Even if their name isn’t particularly familiar in the UK or US, Italy’s Latte+ have attracted a cult following on home turf. With 2014’s ‘No More Than Three Chords’ – the band’s sixth full-length and first English language disc- gaining US distribution, that very much represents a definite step towards world domination for the punk quartet.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
CROWSAW – Karma EP
In 2014 UK rockers Crowsaw released ‘Smoke & Mirrors’, a blues-edged collection of songs which was well received in some quarters. For those expecting them to pick up where they left off and build upon their cult following, 2015’s ‘Karma’ may come as a bit of a surprise. Rethinking their game plan, the band have taken their melodic vocal and riff-based sound, dispensed with pretty much any Hendrix and Cry Of Love influences and heavied up the guitars about seventy percent. There’s a huge amount of rock at the core of the material – as is only natural – but all previous blues influences have been thrown out of the window in favour of channelling a defiant metallic crunch.
CRIMSON CALAMITY – All In The Cards EP
US singer songwriters Lauren Harding and Mallory Trunnell have already made inroads into solo careers as adult pop singer-songwriters: Harding’s brand of pop/rock on her 2011 release ‘Heart In a Box’ mixing piano tunes with occasional bluesy twangs, Trunnell’s more in keeping with Sara Barailles and piano pop. Together, recording as Crimson Calamity, the pianos are abandoned and various types of country music very much the order of the day.
STRANGE MAJIK – Lights On
Strange Majik mainman David Pattillo is a well known studio hand from New York, whom between 2011-2013 was most often seen as half of garage blues duo The Dead Exs. After two excellent albums in that stripped back and distorted style, his Strange Majik project finds the multi-instrumentalist spreading his wings. Pattillo’s Strange Magik guise is primarily a vehicle to experiment with a world of music that largely would never have fit The Exs straight ahead mood and also allows him to work with a revolving cast of musicians and vocalists. The end results straddle funk and r ‘n’ b, with a swathe of old fashioned psychedelic guitars beefing up the sound – the message here is to close your eyes, open your mind and feel the majik.
SUPER LUXURY – Ten Solid Years Of Applause
In 2012 Leeds based noisemakers Super Luxury released a cassette EP that acted as a short and sharp assault on the senses, the musical equivalent of a kick in the nuts. Not too long after, a couple of their members moonlighted as part of Cattle, an awesome noise-rock trio whose debut EP featured one of the best bass sounds ever committed to record. Two and a half years on from their original EP, Super Luxury dropped this full-length release, ‘Ten Solid Years of Applause’. A couple of line-up changes – most notably the drafting in of bassist Tom Goodall from Cattle – has had a huge effect on the tunes as well as effectively blurring the lines between the two bands a little farther. Perhaps due to the increased relation with Cattle, this second time around, SL sound far more assured.