At the very beginning of 2016, Hector and The Leaves released ‘Little Bee’, a self-financed EP of material drawing influence from The Beach Boys and The Beatles, redressed in singer-songwriter threads, mixing 60s pop with strains of folk from across many decades. While the EP didn’t necessarily gain country-wide recognition, it showed Tom Hector to be a songwriter more than able to take different influences and recycle them with style, while still allowing his own personality to inform the result. Eighteen months on – and after posting a selection of musical sketches and unfinished ideas online – ‘(interiors’), the first proper follow-up, takes more of a lo-fi singer-songwriter path, but the many things that made ‘Little Bee’ worthy of an ear are still very much in evidence.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
DEVIL ELECTRIC – Devil Electric
There have been some great stoner and doom bands surface over the first part of the twenty first century. Whether recycling straight up Sabbath-isms, or channelling Fu Manchu-esque dusty grooves that sound like they’ve been borne from a sweaty, clapped out van, this unashamedly retro sub genre of metal rarely disappoints. It’s so often predictable, but that doesn’t diminish from it’s overall power.
Every once in a while, a band appears on the scene that – although still treading a very familiar path – also seems to raise the bar. Such is the case with Devil Electric, a four piece stoner metal outfit from Melbourne whose riffs are so big, they could cause a tremor somewhere in the outback. Their 2016 EP, was hugely enjoyable, but their first full length exceeds expectations.
CAFFEINDS/SNACKS? – Split EP
Caffeinds’ 2014 release, the ‘HeeBee GB’s EP’, was an unpolished affair, but there was no denying it was a recording made with love. It was rough and ready, as you’d expect something DIY to be, but above all, it was fun. It didn’t get a lot of attention within punk circles (certainly not on a big scale at any rate), but that didn’t stop the band trucking on. That same year’s full length release blended influences from Screeching Weasel and the Misfits in such a way that you couldn’t help but like it – warts ‘n’ all – while 2015’s ‘No Gods, No Decaf’, with an increased recording budget and a bratty attitude, was their best work to date. With each release, it’s been possible to hear Caffeinds making a necessary leap forward.
INDONESIAN JUNK – Indonesian Junk
Whether conjuring memories of ‘Surrender’ by Cheap Trick – the song from which this US band have taken their name – or Manic Street Preachers’ deliberately provocative 1991 single ‘Motown Junk’ (how many bands would dare to snipe “I laughed when Lennon got shot!” in little over a decade since the former Beatle’s assassination?), there’s something edgy and exciting about the word junk. Whether meaning trashy or the slang for heroin, it has a certain connotation. However, Indonesian Junk really aren’t as spiky or as confrontational as their chosen moniker suggests. For this Milwaukee based trio, it’s all about the relatively lo-fi, the fuzzy guitars and a general noise rather than any actual sharp edges, either musically or lyrically.
FIREWALKER – Firewalker
When Firewalker plug their debut release as “hardcore”, the four piece band from Boston means it in every sense. With numbers ranging from metallic crossover arrangements to an extreme crust-punk assault, the fierce sounds they make aren’t always about hooks; the band’s sound should be viewed as a blistering attack, driven by buzzsaw guitar lines and husky vocal growls. Looking at the bigger picture though, there’s enough variety within their material to suggest they’re about more than hashing out old grindcore and crust influences and considering that a job well done.