Rise of The Wood’s debut album – 2017’s ‘First Seed’ – shared some impressively fuzzy sounding riffs, capturing an overall sound that mixed stoner rock with a few good old rock ‘n’ roll thrills, but despite a huge amount of chutzpah, never really felt like essential listening. It was a record with some great ingredients and a great energy, but compared to similar fare from other bands, it lacked a little something in the songwriting department, and was sometimes blighted by a shouty vocal that didn’t always suit the music in hand. Taken on its own merits, though, it wasn’t without charm: ‘Hyperspeed’ played like a superb tribute to peak Corrosion of Conformity; ‘Faded Horizon’ captured the darkness of Alice In Chains tunes like ‘Nutshell’ very well, and ‘Hell Yeah’ fused stoner metal elements with a groove laden approach that showed how easily the band could handle a great riff. It was a flawed record, yes, but not without entertainment value.
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GEIGER VON MÜLLER – Alien Fig Yoghurt Incident / Origins #5 (Pelso Remix)
It takes all of a second to realise that, in terms of guitar instrumentals, Geiger Von Müller’s ‘Alien Fig Yoghurt Incident’ isn’t entirely of this world. It opens with a flurry of insanely high pitched harmonics, creating more of a mood than a melody. This immediately catches the ear, but makes the listener wonder where things are actually headed. A saner guitarist might flesh out such a technique with a couple of broad chords to make things palatable, but not this guy…
PETE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – Sea Of Eyes / The Lamplighters remix EP
Formed in 1997, the curiously named Pete International Airport is a musical project featuring the talents of Dandy Warhols man Peter Holmström (also of Sun Atoms, a band who released some excellent material in 2024), and Collin Hegna of Federale, a genre-hopping act who also offered one of 2024’s finest discs.
Under their Pete International Airport moniker, these musicians and other assorted friends have explored various sounds, usually veering towards influences from the 80s and 90s alternative scenes. In the last quarter of 2023, the band made a welcome comeback with their long player ‘It Felt Like The End of The World’ – the first wholly new PIA work since 2017 – which introduced new listeners to their indie/goth/rock sounds.
MUCK AND THE MIRES – Zoom Breakup EP
In the summer of 2023, Muck and The Mires released the ‘Cool Imposter’ single. With a blend of 50s kitsch, late 60s garage rock guitar and one of the most repetitious hooks ever, it quickly marked out a place as one of their strongest tracks to date. Their 2024 EP ‘Zoom Breakup’ doesn’t quite summon the same fire – although always enjoyable in their own way, it would’ve been a tall order for its six numbers to reach the same heights of shameless infectiousness – but the release is certainly a more than welcome addition to the veteran band’s catalogue.
IAN BLURTON’S FUTURE NOW – Crimes Of The City
Ian Blurton’s 2019 album ‘Signals Through The Flames’ presented nine tracks of well crafted melodic hard rock and metal. The performer’s old soul brought a classic sound to the fore, with tracks that took influence from Black Sabbath (‘The March of Mars’), Blue Oyster Cult (‘ICQ’), ‘The Cage’ era Tygers of Pan Tang, and most notably on album standout ‘Days Will Remain’, a hefty nod to the vintage sounds of Judas Priest from 1978.
‘Crimes of The City’, the second release under the band name Ian Blurton’s Future Now (following 2022’s ‘Second Skin’), owes a similar debt to various classic rock and metal influences, but if anything, is even more effective. Delivering ten riff filled numbers in a little over half an hour, it leaves nothing to chance and no room for obvious filler.