Billy Nomates | With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Mayhem’s Top 50 Albums Of 2025 (Part 1) November 26, 2025

Filed under: Album Of The Year — justwilliam1959 @ 8:34 pm
Tags: Adrian Sherwood, Architects, Autumn Dawn Leader, Billy Nomates, Blue Violet, DJ Koze, Fishing 4 Compliments, Jellybricks, Knucks, Mavis Staples

Here it is, we are finally ready to reveal Mayhem’s Top 50 Albums Of 2025. In past years it has only ever been a top 20, but it was hard to whittle the original list of 60 down to 20, so we kept 50 of them! This is part 1 which covers positions 41 through to 50. Have your favourite albums made the Mayhem cut? Check out the list below and check out parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 which will reveal the rest of the top 50 very soon! very soon! Are you looking forward to the countdown? There will be a 50 song play list when Part 5 arrives! Here comes numbers 41 to 50

41 ‘The Sky, the Earth & All Between’ – Architects – “A metalcore masterpiece from Architects, one of the finest bands in the UK”
42 ‘Music Can Hear Us’ – DJ Koze – “DJ Koze creates music that takes you to a wonderful happy place with some help from his mates!”
43 ‘The Collapse Of Everything’ – Adrian Sherwood – “The Doyen of Dub and the Master of Mixology delivers his opus!”
44 ‘Sad And Beautiful World’ – Mavis Staples – “86 years old and making some of the finest music of her career. I hope I age that well!”
45 ‘Metalhorse’ – Billy Nomates – “An immaculate return to form for Billy Nomates“
46 ‘A Fine African Man’ – Knucks – “A sizzling sophomore release from ace London rapper Knucks”
47 ‘Faux Animaux’ – Blue Violet – “Their music has a dark and mysterious pop rock style and is loaded with great hooks.“
48 ‘Lost In Good Intentions’ – Fishing 4 Compliments – “A band that state their intent with passion and fire“
49 ‘Dreaming In Stereo’ – Jellybricks –“Everyone needs some Jellybricks in their life. Why not build your music house out of Jellybricks?”
50 ‘Naked Truth’ – Autumn Dawn Leader – “If Jim Steinman had ever decided to produce a more considered and less bombastic album than the type he did with Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler and employed Philip Glass and Brian Eno it might have sounded a little like ‘Naked Truth’.“

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Mayhem Albums Of The Year 2023 December 10, 2023

Filed under: Mayhem Top 20 Chart — justwilliam1959 @ 9:29 pm
Tags: 100 gecs, Billie Marten, Billy Nomates, Black Pumas, Blur, Carol Hodge, Corinne Bailey Rae, Grian Chatten, Hives, Lana Del Rey, Liz Davinci, Lucinda Williams, Paul Simon, Skindred, Sleaford Mods, Suncharms, Taylor Swift, Wargasm, Young Fathers, Yussef Dayes

I know a lot of people don’t like the end-of-the-year list craze, but I do, so the Mayhem Albums Of The Year feature is back for 2023! I tried to keep it to a top ten, but I failed miserably, so it is a top twenty. Is your favourite included, or conversely, is your least favourite one of my favourites? There are a lot of big artists on the list, because whilst I focus on newer and smaller artists, I still listen to the big ones, what can I say, I just bloody love good music! I am not going to write a piece on every album and artist included, but I would love to hear your choices for 2023. So here it comes, the Mayhem top 20 albums of 2023!

Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd – Lana Del Rey
Black Rainbows – Corinne Bailey Rae
Heavy Heavy – Young Fathers
Chaos For The Fly – Grian Chatten
Drop Cherries – Billie Marten
The Ballad of Darren – Blur
Seven Psalms – Paul Simon
UK GRIM – Sleaford Mods
Smile – Skindred
Fata Morgan – Liz Davinci
The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons – The Hives
Vertiginous Drops – Carol Hodge
Venom – WARGASM
Chronicles of a Diamond – Black Pumas
Black Classical Music – Yussef Dayes
1989 (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift
Things Lost – Suncharms
Stories From a Rock n Roll Heart – Lucinda Williams
CACTI – Billy Nomates
10,000 gecs – 100 gecs

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A Slow Education – Day 2 – The Crescent, York – Saturday 23rd October 2021 November 7, 2021

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 12:14 am
Tags: A Slow Education, Billy Nomates, Bull, Cowgirl, Perspex, The Crescent York, The Lounge Society, Treeboy and Arc, Warmduscher

Three bands down after Day 1 just seven to go on Day 2 of the rather marvellous A Slow Education mini Festival at one of York’s finest venues, the Crescent. Perspex took to the stage first and it is always good to have such a lively band to kick off proceedings at the start of what looked like a great day of music. Perspex have a tank full of energy and probably a whole bunch of jerry cans full of the stuff too. At their peak, they sound like prime time Clash with vocal phrasings like Steve Harley. Who doesn’t love Perspex? I was lucky enough to review Cowgirl’s eponymously titled first album a couple of months back so I was looking forward to hearing some of the new songs played live and they did not disappoint. If Carlsberg made garage rock it would probably sound like Cowgirl. This band is an MC5 for the 21st Century. The Lounge Society were next and lounge is not something they do. This is psyched up, punchy, funky rock with a hard edge, definitely not music for a relaxing night in your lounge. It is music made to make you move around maniacally while balancing like a crazed high wire walker on that fine line between genius and madness. Bands are definitely looking so much younger to old farts like me these days, but lead singer Cameron Davey belies those youthful looks with just the right measure of rock-star swagger and menace. The Lounge Society are truly a band for our age.

If you like your rock sharp, funky and angular a la Talking Heads then I have no doubt that you will love the majestic Treeboy & Arc. There are some heartfelt punky vocals across some outstanding tunes that tell of real life. Bass player James Kay is bloody good and must be close to the bass skills of Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This is funk-punk for music maniacs. This band is not afraid to show off their skyscraping, jacked-up riffs that underpin some colossal, towering tunes. Next on stage were the band that I have seen more than any other in 2021, but thanks to these bastard Covid days that is only three times. I am talking about one of York’s mightiest bands, Bull. This was another stunning set from a band that is great on record and truly awesome in the live environment. The new songs take their sublime harmonies to another level, definitely to Beach Boys proportions. Not sure why, but I have a strange vision of Bull recording and acapella cover of They Might Be Giants’ “Birdhouse In Your Soul”. Also how about a Monkees style TV show featuring scenes from Bull mansions where the ban get into all kinds of surreal adventures and psychedelic japes. That needs to be made, right? Billy Nomates might genuinely have no mates and no band on stage with her but she has balls. To take to the stage with just a laptop and stun the crowd into a trancey submission so easily takes supreme skill and she has that in abundance. Her beats are huge and so is her social conscience. Vocally she scores 11/10 for me, I am now most definitely a Billy Nomates fan. Headliners Warmduscher was highly recommended to me and I had listened to a lot of their stuff before this show. The name “Warmduscher” is German and the term literally means ‘hot showerer’, which implies the idea of someone unwilling to step out of their comfort zone or do things that make them feel uncomfortable. It stems from a German myth that taking a cold shower is considered masculine. So is this a band unwilling to step out of their comfort zone, I don’t think so. This is a great bunch of musicians from Fat White Family and Paranoid London. Their post-punk sound is enhanced by some great tunes but I felt their performance was lacklustre and lacked sparkle on the night. Maybe it was the ridiculously long soundcheck or the heavy reliance on vocal effects pedals by vocalist Clams Baker Jr. Mate you have a good voice stop messing with all the effects stuff. The jury is out for me on Warmduscher, so I hope I caught them on an off night, but I need to see them again to confirm.