Risen from the ashes of Beat Magnets – a band who played at festivals and scored support slots with The Wombats – comes Bigg, a loud, guitar driven creation from Reading. Aside from influence from various UK indie bands, their debut EP brings a surprising amount of crunch and sometimes a heaviness that might just find them wandering into the worlds of other listeners previously not reached by Beat Magnets. Their music, although often accessible, sometimes has the same kind of hard and sulking attitude that’s present in their publicity photos for the release, where at least one member has decided on a facial expression that suggests someone has popped his favourite balloon.
Tag Archives: rock
STRANGE MAJIK – Raised On Rock ‘n’ Roll
In an unexpected move on his 2015 release ‘Lights On’, Strange Majik – aka David Pattillo – cast aside the raw blues of his band The Dead Exs for a deep voyage into funk and soul textures. The results were the very definition of “mixed bag”; while the music was often great, the variety of vocalists – and, rather more specifically, the inclusion of rap elements – meant some tracks worked far better than others, and it didn’t always connect with his existing fans. Taking a musical sidestep on 2016’s ‘Raised On Rock ‘N’ Roll’, it seems Pattillo has taken a long hard look at his musical past and crafted a record from the best of his findings. In many ways, it is the missing link between The Dead Exs and the first Strange Majik project. The funky edge and some soul aspects from ‘Lights On’ are firmly present, but the rap is cast aside. The end results firmly grasp the Santana-ish and Funkadelic grooves from that LP, but fuse them with a little blues and rock along the way…and with Pattillo handling all vocal duties, everything sounds like the funked up cousin of The Dead Exs, with some hard grooves delivered by a crack selection of back-up musicians.
PARADIGM – Realize EP
When a band has the balls to plug themselves as having “Muse’s raw power and the cinematic sense of 30 Seconds To Mars, fenced with Pink Floyd’s artistic approach” you’ve kind of got to love their fearlessness, but you know there’s a good chance you know they’ll never live up to their own hype. Press releases are often grand, but when such broad claims are made about a debut four track release, there’s every chance they’re just setting themselves up for a fall…and from a great height at that. London’s Paradigm are armed with a big sound – helped no end by producers Paul Corkett and John Cornfield (studio hands on works by Bjork, Muse, Robert Plant and The Cure, among others) – but aside from a few fleeting similarities to Muse in the guitar department, there’s little else that connects to those comparisons. Luckily, it’s Muse’s guitar crunch that inspires them and not Matt Bellamy’s godawful vocals…
Colt 45: New video & tour dates
It’s a busy time for Cumbrian punks Colt 45. Not only do they have a new EP out soon, but they’ve also announced a string of European headline dates. The new video and details of the live dates can be seen below.
The band’s EP ‘Snakes & Ladders’ is out on April 29th 2016 via Visible Noise Records.
New video from Calling Apollo
Up and coming rock band Calling Apollo will release their brand new EP ‘The Great Depression: Act 1’ on March 18th.
Before the EP’s arrival, they have a video to share with you all for lead track ‘Clone City’, which can be viewed in full below.