Ell (a.k.a. Loretta Taika) is a singer/songwriter from the small nation of the Solomon Islands. She has a deep passion for music and finds her creative spirit by being at one with nature and takes pride in her rich cultural background. All of that is evident in her new single “Energy”, a delicious electronic reggae cut that oozes energy, fun, and dance vibes. Put this on and try to sit still while it is playing, I guarantee you won’t succeed, you will have to move! It is lively and well-produced, and Ell’s voice is stunning on this awesome earworm of a tune. The lyrics are a fusion of English and her native Renbel Dialect. She displays the angelic delicacy of Johnny Nash’s voice, particularly how he used it when he interpreted a Bob Marley tune. Check it out!
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ELL!S a.k.a. Ellis Watson, is a singer-songwriter from the Cotswolds in England. There are some beautiful places there, and now there is some beautiful music emanating from those parts thanks to ELL!S. There have been musical connections with the region in the past. Elgar and Holst spent time there, and the Who’s bass player John Entwistle is buried there. Unsurprisingly The Who’s Keith Moon once owned a pub in the area. But there hasn’t been much music of note this century so far. ELL!S says that he began writing songs when he was 9 or 10 and has several musical influences which include Roddy Frame, the Trashcan Sinatras, The Sundays, Elliot Smith, and Suzanne Vega. I can hear some of those providing a small influence in his new track “Best Year Of My Life” released at the tail end of last year. It floats along in a soft, ethereal folk rock march and soaks into your brain like some of the finest acoustic tunes do. He seems to have great pop sensibility, and listening to this song it really feels like he is singing about the best year of his life. But if he keeps producing songs like this I suspect there may be even better years ahead! Incidentally, I discovered ELL!S while searching for something else on Spotify, what a lucky find that was!
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The multi-talented Cjhloe Munt who has appeared on these pages before as her solo alter ego Pick The Flowers and as frontwoman of My Wonderful Daze and Please Remain Calm is back as vocalist for Patience. The single, “Whatever It Takes” is out now. Her soaring vocal reaches new heights atop a fabulous driving piece of music, the drums are immense and the harmonies are heavenly. This is fully charged emotional pop rock with some proggy overtones and awesome metal flurries and I love it! Possibly Chloe’s best recorded vocal performance so far, and there have been some brilliant ones! Patience was formerly a band called Japanese Racoon Dog. The name change coincides with Chloe joining them. I saw them as Japanese Racoon Dog at the Fulford Arms Battle Of The Bands some while ago. They didn’t have a vocalist with them that night and they were very good, but with the recruitment of a powerful new vocalist, they sound amazing. The band also has a new bassist, Austin Bowers. If they can sound this good live, and I can see no reason why they can’t, their live show will be stunning!
Short notice, but you can catch them in Leeds tonight 🙂
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Oli Barton has just released his debut solo single, “It’s Over Now” and it is a raucous, rockin’ romper stomper of a tune. This will be the song to take the Indie Disco night to another level. Everything is absolutely bang on; music, Oli’s vocals, the song, the overall performance. It is an earworm that is more addictive than hard drugs. It is everything a great pop single should be, 3 minutes of absolute music heaven! The track was produced by Alex O’Donovan (Sea Girls) and mixed by Cenzo Townshend (Inhaler). If it gets the airplay it deserves this should make a great showing in the charts, hopefully not just in the UK. Oli says of the track, “It’s in the whole world of teenage heartbreak and social media. The way that jealousy gets inside us and really makes us into a whole different person and perhaps distorts the decisions we make.” Whilst I am glad I am not a teenager in this age, I am really pleased that teenagers can still enjoy some fabulous new music, like this one from Oli! I hear that Oli’s live show is bloody good and I am looking forward to seeing him sometime soon. He has supported Kid Kapichi, Baxter Dury, and Starsailor. Bring on that headline tour and some festival appearances too!
Photo by Alice Denny
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We reviewed “Back In Time“, an earlier song from Georgia Reed last month and now her new tune, “Honey” is with us. This a gorgeous slab of haunting electro-pop that talks of the scepticism Georgia faced when relocating to the UK from her native Australia. It has an underlying dark and gothic vibe, but like with “Back In Time” the music holds some hopeful and positive tones. Ultimately it is about having faith and confidence in what you do and not letting those who doubt you get in your way. At times I can detect the softer side of Steve Strange’s Visage and the darker side of Erasure. Georgia has a distinct vocal style that is hard to compare with anyone else and that is why her songs have such emotion and atmosphere. This is the third single released that is building towards an EP due out on 13th March. I am looking forward to the EP and with every song I have become a bigger fan of Georgia Reed!
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Bullets and Octane are possibly one of the finest heavy rock bands to evolve out of South California…ever! (OK fact fans, they actually originated from St. Louis, Missouri, but they are based in SoCal!) They have toured with an ‘A’ List of great bands including Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Sour, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Eagles of Death Metal, Flogging Molly, Unwritten Law, Korn, Flyleaf, and the Deftones. Their new single is called “Space Lord Symphony” and it is bluesy, sweaty, grungey garage rock that is full of anthemic vocal hooks made in pop-rock heaven and guitar riffs forged in the fires of hell. I can sense some Hawkwind and Black Crowes in the sound of the song too. The energy emanating from “Space Lord Symphony” is almost palpable. Lead singer and main songwriter Gene Louis has been the ever-present driving force of the band since its early coming together more than 20 years ago. He says of his work “I believe that if you have a passion you die for it no matter what, if your stomach hurts because you’re hungry that means that you’re putting all your time, energy, and money into your passion”. His and the band’s 100% passion is very evident in the new single, “Space Lord Symphony” which deserves to be a huge hit! The video for the track, directed by Christine Fullwood, is pretty special. It takes the viewer into the weird, wonderful, warped, and wacky world of Bullets and Octane. Check it out below.
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Eyesore & The Jinx are very new to me and I came across them thanks to their rather splendid new single “Float Like a Jellyfish (Sting Like a Subtweet)”. What is it all about? I have no fucking idea, but it is a stunningly good track. If the B-52s, Yoko Ono, Devo, and the Moldy Peaches were absorbed into magical plasticine and molded into a band it might very well result in Eyesore & The Jinx. The single has a fuzzy feel and a weird hypnotic beat all overlayed with one of the catchiest and wackiest choruses in a long while. It is taken from their album, ‘Jitterbug,’ which is due out on 15th March.
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Mieko Shimizu‘s new single is a gorgeous slice of ambient, electro, and orchestral music which might have come from a Bjork side project. It is a haunting track that sits with you long after it has finished and after that first hit of “My Tentacles,” you will be craving another high from it. It has already garnered airplay on BBC 6 Music and is the first release from her next album, which will be called ‘My Tentacles.’ Mieko is a Japanese singer-songwriter, producer, and composer based in London. Before this, she had huge success as alter ego Apache 61 and she has remixed Coldcut and the Yellow Magic Orchestra to name just a couple. She has also collaborated with Mick Karn (Japan), David Cunningham (The Flying Lizards), Nitin Sawhney, and Robert Lippok (To Rococo Rot). Mieko has played at Sonar, alongside Kraftwerk, and has supported Goldfrapp and Massive Attack at their Melt Down Festival. She is currently the artist in residence for Wonky Plonky Electronk, an experimental, electronic live event that is touring the UK throughout 2024, the next show being on 28th March at The Cinema Room at All Is Joy in London.
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I am regularly wary of bands that have been heavily hyped as often they cannot match that hype in recording and performance. On that basis, I did not expect to like the debut album from The Last Dinner Party. Actually, that stands true, I don’t like ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’, I bloody love it. The album flows together like not many albums before. I also feel, particularly in this modern age of streaming, that there is not a single track here that I would want to skip. It seems the album format is not quite dead yet, The Last Dinner party has given it a great boost! Although I can sense several possible influences, this is a very original band. Notably, I can hear small references to Queen, 10cc, Supertramp, Kate Bush, Abba, and Sparks to name just a few.
The band formed in London back in 2021 and consists of Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, and Aurora Nishevci. I love the huge ambition and low arrogance that means the band has included a gorgeously orchestrated overture to open the album. It introduces a cinematic scope to the whole record and makes you want to listen to the whole thing, and I have, quite a few times so far. All five of the band’s singles to date are included and the familiarity with some of those tracks does not demean in the slightest the overall quality. The immaculate “Nothing Matters” and striking “Caesar On A TV Screen” are the best of the bunch in my opinion. I also feel that “My Lady Of Mercy” rocks like an absolute hellhound and might fit onto the kind of concept album that the Who used to be so good at. “Burn Alive” has a wonderfully dark vibe and strikes me as something Florence Welch might write if she was coming out of a fight with the black dog of depression. The instrumentation on “The Feminine Urge” evokes some of the best early sixties girl group hits. Although I can’t imagine any of those groups getting away with some of the stunningly powerful lyrics like “I am a dark red liver stretched out on the rocks. All the poison, I convert it and I turn it to love. Here comes the feminine urge, I know it so well“. That said the Crystals, who once recorded “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)”, might have got away with it.
“Beautiful Boy” is Baroque Pop at its finest and a full-on emotionally charged ballad that once again is evocative of Florence And The Machine. The shortest track on the album is “Gjuha” which according to Aurora translates from Albanian into Tongue. She has previously said that it describes her shame at not knowing the language of her mother country very well. It provides a wonderfully mystical interlude in the intensity of the flow of the record. “Portrait Of A Dead Girl” nods to a dreamlike duet between Lana del Ray and Kate Bush. Is it possible to get any deeper and darker than the album closer “Mirror”? I doubt it, it is a song with the ability to give you chills and closes this delightful set of songs perfectly with an orchestral finale to go full circle back to the overture.
So yes I am now a huge fan of The Last Dinner Party and ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’. But there is an elephant in the room isn’t there? All the talk about whether or not they are an “industry plant”. If you thought the hype around them was huge then I reckon the conspiracies around them being an industry plant are even bigger. The band has previously said that they believed that these accusations resulted from misogyny in the music industry. Following the struggles that Rebecca Ferguson, Delilah Bon (a.k.a. Lauren Tate) and others have had I suspect that this is true. In a recent NME interview the band said “If you don’t like our music, or our vibes, that’s okay! But it’s not fine to accuse us of not writing these songs or existing as a band in our own right. None of us have famous or industry parents either, shock horror!” Do I think they are an industry plant? Of course not, I doubt there is anyone in the industry with the intellect or nous to be able to create an industry plant. On top of that it would soon become obvious given the amount of people that would need to be in on it. In my view, people should dump the conspiracy theory shite and just follow what will, I am sure, become a truly gifted and great band. This is a contender for album of the year.
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This was another Northern Radar show and as I have said before, Simon P, Head Honcho of that splendid promotions company has never let me down with a dud band…..yet! Did that change at this gig? read on to find out. First up it was King Thieves with some anthemic rock with a sprinkling of blues. This was coupled with soaring and soulful vocal contributions from the guitarist and drummer. The rumbling bass lines were sometimes evocative of New Order’s Peter Hook. They played a new song, “Lucifer” which was fantastic and made me think of early-period Manic Street Preachers. A great band that is new to me.
Next was the Hangnails, a band I had seen in a previous incarnation, as a two-piece in 2014. They were called And The Hangnails back then. They have developed so much and moved forward tremendously since then, they are now playing as a three-piece. Was that Mr. Blackwell on bass and keys? The Hangnails’ new material is spectacularly good and in describing their performance I will need to use the word anthemic once again. The vocals hint at Bono, Ian McCulloch, and Tim Booth. Their songs ooze emotion and are filled with hooks to die for. A phenomenally good band!
Finally, it was time for the headliners, King Nun, who apparently have been around for eleven years. How the fuck is that possible? Were they formed in primary school? This was their first gig in York and I hope it won’t be their last. I spoke to four people in the audience tonight who had come to see them here off the back of the support slots they did for Nothing But Thieves. Their sound has some Nirvana and Pixies influences with some classic punk sound, attitude, and poses thrown into the mix. Their multiple guitar assault fired riff, after riff, after riff into the happily shellshocked crowd. They packed the power of a Panzer Division in World War Two. If they turned their power up even half a notch they might have laid waste to the venue. I am pleased to say that didn’t happen. The band’s excursions into the crowd ignited the already excited punters. They cheekily threatened jazz, but thankfully they didn’t deliver on that. But one of the guitarists was so committed to the cause he gave his blood up in the final song! After tonight I am now a huge fan of King Nun! Oh and just to confirm, Simon from Northern Radar still hasn’t let me down! It was also great to catch up with so many people that I know at this fab venue (Simon, Joe, Chris, Billie, Tim, Amelia, and many more!)
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