With influences ranging from indie, alt-country and psychedelia, Boston rock band Tiberius (not to be confused with the Scottish metal band of the same name) have labelled their sound “Farm Emo”. The fusion of styles colours most of their debut album ‘Troubadour’ in such a way that their music feels inherently “90s”, yet at the same time, the record’s finest tracks feel so much grander than mere throwbacks to that plaid dominated era.
DINOSAUR JR – The Black Session: Live In Paris 1993
The early recordings by Dinosaur Jr are among the band’s most critically lauded, but a case could be made for 1993’s ‘Where You Been’ being the band’s finest and most consistent work. The first album to feature bassist Mike Johnson (replacing Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow, following his well publicised falling out with Dinosaur main man J Mascis), its material took on a slightly more commercial edge at times. The word “slightly” is more than apt here, however, since J’s vocal drawl would remain a stumbling block for those not entirely sold on the band’s sound, and a couple of noisier workouts ensured the heart of “older” Dinosaur was never far away. Nevertheless, the album connected with a broader audience than some of the band’s prior works, with ‘Start Choppin’ breaking into the UK top 20, and the album’s promotion including an appearance on the BBC arts programme The Late Show on February 23rd 1993, just two weeks after ‘Where You Been’ hit record shop shelves.
CHARLIE NIELAND – Stories From The Borderlines
In the summer of 2025, producer Charlie Nieland released ‘The Ocean Understands’, a four track EP that took him from the realms of the technical aspects of a behind the scenes role and into the performing spotlight. Mixing elements of dark pop, melodic rock, goth and shoegaze, the material took on a grand scope, and despite often sharing a moody edge, managed to remain very accessible. That’s more than can be said for this album’s opening number.
HOLLOWKIN – Decrepit Nature EP
As 2024 began to pull to a close, the Bath-based metal act HollowKin released their ‘Confessions & Failures’ EP, a pleasingly heavy affair that also managed to use its short playing time to effectively showcase the band’s desire to blend genres. The four songs used a base of metalcore, but introduced elements of thrash, doom, prog metal, groove metal and hardcore to form a complex sound that showed off a band who were not only tight, but insanely confident.
OUR SOULS – DIY Misery EP
Towards the end of 2023, Leicester’s Our Souls released ‘I Won’t Tell You The Same Lie’, a five track blast of indie punk that valued high octane sounds, and also demonstrated some sharp but pleasingly ragged playing. In approximately fifteen minutes, the DIY release showed why the band made perfect label-mates with the hugely prolific Das Kapitans and garage punk heroes Get The Fuck Outta Dodge.