Berlin has long been a hotbed for great music and duo Evvol, who recently released their album, ‘The Power’ can be counted as another addition to that trend. Opening track “Help Myself” immediately draws you in with its delicately phased keyboards and saccharine vocals. One of the key components of this album is an intriguing use of rhythm and “Its Ok” demonstrates this ably. “Rope Walk” is a fascinating soundscape leading into the excellent “Old Love” which has a beautiful vocal with a spoken background. “Call Me Back” has a fantastic keyboard sound with vocals slightly reminiscent of Everything But the Girl. The messed up rhythms are also present on this track.
“All I Need” which features just vocals and keyboard reminds me of Laurie Anderson’s work. “W.A.R.” features a lovely keyboard figure and echoing vocals over a neatly worked polyrhythmic background. This is the strongest track on the album and a good club track just crying out for a lengthy remix. “1994” is a short but fascinating track with experimental keyboards and superb vocals. “M29” is another shorter track which I was eager to hear develop further. “Video Tape” has a Pet Shop Boys feel and tonality and is a potential single. “The Well” has an unexpected synth opening which figures throughout the song, building, and fading. “Swallow” closes the album with quirky synth and vocals. Evvol have a plethora of ideas which can take them as far as they want to go and you should look out for what they do next. Trust me it will be interesting.
Written by Paul Bamlett.
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It’s a fact that lots of great music has come out of the Midlands over the years. Black Sabbath, UB40, and Slade to name but three. Now you can add another name to this illustrious list, Coast to Coast! Formed in 2016 they specialise in heartfelt and honest anthems which really make the grade. What’s particularly striking to me is the way vocalist Keiran Hyland does not bow to popular taste by Americanising his accent. This is very refreshing. The band also features Alex Edge on guitar, Josh Taylor on Rhythm guitar and Zak Tyler on bass. They mesh well to produce a great sound.
Standout tracks include “The Sun Is Dim” which has a great melodic opening and builds to a fantastic vocal performance. This is an alternative version of a previously recorded track and for me, this newer version has more depth. “Sovereign” has some impressive vocal sounds. “Be Kind” opens gently and again features a lovely vocal. “Cold Buzz” is melodic and mesmerising, a good description of much of this record. Coast to Coast are described in their press as an “emo rock band”. I can see that this could describe them but you need to know that they are so much more than that. I look forward to hearing much more from this innovative group of musicians.
Written by Paul Bamlett
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The Suncharms are not new to With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, we have previously reviewed two of their excellent tracks “Red Dust” (2018) and “Monster Club” (2019). They have a new track out now called “3 Billion Heartbeats” available on a great compilation, ‘Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Compilation’ from Shiny Happy Records. Click here to check the compilation out and if you can afford it maybe purchase the whole thing or some of the tracks at least. As well as the Suncharms there are some brilliant other acts and songs here. My particular favourites are the quirky cover of Nick Lowe’s “Cruel To Be Kind” by Fernando Torres (the band not the former Liverpool striker), “Rockin’ To The Beat” by the Perfect English Weather (this on has a St Etienne feel about it) and Well Whales’ “She’s A Punk” among many, many other fine tunes, nineteen in all.
Suncharms contribution is a classy chilled, languid, laconic tune with a great summer feel about it. This band is often referred to as shoegaze in style, but they operate far more widely than that one genre would allow. I believe the lyrics refer to the average number of heartbeats that a human heart will make in an 80-year lifespan. If I live that long then I will have just under 700 million left. Every time I hear a new Suncharms track I feel happy and I also feel that they get better with each release. I am looking forward even more now to their album and to finally get to see them play live once we are through these strange COVID-19 days.
The Suncharms also feature on a split tape (yes cassettes are back) release with Mirrorlakes, also from Shiny Happy Records. Click here to check it out. Each band has three tracks. The first from Suncharms is the aforementioned “Monster Club”, click here to read my review of that one from last year. They also contribute the dreamy, trippy “Cosmonaut” which features guitar lines that Johnny Marr would be proud of. Their third and final track on the tape is an acoustic version of “Reflection” which really showcases just how good the band’s songs are even when stripped back to acoustic guitars and vocals. Mirrorlakes from Jakarta, Indonesia are described as a slowcore band and I certainly get a feel of Galaxie 500 and the RedHouse Painters in their first track on this collection “Three Song”. Meanwhile “Kosong” has a much more acoustic, unplugged feel to it and is the kind of tune that I can imagine listening to while lounging in the sun sipping a cold beer. Mirrorlakes final track “Untitle” makes me think of some of Graham Coxon’s less punky tracks.
So check out the ‘Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Compilation’ and the Suncharms/ Mirrorlakes Split Tape, both are also available digitally. You will not be disappointed!
Weird, wacky, wayward, waggish, witty, wonky, whimsical, wonderfully eclectic, stylistic nut jobs Tommyrot have released a new single hot on the heels of “Drugs” their debut from last month. It is called “The Happy Ending Song” and it is a wicked out there lo-fi tune that brings back memories of Jonathan Richman and also the Moldy Peaches. It is the perfect song to listen to while sitting around a campfire drinking a cold beer and smoking good weed. I think the lyrics are about how you should make your own happy endings in life, as opposed to the type of happy endings offered by some backstreet massage parlours. It is remarkably different from the band’s first release and this has to bode well for their album when they eventually get around to it!
Click here to hear “The Happy Ending Song” on Spotify.
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It was announced earlier today that one of the founder members of the Sweet, Steve Priest, had died aged just 72. That means only Andy Scott remains from the original classic line up. For many people around my age, the Sweet were part of our teenage years. There were times when I tried not to like them, especially when as a Bowie fan I felt that “Blockbuster” ripped off the guitar riff from Bowie’s “Jean Genie” and also kept it from number one in the UK charts. But to be fair the riff is most likely taken from the Yardbirds’ “I’m A Man” which is a cover of the Bo Diddley original from the 1950s, which in turn borrowed heavily from Howlin’ Wolf’s 1954 release “Hoochie Coochie Man”. Anyway, once I grew past my tribal loyalty to Bowie and perceived distaste for the Sweet I learned that in spite of their earlier pop successes the Sweet were real hard rockers at heart. Their album ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’ and many of their b-sides are a testament to this. The band’s first self-written hit was “Fox On The Run” in 1975.
While I don’t really like their out and out pop stuff that much it is hard to deny that the Nicky Chin and Mike Chapman are supreme earworm pop classics. However, the rest of Europe really adopted the Sweet as a full-on rock band, especially Germany. I love their later singles and also the ‘Desolation Boulevard’ album, which still sounds good today. I saw them live in the late 70s and they were pretty damned good. RIP Steve Priest, you will be sadly missed by pop, glam, rock fans around the world. Thank you for the music that you left us!
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Into the sixth month of 2020 and here is our sixth singles round-up of the year so far and this one features six tunes, wait a minute that says 666 right? Quite appropriate for this year maybe. So to take your mind of this utterly shit year take a listen to these corkers, I love them and I think you will too.
These six tracks feature another eclectic mix of bands and singers from London, York, Essex, Wakefield, and Spennymoor. All of these acts are new to With Just A Hint Of Mayhem and I reckon they will all feature again sometime in the future. Get on them now!
“Playing For Keeps” is the first track to be released from South London’s multi-instrumentalist Jamws EP ‘Toronto’. It is a languid, leisurely funk work out which makes me think of George Michael fronting a 70s US funk band. It has a positively blissful vibe and if the quality of the EP is as good as this track, then I strongly advise you to get hold of it when it hits the world on 19th June! If you are feeling down the “Playing For Keeps” is the perfect tonic to pick you up.
Alice is a young singer-songwriter from my adopted city of York. “State Of Mind” is her new single and it has an ethereal, haunting melody that hooks into your psyche so easily. It has a really dark feel to it, almost Nick Caveesque, although Alice’s vocal has the feel of an angel struggling with the dark side of its conscience. At times I heard a trace of Tracy Thorn in Alice’s voice. This woman has a latent talent and I urge you to check her out. I am looking forward to more Alice Simmons tunes.
Ocean Flaws from Essex have a great name, I love that ambiguous wordplay element to it. But they are more than just a name they are adept at producing perfect slices of electronica driven dance-pop which harks back to the best tunes involving Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure) but with vocals and dance vibes reminiscent of the Beloved. The Oscillate remix of this track would work incredibly well at the tail end of an all-night rave in a disused warehouse. If you are a fan of Apollo Junction then Ocean Flaws might be right up your street!
A fine riff-laden slab of indie rock from these lads from Wakefield. The song has a feel of early Arctic Monkeys but with a dirtier, more grungey garage rock feel to it. I can imagine this song becoming a live anthem for them, roll on the day when we are allowed to have gigs again. Ascendo are now most definitely on my list of bands to see post-COVID-19.
This is a rampaging riff-fest scuzzy, heavy, blues sound. Kelly Chard’s voice oozes with passionate power as she takes us through a treatise on living with depression. This is one majestical monolith of fucked up and fuzzed-out rock. Noise Noir deliver the goods better than many contemporaries. Coming off the back of last years “I Don’t Need You” this new song just proves that Noise Noir mean it…..Man!
Conrad is a singer-songwriter from Spennymoor in the northeast of England. “Time” runs at a frantic pace powered by a what sounds like a great band but is actually multi-instrumentalist Conrad playing everything! Conrad’s vocals emanate power mixed with an undercurrent of fragility and emotion. For me, there is a seventies vibe to this tune and Conrad’s voice has tonal qualities similar to Chris Norman of Smokie and perhaps a slightly softer take on Noddy Holder too. It is well worth checking out his 2015 album ‘One For The Road’ too. I hope the next one is every bit as good and if “Time” is a good taster it will be.
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Violent Soho are an Australian band who come at you with attitude and panache. Their new album ‘Everything is A-Ok’ drips with grungy slacker snarl and bite
“Shelf Life” gives off the feel of Nirvana and QOTSA. “Sleep Year” has a great atonal build up and introduces those snotty, bratty vocals that are a key and captivating feature of this record. Plus it has a great riff. “Pick It Up Again” starts with some strong guitar and builds up to be one of the strongest songs here. It’s great to hear this kind of attitude.
“Canada” has a more panoramic feel soundwise and is a touch more melodic than other tracks. There’s a definite nod to the Foos here. That’s not a bad thing at all.
“Lying On The Floor” has a lovely ascending riff which makes this song another contender for the song of the album. I imagine that Violent Soho are an amazing live band and on the strength of these excellent songs I for one will be in line to see them in action when they can hit the UK. This record is packed full of skip fulls of attitude and also makes a great sound to jump around to so push back the furniture and get some Violent Soho blasting through your speakers
Lexytron recently released her first album, ‘Something Blue’, it is eclectic, exciting, electrifying, emotional and exceptional! Manchester-born Lexy describes herself as “Half Greek, half Persian, and half English”, she now lives in New Zealand. The album was recorded in London with Mike Grice of Manchester’s City Reign and mixed and mastered by London-based producer Marco Meloni. It encapsulates everything that a perfect blend of pop and rock should. There are riffs aplenty, earworm hooks and melodies, and superb vocals from Lexy who seems to be able to sing in an incredible range of styles. It is an album that straddles many styles and is proud of its quirkiness, moving from dreamy chill to hard riffing. This is most definitely a genre-defying album which is all the better for that defiance!
The swathe of synth that opens the album on “Blackmail” quickly moves forward with a dubby bass worthy of Jah Wobble before settling into a harmonic post-punk masterpiece. Like the GoGos on mind-altering substances. Lexy’s vocals are upbeat while at the same time suggesting real darkness as expressed in the lyrics. Perhaps the poppiest song on this record is the quirky but magnificent “I’m Not A Disco”, a song that in a parallel universe would win the Eurovision Song Contest with maximum points, even if it was the UK entry. This track deserves to be a chart mega-hit and is the kind of song that you could not remain seated for in a club. The chorus is something that I reckon Sparks would be proud of. The current single “Blue” has a great melody and Lexy’s voice sounds raw, frail, and passionate, a little like Patti Smith in her more reflective moments. It fits perfectly with a luscious love song that is all about love and loss. It is accompanied by a simple and very effective video shot at New Zealand’s Lake Pukaki and featuring just a head and shoulders take of Lexy doing the vocals. She scores highly for the David Bowie T-shirt she wears in the film too (the girl has great taste), I have the same Bowie shirt! “Couples” draws on some of the best of 70s and 80s soul, funk, and disco songs, especially the bass line and syncopated clapping and the vocals are reminiscent of Sophie Ellis Bextor.
Lexy gets very punky on “Intermittent” like early Blondie and the Bangles at their best. If this had of been released in the late 70s it would have been all over the radio. If the Strokes lost a bit of the misery and adopted a female vocalist they might sound a little like this. There is a much more acoustic feel to “21.5” and Lexy’s voice oozes emotion, it feels like a barbed takedown of someone. A former lover maybe? The piano is the only instrument, other than vocals, on “The Veil Of Veronica” which is the closest to a proper ballad on this collection. It sounds like something that a young Kate Bush might have put together, particularly the vampish backing vocals. “In The Box” takes us back to a post-punk power pop style like Siouxsie Sioux singing a lost Marc Bolan lyric with its references to wizards, joker, beauty, and the beast. A dance remix of “Brand New” would be something special. Lyrics are bordering on psychedelic at times and there is happiness oozing from Lexy’s singing here. The penultimate track on the album is “Tell The Vein” is a song about trying to heal old emotional wounds, but how do we heal a heart that is broken. This is close to a true power ballad but without Celine Dionesque histrionics. Album closer “Gypsy Blue” ends the record on a happy and strangely weird level in which Lexy seems to be channeling the Greek part of her heritage with a sliver of Berlin 30s cabaret. This diverse and expert journey through so many genres which remains strangely apposite is a marvellously magical menagerie of sound and one hell of a debut album. Can I see Lexytron live now, please?
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When searching the music world it isn’t always easy to find artists that are truly original but Brighton’s Wild Cat Strike merit that description. Their ‘Mustard Coloured Years’ EP strikes me as one of the most fascinating releases I have heard in a long time. Starting with Danny Byrom’s idiosyncratic and original vocals and superbly backed up by Max Boughen on guitar, Chris Whitehorn on bass and Joe Caple on drums this is a captivating band. It should be noted that all of these players are multi-instrumentalists so a truly multi-skilled ensemble.
“Mustard” combines an original sound with eccentric rhythms using light and shade with complex lyrical ideas. “Toothcutter” employs a different sound and method altogether. The lyrics are intriguing with their religious references writ large. There is a little feel of the Cure about this track but as with the other tracks this maintains its originality. This song has a second part to it which creates a more dreamy feel. “Swamp” is a mesmerising song that draws you in and is beautifully constructed. The music is inspired and intricate with a real application of lyrical thought processes and musicality. At the end of Roxy Music’s debut album, Bryan Ferry warbled “should make the cognoscenti think”. Well, Wild Cat Strike will surely have the same effect. My ears are open for more from this original group of musicians.
Written by Paul Bamlett.
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This is the second of an occasional series of songs that I don’t believe ever got the airplay they deserved, the previous and first was for “Everybody Was Rockin'” by the late great Betty Wright. Click here to check that one out. I suspect that when I have completed a few in this series there will be an accompanying playlist!
My favourite Elton John album is ‘Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy’ and it has been ever since it was released in 1975. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” is not only my favourite song on the album it was the only single to come from it. The record performed well in the US chart, reaching number 4, (and number 2 in Canada), but in the UK chart, it only made a lowly 22. The song, and indeed the album, is autobiographical and covers Elton and Bernie Taupin’s early life together as struggling songwriters. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” describes Elton’s failed suicide attempt on the eve of a potential and probably disastrous marriage in 1968. He had tried to gas himself, but when Bernie Taupin found him the window was also open. Which meant it was an inept attempt at suicide or maybe just a classic “cry for help”. The “someone” and the phrase “sugar bear” in the song are believed to refer to Elton’s 60s friend Long John Baldry who spent a lot of time and effort trying to steer the then Reg Dwight away from that marriage. For me, it ranks as one of the best lyrics Mr Taupin ever wrote (lyrics are copied below). Maybe the song was too long for a UK single at 15 seconds shy of seven minutes. But Elton, given the deeply personal nature of the tune, refused to edit it for single release. It was also the last single, for 8 years, to feature the classic Elton John Band line up of Dee Murray (bass), Davey Johnstone (guitar), and Nigel Olsson (drums). The song has been covered by Mumford and Sons, sampled by Kanye West and referenced a few times in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
I have added a bonus live version of the song from Central Park, NYC in 1980. If the woman who made it onto the stage at around 6 and a half minutes in is still around I would love to chat with her for another post. Is it you? Is it your Mom? Do you know her? Please let me know!
“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” – Elton John (music Elton John, lyrics Bernie Taupin)
When I think of those East End lights
Muggy nights
The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs
Prima donna Lord you really should have been there
Sitting like a princess perched in her electric chair
And it’s one more beer
And I don’t hear you anymore
We’ve all gone crazy lately
My friends out there rolling round the basement floor
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away bye bye
I never realized the passing hours
Of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I’m strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It’s four o’clock in the morning
Damn it listen to me good
I’m sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music’s still alive
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away bye bye
And I would have walked head-on into the deep end the river
Clinging to your stocks and bonds
Paying your H.P. demands forever
They’re coming in the morning with a truck to take me home
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight
So save your strength and run the field you play alone
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away bye bye
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