The stage name of New Zealand born singer-songwriter Hannah Curwood, Hannah In The Wars is a vehicle for soft, dark and occasionally bleak soundscapes – a mix of the piano balladry of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Last Town Chorus and a touch of Mazzy Star. This, her third release, is rarely anything shy of being a gloom-laden masterpiece.
Tag Archives: underground classic
THE NUTS – EP
Italy isn’t short of great punk rock bands. The Manges have gained a big cult following with their Ramones-obsessed schtick, enough to secure them a US released split with the legendary Queers; Killtime do almost as good a job at being Screeching Weasel than the Weasel themselves; then in addition to those who’ve broken through to the US, there’s a whole scene of hardcore bands… Hailing from Piacenza, The Nuts are another Italian band on which to keep a very close eye. The three piece band are yet another outfit that take four chords and an unhealthy obsession with Joey & Johnny, but like so many others borrowing from such a timeless source, the results are absolutely first rate. On their 2014 EP they capture four lightning bolts of punk guaranteed to please.
JET BLACK SEA – The Path Of Least Existence
Jet Black Sea is an experimental, extra-curricular musical outlet for a couple of cult figures associated with the prog rock scene. Nine Stones Close guitarist Adrian Jones and his band producer Michel Simons created the project in order to create music that stretches beyond the parent band’s more direct progressive rock and metal sounds. Stripped of all vocals and the most of the crunchy guitars heard on many a Nine Stones Close recording, there are still some meaty sounds present and a few rock influenced passages, but Jet Black Sea’s core sound is almost ambient in comparison. Not necessarily ambient in the true “Eno/Music For Airports” sense, but definitely more chilled out. Naturally, there’s still a great deal of prog at the heart of their music – given the pairing’s usual musical outlet, that is unsurprising – but it is prog rock in a much more minimal sense, although ‘The Path of Least Existence’s broad soundscapes rarely sound minimalist in their overall vision. An hour’s worth of instrumental sounds float by without ever resorting to self-indulgence and a stronger focus on keyboards brings a very cinematic feel to proceedings throughout.
THAT FUCKING TANK – A Document Of The Last Set
‘A Document of the Last Set’ marks ten years of underground noise for the Leeds-based duo That Fucking Tank. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, Andy Abbott (guitars) and James Islip (drums) hammer through the tunes which comprise their 2013 live set in an unrelenting manner – the results straddle the fine line between ugly, intense, genius and surprisingly tight. Those who own the studio records will no doubt know these tunes well and need no encouragement to buy this…but for everyone else, here’s a handy overview of a few highlights.
EVOLETAH – We Ache For The Moon
In the summer of 2012, Australian alt-rock quartet Evoletah released their third album ‘Sleepwalker’. While often showing the makings of a talented bunch of musicians, a lot of the material was indistinct; there were individual tunes to be cherry-picked for enjoyment, but overall, the release felt somewhat samey.