A self-released EP, Orchard Hill’s ‘Make It Out Alive’ comes with a surprisingly American sound for a quartet from Oxfordshire. With some tough pop-punk/emo chops and a first rate production job from Ben Humphries [Maximo Park] and John Mitchell [You Me At Six], this debut is incredibly professional. For the genre, you’d be hard pushed to find a better sounding release from bands with ten times the budget at their disposal.
Tag Archives: alternative
MIDNIGHT PLAYLIST – Built To Break EP
London’s Midnight Playlist are a four piece alternative pop-rock/pop-punk band, who bring a strong sense of good times and youthful spirit on their debut EP ‘Built To Break’. There’s a real energy present from the very beginning of the opening track: a door slams, voices chatter, an amplifier buzzes…and with that, the quartet burst into life. That opener ‘A Year In Hell’ mixes pop-punk guitar chords and an alternative rock spirit, like a DIY collision between early Sum 41 and Don Broco; it’s a performance on which drummer Atish really excels. Twin guitars chug and thrash in classic punk-pop style – even making room for a couple of lead flourishes – while lead vocalist Aaron cries each line with confidence, all the while happy to let his natural accent through, despite the attempts of a few vocal filters to make his voice sound more generic to the musical style. You’ll have heard this sort of thing a thousand times before, but there’s an energy and tightness here – even obvious despite the limited recording budget – that makes this tune very enjoyable all round.
THE CREEP VOID – The Elevation Of Idiocy EP
Hailing from England’s North East, The Creep Void are an independent rock band trading in some great post grunge and alternative sounds. While the core of their work owes a debt to the nineties, the quartet’s 2014 EP ‘The Elevation of Idiocy’ isn’t just a throwback to times of khaki colours and plaid shirts. There are certainly a few unavoidably grungy elements within these four tracks, but the song writing and tough sound places them firmly in the twenty first century – ever looking forward as well as drawing from their classic influences.
TAKE TURNS – Animal Fat EP
Musical fashions are cyclical. Like the 70s became very fashionable in the 1990s, the 1990s, in turn, have had a huge influence on some of the alternative rock sounds of the ’10s. Bands like Yuck can be found recycling the best elements of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr with sheer abandon, the Bandcamp site is full of similar revivalist acts, while The Pains of Being Pure at Heart found critical acclaim channelling a very definite nineties indie jangle within their sound. Take Turns, a Leeds based quartet are as guilty for shameless recycling, but like Yuck and Pains, their end sound is so full of love for those who’ve inspired them, it would take a hard heart not to enjoy their nostalgia trip. On this six song EP, they’re none to shy about flaunting an absolute obsession with Pavement…
Brand new video from The Trotskies
Bringing together dark indie sounds very much inspired by the 80s, Australian band The Trotskies have unveiled their debut video, ‘DYR’, which can be streamed in full below.
The track comes from their debut release, expected to be released in early 2015.