JOYKILL COLLECTIVE – Joykill Collective EP

12615578_953951684642475_443248086336923773_oJoykill Collective are a collective in the genuine sense. Formed in the attic of a shared house, the band are not a band at all, but a gathering fronted by a man named Leif, whose primary interests appear to be music and left-wing politics. With friends, he created music, grew his own food in a rooftop garden and shared political ideals. This debut EP collects the Collective’s earliest recordings, four songs of heavy-ish, guitar driven indie rockers that often have a sinister edge, conveying the dark political times in which they were written.

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NIC ARMSTRONG & THE THIEVES – Negative Slant EP

nic armstrongToe Rag studios will be familiar to many as the place where studio founder Liam Watson recorded The White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’ album. Rather less famously, he also used the studio to record ‘The Greatest White Liar’, the full length debut by Newcastle born singer-songwriter Nic Armstrong. From there, Armstrong scored support slots with Paul Weller and Oasis, while his career has also seen him share a stage with the legendary Pretenders and appear at the US’s favourite hipster-fest, Coachella. A long gap after that debut saw the Geordie songwriter relocate to Texas. From there, he released an EP, ‘Pocketless Shirt’, in 2013 and continued to play live. Despite these career highs chances are, though, you’ve still never heard Nic Armstrong and his band The Thieves. If relatively lo-fi sounds are your bag, it’s time you did, especially as his third release, 2015’s ‘Negative Slant’, really captures his lightning in a bottle sound.

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WILDHONEY – Your Face Sideways

wildhoneyThis third release from Wildhoney is very much a record of two halves. Side one finds the Baltimore shoegazers in a fairly poppy frame of mind on five joyous janglers that combine some greatly uplifting musical sounds with a few thoughtful lyrical concerns, while the flip-side is a flip-side in every sense. These two styles ensure that ‘Your Face Sideways’ defies convention by bravely trying to please most fans of dreampop and shoegaze movements in one hit – and actually succeeds. Those who want definite songs get some real belters, while those hoping to lose themselves in an other worldly haze are given ample opportunity as the record progresses.

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