Bastard Disco – China Shipping

May22

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

Fashion Week – So Last Season

Mar31

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

jointpop – Simply Beautiful

Apr6

jointpop

Hailing from Trinidad & Tobago, rock ‘n’ roll band jointpop first grabbed our attention and that of the home of our radio shows Reputation Radio a few years back with their lively and magnetic festival of pop and rock. Their history goes back much further though, covering twenty years or so in fact and delivering seven albums drawing acclaim and an ever increasing number of fans along the way. Their latest full-length Quicksand unveiled its dynamic persuasion just a matter of days ago and now spawns its first single, the enjoyable Simply Beautiful.

jointpop began in 1996, formed by vocalist/songwriter Gary Hector from the ashes of previous band Oddfellows Local, the seminal Caribbean rock ‘n’ roll band in the nineties. With the new project came a fresh experimentation of sound and direction from Hector, and a union of some of the best creative and skilled musicians of the Trinidad and Tobago underground scene. It did not take long for the band to reap potent local support either whilst their emerging songs subsequently lured close attention from terrains further afield including the UK and US. Their septet of albums and various singles have consistently pushed the band into a greedier awareness and recognition of the band’s presence, enabling jointpop to tour the countries just mentioned and play some of their most legendary venues such as CBGB’S, 100 Club, The Dublin Castle, and the Hope and Anchor. Produced by Paul Kimble of Grant Lee Buffalo, Quicksand is now starting to lure in another keen wave of interest in the five-piece of Hector, guitarist Damon Homer, bassist Jerome Girdharrie, drummer Dion Camacho, and keyboardist Phil Hill, a persuasion to which Simply Beautiful provides a tantalising invitation.

A lively piano temptation opens up the song, its smiling manner soon aided by the vibrant colour of guitar and a punchy bait of rhythms. A blues air wraps song and vocals as they join the affair next whilst equally a melodic rock substance expands the weight and increasingly fiery character of the proposition. It is not an encounter which leaps out yet is immediately catchy, merging an older schooled rock ‘n’ roll croon with a modern tenacious attitude and enterprise.

Simply Beautiful also offers, if not the diversity which generally comes with the Port Of Spain quintet’s releases and to be found upon Quicksand, certainly a strong hint of the heart of the jointpop sound and the fun.

Simply Beautiful and Quicksand are available now on all online stores.

http://www.jointpop.com/ https://www.facebook.com/jointpop

RingMaster 06/04/2015

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://reputationradio.yooco.org/

Watertank – Sleepwalk

Apr29

watertank-sleepwalk-promopic

Though having graced music for ten years, the just released album Sleepwalk from Watertank is their long awaited debut full length and a monster of a release it is too. As rhythmically and dynamically intrusive as it is melodically addictive and compelling, the thirteen track album from the French quintet is a masterful conjuror of pure addiction. With muscles and intensity which ensures an intimidation of the emotions from their powerful and potent force and equally a lover’s seduction at times from a mellow resonance which is mesmeric enough to calm a raging beast, the album is a passion instigator of the purest temptation.

Formed in 2003 and hailing from Nantes, Watertank has earned strong and eager acclaim with their live presence which has seen them play alongside the likes of Torche, Kylesa, Baroness, Capricorns, Lair Of The Minotaur, and The Ocean. The EP Sub in 2004 sets things off recording wise but it was with the following six track EP Fairy Crimes five years later that there was a concentrated wider attention bred around the band. Such its appeal and the continuing strength of sound and live shows from the band, that the anticipation for their first album has arguably outstripped the hunger for most others.

The Solar Flare Records released album immediately starts gnawing on the senses with the heavy ravenous riffs of Where It All Begins. It is a towering presence with crisp rhythms matching the intimidation of the guitars and bass whilst weaving in between the excellent melodic vocals of Thomas B. caress the wounds. With a laboured sludge gait and rasping intensity the brief but heavy track opens up the ear and beyond to the suggestion of something major impending, an assumption soon realised through the likes of Giant Heads and Pro Crook. The first of the pair is a noise rock sculpted engagement with teasing sonic grooves and pulsating cavernous bass riffs whilst again the excellent vocals and harmonies press their advantage home with ease and expressive craft. The second of the songs again steadily chews upon the psyche with carnivorous riffs from bassist Vincent A. and enterprising and equally scarring guitar invention from Bojan A. and Julien G. Riding a core of post hardcore and melodic rock with a doom seeded spine, the lure of the song is total and magnetic, as is the album to this point.

There are only highlights upon Sleepwalk to be honest but at times it just excites beyond legal allowances such as with Fear Over The City. A metronomic beckoning of its percussive finger leads in riffs which are prime bestiality, their snarling seduction joined and elevated by the following caustic and twisting guitar invention all framed by the punchy beats of Jocelyn L. With a groove as insidious as it is contagious and a raw squalling edge to the vocals, the track is a brute of a track, its sinews flexing at every turn and sonic abrasion igniting the passions.

The likes of the fiery Ants In Suits with its stoner/melodic rock presence holding aloud whispers of bands such as Alice In Chains and Quicksand, and the riveting title track with its wonderfully infectious yet niggling sonic scythes of sound within another stoner/grunge flavoured expanse, only cement and push on the strength of the release whilst How Fast recruits the passions with its uncomplicated yet carefully involved persuasion. Within this clutch of songs is another pair of the loftiest pinnacles upon the album, Far From Low and Holy Tranquilizer. The first is a thrilling heavy rock soaked encounter with more than a Thin Lizzy whisper about it especially in the blazes of melody flamed crescendos and the overall anthemic call of the song. The track actually reminds of nineties UK band Skyscraper a lot and that is definitely a good thing. The second of the two is the best track on the album, though that decision does fluctuate with each listen to be fair. Entering into view with again riffs which corrode upon touch, the song steps into a sinister ambience with the bass opening up its deepest inciting shadows whilst the vocals hold sway with a haunting embrace and narrative. Before the track presses harder onto the senses and thoughts with a rapacious greed and intensity, the song has the feel and sound of the first Comsat Angels album Waiting For A Miracle. It is outstanding, a sonic animal with a siren call.

Sharp Beaks Strike Back is another exceptional piece of sonic alchemy and the closing Six Days a progressively clad kaleidoscope of beguiling and captivating invention and colour rich imagination. It is the perfect melodic flourish to a fascinating and thrilling album. Watertank is one of the most refreshing and musically ingenious bands around so let’s just hope they do not take another ten years to unveil the follow-up to Sleepwalk, though more EPs will suffice too.

http://www.facebook.com/wtrtnk

9/10

RingMaster 29/04//2013

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from

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