A Million Ways To Change Your Life (A Real Gone Sampler)

In 2016, Real Gone celebrated it’s seventh full year online. This year also marked the sixth year we’ve given away new music at the end of the year. Now a staple of the RG catalogue, the free album-length download is looked forward to by a core of our supporters and in turn helps bring new readers and listeners to our site.

2016 hasn’t been quite as notable for new music compared with a couple of years previously, but that’s not to say it hasn’t thrown up some great stuff. On the first of Real Gone’s free compilations for 2016, we take a look at a broad selection of tunes from punk, country, singer-songwriter fare and more… [a selection of metal oriented artists can be found over here]. If you’ve been paying attention to our website over the past twelve months, a few of these names will be familiar. If not, it’s time to say hello to new music. If you find a couple of things to love, our work here is done!

Continue reading →

NO JOY – Drool Sucker EP

drool-epCombining elements of shoegaze, dreampop, drone and a touch of post-hardcore noise, Montreal’s No Joy have carved out a career as part of the alternative underground, making music that can be both darkly captivating and brutal, yet retain some kind of mystic beauty within that general dystopia. Previous full length releases have featured a broad range of retro sounds and huge echoes of an alt-rock past. From the 90s throwback loveliness of tracks like ‘Wrack Attack’ and the pure dream pop of ‘Moon In My Mouth’, to the Jesus and Mary Chain ugliness of ‘Still’, there’s very little to link the tracks with being the same band, yet at the same time, their unsettling qualities suggest they’re all the product of No Joy. Each record is home to buried treasure – it can be laborious to find that gold, but rest assured it’s there.

Continue reading →

SERPENTINE CREATION – Incest EP

serpentine-creationBulgaria’s Serpentine Creation are one of those extreme metal bands whom seem to become more assured with every release. While they’ve not necessarily become any more melodic, it is easy to hear how their music has become grander with the passing of time. Their 2012 debut album ‘Dystopia’ featured some fairly straight black metal, played quite well but let down by budgetary constraints. Three years on, ‘The Fiery Winds of Armageddon’ was afforded a bigger send-off, with clearer separation between the instruments. The band showing a broader musical palate on those tracks, too, with some great solos and twin lead sounds to balance out the heavy pneumatics. More than just a stop-gap, 2016’s ‘Incest’ not only continues from where the previous recordings left off, but also introduces more new ideas.

Continue reading →

SEVEN – Shattered

sevenAfter forming in 1989 – towards the end of melodic rock’s heyday – Seven attracted the attention of the legendary John Parr. With Parr as producer, the Brit AOR band recorded and released two moderately successful singles and subsequently toured with anyone who’d have them. They shared stages with the suitable (Richard Marx) to the questionable (Jason Donovan) and various acts in between . Although there were plans to release an album, the band were subsequently dropped by their record label and soon went their separate ways.

Continue reading →

THE 1957 TAIL-FIN FIASCO – The 3 Song Drive EP

tail-fin-epOn their first two releases (2011’s ‘Private Jet Flashback‘ and 2013’s ‘Cruise Control EP‘) The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco proved themselves to be masters of retro cool. Armed with a quirky sense of humour and an unhealthy obsession with Steely Dan, the two men at the core of the Fiasco made audiences wonder how such authentically American sounding music could ever have been spawned from the UK. Not only that, but from the wilds of Essex, too – hardly a breeding ground for AM radio pop.

Continue reading →