In November 2024, Ria Aursjoen released her solo debut, the excellent ‘Strand’ EP. Although the material shared some common links with the artist’s band Octavian Winters, the six songs explored a lighter sound in places. With Ria adding elements of folk and dreampop to her rocky sound, the EP very much captured an artist sounding a little more mature.
THE INCITERS – I Give You My Soul EP
With a blast of brass, a steady beat and a huge sounding soul riff, The Inciters arrive with all guns blazing on ‘I Give You My Soul’. The ten piece band grab the listeners’ attention immediately by sounding like the ultimate show band on the really hook-laden ‘Give Me’, and the arrangement’s great brass sounds extend way beyond making a first impression. An equally huge trombone and trumpet combo fills the instrumental breaks of this EP’s opening number, and underscored with a great bassline, there are moments where the ghosts of Lee Fields recordings come through, and the influence of the Daptone horns is more than evident. The Inciters put their own stamp on an old soul sound, of course, and Katrina Grube’s light influence from melodic jazz is also shared with great effect. Throughout these three minutes, she breathes a sound into a great lyric and an enormous hook. This is one of those numbers to which the phrase “kitchen sink production” very much applies, and if you’ve had any interest in The Inciters’ work prior to this, you’ll love this track.
FVZZ POPVLI – Melting Pop
When it comes to stoner influenced sounds, Italian band Fvzz Popvli aren’t afraid of mixing things up a little. On their third album (the prosaically titled ‘III’, released in March 2023), their distorted, Orange Goblin-esque blueprint came with a few very welcome twists. ‘Post Shit’ took a layer of stoner fuzz and placed it across a high octane number that celebrated the spirit of garage punk; the percussive ‘Monnoratzo’ shared some fairly typical stoner rock guitar sounds and a busy Geezer Butler inspired bassline, but injected the usual tropes with more of a Latin American groove, sounding like an uneasy blend of Fu Manchu and Santana, and – perhaps best of all – ‘The Last Place of Shame’ worked a massive chorus to its advantage, with a melody that sounded more like a Britpop throwback from Shed Seven than the expected Sabbath and Corrosion of Conformity influences usually found at the heart of the genre’s usual fare.
MAX RAEL – Brighter Future / The People Have Won (Persistence Is All)
A key member of industrial project History of Guns and also the experimental band Decommissioned Forests, Max Rael has been a strange enigma within the underground of the UK’s electronica and industrial scenes for a number of years. This solo debut finds him taking a few familiar past traits and twisting them into new shapes, creating something that preaches positivity but contrasts that with a cold, almost bleak backdrop for the world’s entertainment. It’s a contrast that really works.
Check out ‘Ash And Blood’, the new track from Perpetual Paradox
British tech metallers Perpetual Paradox have returned with a new single – and it’s an absolutely unrelenting number that pushes the band’s heavy crossover sound to its brutal limit.