Released during the first quarter of 2024, Magana’s ‘Break Free’ single shared some very interesting musical ideas. Billed as “witchy rock”, the track managed to convey a hard edge, but retain a sense of the atmospheric. With the aid of droning keys and percussive rhythms, the performance conveyed a spooky vibe, but was also unafraid to take detours into harder edged sounds. Like a strange hybrid of 90s goth, classic Cocteau Twins and a deep dive into middle period Lush, it wasn’t for everyone, but for those with a love of various 90s and 00’s alternative sounds, it brought a welcome new slant to genre-specific sounds that often felt familiar.
Author Archives: Real Gone
Watch: Modern Evils share new video for ‘Gitzlaff Lover’
Over the years, Swindon has become famous for its associations with the brilliant XTC, the legendary Justin Hayward, and pop singer turned actress Billie Piper. It also spawned one of the UK’s heaviest bands in recent years – Heriot, who seemed to take forever to record their debut full length – and 90s dance act Meat Beat Manifesto, but you’d be hard pressed to consider the town a Mecca for music fans.
Here’s another Swindon based band worth keeping an eye on. Relative newcomers Modern Evils released a couple of strong singles in 2024, but, on the basis of their first release for 2025, they’re set to up their game this year.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #96
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we investigate some of the individual tunes that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This time out, we bring you a dance oriented number with indigenous vocals, a couple of very different country tracks, a second single from an up and coming British band, and an unexpected reissue. You’ll also find guitar driven pieces that fit easily into our more typical musical jigsaw and the return of a cult singer-songwriter. We hope there’s enough here to suit a variety of ears…
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Listen: Sun Below share new epic track ‘Mammoth’s Tundra’
‘Mammoth’s Tundra’, the current single from Sun Below, first began life in 2023, before going through “significant changes” to wind up being the massive behemoth that kicks off the band’s 2025. The opening riff shares a slow, classic doom sound, instantly advertising the band’s heavy feel. After several bars, maybe at the point you’d expect a vocal to appear or the riff to do something dramatically different, Sun Below merely choose to heavy everything, whilst simultaneously slowing down to a sludgy crawl. The appearance of a vocal lends something Melvins-esque, before the doomy vibes slide into a slightly more melodic blues-doom sound, by which time, you’re either completely behind the band, or not. Working a Sabbath-on-steroids groove, the combo of drums and guitar latch onto an even deeper brand of doom, before the sludge comes back for a second assault.
THE GAMBLERS – Boom! Boom! / Sufferer
The debut 7” from The Gamblers gave listeners a very accessible and direct insight into the new band’s key musical interests. The self-penned ‘Tonight’ introduced them with a tight arrangement, underscored by a great bass sound, and an attitude that suggested that frontman Mark – also of punk band Booze & Glory – had a deeper love of Jamaican sounds than many of his peers. For any doubters, the flip-side’s pin-sharp cover of The Pioneers’ ‘Let Your Yeah Be Yeah’ should have been solid enough to allay any fears that this was, in any way, a half-arsed musical diversion.