Russia’s Always Sick are another band joining the onslaught of punkers either channelling classic Ramones or ‘39/Smooth’ era Green Day for their primary influences. Ranging from the almost piss-takingly good (Riverdales, Tough) to the flat out awful, there’s a world’s worth of acts channelling the same four chords to make their punky mark. So many, in fact, there are now too many to even count, so it’s unsurprising when many slip by unnoticed.
Armed with a love of Rocket From The Crypt and (the) Misfits, Peterborough punk ‘n’ rollers The Moonshiners are set to slap you in the jaw with a potent, riff-heavy sound on their untitled 2017 EP . Their self-financed release serves up half an album’s worth of raw and dirty noise and couples the best riffs with a few top-notch hooks, which results in an unmissable listen for fans of the style.
A near empty room, a cello, a banjo and some animal bones. This first impression of Maddie Rabin’s world isn’t the most friendly; it doesn’t conjure the thoughts of small town life that would so often come with an Americana themed release. Such images suggest a far away place where glances are cast furtively from the corners of suspicious eyes, wary of strangers, looking to discover long buried secrets. Despite this, it doesn’t push the curious away, but rather more challenges them to dig further; to seek out why such imagery has been seen as the best fit for this singer songwriter’s musical vignettes. In many ways, unusual though it may be, this unusual photograph is very well suited to Rabin’s often minimalist approach
Fiona Brown is a singer-songwriter songwriter whom – by her own admission – absorbs many influences into her work. On her 2016 EP ‘Demons’, there’s a little rock and pop, nods to things of a more soulful nature and more besides, but never in a way that makes the release sound like a directionless show reel of her talents. She prefers instead not to separate the influences too much. You could experience any one of them at any time and often within just one track. but perhaps best of all, though, her songs are cloaked in a shroud of darkness. Never a “woe is me” self pity, but a genuinely dark quality that informs the heart of her best tunes.
In 2016, Kent based psych/dreampop band Tokyo Tea Room made underground waves with their live shows and debut cassette. Drawing influence from lots of early 90s artists, their sound showed great promise, with vocalist Beth Plumb’s angelic vocal style in sharp contrast to the drone of the guitar lines. In a handful of tracks, the band set themselves up as one to watch – a rival to Ireland’s Elastic Sleep for dreampop/shoegaze goodness.
At the beginning of 2017, a new track began to circulate. This, too, very much cements TTR’s place as bright lights on an underground scene. You can hear ‘World’s Away’ in full via the Soundcloud link provided below. [Watch the video clip for ‘Sleep’ here.]