At the end of 2021, Manchester band SINKR arrived on the rock scene with their debut single. Taking obvious musical cues from Pixies, Therapy? and Bivouac, the two track release wasn’t always big on originality, but they were clearly very good musicians, and the material was strong enough to suggest that, over time, the band’s talents would grow, and listeners who still love the sounds of the early 90s might eventually discover a new favourite band. A follow up album ‘History of Things To Come’ (released in June 2022) brought their growing audience more of the same in places, but between the punky ‘The Cut’, post-emo-ish ‘Factories’ with its huge, lolloping grooves, and the overdriven post-grunge meets melodic punk of ‘If Only’, there was more than enough to suggest SINKR had grown as musicians, even over such a short period of time.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
OSWALD SLAIN – Bucky
Towards the end of the first quarter of 2025, Bristolian indie rockers Oswald Slain released their debut EP ‘Kiss Me On The Mouth’, but this wasn’t the first time some of the band members had been in the spotlight. Guitarist vocalist Charlie Fitzgerald and drummer Rhii Williams had previously released material under the name Little Thief, and delivered one of 2021’s best albums. Realising they’d taken Little Thief’s garage rock sound as far as it could go, they teamed up with other musicians and branched out. Not that some of Oswald’s debut was massively far removed from the old sound; Fitz’s vocal retained a distinctive edge, and a couple of the songs definitely sounded like a logical extension of the Little Thief world. Nevertheless, ‘Kiss Me…’ was a strong first outing, and keeping the wheels greased, the band delivered an equally enjoyable follow up single ‘Firing Line’ barely a couple of months later.
CHEAP FIX – Soul Tune / Dead Mouth
‘Re-Animator Blues’, the first release from Texan garage punks Cheap Fix, really didn’t mess around. The two track 7” hit their potential audience with two speed driven bangers that valued an authentically raw sound. This immediately set them as an act to watch, assuming they didn’t suffer an immediate creative burnout.
PERPACITY – Let It Roll EP
In the spring of 2025, electronica duo Perpacity returned with an unexpectedly alternative sounding EP. Not only did some of the music from ‘Lille Flamme’ take on a slightly more angular sound than previous Perpacity tracks, but a decision to present the lyrics in Danish made everything a little more obtuse. Not that it was an entirely inaccessable release: at its best, the three numbers still showcased a musical unit who understood the need for a melody, even if those melodies were sometimes a little cold.
TAXI GIRLS – Rainy / The Lion’s Share
On their 2023 EP, Taxi Girls packed a whole world of distorted and punky riffs into a little over eleven minutes. Sometimes sounding like a Frankenstein creation made from the best elements of Bully, The Soviettes and Shampoo, the material valued abrasiveness over finesse, but every one of those EP tracks served up a fantastic sound from the crossroads of indie and garage punk.