. "Our music has always been a collage — a bit patchwork, sonically" the band state, "but what makes this album a landmark for us is that we went one step further and made our own sound bank and essentially sampled ourselves." (Hazel Blacher)
Madra Salach – 'I Was Just A Boy'
Madra Salach unravel memory through noise and ritual on 'I Was Just a Boy', a seven-minute descent into experimental folk that treats confession like fuel. The Dublin six-piece shape a sound that is rooted in folk yet unafraid of dissonance or distortion. Paul Banks' guttural delivery cuts through the crafted gleam, his voice teetering between tenderness and torment as he pleads, "You were all I had love / And for heaven's sake / I was just a boy then." The pace tightens, each pulse of the drum pulling the song closer to eruption. The glittering pitch of the mandolin adds a trembling texture. Layers rise and dissolve, building toward a cathartic release where Banks' voice unravels into growls of "And it was in heaven / And I wasn't here / I was so unwell then / It was so unclear." Earthy instrumentals weave industrial grain and rhythmic loops into the folk contour without breaking its emotional core, capturing the duality of Madra Salach's sound, where Irish traditional music meets the intensity of post-punk. 'I Was Just a Boy' is a study in vulnerability and violence, where rhythm hums with memory and memory fractures into noise. (Isabel Kilevold)
SILVERWINGKILLER – 'JING'AN TEMPLE'
Mainlining their strobing, late night club eccentricities straight into the beating, beer-soaked heart of the underground, Manchester's SILVERWINGKILLER have arrived with a bang on the UK grassroots circuit, stirring up a swathe of intrigue and "you've got to catch them live!"'s among more scholarly gig-goers. Their new single 'JING'AN TEMPLE' sits in slower, somewhat toilsome contrast to the pumping, acid-flecked uptempo grit of their debut singles, evidencing the nuance and range of their shapeshifting electronic creations that make their live show so thrilling. Whether or not intentionally drawing on dubstep influences, the track's plunging, viscous bassline calls this style to mind, and it adheres with forceful heft to the structural belly, as Eastern inspired synth melodies spiral around Ni Yushang's distorted, deeply hypnotic Shanghainese verses. (Hazel Blacher)
Dog Saints – 'Wrestlevania / Hornets'
The influence of TIkTok on the wider music industry should be studied by those keen to catch new music at its most unprocessed. While short, poppy snippets have been commonplace for dance trends since the platform's launch, the revival of genres like midwest emo, slowcore, and post-hardcore has occurred in tandem, aptly soundtracking more confessional content. With the release of double single 'Wrestlevania/Hornets' by London quartet Dog Saints, these revitalised genres are wholly energised with drive, catharsis and gleaming promise. 'Wrestlevania', inspired by the insecurities of young male violence, opens with twanging midwest emo guitar acrobatics and teardrop vocals (courtesy of vocalist Will Goltz) before a maelstrom of wailing, post-hardcore guitars, thumping bass and cracked drums fatten the introspective weight of the track with power and poise. Hornets is equally as cleansing and dense, atop a bright power-pop skeleton of agonising vocals and shimmering chords. A group in ascension, on 'Wrestlevania/Hornets' Dog Saints unreservedly consolidate their position at the vanguard of a contemporary midwest emo revival. (A. L. Noonan)
Melody's Echo Chamber – 'Eyes Closed'
Melody's Echo Chamber are back with another nourishing spoonful of psychotropic goodness siphoned from dimensions way beyond our own, sharing the utterly delightful 'Eyes Closed' - the third single from their upcoming album 'Unclouded'. In place of their more ethereal sonic enchantments, 'Eyes Closed' is a much headier affair, interlacing a Neu!-esque krautrock groove with crunching, mind-warping psychedelic riffs akin to early Pond or Swedish psychedelic godheads Dungen. It's truly glorious spacetime ripping stuff from the psychedelic sorcerer. If this trio of singles are already anything to go by, Melody's Echo Chamber's fourth outing 'Unclouded' is set to be yet another great one. (Brad Sked)
Lemondaze – 'polari'
Longtime London favourites Lemondaze are in the ascendancy. Steadily accumulating an impressive array of shows that has seen them open for the likes of Ride, Fat Dog, deathcrash, Just Mustard, and perform at ArcTangent in the summer, the quartet at last mark the announcement of a debut EP 'Subtext', due 5th December, with new single 'polari'. A glistening, absorbing and immaculate voyage of shoegaze rock, it's clearly been a long time in gestation too. Written all the way back in lockdown (remember that), while suffering from Covid during "4 days of playing Lego Batman and Halo 3, making Swedish meatballs", Lemondaze are a testament to the power of taking your time: waiting for the exact right moment to open up the buds and bloom. (Elvis Thirlwell)
Vogues – 'And Then Nothing' / 'Nevertheless' There is something very human about the shifts of 'And Then Nothing', the A side of Vogues' latest dual single. The caprice of mood and energy is expressed across a changeable four minutes, a lethargic start opening into a bouncy conclusion as the lyrics shift through the gears of a night out. The opening makes impactful use of a heavy lurch between two chords, guided by a chorus bass, over which squeals a wah wah guitar that evokes Iggy Pop's early solo records. This all shifts halfway through, and the weight and repetition is redirected as the vocals loosen up, accompanied by elements of some dissembled form of dissembled. The result is unpolished and unfamiliar but strangely uplifting. On the flipside, 'Nevertheless' is a gentler proposition, uncurling over a gentle backing that is demarcated by reversed guitar snippets, as Vogues croons lyrics of acceptance and resolve, their vitality emphasised by the juxtaposition of the uncertain sonic tapestry that sits behind. As the November release of Vogues' new album 'Tender Mercies' approaches, this is a latest reminder of the London-based solo artist's auteur-like command of tone and narrative through every detail of a song. (Lloyd Bolton)
