THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #105

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With two very different jazz numbers, a slice of alternative metal with a theatrical quality, a strong offering from a cult singer-songwriter and a track that’s practically uncategorisable, the selection for this Singles Bar adopts a little more of a “go hard or go home” approach. By casting a light on a couple of the more adventurous tracks from the last couple of weeks, this bunch of tunes might take a little longer to make an impression, but we feel that every one of these artists is bringing something of great interest to the table. What’s more, it’s probably just the beginning of a great, creative period for some of the featured performers, whether genuinely attempting to push boundaries or choosing to share some solidly familiar riffs. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!

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THE DRY RETCH – Straight Outta Cuba!

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It’s rather common for musical artists to lighten up as the years pass, but this is to be expected with age. It’s often impossible to cling onto the anger of youth. Just ask Paul Weller or James Dean Bradfield. Even Henry Rollins sounded like a pale imitation of himself on the Rollins Band’s disappointingly lightweight swansong ‘Nice’ in 2001. There are notable exceptions, of course: the first couple of OFF! albums showcase a punk “retirement age” Keith Morris with as much fire as he had in his Black Flag days, and Slayer’s ‘Repentless’ from 2015 attacks a huge amount of energy and absolute fury, resulting in their best work for a quarter of a century. It could even rank within their top five best albums ever.

Over twenty years on from the release of their ‘Columbus Was Wrong…’ album, The Dry Retch prove to be another exception to the idea that getting older means a retreat to a safe space. ‘Straight Outta Cuba!’, released in October 2024, captures the Liverpool-based noise-makers in a savage mood, and rightly so, considering the state of the entire world at the time of its recording.

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CHIMPAN A – Here Comes The Flood / Wolves

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Chimpan A’s ‘The Empathy Machine’ was an interesting album. Its songs took on the kind of lengths that would normally be associated with prog rock, but its sounds were far more pop oriented. The best tracks blended layers of synth with perfectly pitched melodic vocals, straddling the musical gulf between pop, AOR and electronica, almost in a way that pre-empted Alex Lifeson’s commercial sounds on the Envy of None debut, released just a few years later.

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WITCHCRAFT – IDAG

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Five years on from their lockdown release, ‘Black Metal’, which saw Witchcraft trading in their trademark stoner riffs for a bleak, stripped down occult folk sound, and almost a decade after the release of the brilliant ‘Nucleus’, the Swedes play things fairly safely on their 2025 long player ‘IDAG’. In this case, though, the feeling of safety has its own strength: founding member Magnus Pelande sounds more comfortable than ever working within a classic doomy metal format, and for the band’s fans, this return to a more “classic” Witchcraft sound will certainly present a welcome move, even if in some ways it feels like a step backwards.

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THE CHELSEA CURVE – Jamie C’mon (Andy Lewis Remix) / Hey Sah-Lo-Ney

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Across a series of digital singles in 2021, Boston’s The Chelsea Curve delivered a bunch of top notch tunes. At their best, the tracks sounded like unreleased gems by the likes of Pearl Harbor & The Explosions and Holly & The Italians put through a mod-ish filter, such was the band’s knack for hitting the listener with a world of classic riffs and big, very retro hooks.

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