Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. This time around, we bring you a genuinely sharp sounding piece of post hardcore from Brighton, a well arranged slab of stoner metal, the overdue return of a goth influenced act, a trio of very different singer songwriters…and more. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy.
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On their previous single ‘Cobweb’, Bristol based rock band Chasing Dolls managed to blend indie guitar lines with a post hardcore aggressiveness resulting in something that, although rather angular, served up an interesting arrangement. The track came with a very abrasive vocal that mightn’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it certainly marked out the band as one to keep an ear for in future.
On a pair of singles issued in 2024, Keep This Up shared a strong blend of melodic post-hardcore with more than a hint of emo. On ‘Blossom’, in particular, the way the band fused speed driven angst with vocals that sounded if they were either on the verge of tears or exploding under the weight of pent up fury owed as much to the mid 00’s as the present.
In a pre-lockdown age, Italian punks Teenage Bubblegums hit their audience with a sound that blended huge influences from the early Ramones catalogue with the musical prowess of a couple of 90s Fat Wreck bands. That approach really came of age when the band cranked out ten numbers in under fifteen minutes on their 2019 “long player” ‘In Limbo’. The record’s chunky riffs and dual male/female vocal created something tough yet melodic, sharing something that could be enjoyed by a broad spectrum of Europunk fans.
Five years on, the ‘Infamia’ EP presents a much more mature and rather different sounding band. Allowing themselves room to stretch out, the five featured tracks take almost as long to play through as twice as many songs from the Bubblegums’ past, but the band’s command of a riff is still great.
Affiliated with the independent Socks On Records, Rudimentary Paste are label mates with brilliant noise makers Das Kapitans, Get The Fuck Outta Dodge, Al Pacinos Sister, and Soviet Films. That fact alone will give some listeners a reasonable idea of what to expect from the band’s ‘Six Examples of The Wilhelm Scream’ EP before even going in. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but even though this band actually features a couple of faces associated with other Socks On acts, the Paste sound isn’t just a carbon copy of their peers.