Following a string of rather varied sounding digital singles – kicking off with ‘Spilled Milk’ in September 2024 – one man band Tooth Gore released his long awaited ‘For Losers…By Losers’ album in June 2025. It didn’t disappoint. Taking in elements of surf rock, noisy indie, melodic punk and a couple of other retro twists, the album showcased an artist will a brilliantly malleable talent.
Category Archives: News
Watch: Rising stars Franklin share new video for ‘Tiny Chairs’
Tipped as “one of Belfast’s fastest rising bands”, Franklin are definitely a band to watch out for over the coming months. Last year’s single ‘Bebby’ introduced a tight music unit with its combination of pumping basslines contrasted with overdriven, choppy guitar lines that captured the ghosts of The Skids and really early U2, crossed with the slightly more abrasive edges of early Franz Ferdinand. The blend of power and melody showcased an amazingly tight band on this track, but by throwing an old school lead guitar break into a pleasingly angular workout also advertised a band who might be unafraid to take a swerve into the unexpected. What’s more, a full live set from Bennigans in Derry (captured with a very professional multi camera set up) showed a band who were far more than studio based marvels.
Madness to release career spanning ‘Hit Parade’ in November
Madness have been well served by compilation albums in the past. Their 1982 release ‘Complete Madness’ brought together a complete run of the band’s hits up to that point, making ‘House of Fun’ and the single version of ‘Return of The Las Palmas 7’ (with extra sax during the final section) available on a full length release for the first time, and also threw in a random b-side ‘In The City’ for good measure. The later ‘Divine Madness’ was a little more purist in its approach, but gave pride of place to the later hits ‘Michael Caine’, ‘The Sun & The Rain’, ‘Wings of A Dove’ and ‘One Better Day’, showing how much the Camden Nutty Boys had matured as musicians and songwriters in the short time since the release of ‘Complete Madness’ and the band’s split just a few years later.
Watch: Levellers release video for “lost” track ‘Alive’ ahead of ‘Zeitgeist’ reissue
Sometimes, “lost” tracks are lost for a reason. One in a while, though, a gem will surface from the vaults that has the power to make fans not only sit up and listen, but actually question why such a great recording could’ve been shelved in the first place.
Such is the case with ‘Alive’, a track from the Levellers archive, released as a single as part of the pre-release promotion for a 30th anniversary reissue of the band’s much loved fourth album ‘Zeitgeit’. Huge fans will, of course, recognise ‘Alive’ as having pride of place as part of the bonus tracks on the “special edition” of the Levellers’ 2017 release ‘Notes From The Underground’, but its inclusion on a reissue of a far more celebrated release is guaranteed to introduce it to new ears.
German thrashers Vulture release their tenth anniversary anthem ‘Power Thrash’
Despite forming in 2015, German thrashers Vulture have always celebrated the sounds of 1987. Never was this more blatant than on their current single, the fittingly titled ‘Power Thrash’.