MARMOZETS – The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets

marmozetsSigned to Roadrunner Records at the tail end of 2013 on the strength of two demo EPs and a couple of independently released singles, Yorkshire’s Marmozets are a powerhouse of alt-metal and mathrock.  Their full length debut ‘The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets’ is full of great choruses, which combined with some tight musicianship results in an album with pretty much no weak elements.  While the studio recordings do not always entirely capture the incendiary power of their live act, the album’s thirteen numbers have a real sense of urgency and – more importantly – songs that really force their way into the subconscious.

Continue reading

GAY ELVIS – Has Left The Building EP

gay elvisGay Elvis is the long-serving bassist with New Jersey based alt-rock/power pop band Readymade Breakup.  In between work with that band, he’s tinkered with extra-curricular recordings, the first fruits of which surfaced as a free download track ‘Morning Cigarette’ in 2012.  Since then, he’s embraced fatherhood.  Various songwriting sessions since then yielded the bones some thirty or so songs, but by the musician’s own admission, those songs tackled the same topics repeatedly – how it sucks to grow up, how growing up can turn you into a loser and ultimately how growing up is inevitable…and cool.  No matter how the tunes sounded, the sentiments were always pre-occupied with maturity.  In this sense, he had hoped that his solo release would “be [his] ‘Pet Sounds’ or ‘Abbey Road’”.  Things don’t always turn out as planned and after shelving lots of incomplete material for a later convenience, the result is this three song EP.  Judging by these songs, it’s a shame we didn’t get just a little bit more…

Continue reading

MEMORY IN PLANT – An Epic Triumph EP

epic triumph epRarely content to settle, the sounds on this debut EP from Tel Aviv based avant-garde collective Memory In Plant are almost as surreal as their choice of sleeve art.  Their music is spasmodic, electric and occasionally just wilfully difficult.  That’s not to say for those of a certain disposition it won’t have entertainment value – in between the jump cuts and experimentation, pieces of great music creep through the cracks – but ‘An Epic Triumph’ is not always the easiest listen.

Continue reading