Following their 2012 debut album and tour, The Oyster Murders set about writing and recording new material to follow up ‘Winter of the Electric Sun’. While the prospect of a new full album would have been very appealing, this six track offering is a welcome enough release – it’s six songs and twenty two minutes showing off the Australian dream-pop quartet’s surprisingly accessible sounds in a lean fashion, the EP format cutting down any potential filler material.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
BLACK BISCUIT – Up All Night
In 2008 US bar band Black Biscuit released their debut album ‘Blueline’. It was ragged (often in a bad way), had odd attempts at novelty material and – most memorably – included a shameless rip-off of The Beatles’ ‘No Reply’. It was hard to tell whether, as a band, they were playing things for laughs, or just not especially good. Either way, ‘Blueline’ was a notoriously bad DIY record – in misguided terms, beaten only by the staggeringly awful 2010 effort from the now defunct Quakers on Probation.
THAT FUCKING TANK – A Document Of The Last Set
‘A Document of the Last Set’ marks ten years of underground noise for the Leeds-based duo That Fucking Tank. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, Andy Abbott (guitars) and James Islip (drums) hammer through the tunes which comprise their 2013 live set in an unrelenting manner – the results straddle the fine line between ugly, intense, genius and surprisingly tight. Those who own the studio records will no doubt know these tunes well and need no encouragement to buy this…but for everyone else, here’s a handy overview of a few highlights.
DEAD WOLF CLUB – Healer EP
At the time of this EPs release, it barely feels like weeks have passed since Tintagel’s finest alternative rockers Dead Wolf Club released their second album, ‘RAR’. …And yet, with boundless enthusiasm, they’ve found time between touring that release to record more new material. Their first release for the independent Big Tea Records, most of ‘Healer’ represents their best material yet. Within the grooves of the green and white twelve inches of plastic – or somewhere within the soul-less digital file, if you’re reading this and under thirty – DWC bring more howls of rage, more shimmering guitars and thunderous rhythms disguised by bursts of feedback, and for those who liked them previously, there’s much more to like here than ever.
HAREM SCAREM – Mood Swings II
Almost any melodic rock fan will tell you that the first two Harem Scarem albums are classics. The band’s 1992 debut and ‘Mood Swings’ – their harder sounding follow up from 1993 – set out the Canadian outfit’s stall as a band to be reckoned with. Twenty years on from ‘Mood Swings’, someone in the Harem Scarem camp decided the best move to celebrate the milestone anniversary would be to re-record the songs…