Here is the Mayhem chart for April 2024. Regular readers know that the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits over the last month gathered together by obscurify.com. Apparently, my tastes are 99% more obscure than the rest of the UK! The chart remains contemporary-ish (but if a classic artist releases something new they might feature in the chart). However, the top three “Legacy” artists are David Bowie, the KLF, and Public Image Ltd. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to and for March those are Liz Davinci, The Apocalypse Disco, and Kindelan. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. There is the usual eclectic mix of artists, including just one that was in the top ten last month, Delilah Bon! Delilah is one of only two artists to feature in the artist chart and the song chart for April, the other is the Blackheart Orchestra. Delilah Bon has been in the artist charts for five consecutive months and after topping the March song chart with “Maverick” she sits at number two with her new single, “Finally See Me”. Joe Solo, who we interviewed recently, tops the artist chart and Everything After Midnight takes the top spot on the song chart with their cracking new single “Little Hints” So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the header of the song chart for the playlist on Spotify.
MAYHEM ARTIST CHART APRIL 2024
1 Joe Solo 2 Grace Potter 3 Ian Hunter 4 Frank Turner 5 English Teacher 6 Julia Othmer 7 The Blackheart Orchestra 8 Delilah Bon 9 Avalanche Party 10 Paraorchestra
1 Little Hints – Everything After Midnight 2 Finally See Me – Delilah Bon 3 Cinderhaze – Stumbleine 4 The Tide – The Blackheart Orchestra 5 Manoeuvres – Carol Hodge
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The original line-up for this gig included Fully Arms favourites I Tell Lies, sadly they had to pull out. What was their replacement like? They might be a late addition to the bill, but what a fucking magnificent band Safe Harbour is! Heavy, passionate, emotional songs and they didn’t just play, this was a proper show. They played an explosive set, with intensity dialed up to 11, and gave it everything. The singer is totally captivating and has an awesome, soaring voice. There were many highlights but for me, the biggest were “Let Me Breathe” and “Sedated”. I hope I got the title of the second one right! This is a band that I think can become huge!
Next up it was one of Mayhem’s favourite bands Hærtstrings, winners of last year’s Fulford Arms Battle Of The Bands contest. It is hard to believe that this band played their first gig around seven months ago. They get better every gig and I think I have now seen them four or five times. They clearly watched Safe Harbour and rose to the challenge of “how the fuck do you follow that” with a great performance. KJ’s face makeup gave him an ethereal look under the lights, although I think he suffered for that by sweating white makeup into his eyes. His voice was great, he channels his passion and anger perfectly, and he is shaping up to be a great frontman. The whole band were in top form, but I will mention guitarist Archie, who, despite a cut finger, played like a guitar god. I have always loved a band or artist that it is not easy or impossible to put into a genre box and Hærtstrings are one of those!
Finally, it was time for headliners the Apocalypse Disco. They have one of the best band names ever and were on fire tonight. If the apocalypse was truly happening then this gig would have been the one to end the world with! Ian and Robin make far more sound than you would expect from two people and what a sound it is. banging tunes that arise from the ashes of the Prodigy with an added punk attitude. Their music compels you to dance and if you were standing still during this set, what is wrong with you? “Welcome To The Disco” is a post-apocalyptic party anthem and “Alive”, which we were treated to twice, is an electro singalong like no other. I don’t believe that anyone was quiet during that song. And are there many better opening lines than “God loves a sinner, thank fuck for that”, I think not! They gave a lovely shout-out to Kurt Cobain and played an incredible cover of George Harrison’s “Art Of Dying”. Following Safe Harbour and Hærtstrings was a huge challenge, but the Apocalypse Disco did it with a performance which registered on the Richter Scale!
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Here is the Mayhem chart for March 2024. Regular readers know that the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits over the last month. The chart remains contemporary-ish, rather than just an oldies chart However, the top three “Legacy” artists are Kate Bush, David Bowie, and Steve Harley/ Cockney Rebel. David Bowie returns to the chart after missing out for three months. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to and for March those are Liz Davinci, The Apocalypse Disco and The Chinaskis. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. There is the usual eclectic mix of artists, including four that were in the top ten last month (Crawlers, Bambi Thug, Delilah Bon, and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes). Four of the artists in the artist’s chart also appear in the song’s chart. Delilah Bon has been in the artist charts for four consecutive months and now she tops the song chart with the mighty “Maverick”. Drunk Mums crash straight to the top of the artist chart! So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the header of the song chart for the playlist on Spotify.
MAYHEM ARTIST CHART MARCH 2024
1 Drunk Mums 2 Caity Baser 3 James 4 Crawlers 5 Delilah Bon 6 SAHRA 7 Bambi Thug 8 Scene Queen 9 Mortimer Nyx 10 Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes
MAYHEM SONG CHART MARCH 2024
1 Maverick – Delilah Bon 2 Wailing Night – Mortimer Nyx 3 Life’s A Fucking Miracle – James 4 Finger – Scene Queen 5 Celestial – Dying Habit
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The Apocalypse Disco are back and steering the good ship apocalypse directly at the evil and bad shit going down in the world. Playing “Surrender” at full volume in the face of the four horsemen of the apocalypse will cause them and their steeds to explode by being walloped with rave guns and glow stick grenades. I don’t really believe the Apocalypse Disco are surrendering, I think they are taking their rather spiffing music on a crusade to draw people away from a potential forthcoming dystopian nightmare. “Surrender” is a Prodigy-fuelled slab of explosive dance music with elements of glam and a sprinkling of Prince. The video is rather stunning too! Get on board the good ship Apocalypse Disco now! You can catch them headlining at the Fulford Arms in York on April 5th, be there or be a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles!
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The Mayhem Monthly charts return for the third month in a row. Regular readers know the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits over the last month. The chart remains contemporaryish, otherwise, it might be filled with classic artists all the time and that would be boring, right? The top three “Legacy” artists are David Bowie, Nick Drake, and Sam Cooke. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. As expected there is quite an eclectic mix of artists including two that were in the top ten last month (ALT BLK ERA and Ren). In fact this is the third month in a row that ALT BLK ERA have featured in the artist top ten. The top five songs features three artists who also appear in the artist top ten, that is the Delilah Bon, ALT BLK ERA and Black Pumas. Delilah Bon does the double, she is at the top of both charts, with excellent support from ALT BLK ERA! So without further ado here are those charts! Click on the header of the song chart for the playlist on Spotify.
MAYHEM ARTIST CHART OCTOBER 2023 1Delilah Bon 2 DJ Shadow 3 The Streets 4 Ren 5 ALT BLK ERA 6 Poppy 7 Ashnikko 8 Scene Queen 9 Wargasm 10 Black Pumas
MAYHEM SONG CHART OCTOBER 2023 1 Witch – Delilah Bon featuring ALT BLK ERA 2 Last Train To Selby – PERCY 3 Alive – The Apocalypse Disco 4 More Than A Love Song – Black Pumas 5 Your Mind’s Closed – Offbeat
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It has been a while since the last Mayhem Singles Round Up so I thought how about one that focused on bands and artists from or based in York? This post contains songs from eighteen different artists and showcases the diversity of styles, the strength of music, and the depth of the music scene in my adopted city of York. All these tunes were delivered into the world by the magical music stork in the last few months. OK fact fans, three of these acts have a link to the school that I currently work at, can you guess which ones? Click here to take a listen to a Spotify playlist of all eighteen tracks, which is more than an hour of fab music! In case you are interested, the order of the songs was simply drawn out of a metaphorical hat 🙂
“G.U.N.N.E.R” – YouVee YouVee get proper heavy on this blockbuster of a tune. Shades of early Kasabian and even Black Sabbath abound!
“Start A New” – Bull – This is a band that moves closer to perfection with each release and “Start A New” has the makings of a Bull classic. The harmonies are good enough to melt even the hardest of hearts with the genius of adding a school choir too.
“Make Up” – Pennine Suite – I reckon this is Pennine Suite’s finest song so far. It has power, awesome vocals, and a chorus that sticks around in your head for quite a while.
“In Ecstasy” – Shed Seven featuring Rowetta – York’s musical titans the Sheds are back and with an absolute banger featuring the unmistakable vocal support of the magnificent Rowetta.
“Break In The Weather” – Benjamin Francis Leftwich – A gorgeous ballad of heartbreak that shows the emergence of buds of hope. Potentially a real tearjerker.
“Rebellion” – Anthea Drive – Is this Anthea Drive’s heaviest tune yet? I think so. Full of mountainous, immaculate riffs and roaring vocals.
“Your Mind’s Closed” – Offbeat – A delicious slice of indie pop that will get everyone moving a indie nights everywhere. I felt like the ghost of Altered Images haunted this tune a couple of times.
“Said And Done” – Fendry and Liv North – British rap is alive and well and Fendry might one day be at the forefront of it. This delightful collaboration with Liv North has parallels with some of Eminem’s work with female vocalists like Rihanna. Ace beats and rap that bleeds feelings and passion.
“Alive” – The Apocalypse Disco – If the apocalypse is truly on its way then this bunch must be on your end-of-the-world soundtrack. This joyous slice of electro does make me want to stay alive though. Dance to it and tell the four horsemen of the apocalypse to fuck right off!
“Marionette” – Vaquelin – a deep, dark tune from one of my favourite rock bands, Vaquelin. As usual, the guitar sound is immense as are the vocals. But the stand out is the drumming which would give Bonham and Moon a run for their money!
“Kelly’s In The Garden” – Heavy Bloom – A wonderfully chilled indie-style pop tune, like Air with added guitars. This will be on my summer playlist for next year.
“Tomorrow” – Fervent Red – This hits you like a hard-edged Beatlesy Brit Pop tune. It has a slight psychedelic vein running through it and a rather nifty chorus.
“Solemn Power” – The Exceptional Mr. Hyde – Is this electro dance or heavy rock? Actually, it is both. If Hawkwind began in the 21st century they might sound like this. This bodes well for their upcoming album!
“Last Train To Selby” – PERCY – Those West Yorkshire Superheroes are definitely back on form. A song that only PERCY could deliver. A great singalong that highlights a ghost on the train lyric. Check out the excellent video below.
“On My Mind (Radio Edit)” – CHAZ – A pounding piano-led house anthem that would move even the comatose. Dance music is alive and well in York as this debut single from CHAZ proves. The vocals are brilliant too.
“Save Your Time” – Rosettas – This captures some of the energy and power that the Rosettas have on stage. A great tune from a great band and every member is on top form.
“How Can You Be” – Everything After Midnight – My favourite Everything After Midnight song from the first listen. It has been aired live in a different form. But now it is an all-round close to perfect tune. The guitars smack you in the face in a good way while Steph’s vocal is close to heavenly.
“Fixed Point” – Heartsink – Those cheeky pop-punk chaps Heartsink have another great tune for our delectation. A little more acoustic than usual, at least initially. But a song that turns the riffage and passion up to 11 towards the fade.
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Imagine the Prodigy joining forces with the Chemical Brothers and going in a kind of glam rock direction and utilising David Bowie’s “secret” band from the ‘Earthling’ tour, the Tao Jones Index, well that is what the new track from the Apocalypse Disco sounds like to me. But it is not just homage and definitely not a facsimile, it is banging, beat-laden, and bloody bonkers. Right up my street, in fact, get this lot in your lugholes now, you will have no choice but to shake your booty and dance like nobody is watching! If this is the herald of the apocalypse, bow to your inner illegal rave soul, grab your glowsticks, and smash it until the end of the world with “Thunder” as your soundtrack! Check out the video too, it is madcap and magnificent!
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Another night and another great lineup at the Fulford Arms in York. The first to hit the stage, and they really did hit it hard, was the Apocalypse Disco. This hard electro-dance duo created enough energy to power York for a week. There was barely a let up in their powerful, pulsating sounds and the audience was lapping it all up. This was not just a simple set, but a full performance. Robin and Ian wore matching black boiler suits as they slammed through their take on 90s trance and big beats sounds. The new song “The Bridge” even gave a nod to Erasure in its sublime hook. If this bunch are not yet on your end-of-the-world playlist they need to be!
Flat Cap Carnival was next and who knew York could do Latin music so well? Actually, I did, as I have seen them before. This abundantly talented 7-piece is an incredible party band that it is impossible not to shake your arse to. But it is not just latin, there are parts of Cuban style, skanking, and ska-punk to name just a few. Their original songs are perfect, but their covers take them to another universe completely. “Careless Whisper” and “Spice Up Your Life” were masterclasses on how to cover a song. On social media, they describe themselves as “a Latin-infused Skanival band from York. Dancing is compulsory.” That seems a fair description to me. If Carlsberg made party bands they would definitely make Flatcap Carnival.
The headliners tonight are a band that I had never seen before, Bethlehem Casuals. They are like Polyphonic Spree or Animal Collective after a huge injection of raw, unpasteurised jazz funk juice. Probably the perfect band to follow the mighty Flatcap Carnival. The Bethlehem Casuals takes me right back to my jazz funk period, but probably with a touch more jazz than funk, a la Norman Connors’ “The Creator Has A Master Plan”. For a band that is steeped in complex and well-executed jazz tropes and some complicated time signatures, they are incredibly danceable. I have enjoyed listening to their music on line, but the live setting is where they excel.
You wait for ages for a Mayhem singles round-up and then two turn up in ten days! Here is the second for 2023, it includes a massive fifteen songs that have been passed on to me or recommended during the previous few weeks and months, there are some bloody spiffing tracks here. It features five artists and bands that have appeared on Mayhem’s pages before. Let me know what you think of this fine selection of tunes! You will find a YouTube link to each song in the title and a link to the artist’s website or one of their social media pages when you click the artist’s name. You can also find the link to a Spotify playlist of all these songs by clicking here.
Possibly the best single from the Sheratons, it leans towards early Arctic Monkeys in the sheer scale of riffage and has more hooks than you might find in a professional anglers kit bag.
This is a gorgeous slice of chilled funk featuring Parliament/ Funkadelic royalty in Garrett Shider a.k.a. Starchild Jr. It retains a retro feel but is definitely made for the 21st Century. That guitar sound is at times Santanaesque and makes me dream of summer
This sounds like the Sisters Of Mercy bumped into Bring Me The Horizon in a dark, mucky Chicago back alley and started a fight which was refereed by Dave Grohl. It has goth in its veins but heavy rock in its brain
This is the second single from Ian’s next album, ‘Defiance Part 1’ which is scheduled for release on 21st April. At 83 this bloke still rocks and still writes great songs. The message of “I Hate Hate” is profoundly positive too. I am very excited about the new album now. Check out the previous single, “Bed Of Roses”, featuring Ringo Starr and Mike Campbell here.
This is Laura’s third release under the Kindelan name following “The Other Side” and “Hazel Frustration”. This is a sumptuous slice of chilled dream pop. The music evokes Lemon Jelly and the softer end of Groove Armada while Laura’s voice is close to perfection and a few times I found myself comparing it to some of Tracy Thorn’s finest moments. I love the way that food is used in describing relationships.
The Apocalypse Disco’s bio claims that they make Apocalyptic Discotechno and based on this track that is 100% true. It has superbly crisp production, courtesy of Neil Mclellan, who has worked on some great albums, including being the engineer on the Prodigy’s ‘Fat Of The Land’. This track is the perfect opener to lead us into a pre-armageddon party and it will definitely feature on my end of the world playlist. If it is the last track you ever hear, then trust me, you have left this mortal coil on a good note!
A fine slab of heavy and hard riffage with an undercurrent of 80s European rock from Finland’s Blind Channel. The band has said this about the song, “Flatline is Blind Channel on steroids. We captured the energy of last year’s 130 shows into one song and threw it to a Berlin rave”. Steroids at a rave? Yeah, that works for me!
Pitou, who is Dutch, releases her debut album next month, and if all the tracks hit as high on the qualityometer as “Devote” it will be something wonderful. This is a beautiful tune with some gorgeous multitracked vocal harmonies. Her voice has stunning clarity and occasionally made me think of Lana Del Rey and Liz Fraser.
Aussie rockers DZ Deathrays have been around for 13 years and they get better and better. “King B” hits you like an anvil on the head and doesn’t let up. This is a great track for some epic air drumming and headbanging. I hear there is a new album on the horizon, possibly.
This is a hypnotic, haunting track that delves into the spirit of Mike Oldfield before moving into illegal rave territory. Probably one of the most wonderfully composed and constructed instrumentals I have heard in a while.
Kid Be Kid is a Berlin soul and jazz singer, piano virtuoso, and human beatbox. “Naked Times” is not just soul, jazz, piano, and beatboxing, it is so much more! Damn it is such a great tune. Her vocal performance is off the scale! If Bjork and Laurie Anderson had a love child it might be Kid Be Kid. The video for “Naked Times” is well worth watching.
UK rap was often the poor relation of US rap. Then along came Mike Skinner, then later Stormzy, Dave, and many others. Now there is Fendry! This kid has some great tracks with “Poseidon” the best so far for me. Great beats, a great atmosphere, and stunning ciphers. He is also from my adopted home city of York and the video for this track was filmed in York city centre.
Is it country? Is it blues? Is it gospel? No, it is Leah Marie Mason’s stunningly brilliant new song “Holy Water”. It is a deep, dark song about what sounds like a relationship gone really bad. I love the line “no the Devil ain’t in Georgia, he’s here in Tennessee” This will be on rotation for me for quite a while I think.
Does Eve love her ugly cowboy or not? I vote probably not. But whether she does or not this track has the feel of a classic dance banger, one for which it is the law for you to get off your seat and shake your tush!
British band Empyre release their new album next month, “Hit And Run” is a sign that the album will be well worth a spin. Melodic rock with a slight sprinkling of prog. Overall it is a huge sound with a band that sounds on top form and vocals that launch passion and emotion grenades at the listener with every breath. I like this song a lot!
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