If you’ve been paying attention to the rock underground throughout 2024, you’ll have encountered Las Nubes. The vibrant noise-makers have released a couple of genuinely excellent singles that have showed off the full range of their riff based talents. The music has dropped dream pop and shoegaze inspired riffs against a Melvins-like doominess. At other times, you might have heard them thrashing through a very Stooges-centric garage rock blueprint. No matter where there music has taken them, Las Nubes have never been less than thrilling, and their self proclaimed “fucking loud” second album really helped them to gain a place within the hearts of those seeking out cult sounds.
KEELEY – Beautiful Mysterious
Keeley’s first full length album ‘Floating Above Everything Else’ was a game changer for the cult dream pop/shoegaze band. It showed how Keeley Moss and her assembled musicians could sustain a great sound far beyond their previous EP format, but also weave a compelling narrative. With a suite of songs largely devoted to the murder of traveller Inga Maria Hauser it blended great music with a thoughtful lyrical construct. It was clear from the beginning of their journey that Keeley were a cut above any similar bands, but, with its truly absorbing style, this album more than proved it. The recycling of the earlier ‘The Glitter & The Glue’ single certainly didn’t hurt either, since in terms of all round accessibility and catchiness, it’s one of Keeley’s strongest numbers.
THE FALL – Fall Sound Archive Vol. 9: The Infotainment Scan
By the beginning of the 1990s, The Fall were barely recognisable from the band who’d given the world ‘Live At The Witch Trials’ just over a decade earlier. Mark E. Smith’s fearless approach had steered the band down broader musical avenues, far beyond their punky roots, and the line up of The Fall that delivered the brilliant ‘Extricate’ album in 1990 were a hugely sophisticated musical unit. The flirtations with a Manchester influenced indie sound and a few dance oriented beats on tunes like ‘Telephone Thing’ from that album, and the synth based sounds on tunes like ‘The Mixer’ and ‘Sinister Waltz’ (from the following year’s ‘Shift-Work’) may have lost them a few fans, but regular coverage in the music press and a desire to stay contemporary won The Fall new admirers. By the time of the recording 1993’s ‘The Infotainment Scan’, The Fall’s “90s sound” had really found its feet.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #73
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This batch brings the usual eclectic quality. We’ve got a couple of returning faces, but a whole world of new stuff for you. This week’s singles bring together an acoustic work, a remixed slice of electronica, a brilliant debut single from a band who pepper their rocky edge with some great brass, and more besides. Grab a cuppa and dive in!
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Listen: SoftSun share new track ‘Daylight In The Dark’
Here’s a real treat from the Ripple Music label. SoftSun are a doom-laden shoegaze/desert rock trio featuring a few familiar faces. Guitarist Gary Arce will be familiar to some as a member of both Yawning Man and Yawning Balch; vocalist Pia Isaksen is a member of Superlynx, and drummer Dan Joeright is a member of Earth Moon Earth. Between them, they’ve created something that sounds almost nothing like their parent acts, immediately making SoftSun an effective side hustle.