Bastard Disco – China Shipping

Maybe more recognised for its metal diversity and prowess, over the years we have found that the Polish independent music scene breeds some rather fine propositions within other musical flavours. The latest to come to our attention is the noise rock fuelled alternative rock of Bastard Disco and particularly their new album, China Shipping. Across nine ear grabbing tracks, the Warsaw quartet’s sophomore full-length is a magnetic affair as raw and hungry as it is melodically seductive; one of those encounters you cannot help taking real notice of.

Formed in 2015, Bastard Disco finds inspiration in the likes of Fugazi, Quicksand, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, and The Pixies for their own individual sound. 2017 saw the well-received release of debut album Warsaw Wasted Youth via Poland’s oldest independent label, Antena Krzyku. The band has united with the label once again for China Shipping, a release swiftly engaging ears with opener Sophia. The coaxing grooves of guitarist Kamil Fejfer lay down a potent lure, the accompanying grumble of Paweł Cholewa’s bass and the swinging beats of Marek Kamiński soon eagerly accentuating the early temptation. As vocalist Yuri Kasianenko’s melodic tones join the captivation, the track almost haunts the imagination, its hooks and quickly established enterprise proving very easy to devour.

Future Crimes follows, opening with the great dirty growl of Cholewa’s bass before contrasting its grumble with the melodic jangle of guitar. As with its predecessor, familiar essences collude with bold fresh endeavour to create an individual character and presence; its melodic and harmonic boisterousness adding to that distinctiveness. There is a sonic mugginess to song and sound too which similarly just lured ears in and though maybe missing the striking hooks of the opener, the track effortlessly held court before Time Traveller offered up its own humid noise cultured breath. Something akin to Dinosaur Jr meets Big Black the song proved increasingly compelling and contagious as it nagged an already eagerly involved appetite.

Next up is Clear!, a slice of scuzzy indie rock with punk voracity to its infectious holler. Its highly potent persuasion soon matched by that crafted by the outstanding Shining Confidence. The track was pure fascination, its melodic seduction and sultry climate a mesmeric setting for the track’s devilish groove spun chorus. It is another with familiar elements but never proved anything but unique to Bastard Disco while Ministry of Self-Defence emulated that originality straight after with its own sonically dissonant bounce and confrontation. Ferocious yet melodically seductive, feral but craftily conjured, the track provides another particularly compelling highlight before Game of Patriots stole the show. Its first breaths bring the hypnotic coaxing of Kamiński’s beats, every subsequent one exposing his manipulative dexterity as the equally nefariously antics of bass and guitar just enforce the track’s virulence. Kasianenko is just as magnetic alongside their tenacious enterprise, providing further impassioned flaming to the song’s fiery eruptions.

The closing pair of Sink or Swim and B-side Son ensure China Shipping leaves as potently as it arrives, the first enjoying the union of a grumble dark rhythmic incitement and scuzz lined melodic intimation around the perpetually tempting vocals of Kasianenko. The final track is all spirited bounce and creative contagion beneath vocal and emotive energy; a rousing memorable finale to an equally stirring release rather easy to highly recommend.

China Shipping is out now via Antena Krzyku; available digitally @ https://bastarddisco.bandcamp.com/album/china-shipping and on CD/LP through http://www.antenakrzyku.pl/en/shop/bastard-disco-china-shipping-lpdownload-preorder-release-date-030519-kopia/

https://www.facebook.com/bastarddisco/

 Pete RingMaster 21/05/2019

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Canshaker Pi – Naughty Naughty Violence

The word is that Dutch outfit Canshaker Pi is one emerging proposition sparking excitement and keen attention at every turn.  Now having been introduced to them through their first album it is easy to hear why. Naughty Naughty Violence is a devilishly magnetic and creatively mischievous indie rock romp; one spawned from a fusion of ear grabbing flavours equipped with an arsenal of hooks to make a Cenobite jealous.

The Amsterdam band’s sound is bred through varied strains of rock, punk, indie, and noise woven into a web of rhythmic and sonic manipulation. Since forming, the quartet has earned increasing attention and praise through their music and a live presence which has seen them share stages with the likes of The Cribs, Car Seat Headrest, Parquet Courts, Pip Blom, and Scott Kannberg’s Spiral Stairs and this year alone gather plaudits from playing Eurosonic, SXSW, and The Great Escape. That Pavement link is maybe no surprise as the band’s sound has a certain spicing of them and no doubt helped the band grab support slot on Kannberg’s side project’s tour in 2017 and continues with Canshaker Pi’s debut album being produced by Stephen Malkmus.

Naughty Naughty Violence swiftly shows that there is a definite individuality to Canshaker Pi’s sound, one not necessarily unique but springing a fresh and distinct character of imagination and flavouring which quickly got under our skin. Album opener is Pressure From Above, a song instantly teasing with an electronic wag of its creative finger and soon bursting into a fuzz fired boisterous stroll. As calm vocals join in, the track relaxes but is soon romping again bringing greater clamour and tenacity to its contagious rock ‘n’ roll. Already it is easy to sense that Pavement inspiration and too of bands like The Mai Shi, a kaleidoscope of hooks and melodic unpredictability additionally lighting the great beginning to the release.

It is a start soon eclipsed though, the initial off-kilter sonic lure of next up Tonsil enough alone to ignite our discord loving instincts. It is a kind of false start but the trigger to the glorious swagger wearing exploits of the track, that continuing discord a delicious clamour of temptation and trespass often enticing like a raw pop fuelled mix of Shellac and The Melvins. The final sonic sigh of the track drifts into the opening vocal and sonic discordance of Sooner Later. Around a compelling bass throb, the brief but dramatic track ignites and disrupts the senses, noise and voice a volatile incitement driven by the irresistible manipulation of the drums.

Three tracks in and fair to say we were hooked and only dangling with further enjoyment as Smurf uncaged its infectious canter like a grunge inspired Fountains of Wayne next with the following If Kelly Doesn’t, Then Who Will calming things down with its melodic and rhythmic pop ‘n’ roll. Neither track quite sparked the more lustful responses caused by their predecessors but ears could not evade being caught up in their individual and increasingly persuasive captivations; the latter especially as it just blossomed play by play to have us bouncing around as forcibly as its own endeavour.

But Why provided one minute of rousing noise rock next, rhythms humping ears as guitars meddle with the senses and vocals tease. With not even a breath allowed between them, No Sack, No Way saunters in to match its success, an immediate ear enslaving hook steering its lure. It is matched in magnetism by bass and vocals, each a controlled but virulent tempting entangling for even greater seduction of the imagination. Pop rock has rarely been heard more addictively in our speakers though its successor Put A Record Out with its ballsier rock ‘n’ roll was more than a match as it unleashed its resourcefully fiery clamour around further rhythmic machination.

In contrast to its raucous blaze, Legless provided a calm almost solemn amble through sound and imagination. The outstanding track carries something of early Cure meets Dinosaur Jr to its tantalising slow post punk sway while The Indie Academy straight after is up on its heels swinging along with pop rock devilment to almost as imposingly please.

The final pair of Half Book and Beautiful World brings the album to a potent conclusion, the first of the two again inventively merging flavours and eras with its post punk/pop punk infested rock before the second leaves ears immersed in a shadow wrapped melancholic croon with its own infectious gait and enterprise boiling up to a rousing corrosive climax.

Naughty Naughty Violence is an album which was really hard to move on from which tells you all about its exploits and temptations. As we said at the start, Canshaker Pi is being very highly talked of right now, their new album gives all the reasons why.

Naughty Naughty Violence is out now through Excelsior Recordings.

http://www.canshakerpi.nl/   https://www.facebook.com/CanshakerPi/   https://twitter.com/CanshakerPi

Pete RingMaster 05/06/2018

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Fashion Week – So Last Season

Like the fall out and indeed initial impact of the detonation of a nuclear device, the sound of US noise mongers Fashion Week is a ravenous inescapable scourge feasting on flesh and senses. Debut album Prêt-à-Porter was savagely enjoyable proof of the fact, its release on Solar Flare Records a testing and thrilling examination of body and emotions. Now two years after its scorching eruption, the band has released So Last Season. A coming together of rare and unreleased material, including Fashion Week’s first demo, two EPs, live tracks and a couple of covers, the album oversees the birth of the band and its growth in sound right up to that first inimitable album.

Founded in 2009 by vocalist/guitarist Joshua Lozano (Inswarm, Jarboe, Cobalt, Family, Shai Hulud, Vampillia), NYC hailing Fashion Week quickly drew eager attention with their diverse, melody tinged swarms of noise. Taking inspiration from the diverse likes of Unsane, Coalesce, and Botch through to Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Melvins, and Quicksand with plenty more embraced under their creative wing, Fashion Week soon sculpted their own distinctive dirty sound as evidenced by first EP, Applicator in 2011 and its successor Coextinction #11 two years after. Prêt-à-Porter was the wake-up call to broad attention which the striking re-emergence of earlier and rare material courtesy of So Last Season can now only reinforce.

The album opens with the three tracks which made up Coextinction #11, songs the band were invited to record for the internet label of Unsane’s Dave Curran, Coextinction Recordings. The raw, at times almost carnal assault of Heroin Chic is first. As nagging citric guitars and a gloriously grumbling bass instantly descend, an underlying melodic lure simmers and brews, subsequently taking its central spot in the grungy smog of sound. Warm vocals spring from within the addictive assault, welcoming yet as edgy as the intimidatingly voracious sounds around them.

Andrew Cunanan follows, its rural harmonica shared comeliness soon a tempest of hungry rhythms and greedy riffs with that snarling bass again addictive bait alongside the furnace of voice and guitar. As its predecessor though, melody and restraint get involved, hand in hand prowling the senses as the former laces seductively wiry grooves. The track is pure magnetism, a trait matched in strength by God Save McQueen. Its hardcore rapacity smothers ears before twisting them with a web of flavours all bleeding aural and emotional tartness.

The brief rabid attacks of both Fab and Smyze follow; two live cuts which infest body and psyche with their caustic holler and predatory sonic trespass with the second a beast of a proposal stalking the listener with its sludge bred intent. Their debilitating prowess is followed by a cover of the Helmet track, I Know. A calmer affair with harmonies instantly slipping their invitation into the more fractious draw of guitars and bass, the song flirtatiously twists and swings like a primal seductress, never moving out of second gear but only increasing its siren-esque appeal with each enterprising second.

The next three tracks come from un-released EP Little Black Dress which seemed to have been pushed aside as the band worked on Prèt-â-Porter. Lydian Hearst dances with discontent and melancholic charm first, melodies a sombre enticement and rhythms a truculent incitement though they too develop a vibrant if filth lined swing led by the ever gnarly bass. With Lozano’s vocals a plaintively bracing squall, a squall in time joined by a tamer presence, the track boils in touch and temptation before So Last Season unveils its abrasive grunge clad pop ‘n’ roll on the table. The song is a spiral of contrasts, like a maelstrom of Converge, Sofy Major, and Melvins, and as imposingly catchy as it is greedily corrosive.

The following Little Black Dress, featuring guest vocals from Dave Castillo, Kurt Applegate, and Tom Tierney, equally has infectiousness coursing irritable rock ‘n’ roll seeing bodies bouncing as the senses shrivel under vocal causticity and increasing sonic hostility, only to be re-animated by the spicy grooves entangling song and listener.

It would have been a crime if the EP had never seen the light of day, one of many major reasons to grab the album, a felony repeated if Rich Hallister, a song originally recorded for Prêt-à-Porter which the band eventually did not feel fitted, was not heard. It too is ferocity of noise and attitude with a virulent catchiness which enslaves ears and hips, rogue beats alone a busy temptation as vocals increasingly lose their grip on composure being matched by the growing bedlam of guitar.

With Vinny Signorelli of Unsane guesting on drums, Fashion Week takes on his band’s track Only Pain next. A potent mix of sample and keys draw the listener into the waiting doomscape of sound and emotion, Lozano searing it with his raw throated delivery backed by the equally apocalyptic and melancholic roar and melodic suggestion of guitars. It is a compelling take on a great track arguably giving an even grittier and rawer aspect to its emotionally decayed antipathy.

The digital version of So Last Season is completed by the re-mastered version of the band’s original demo, Applicator, which also comes as an additional 7” with a vinyl edition of the album. Beginning with the rusty hues of Fierce, the four tracks making up the release are the heart and seeds of Fashion Weeks’ current sound, the source of uncompromising intent and endeavour making up the impressive stature of Prêt-à-Porter. The track is undiluted sonic threat and emotional turmoil, a vat of creative rancor matched by that festering within the equally corrosive and catchy Heidi Klum and the hook wired Bryant Park, the second a web of guitar woven tempting and intrigue wonderfully sullied by Lozano’s flesh grazing vocal deliver and increasingly ruinous vitriol.

Completed by the hardcore scourge of Fabulous, the track pure venom in noise and presence, So Last Season is a must for newcomers to the band, for those who missed out on their earlier assaults and noise rock victims as a whole.

So Last Season is available now @ https://www.fashionweek.bandcamp.com/album/so-last-season

https://www.facebook.com/FashionWeekBand       https://fashionweeknoise.com/

Pete RingMaster 29/03/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

The Black Clouds – After All

Formed in 2004, US rockers The Black Clouds has pretty much persistently and increasingly drawn attention and acclaim with their hearty rock ‘n’ roll, a trend set to be accelerated by the release of new album After All. A fiery yet earthy slab of alternative rock lying somewhere between Foo Fighters and Stone Temple Pilots, the album has all the attributes to become a long term passion for a great many.

Hailing from Monmouth County, New Jersey, The Black Clouds consists of vocalist/guitarist Dan Matthews, guitarist Neil Hayes, bassist Gary Moses, and drummer Cory King. The punkish roar of 2008 debut album Wishing Well set the band up potently in regard to praise and broadening awareness, its adventure and success surpassed by Better Days four years later. A feisty fusion of grunge and hard rock, its impressive elements have been joined by those of its predecessor in the striking attack of After All, a rousing fusion of the familiar with new bold enterprise in an exploit which could and should push The Black Clouds towards a position on the global rock ‘n’ roll map.

Produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden), After All immediately hits the spot with opener Photograph. As riffs and rhythms collude alongside a spicy groove the song quickly captures ears and imagination, Matthews’ vocals are just as swift a lure as the song heads into a chorus gripping listener participation with instant ease. There is no escaping a Nirvana-esque hue to the track’s persuasion but neither the all tenacious Black Clouds freshness as it stirs up imagination and appetite with anthemic prowess.

The following Self Control has a slightly more laid back charge to its presence but too freely uncages piercing hooks and an instinctive snarl to keep the album’s strong start going. Backing vocals potently compliment Matthew’s plaintive tones as the song strolls with controlled vigour, the song reminding a little of UK band Feud, before Sayonara steps forward.  From its initial bass growl, the song is a volcanic, punk infested trespass. Raw and intrusive with a fine line in melodic contrasts, lava like grooves, and virulent infectiousness, its briefness is the only anti-climax in an impressive assault.

 Leave Her Alone brings a calmer presence to After All next; its body just as catchy with broiling eruptions of intensity adding richer texture to its character while Falling straight after seduces with melodic and harmonic charm. Even in its emotive caress there is an underlying rigour which bolsters the song’s already strong temptation; both tracks revealing the enjoyable variation in the band’s album and sound.

Featuring Mark Arm and Jack Endino, Vice bares its sonic teeth and raw energy next, the song a dirty rock ‘n’ roll grumble carrying the punk attitude of Johnny Thunders aligned to the sonic flames of Dinosaur Jr., before Going Going Gone, with again Endino guesting, dons another Nirvana like colour in its contagious holler. Creating another twist in the album’s landscape, the pair of tracks cements the already memorable presence of After All with the excellent Still Alive reinforcing that success with its grunge/punk ferocity. Rhythmically the track gets under skin scorched by scalding grooves and melodic flames cast by Hayes, traits matched across much of the release as a whole.

The gentler duo of Merchants Of Death and Days Are So Long, the latter seeing Endino, Allison Maryatt, Eric Nutting, and Nate Malubay helping out, bring After All to an enjoyable close if without either quite finding the same sparks to ignite personal tastes as earlier tracks. Nevertheless, the grunge infection of the former and melodic elegance of the equally catchy final track, leave satisfaction high and a want for more bold.

The Black Clouds are at the point in their rise where they are teetering on the broadest recognition, After All looking and sounding like the nudge to see them topple into the biggest spotlights.

After All is out now through Capacitor Records on CD and translucent blue vinyl @ https://capacitorrecords.com/products/black-clouds-after-all

http://www.theblackclouds.com/   https://www.facebook.com/blackcloudsofficial/

Pete RingMaster 10/01/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Happy Diving – Electric Soul Unity

Managing to scorch the senses while seducing them into matching submission, the new album from San Francisco born Happy Diving is a swamp of thick fuzz and melodic romancing; neither aspect dominant yet both overwhelming and across twelve sweltering songs, instinctively magnetic.

Formed in 2013, Happy Diving has gone through various member and location changes while breeding a rich reputation for their fiery and sonically blistering live presence. It is a quality and strength of sound now found within Electric Soul Unity, a raw and intrusive proposition which just as potently entices with emotion and evocatively smouldering melodies. The likes of Dinosaur Jr., Drive Like Jehu, and Swervedriver are offered by the press release as an indication to what lies within the album; suggestions easy to endorse though similarly someone like My Bloody Valentine infested by Birdland or Hot Snakes suits too.

It opens up with Bigger World and an incendiary wail of guitar and sonic forcefulness as inviting as it is abrasive. Throbbing bass and repetitious riffs soon join the initial squall of sound; shaping and driving the song in its expanding adventure before the warmer tone of vocals become engaged in the persuasion too. It is a wholly magnetic affair as increasingly infectious as it is bracing and without a moment to contemplate matched by Don’t Be Afraid of Love. Raw sonic trespass and melodic enterprise collude as the track engulfs ears, its rhythmic coaxing equally as catchy and rousing as the band shares all elements with individual clarity while combining every texture masterfully.

Drifting away, the song makes way for lead song Holy Ground, a raw and emotionally inflamed proposal searing the senses as vocals and hooks tempt the imagination and an already keen appetite for the intrusive Happy Diving sound. With anthemic rhythms whipping up further enjoyment, the song steps aside for the album’s punk fuelled title track and in turn the melodic charm of Head Spell. Both tracks hit the spot, the first with its Nirvana-esque seeded essences and its successor through gentle melodies and warm vocals in a calm reflection though its climate is volatile and erupts to fine effect throughout.

Through the fervid sonic enticing of the Pixies toned Fantasy and the sweltering smog of Shed Light, band and release simply increase their hold on a now greedy appetite, each springing a net of melodic contagion as powerful as the sonic wash around them. Their thrilling invasion is emulated again by the poppier and highly stimulating assault of Lost My Way and indeed the swinging causticity of The Call, It Thunders. There are times across the album where a similarity between songs is apparent, the second of the two an example yet throughout it whips out a hook or twist which gives individual character to its presence.

More open diversity emerges in the latter stages of Electric Soul Unity; the calm reflective beauty of Pain Country and its suggestive melodies an irresistible seduction holding court even when the song ignites while Unknown Feeling is a beguiling vocal and melody shaped serenade to drift away with.

Final track River Will Flow ensures the album leaves on a tempest of sonic agitation and temptation, but of course with its own weave of rich melodic and harmonic enticing. All three songs provide a fine end to an album which grows and impresses more with every outing. They say noise annoys, not in this case.

Electric Soul Unity is released August 26^th via Topshelf Records @ http://www.topshelfrecords.com/products/573831-happy-diving-electric-soul-unity and available now @ https://happydiving.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/happydivingca/   https://twitter.com/happydiving

Pete RingMaster 25/08/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Astral Cloud Ashes – Flashback

Having made a strong and captivating introduction to itself with the single Too Close To The Noise Floor, the Channel Islands hailing Astral Cloud Ashes are about to follow up that success with Flashback. Providing another potent teaser to a forthcoming debut album, the new single also reveals another dynamic and colour to the project’s songwriting and sound. Whereas its predecessor was a lively stroll of infectious enterprise and energy, Flashback is a calmer and mellower emotive engagement and just as magnetic.

Astral Cloud Ashes is the new project from Antony Walker, one half of the duo Select All Delete Save As which especially earned deserved acclaimed with their album Ultra Cultura in 2014. Walker has been exploring his own solo creativity for a while, often under the name ALPA, amongst other monikers, but as quickly suggested by his first single as Astral Cloud Ashes, this new venture is one with the potential to match and even eclipse the previously mentioned ‘day job’ band. Sound wise Walker draws on inspirations from the likes of The Cure, Bloc Party, Interpol, At the Drive In, Mars Volta, and Say Anything for an indie/pop/rock persuasion, presumably self-tagged, as future-core.

Flashback caresses ears with a lone melody initially before the guitar is swiftly joined by a heavily shadowed bassline and floating melodic enterprise. At the same time, Walker provides an introspective narrative as gently provocative and ear pleasing as the harmonic embrace of sound around it. Guitar jangles, crisp beats, and emotive toning subsequently add to the web of alluring textures building the captivating proposal; a song wearing varying shades of The Lightning Seeds, Pavement, and Dinosaur Jr. to its melodic and evocative charm.

The track is a warm and fascinating encounter showing, as suggested earlier, another aspect to the band and offering another reason to keep an eager ear open for the first Astral Cloud Ashes album later this year.

Flashback is released May 4^th across all major online distributors.

https://www.facebook.com/astralcloudashes/

Pete RingMaster 29/04/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com

My Cruel Goro – Self Titled EP

Since its emergence a couple of weeks or so back, the debut EP from My Cruel Goro and its sound, has lured comparisons to bands as varied as The Clash, The Stranglers, and The Jam to the likes of Ash, Arctic Monkeys, The Fratellis, The Hives, the Libertines, Dinosaur Jr., and Weezer. For us the self-titled release brings a weave of Asylums meets Birdland meets New Bomb Turks to the table. That diversity across all references though is because primarily it is hard to pin down the My Cruel Goro sound; it seems bred from varied decades and through a vat of inspirations but with no particularly defined evidence to support any claim, everything just teasing whispers in something quite original.

     Hailing from Italy, My Cruel Goro is a currently Reykjavík in Iceland based trio which formed in 2014. Vocalist/guitarist Andrea Maraschi and bassist Andrea Marcellini had already been making music together for the previous nine or so years, meeting through a mutual friend, before My Cruel Goro rose from the ashes of their previous project, its demise according to Marcellini because “We couldn’t find reliable musicians to form a proper group with a stable line-up.” Then they met and linked up with drummer Tommaso Adanti, from whence My Cruel Goro stepped forward with now their new EP an introduction to broader awaiting appetites for their raw and virulent rock ‘n’ roll.

It opens with Clash and an instant blaze of enticing riffs and probing beats. A single breath of a ‘pause’ brings the throbbing tones of the bass in before the band strolls and swaggers with indie revelry, thick guitar incitement, and mischievous electronic enterprise. The song is a tapestry of fuzzy hues and blustery flavours colluding in a punk ‘n’ roll roar which is as creatively unpredictable and agitated as it is contagiously rousing.

Next up is Crapford, a song quickly endearing itself to ears and appetite with a wonderful opening melodic hook which is as Buzzcocks like as you can get without a touch of stealing. With tangy bass bait and crisp beats alongside, it is a gripping start which only gets stronger as warmer flowing vocals and pop punk hues add to the texture and richness of the song. As its predecessor, if without the final raucous spark, the track is an addictive anthem to get fully involved in before Glue Buzz takes over with its new wave meets garage rock devilry. A perpetual bounce with seventies punk attitude and tone, as well as a horde of spiky hooks, infectious swings, and a noise rock centre which simply transfixes as it meanders and evolves towards its scuzzy atmospheric climax, the song is a glorious end to a striking and thoroughly enjoyable stomp.

It is of course early days but if their first EP is the sign of things to come, My Cruel Goro could be making a hefty impact on rock ‘n’ roll ahead.

The My Cruel Goro EP is out now via Rebel Waltz Records as a free download at the My Cruel Goro Bandcamp.

https://www.facebook.com/mycruelgoro

Pete RingMaster 05/10/2105

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/