Smidley – Self Titled

Photo Credit Hayden

Named after his sadly departed “beloved black lab mutt”, Smidley is the new solo project of Foxing vocalist Conor Murphy. It is an adventure which sees the singer move away from the more intense post rock/dark ambient pastures of the St Louis band to explore lighter climates of indie pop infused alternative/psych rock but lyrically continue his ability to immerse the listener in the heart of songs which on his debut self-titled album either wear an almost mischievous grin or share the richest shadows of emotions. The result is a release which personally captivates far more eagerly and memorably than his day job and leaves the imagination basking in the fusion of melancholy and joy.

Talking about the album, Murphy announced its making as “…the greatest time I’ve ever had making, recording or playing music in my life,” going on to say “I tried to eliminate any expectations for this record and focused entirely on having a good time with it.” Listening to the ten tracks making up the album, it is easy to hear that care free emotion and energy, each song seeming to have a smile on its creative face whether romping with ears or sharing their more intensely intimate moments.

Featuring a handful of Murphy’s friends with saxophonist Cameron Boucher from Sorority Noise, Tigers Jaw’s guitarist Ben Walsh, and drummer Eric Slick of Dr Dog and Lithuania fame amongst them, the Joe Reinhart produced and mixed album opens up with the feisty exploits of Hell. Within its first couple of breaths, it is energetically strolling through ears with bold beats and a great bulbous bassline courting a bubbling of steely riffs and hooks; Murphy’s distinct melodic tones casting their warm caresses across it all. The track’s canter seems to grow more tenacious as brass and melodies weave their sultry patterns across the swiftly engaging slice of inescapably infectious pop rock.

The excellent start is continued and escalated by successor No One Likes You; it’s almost teasing web of cheeky hooks and quaint melodies irresistible with their Buzzcocks meets Weezer like character and virulent catchiness. With more creatively shiny things to induce raw lust and a greedy appetite than found in a diamond mine, the song is pure captivation working its flirtation up to the end when Dead Retrievers tries to stake its claim on the imagination. Its success is not slow in coming either, its more stable strums and calm exterior highly persuasive as it leads ears into a more tempestuous yet still composed blaze of multi-flavoured enterprise, Murphy again steering things with his emotive expression and thought catching words.

It’s more surly body and increasingly fiery climate easily hits the spot before the melodic kiss of Nothing’ll warms up ears and enjoyment; voice and guitar a bare reflection subsequently joined by the warm sighs of sax and the heavier, more hearty saunter of bass and beats. The song is a prime example of the melancholy and hope as well as contentment shaping the release, the latter hues more prevalent within the swinging dynamics and virile indie pop of Pink Gallo. Its intoxicating aroma of psych pop and volatile shoegaze is instinctively compelling, increasing its lure as more volatile textures and flavours erupt across its wonderfully mercurial landscape.

The outstanding Fuck This brings a temptation bred in the infectious inspirations of something akin to The Jam inflamed with Murphy’s own personal devouring of numerous strains of rock ‘n’ roll while It Doesn’t Tear Me Up is an acoustic exhalation laying on ears and heart like a fresh morning dew bred from previous harsh impacts but sharing the dawn of new hopes and adventures. Both tracks simply beguile in their differing ways as too Power Word Kill with its contagion of rock pop; harmonies and melodies rivalling hooks and driving rhythms in seduction and manipulation.

The album closes with the twin acoustic led and emotional contemplations of Milkshake and Under The Table, two tracks which smouldered in their persuasion rather than commanded quick and forceful attention but reached the same height of temptation over time. The honesty to both tracks is as gripping as their sounds and invention, providing the release with a powerful and compelling end.

Also featuring the craft of guitarists Jon Heredia, Dominic Angelella, and Joe Reinhart alongside that of bassist Tyler Long, and percussionist Ricardo Lagomisino, the Smidley album is an instant joy which truly just gets bigger and better with every outing.

The Smidley album is out now through Triple Crown Records and available @ https://smidley.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/smidleymurphy/

Pete RingMaster 03/06/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Elevant – Normal Life EP

We cannot say why but the new EP from UK rock band Elevant kept reminding of fellow Liverpudlian Pete Wylie. It certainly was not in the music, the band and one of their home city’s most essential musical inspirations creating music as similar as night and day yet it was a nagging thought throughout the Normal Life EP. Moving on though, the trio’s new release is a dark and often emotionally imposing proposal but equally one open to infection loaded grooves and an instinctive rock ‘n’ roll catchiness which manages to accentuate rather than temper its shadow clad themes of “love, war, disillusion and displacement.”

Consisting of lead vocalist/guitarist Michael Edward, bassist/vocalist Hannah Lodge, and drummer/vocalist Tom Shand, Elevant has grown since emerging in 2014 to be a potent part of the Liverpool music scene as a band and in its support, Edwards fresh from organising and playing the successful Wrong Festival in Liverpool which also featured the likes of Bo Ningen, The Wytches, Part Chimp, Heck, Evil Blizzard and numerous more. They have also released a trio of increasingly well-received and praised albums with the third, There is a Tide especially lauded. Now it is the Normal Life EP casting its reflections and imaginative exploration upon ears and body, and a fine evocation of both it is too with its web of heavy and alternative rock, psych and krautrock, and grungier elements infused with plenty more spices.

Recorded at Abbey Road by Sam Jones and mastered by Pete Maher (Jack Jones/Scissor Sisters/U2), Normal Life opens with Acral Affection and instantly had ears and appetite enticed with a delicious post punk bassline carrying a funky inclination to its nature as slithers of guitars spark and scythe enticingly across its bows. With firmly skipping beats, the coaxing is swiftly addictive and only compacted by the equally inviting tones of Edwards before a momentary crescendo erupts, the cycle revisited quickly after again. Imagine a collusion between Pere Ubu, Artery, Modern Eon, and Japanese Fighting Fish and you get a glimpse of the song but not the whole picture of its enjoyably but ultimately truly hard to pin down sound.

And that broad tapestry is pushed again by the following Slow, its jazzy funk kissed entrance wrapped in a beguiling atmosphere blossoming further with post rock essences and noise rock trespasses as vocals add their enticement. With melodies courting more Beatles like hues throughout, it is an intriguing affair, slowly working its lures compared to the more direct bait of its predecessor but seeping into and lingering in psyche and appetite with each passing twist and fascinating layer, each helping building up the ingredients and invention of a desert rock/psychedelia shaped finale.

The outstanding Stabs has the body bouncing and imagination weaving with its enslaving post/garage punk nagging around Edwards’ expressive croon, all gaining greater volatility and tempestuousness syllable by note as the track draws on wider flavours for its alluring irritability and spiky trespass. The bass of Lodge is brooding and gripping, the swings of Shand invasive and anthemic as Edwards springs another round of provocative hooks and emotive insights.

The prowling shadows of next up Somewhere Safe uses mere breaths to seduce the senses, its shimmering seventies psychedelia nurtured melodies swiftly absorbing the imagination. It is with the muscular incursion of rhythms and riff led energy though where the track really ignites, an eruption leaving a touch of its intensity in the subsequent return of that initial smouldering air. The track is a fascination for ears and thoughts, not quite matching up to its predecessors for personal preferences but captivating from start to finish before the EP’s title track rumbles and grumbles to bring the release to a stirring conclusion. The final song’s aggressive nature is not adverse to melodic flames and harmonic warmth though, both coating the track’s more feral instincts.

It is a great end to an EP which grabs attention first time around and only incites greater involvement and hunger for its intriguing web of sound and creative drama thereon in.

The Normal Life EP is out now on Loner Noise @ https://elevant.bandcamp.com/

https://elevantband.com/    https://www.facebook.com/Elevantmusik/    https://www.instagram.com/elevantmusik/

Pete RingMaster 03/06/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Hey Colossus – The Guillotine

As proven time and time again with UK outfit Hey Colossus, the only thing expectations can assume is that any encounter with them will be thickly compelling and singularly distinct in theirs and the surrounding musical landscape. And so it is with new album The Guillotine, a release taking the sextet’s sound to a new terrain of adventure and unpredictability whilst bewitching body and imagination like never before.

Formed in 2013, Hey Colossus have persistently nurtured and evolved their sound and its exploration; from the earlier lo-fi sourced, psychedelic and heavy noise rock bred triumphs of Radio Static High and In Black And Gold, the two albums which really drew thick attention the way of the band through the more hi-fi live causticity of Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo, nothing has ever stood still or relaxed into one realm of imagination. Within those albums, there was an open quest to push things further and further.  The Guillotine is no different, a creative emprise of brooding tones and dark atmospheres woven into trespasses of the imagination and physical arousing of body and spirit. Using hindsight, there has been hints to this new vein of fertility within previous releases, especially those just mentioned but glimpses of something startling and vigorously thrilling which trespasses us now.

The Guillotine sees the controlled and new mesmeric tones of Paul Sykes to the fore, his presence almost like a storyteller and as boldly alluring as the sounds and voices found within the collective ingenuity of Rhys Llewellyn, Roo Farthing, Robert Davis, Joe Thompson, and Timothy Farthing alongside. The album begins with the tantalising dark psych rock of Honest To God, a track which is pure alchemy. Its initial wiry psych shimmer breeds a post punk lined meander as a slowly strolling guitar and bass grooves saunter across the awakening web of temptation. Every aspect is a rich lure, accentuated by Sykes’ gentle but dark vocal swing. Like a nostalgia kissed mix of Spizz Energi, Zanti Misfitz, and The Three Johns, the song teases the psyche with its seductive fingers while brewing up a raw energy which erupts with scuzzy zeal. Revolving through each stage of its perpetual metamorphosis, the song is pure manna for noise/post/psych punk hungry ears and appetite.

The exceptional start is swiftly followed by the fuzzier venture of Back In The Room, a track rolling on hypnotic rhythms and fizzing upon the senses with its three guitar pronged shuffle. The dual attack of vocals is just as magnetic, a collusion resourcefully driving the volatile proposition with a hint of The Birthday Party adding to its arousing shadows and increasingly rabid head. The song is part nagging dirge and part raw but multi-textured seduction united in a thorough captivation which eventually makes way for the gentler climate of Calenture Boy which smuggles its increasing delirium through ears while a smouldering climate is equally blessed with a sonic psychosis which sizzles with increasing heat second by second.

Its raw croon is followed by the mercurial enterprise of Experts Toll where beats dance with flirtatious trespass as the bass throws its own captivating dark steps into a jungle of craft and skittish imagination. The song’s relatively calm opening and agitated dexterity is subsequently given to more forceful inclinations, the track twisting into a heavily stomping, dirtily intensive brawl of enticing sound cored again by those unruffled vocals before Potions casts its own somnolent charms around ears like a melodic narcotic shaped with stout rhythms and veined with willowy psychedelic tendrils. As its creative elixir thickens so does its intensity but moving through the stages of evocative density with a calm and fluid ingenuity.

Though every track within The Guillotine had us locked into its snare, certain moments simply steal the passions; Englishman the stealthiest, glorious one of all. A stroll of senses clipping beats, broody basslines, and teasing riffs, the song simply bewitches. Scything melodies and infection loaded vocals only add to the irresistible bait enslaving ears and imagination which though not necessarily in matching sound, creates a tapestry rich in the attributes of XTC, Melvins, Talking Heads, and Fugazi; all twisted and reenergised by the unique imagination of Hey Colossus for total bliss.

The album concludes with firstly In A Collision, another brooding trap of sound and creative cunning as shadowy as it is instinctively catchy, even when its once darkly mellow body and atmosphere ignites with dirty raptorial virility. Raw beauty from start to finish, the song is succeeded by the album’s title track, an even more predatory proposal drenched in melancholy, antipathy, and sonic mesmerism with the bass at its earthiest, carnivorous best. With the guitars as potent in elegance or being abrasively bracing, the song is a final captivation to get hooked on and lost in.

The Guillotine is simply magnificent, leaping to the frontline of favourite releases of the year so far with its manipulation of body and imagination while proving Hey Colossus as one of, if not the, most exciting thing in the weaving of noise around.

The Guillotine is out June 2^nd through Rocket Recordings and available @ https://heycolossus.bandcamp.com/album/the-guillotine

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Pete RingMaster 02/06/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Carnival Club – Magdalena’s Cape

Woven from the threads of numerous flavours which alone instinctively grab attention, the Carnival Club sound is a tapestry which certainly on the UK rocker’s debut EP, Magdalena’s Cape, blossoms from a rich first temptation to a lustfully devoured introduction thereon in. It is an infestation of the imagination nurtured in the creative mystique of prog rock, the hearty emotion of blues rock, the bold roar of sixties punk, and the hazy climate of psych rock. In truth, it is all that and more in a proposal and release which is as fresh and striking as it is the return of familiar sonic strains; an EP which offers the potential of a new essential force from within the ever pregnant Manchester music scene.

Emerging April 2016, the quartet of Eddie Moxon, George Peel, Joe Lodge, and Kai Jon Roberts quickly made a potent impression on the local scene. Now national awareness is being readied and stirred by the outfit’s maiden EP, its mature presence and rich web of sound belying the youth of its creators whilst consuming ears in an adventure bordering on the essential.

Opener House of Cards instantly entwines ears in one spicy groove, its psych blues tang soon aligned to the heavy throb of bass and crisply landing beats. Vocals make for just as potent bait as the song almost crawls into view before settling into a boisterous rock ‘n’ roll shuffle. With every groove and melodic tendril seemingly becoming thicker and richer in psychedelic/hard rock tenacity as impressive vocals equally grow in energy and presence, the EP quickly becomes a captivating proposal only increasing its grip as Mistakes Troubles and Kisses takes over.

The second track has a lighter touch compared to the heavy presence of its predecessor but an infectious swing built on pure rock muscle and emotive intensity. Its pop rock temptation is as much modern indie as it is seventies heavy rock, another fusion already revealing the kaleidoscopic canvas of the Carnival Club songwriting and sound. Its inescapably catchy body and unpredictable but fluid twists only seduce, passing on a willing submission to its bold charms to the following You’re So Hostile. It is a track even more virulently infectious with its eighties pop hooks and brooding rhythmic seducing which within seconds has the body bouncing and hips swerving with its flirtatiously weighty stroll while roaming the psyche like a blend of The Cult, My Baby, and The Doors; essences of Hendrix and goth rock only adding to its best track grabbing magnificence.

The EP’s title track steps forward next, Magdalena’s Cape a mellow caress wrapped in psychedelic wooziness and prog rock musing but with a tart spicing to its melodic  tempting, kind of like a distantly related fusion of The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Electric Prunes to try and give an impression of its sultry beauty.

Another mighty moment comes with the EP’s closing track, Headache a web of crunchy riffs and imposing textures around prowling vocals and stalking rhythms complete with sixties bred punk rapacity. Those stabbing riffs alone ignite the passions, the scythes of guitar and predacious grooves of bass escalating the primal attraction as the ever magnetic vocals seal the devilish deal on offer between song and listener.

It is a masterful and irresistible end to a just as successful release, one still carrying the potential of bigger, bolder, and greater successes ahead for Carnival Club. Magdalena’s Cape is the declaration of something mouth-watering and truly exciting breaking out within the northern music scene. With more of the same, national attention is surely guaranteed and with the realisation of the raw promise within, watch out world.

Magdalena’s Cape is out now through Demolition Diner Records as a digital download, on CD with an additional Ltd Gatefold CD version, and on Ltd Vinyl @ https://carnivalclub.bandcamp.com/track/magdalenas-cape

https://www.facebook.com/carnivalclubuk    https://twitter.com/carnivalclubuk

Pete RingMaster 16/05/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Enamel Animal – Unfaith

Few rock bands have raised the same level of anticipation for their next move than Queens Of The Stone Age with their full-length debut but that kind of reaction is exactly what UK rockers Enamel Animal have poached with their first album Unfaith. It is an enticingly dirty, fuzzy proposition with instinctive adventure in its veins and contagious often grouchy sounds in its arsenal but with a melodic fire which just as easily grabs a natural appetite for imaginative rock ‘n’ roll. Imagine a rawer Soundgarden meeting a mellower hearted Mastodon with the rousing punk like aggression of Reuben riling things up and you have Enamel Animal.

There is so much more to the imaginative proposals on offer than that though, the album’s songs as adept at creating, with varying but always compelling results, more progressive psych rock explorations.  It makes the Liverpool based quartet of Philip Collier, Barry McKeown, Glen Ashworth, and Ryan Mallows an unpredictable proposition which only adds to the fun of Unfaith. Already carrying a potent reputation through shows alongside the likes of FOES, Bad Sign, Rival Bones, and Ritual King, Enamel Animal give it another big nudge with an album getting down to persuasive work straight away with opener Surrender Reverence. Initially coaxing ears with a lone shadowy riff, the track soon flares up with a dazzling sonic wash of guitar, darker rhythms strolling through the midst of the sunspot as grungy and psychedelic hues merge. Soon a fuzzy groove wraps ears and appetite, warm harmonic vocals rising with them, they like the sounds around them taking on grungier tones by the second. It is a tantalising wash of sound, simultaneously earthy and spatial and quite riveting.

War Machine follows with a bigger muscular presence but also its own sultry smog of melodic psych rock intoxication which opens up into calmer passages of harmonic seduction. That Soundgarden like essence is a rich flame across the track but with its dirtier lining and rapacious groove, nineties English band Skyscraper is also reminded of.

Similar textures unite for the melodic pyre that is Horrified; the track growing more inflamed and tempestuous as wiry melodies entwine tenacious rhythms but also ebbing and igniting again like a sonic fire. There is a certain Foo Fighters air to the track while its successor I Love Creationists taps into Nirvana inspirations for its outstanding and bracing punk ‘n’ roll. It is an agitated treat with the boldest mischief and imagination at play yet within Unfaith, ensuring it’s less than two minutes of devilry is unforgettable.

The already budding diversity of the release and Enamel Animal sound continues into the predacious stalking of ears by Death To The Destroyer. Its hungry rumble wears Josh Homme and co essences like a cloak as the song growls in its belly and menacingly flirts with its own unique metal/heavy rock bred tenacity. Together the pair of tracks provides the pinnacle of the album but closely backed up by the likes of Greetings Earthlings with its creative snarl. There is a great irritability about the song in sound and voice, the track facing up to the listener with an enjoyably grubby air and Stone Temple Pilots scented nature enhanced by more of the band’s psych fuelled flames.

Things calm down as The Thousand Years slowly and gracefully entices the senses and imagination with increasingly widening tendrils of fuzzy melody. In time eager sinew loaded rhythms bring their anthemic almost tribalistic lures to the radiant entrance of the song, textures around them becoming more granular as melodies explore exotic realms. It is absorbing stuff growing more captivating with every listen, a trait shared by the album itself and next up Red Is For Danger. To be fair, its heavy blues lined rock ‘n’ roll pretty much hits the spot straight away but just increases its potency over time as grooves wind around ears and song with incendiary temptation.

As the melody woven beauty of Eintracht simmers, bubbles, and ignites with emotive intensity and the following, A Praying Mantis Does Not Pray makes its own persistently evolving journey of boisterously inventive sound, the album just cements its impressive persuasion. Neither quite reaches the heights of those before them but both only grow in strength as new layers or imagination are found  listen by listen to add to the rich enjoyment of the release.

Unfaith ends with its title track, an emotionally charged flight of progressively honed post rock infusing grunge and stoner textures but suggestively elegant with a raw edge intensifying its heart.

Produced by Jon Lawton who also plays across the album, Unfaith is strapped with potential and ripe with craft and real temptation.  It is a full introduction to Enamel Animal suggesting a band with a great future ahead of them if they continue their growth whilst providing a pleasure to be savoured right now.

Unfaith is available now as a name your own price download @ http://enamelanimal.com/album/unfaith

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Pete RingMaster 08/03/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Dearly Beloved – Admission

 

It would have been hard to imagine Canadian band, Dearly Beloved majorly outdoing their last album Enduro at the time of its release, it one glorious slice of garage rock inspired sound built on instinctive and striking imagination, but they have done just that with its successor Admission. If there is such a thing as the perfect record, Dearly Beloved come so close with their new offering. Yet again the band recruits and manipulates the imagination with their sonic tapestries, embracing even greater adventure and variety whilst fully uncaging their rock ‘n’ roll instincts. If the last album was glorious, Admission is majestic; quite simply a primal and ingeniously conjured, addiction sparking roar.

As with its predecessor, the Toronto based band leapt upon and recorded fifth full-length Admission in quick time, using up fourteen days at Dave Grohl’s Studio 666. As ever centered around the vocal pairing of bassist Rob Higgins and Niva Chow, the quartet linked up with produced Daniel Rey (Ramones and Misfits) to record the album, using the famed, 70s era Neve 8028 analogue console that spawned Nirvana’s Nevermind. The result is a proposition which grips ears with vice like tempting while taking feet, hips, and rock ‘n’ roll instincts on a ride of their life.

RIP kicks things off, instantly chaining attention and an eager appetite because of previous successes with a grumbling yet vibrant bassline matched by senses rapping beats. A momentary breath uncages a torrent of hungry riffs and antagonistic rhythms, that in turn the prelude for a controlled yet ferocious rock roar. It is a fiery incitement perfectly contrasted rather than tempered by the warm inviting tones of Higgins and Chow, together a riveting lure in the creative storm. More virulent than the common cold, the track is pure dominance, irresistibly enslaving hips and feet as easily as ears and emotions.

The sensational start is more than matched by These Data, it too fleecing the passions with an opening lure of bass, a swinging groove woven coaxing infesting the psyche as a sonic shimmer sizzles around it. Beats dance with creative tenacity around that prime draw, Higgins again vocally captivating with Chow a similarly magnetic support as the track rumbles and grumbles. It is riveting stuff with guitars adding a great sour spicing to the mix as punk and grunge essences join the garage rock natured proposal.

I Tried To Leave brings a lighter poppier tone next though bass and drums still have that enjoyable crankiness as the pair explores a more Jane’s Addiction flavoured adventure. Every twist and turn in its intoxicating blaze brings fresh ingredients to devour, a psych rock invention only adding to a mouth-watering stomp before Who Wants to Know turns the album’s charge into a prowling, dark toned trespass. Vocally Higgins and Chow conjure a bewitching union whilst sonically the song sears the senses as rhythms dance on the debris with ridiculously infectious wantonness. A subsequent passage of relative calm enables a blues laced groan to emerge, its restrained air remaining as the track expands again until its volatility surges through ears as Chow’s harmonic lures beckon like a siren.

Through the kinetic punk ‘n’ roll of Strobe-Dosing and the abrasive funk of Currents, band and release use the listener like a puppeteer, the first as much pop natured as punk belligerent as it courses relentlessly like blood through veins into the psyche and passions. Its successor holds back its instinctive urge to career through ears, allowing its rhythmic heart and harmonic beauty to entice the senses like a raw blend of Shriekback and Ex Norwegian though as ever, a Dearly Beloved song is never slow in developing new detours and twists to enjoy.

The garage punk devilry of Blood In The Water provides the next major highlight of Admission, its dark heart and tantalising slow rhythmic prowl almost crawling over the senses as electronics atmospherically play and guitars toxically simmer. As vocals and harmonies radiate and yet another wicked bassline from Higgins grips, the track moves and burns like gothic lava.

Its startling presence is matched by that of Boxing Days straight after, the song aural seduction from its bewitching vocals and crabby bassline to its harmonic romancing and infectious tempestuousness. From a fascinating simmer it grows into a conflagrant eruption of sound and intensity impossible to evade not that you will wish to.

It is fair to say there are no weak moments within Admission; no times it comes close to loosening its masterful hold and creative success as proven once more by the closing creative outcries of When You Had The Choice and Future Shock. The former is a romping slice of rock ‘n’ roll with an unmistakable Foo Fighters like boisterousness and aggression in its punk heart while the latter skilfully blends calm and clamour in its own garage rock/punk driven trespass, each entwining a host of flavours in their spirit rousing traps.

It is very easy to keep heaping more praise upon Admission but the evidence is in the sound and time shared with it, though Dearly Beloved need little of either to convince and prove themselves one of the most exciting bands out there.

Admission is out now via Aporia Records across most online stores and @ https://dearlybeloved.bandcamp.com/album/admission-2

http://www.dearlybelovedmusic.com/    https://www.facebook.com/TheBeloveds/    https://twitter.com/thebeloveds

Pete RingMaster 31/01/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Discomister – Cool Is Dead

In its celebration of “uncertainty, vulnerability, and authenticity”, Cool Is Dead is one of the year’s first mouth-watering surprises. From its first moments and touch, the debut album from British duo Discomister had our ears and imagination ablaze with eager intrigue, sparking lustier pleasure with each subsequent listen of its psych rock ‘n’ pop nurtured adventure.

Anticipation in a great many for the band’s first album had been sparked by a pair of limited edition 7” coloured vinyl singles over the past year, both featuring songs destined to make up part of its magnetic proposal. For us newcomers to the creative imagination of Robin Parmiter and Ian Wilson, Cool Is Dead is an unexpected pleasure which swiftly inspires captivation and an eager appetite to know more.

The York based two open up the album with the outstanding Magical, a tasty slice of feisty rock ‘n’ roll just as tempting in its mellow moments as its fiery roar. A thrust of guitar makes first contact, its squeaky grooves and rousing riffs paving the way for melodic vocals and seductive tone of bass as the song slips into calmer waters. All the while it is secretively prowling the listener though, building its drama and energy for another raw crescendo as infectious as it is raw. Vocal harmonies only add to the potency as too their lyrical dance, the track simply a riveting participation commanding treat.

Feed The Rich quickly follows with its own dynamic tempting, guitars poking at the senses as exotically nurtured melodies mingle with ears. Rhythmically also, the track anthemically picks its spot, jabbing away as it incites feet whilst vocal cries spark the spirit. Lyrically crawling over the state of education, the track is pure magnetism, hips and vocal chords as drawn as thoughts and energies in its persuasive stomp before Dissolve allows a small breather, though it too is ultimately a seriously catchy and compelling offering. A psychedelic tinge colours melodies and atmosphere within the song, its lure carrying a mix of Billy Momo and Rain Parade in its intoxication with further eighties new wave flavouring in its bolder twists.

Thoughts of Billy Momo are again inspired by next up I Am You; though only as a shade in the full melodic palette of the seriously superb slice of flaming pop while The Cool Cowboy takes the imagination on a psychedelic ride through a Doors meets The Monochrome Set theatre of suggestion and sound. Its creative lines are a shimmering, haze soaked beauty, the track glorious and as its predecessor, a proposal which if it connects with personal tastes is manna for the senses.

The gentler caress and romancing melodies of Your Faults charms ears next, its alluring minimalistic body perpetually evolving and brewing broader, stronger adventure and intensity with each of its four passing minutes. Its increasing inner fire is magnetically tempered by again inescapably catchy harmonies before it all sizzles out for the advancing revelry of Let It Roll. There is something indeterminably familiar to the song which only adds to its warm and welcoming acoustic hug, a seduction with its own emerging creative and emotional snarl only adding to the already thickly impressive character and presence of the album.

Middle Eastern spices breed another fresh trespass of the imagination in Kettle, its sultry air and exotic hues irresistible within a landscape as strange and sinister as it is beguiling. Track by track, the band and album twists the kaleidoscope of adventure and invention on offer into new designs, the track and its successor, Traitors & Saints no exception, the latter providing a blend of melody coaxed elegance and rhythmic predation in a slowly burning but increasingly bewitching incitement.

Cool Is Dead closes its journey with its title track, a radiant croon of melancholy with its own spiral of psych seeded mystery and temptation heading towards a dramatic blaze of intensity in a rousing climax. It is a gripping close to a slavery of fun and imagination, Cool Is Dead to the fore of the most enjoyable and impressive encounters in 2017 so far and though we have barely touched the closing walls of January it is hard to see that changing over the next eleven months.

Cool Is Dead is out now via Traitors & Saints Records, digitally on iTunes and on CD @ http://discomister.bigcartel.com/product/cool-is-dead-signed-cd-album-free-between-spaces-ep-download fully signed and in full colour card gatefold packaging with artwork by Rachael Burnett and coming with a FREE Digital Download of the Between Spaces EP, written  by the band during the 2016 Cool Is Dead European Tour.

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Pete RingMaster 25/02/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright