Glenn Robinson’s 2013 full length ‘Modern Mistakes’ was a great release. Packed with punky riffs, hooky choruses and a touch of new-wave sassiness, its ten songs zipped past in an “all killer no filler” fashion, representing the very best the style has to offer. This three track EP – issued as a stop-gap release before his next long player – presents three previously unreleased tracks of a similarly high quality.
Tag Archives: alternative
THE RIZZOS – No Parents, No Rules! EP
A lo-fi alt-rock trio from Brooklyn, The Rizzos will already be familiar to some DIY music aficionados due to their inclusion on the second King Pizza Records sampler issued in November 2014. Their track ‘Do Anything I Want You To’ celebrated the sounds of early 60s girl groups with its post-doo wop sounds, taking Phil Spector’s dream and running it through several fuzz pedals en route, ending up sounding like a restrained Kat Bjelland playing The Crystals. In just under three minutes, The Rizzos proved they had some reasonable chops, paving the way for their then upcoming release.
HORA DOUSE – Crash EP
On their ‘Crash’ EP from 2014, Mancunian alternative rock trio Hora Douse convey a sound that’s as familiar as it is ambitious; strands of math-rock collide with a more classic nineties sensibility, leaving behind three tracks that cover a huge array of influences and moods within what feels like a tiny fragment of time. These guys aren’t out to make noise for noise’s sake – even though there’s a time and a place for that. The three songs are angry, but not always confrontational, within their music – for those willing to invest the time – there’s a real sense of heart.
ANDREW DANSO – Fly EP
In 2011, Devin Townsend released his fourth “project” album, ‘Ghost’. A record heard by millions, it combined ambient-ish qualities with a mellow style that showed off a very relaxed side of the man who once gave us skull-crushing metal as frontman with Strapping Young Lad. Around the same time that those millions were getting (rightly) excited about Devin’s ‘Ghost’, somewhere in Northern Ireland, guitarist Andrew Danso had not long finished work on ‘f i n d’, a collection of largely instrumental soundscapes which appeared to share more than a few traits with Townsend’s record, but approached atmospheric music with an even spacier slant. The album, unsurprisingly, slipped under the radar of most of the people who really should’ve heard it, as is the plight of many an independent musician.
ANATHEMA – Fine Days 1999-2004
In the twenty-first century, Anathema have often been mentioned in the same breath as Opeth and Porcupine Tree due to their increased movement towards thoughtful progressive rock structures. It hasn’t always been that way, of course. Like Opeth, the band began life as a totally different musical beast, playing in a melodic death metal style. Shifting line-ups naturally resulted in shifting sounds, and by the time the band signed with the legendary Music For Nations label for their fifth album ‘Judgement’ in 1999, they’d settled on a rather tough but accessible blend of gothy and alternative rock.