A joint release between Big Tea and FIFA Records, this debut EP by Irish band Elastic Sleep is a like a vapourous retro-fuelled dream. With layers of fuzz dragging their core sound through a technicolour haze, ‘Leave You’ is first class hybrid of dreampop and shoegaze.
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ALL PEOPLE Communicate EP
Released via Asian Man Records in conjunction with Community Records (sometime home of Best of the Worst), this eight track disc from Louisina’s All People is a release which never settles. While there are plenty of guitar driven moments and a punky energy within the material, ‘Communicate’ is a release recommended more for those listeners who enjoy a dose of reggae with their attitude. Although Dub War and The Clash would be the most obvious bands to namedrop, this four piece band have much more to offer than just recycled inspiration and although it would be easy (and lazy) to label them as just another ska/punk band, ‘Communicate’ features arrangements that have so much more to offer than your average skacore merchants.
VACATION Transmissions EP
For their fourth EP, US lo-fi/anti-folk duo Vacation take on some familiar – and not-so-familiar – tunes by other artists. As Tori Amos proved time and again, you can take the most rocking numbers and reduce them to a minimalist piano ballad with reasonable ease, almost to the point where the once unimaginable becomes predictable. In some ways, Vacation play by a similar rule in that their chosen material gets stripped down and re-imagined in an echoing lo-fi acoustic fashion, but whereas Ms. Amos, Emm Gryner and countless other artists always ensure there was accessibility even within their most bizarre reimaginings, these guys just want to strip things back to their most stark. This results in at least one tune that’s anything but predictable.
FUNKYJENN – Rock ‘N’ Roll Voodoo Queen
You know what they say – if you don’t want your music to date, make music with an old heart. It’s a game plan that’s stood The Black Crowes in good stead for many a fine record; nor does it hurt so many blues-rock bands out there whose work draws its main thrust from The Stones and The Faces, circa 1971. For blues and bar-room rock, that seems to be the point where everything stops…and miraculously rarely sounds dated and oft retains a vigour that sits at the heart of so much great good-time r ‘n’ r. Jenn’s sound is made of such classic stuff: each of its elements instantly familiar, warming and welcoming – and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Voodoo Queen’ all the better for it.
BUTCHERS OF SKY VALLEY – Butchers Of Sky Valley
In a case of artwork capturing the spirit of an album, The Butchers of Sky Valley’s debut release hits its target square on. Nothing says seventies fuzz better than a monochrome photo of a woman looking like she’s posing for an Atomic Bitchwax release. However, if you’re approaching this album expecting a straight-up rehash of Bitchwax, Kyuss or Brandt Bjork sounds, you’re likely to be disappointed at first. Yes, there are tracks that blatantly wear their Kyuss-love on their sleeves for all to hear – more of which later – but at first, this New York band’s sound brings more of a fuzzy late 60s trip than a 70s doom-laden meander.