BRACKISH – Rear View EP

Since their formation in 2015, emo punk band Brackish have always drawn from a nostalgic sound. On the self titled album from 2022, the pop punk influence of Get Up Kids can be found jostling alongside even more emo-centric elements, creating something that’s both punchy and melodic. Despite some of the vocals being a little more off-kilter than might be considered ideal, the record supplied thirty one minutes of top drawer riffs, throwing the listener into a musical landscape that showed how, sometimes, it’s better to take an established sound and recycle it well than try to create something completely new.

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FEDERALE – Reverb & Seduction

Coming four years after ‘No Justice’, the world was overdue a new Federale album at the time of this release, but ‘Reverb & Seduction’ isn’t “just another Federale disc”. In the words of main man Collin Hegna, the album is “the culmination of 20 years of sonic exploration” and an attempt to bring all of Federale’s eclectic moods and influences together in one package. The result is an eclectic treat, with elements of Spaghetti Western soundtracks, indie, rock, cosmic country and dark singer songwriter moods all jostling for the listener’s attention, and without any one of those styles becoming a particular, dominant force.

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Listen: Pet Twin shares new single ‘A Soulful Day’, featuring Cate DeBu

James Gallagher, aka Pet Twin, has shared a few interesting tracks over the past year. Never content with sticking to one genre, previous Pet Twin fare has explored jangling indie sounds, dense shoegaze and even dreampop.

The current single ‘A Soulful Day’ reintroduces the dreampop element of the Pet Twin sound, but a really trippy approach to the arrangement ensures that it sounds very different to anything that’s been heard before from the Pet Twin stable.

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MAMMOTH VOLUME – Raised Up By Witches

Swedish stoner rock band Mammoth Volume are an interesting prospect. Their work isn’t shy in sharing the kind of 70s guitar tones you’ll find on early Queens of The Stone Age recordings, or exploring the corners of retro sounds beloved by latter day Opeth, but there’s always more to their albums than fuzzy heaviness and Hammond drenched grooves. ‘Raised Up By Witches’, their fifth release, in many ways, finds their mix of blues, fuzzy stoner metal and jazz coming of age.

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