Of all the second division prog bands of the 70s – those who never quite made it to household name status with Yes and Camel – Greenslade are, perhaps, the band who’ve most been relegated to history. Despite a few high profile BBC appearances and four albums released between 1973 and 1975, they’ve never quite been given their full dues. If Greenslade get mentioned at all, it’s for their second album ‘Bedside Manners Are Extra’, released at the tail end of 1973. ‘Spyglass Guest’ – released the following year – is arguably a much better album.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
INDONESIAN JUNK – Darkness Calling EP
Recorded in a day during the summer of 2018, Indonesian Junk’s ‘Darkness Calling’ EP presents the sound of a band who’ve finally matured. They sounded incredibly ragged on their debut from just two years earlier; 2017’s follow up ‘Stars In The Night‘ was sharper in almost every respect but stlll hit and miss, but three of the four tracks on this third release make good on previous glimmers of hope and half-promises – musically, Indonesian Junk finally sound like heirs to the New York Dolls and Dictators legacies.
UNIFORMS – Reasons To Breathe EP
Returning from a three year hiatus, Scottish pop punkers Uniforms present quality over quantity on their comeback release ‘Reasons To Breathe’. Its three songs tap into a tough retro punk style, but beneath a gruff and wobbly vocal, you’ll find decent tunes that somehow occupy a space between Swingin’ Utters, Rancid and The Skids, resulting in a sound that has a tight, ringing guitar at almost every turn.
DON’T DISTURB MY CIRCLES – Lower Canopy EP
Portuguese hardcore band Don’t Disturb My Circles released their debut EP in 2009. The EP didn’t receive a lot of overseas press, but nevertheless the band continued to work hard promoting their work on their home turf. By 2015, they’d had shared stages with thrash legends Sepultura and Obituary, Cancer Bats and Dillinger Escape Plan, a band with whom their 2018 EP shares a few parallels.
STRANGE MAJIK – Channel T
Strange Majik’s 2016 album ‘Raised On Rock ‘n’ Roll’ played like the ultimate good time record. Its combination of rock, blues and soul vibes sounded like the aftermath of years spent absorbing all the great records of the seventies. It was the kind of record that would’ve been impossible to follow straight away, so David Pattillo and his band took a sidestep. Two EPs released in 2017 fused the Majik sound with something moodier and the results presented the world with some politically charged lyrics – only fitting considering the state of the US at the time they were written.