Albert Marshall – Speakeasy

Oct22

Creating an ear grabbing proposal forged in the fires and technical styling of hard rock and heavy metal, Italian guitarist Albert Marshall has just released a debut solo album in the magnetic shape of Speakeasy. It is an eight track collection of instrumental adventures, though a couple also feature the guest vocals of Mark Boals (Y.J.Malmsteen, U.J.Roth, Ring of Fire), which highlight but do not boastfully self-congratulate the undoubted prowess of Marshall whilst making for one rather enjoyable adventure.

Picking up his first guitar aged 16 and self-teaching with Deep Purple records, Marshall subsequently embraced and explored the broader expanses and styles of metal and rock alongside flavours such as blues and funk. Graduating from the Modern Music Institute while already gaining experiences in various tribute and original music making bands he proceeded to become part of metallers Altair, playing on their Sleazy Rider Records released album Descending. Now the Padova hailing musician has ventured forth with his own solo work and first full-length with Speakeasy seeing bassist Simon Dredo (L.a.Rox, Alex De Rosso, Adam Bomb) and drummer Roberto Gualdi (Pfm, Vecchioni, Glenn Hughes) playing alongside.

Inspired by the styles and sounds of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, and Jason Becker, Speakeasy immediately reveals its voice and Marshall’s magnetic prowess through opener Butler’s Revenge. From start to finish, his strings vibrate like suggestive vocal chords in ears and imagination. Alongside Dredo is no lightweight either, the pulsating resonance of his bass equally captivating and appetite ensnaring as Gualdi provides a manipulative frame for the pair to conjure upon.

The superb track sets the tone for the release in style, though each subsequent piece brings its own open individuality and technical dexterity with next up Badlands aligning an enticing hue of restraint to the same eager energy and charge of its predecessor whilst weaving its own picturesque landscape of melodic metal. Wiry grooves vine the darker muscular trespass of the track, their melodic tendrils intoxication within just as potent rhythmic shadows while its successor, Fallen Angel encases the senses in a web of heavy metal endeavour. The first of two tracks featuring Boals, it is a more unsurprising slice of heavy metal yet revels in the individual and united prowess of its creators if without catching fire in our imagination as the tracks around it.

Captivation and enjoyment is only reinforced through the melodic metal waltz of Re Marzapane and the alluring sonic lattice of Dreamlover, the former carrying a glaze to its grooves which is almost punk like against the track’s progressive nature while its successor creates a tapestry of sonic hinting rich with cosmopolitan suggestion and sophistication. Both tracks enthral without deviation before Tristam Fireland re-ignites the album’s heavy metal heart with Boals back involved.

The blues stroll of Ramshackle Blues had personal juices, which faltered a touch with its predecessor, flowing again, its enterprise bound saunter a rousing spark to body and spirit. The brief closing piece of Eclipse (White Horse) equally seduced; its melodic ballad mesmeric, descriptive, and thoroughly beguiling.

And that pretty much sums up Speakeasy and the craft of Albert Marshall, a release and ability which is pretty much spellbinding.

Speakeasy is out now via Red Cat Records across most stores.

https://www.facebook.com/albertmarshallmusic/

Pete RingMaster 18/10/2018

The Senton Bombs – Outsiders

Oct19

It is fair to say that any news of something new from UK rockers The Senton Bombs has us licking our lips in anticipation. Four spirit rousing previous albums among just as potent singles and EPs has fuelled that reaction with each encounter building on the exploits of its predecessor and pushing the Blackpool hailing quartet to the mass recognition and attention we with so many feel they deserve. The band’s impending fifth and new album, Outsiders, continues that trend sparking excitement in appetite at the prospect of something special whilst taking the band’s songwriting and sound to another level of prowess and adventure.

Perpetually varied and flavoursome in its styles and character, the band’s rock ‘n’ roll has eagerly evolved and grown up across their albums. With every offering The Senton Bombs has pushed it and themselves to new areas and adventures but all the time reinforcing the recognisable individuality of their music. With Outsiders, the band has aligned their ever ready punk ‘n’ roll instincts with southern and classic rock scented endeavour on the hard rock side of their sound; the result, a rousing and raucous collection of multi-flavoured and variously delivered anthems as familiar to the band as they are unique.

The album erupts into life with its title track, Outsiders entering upon punchy rhythms and sonic stabs as the ever enticing vocals of bassist Joey Class open up their declaration. With attitude and defiance at its core in sound and word, the track prowls with a swinging hard rock swagger lit by the flames and enterprise of guitarists Damien Kage and Johnny Gibbons. The throaty throb of Class’ bass resonates throughout, adding a darker threat to it all as the bold swings of drummer Scott Mason descend. It is a controlled but dynamic start to the release, an ear and attention grabbing statement of intent swiftly backed and built upon.

The band’s new single, Who We Are, does both with relish and tenacity straight away. The devilishly earthy stroll of the bass instantly had imagination and appetite hooked, its inescapable lure aligned to the perpetually lively dynamics of Mason’s rhythms. Both continue to arouse and manipulate as guitars and vocals join the song’s incendiary holler; a union brewing a delicious slab of punk ‘n’ roll as virulently catchy as it is rapaciously invasive.

From one major highlight of the release to another as Violet Black follows unleashing its own rock ‘n’ roll trespass. With each album Class has developed his vocal presence, almost developing a two sided proposition. Here he returns to the grainy delivery which partly trademarked the band’s sound from day one and is always a welcome essence to their creative diversity. The track itself is a boisterous slice of punk rock with a blues rock lining and hard rock virility.

If the previous track is headstrong, I Am Ablaze is an insatiable hell-raiser of sound and rowdiness; an anthem epitomising the band’s live sound as much as its rebel rousing heart. Raw and feral yet skilfully woven to create a hellacious roar the track is superb; The Senton Bombs at their rabidly infectious best leaving next up Reckless Youth a tall order to match. That it does though by revelling in the calmer side of the band’s attack, growing from a melodic shimmer into a contagious stroll led by the inspiring swings of Mason. Reflecting on times past as youths into the seeds of the band stirring things up today, the song is a bold smoulder compared to the fires that are its companions but just as magnetic and riveting

Across the irresistible country blues rock scented saunter and vivacious swing of Bury The Hatchet and the mellow southern surf kissed croon of Remind Me Of The Moon, the album simply blossoms in its variety of sound and imagination while Dead Revolution immediately had body and spirit addicted to its Misfits laced darkly hued rock ‘n’ roll. As ever hooks escape the band with instinctive agility, riffs and rhythms offering their own spiky bait to get hung up on as vocals lead the way. Similarly the individual craft of Kage and Gibbons masterfully gets under the skin alongside the equally devious antics of Mason and Class’ bass.

Video is a track which would fit as perfectly within the confines of previous encounters such as Chapter Zero and Mass Vendetta; a trademark rather than formula Senton Bombs song easy to devour greedily before Under Offer hits the spot dead centre with its fifties scented modern punk infused rock ‘n’ roll. Reminding of another band deserving mass attention in Canadian outfit The Black Frame Spectacle, the track is a stomping viral temptation.

Wake The Maker brings the album to a close with its classic/hard rock melody shaped howl and though it did not personally excite as those before it, the song is a richly satisfying conclusion to an album which we can only suggest is the finest offering from The Senton Bombs yet.

Global attention is long overdue for the band we strongly suggest but maybe about to be seriously poked by Outsiders, a release and title which sums up the band’s sound and presence within rock ‘n’ roll and the individuality which will always make them stand out and excite.

Outsiders is released November 5^th via Regolith Records.

https://www.sentonbombs.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thesentonbombs https://twitter.com/thesentonbombs

Pete RingMaster 16/10/2018

Matt Finucane – Disquiet EP

Oct19

Following the release of Ugly Scene this past May, an “abrasive, noise-heavy protest” of an encounter, British alt rock troubadour Matt Finucane has its successor, Disquiet, poised for unveiling. Living up to its name, the EP is a collection of songs which as mellow and intimate as they are, come soaked in discord and melodic dissonance. They all breed a mix of challenge and seduction but most of all a fascination leaning towards needing more.

Having come across Finucane back in 2012 through his acclaimed album, Glow in The Dark, an encounter which had us simultaneously absorbed and confused, pleased yet unsure and most of all compelled to pay attention to its creator ahead, there has been constant intrigue to follow how things evolve. Fair to say feelings around Disquiet have not ventured too far away yet the enjoyment of his sound has certainly continued to grow through the offerings between both releases and is now at its most eager with the latest encounter.

As all his propositions, Disquiet is a DIY cast summons on ears and imagination as raw as it is creatively animated with opener Ulterior Motives quickly establishing Finucane’s distinct character of enterprise. Its acoustic/electric indie pop dances and flirts with ears though biding its time disharmony haunts the shadows brewing its infestation by the chord until eventually sparking a low key but inescapable cacophony for a captivating incursion of senses and song. The track epitomises the indefinable nature of his music; art and punk rock possible tags, wonk pop and dark folk others but honestly it is in a corner of its own.

The darker woozy presence of Happy Chains continues the contradiction and temptation, it’s off kilter shimmer and Finucane’s equally divisive vocals infesting melodic radiance like disorientating haze over a sunspot while the following People Move On exposes its fuzz seeded instincts. There is something akin to the kind of music artists like Frank Black and Pere Ubu have spread to Finucane’s sound, certainly a hue in its want and need to unsettle the expected and orthodox.

The EP concludes with firstly the warped melodic reflection of Always A Shadow, a track which feels like the aural side of a distorted mirror, and finally the seven minute plus journey of Dead Men Sing Us To Our Rest. In a cavernous embrace of echo and distortion, emotively and physically, the track is a malaise of frictious harmony, melodic discrepancy, and pretty much unnerving beguilement.

There is no doubt that the music of Matt Finucane is not going to sit easy with a great many but for those with a penchant for disturbing adventure and the song of the asylum, it and Disquiet should definitely be checked out.

The Disquiet EP is out October 19^thvia Crude Records; available @ https://mattfinucane.bandcamp.com/album/disquiet

https://mattfinucane.net/ https://www.facebook.com/Matt.x.Finucane/

Pete RingMaster 19/10/2018

Healthy Junkies – Delirious Dream

Oct18

Two years on from the album Box Of Chaos outshining its impressive predecessor The Lost Refuge, which had started the trend by eclipsing the band’s debut Sick Note, UK punksters Healthy Junkies have again repeated the feat with their fourth album. Delirious Dream is a collection of tracks embracing the band’s broadest kaleidoscope of flavours yet over a punk ‘n’ roll landscape; a 15 song strong release which is for sure their finest moment to date keeping expectations clueless and the imagination enthralled.

Recorded with Brian O’Shaughnessy and mastered by Pete Maher, Delirious Dream is the songwriting and sound of the band at its boldest yet most intricately woven. With the founding duo of vocalist Nina Courson and guitarist/vocalist Phil Honey-Jones tapping into their most imaginative depths yet alongside the rhythmic prowess of bassist Dave Whitmore and drummers Pumpy and Adam Lewis, Healthy Junkies have created a new magnet of sound which needs mere seconds to demand attention through album opener When All Is Said And Done.

Instantly the track is strolling eagerly through ears with a rich melodic hook amidst eager rhythmic bait, all the while keys adding their intimation. Courson’s ever alluring vocals quickly join the mix, adding elegance and harmonic radiance to the earthier breath of the song. With drama soaking every note and syllable, theatre intensifying across the host of twists and turns making up the simply outstanding punk ‘n’ roll incitement, the track immediately sets the high creative bar and striking character of the release.

This Is Not A Suicide brings its own exceptional roar of sound and enterprise straight after. Dirtier and grumpier than its predecessor and driven by attitude fuelled riffs and senses biting rhythms, the track sets its own particular pinnacle within Delirious Dream. Nagging grooves and garage punk spicing also add their incitement to the bracing trespass before the even tempered rock ‘n’ roll of Juliet’s Call saunters in. Like a gothic rock nurtured punk inspired collusion between Siouxsie and The Banshees and In Evil Hour, the track is pure virulence.

The band embraces more hard rock like hues for next up Johnny Demented, its raw sonic haze magnetically tempered by Coulson’s angelic tones. The song did not quite raise the roof as its predecessors in appetite and the passions here yet from start to finish it is a full captivation raising the ante as its holler and breath erupt across its eventful body.

Through the infectiously tenacious croon of Some Kind Of Girl and Ghost Without A Soul with its shadow draped atmosphere, riveting sound and adventure abounds with unpredictability and rapacious enterprise while All Talk brews an emotive entanglement of old school punk and classic rock in its own individual recipe of temptation. All three tracks easily grip ears and appetite though the delicious punk instincts and pop flirtations of The Sound Of My Guitar outshine all. The track is Class-A addiction spurning late seventies kissed new wave/punk rock slavery as ripe with hooks and celebration as a festive holly bush.

The following Boy Or Girl is something akin to a meeting of early Blondie and The Photos and quite irresistible with its successor, Meet & Greet preyed on an already aroused hunger for what is on offer with its predacious escapade resembling a kind of X-Ray Spex/Spinnerette collusion as the band take a swipe at musical greed. It is simply another major highlight of the album echoed in success by the frisky indie/pop punk animation of This Condition with Honey-Jones leading and dueting on vocals.

The album’s worst track is next and These Boots Are Made For Walking is nothing less than full pleasure as Healthy Junkies make the classic their own by giving it a predatory breath as classic rock guitars blaze before James Dean rumbles with old school punk ‘n’ roll lust and uncontainable ebullience.

The album concludes with the pair of Theft and Part 2. The first is a rebel rousing protagonist vivaciously prowling the senses before breaking into a similarly ravening rock ‘n’ roll canter with erupting psych rock bred flames while the second is its dark but incandescent underworld where physical and emotion elements of the tracks shimmer, smoulder, and burn.

Together they make for a fascinating conclusion to Delirious Dream, echoing its title despite their brooding volatility and showing there is so much more to the creative palette of Healthy Junkies, one they have still yet to fully explore.

We always feel a sense of excitement when a new encounter with Healthy Junkies comes along as they have always manage to outdo themselves so far; Delirious Dream is no exception; in fact it pretty much outshines most other punk/rock nurtured offerings around this year too.

Delirious Dream is out now via Banana Castle Records/Cargo Records UK across most online stores.

http://www.healthyjunkies.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/healthyjunkiesband https://twitter.com/HealthyJunkies

Pete RingMaster 17/10/2018

Chasing Dragons – Faction

Oct18

There is no doubt there has been plenty of eager anticipation for the debut album from British rockers Chasing Dragons, especially since the release of their last EP, Faction: Prologue, a couple years back. It was a kind of teaser for the band’s first full-length, unsurprisingly called Faction, which built on their earlier offerings and successes whilst peering into a whole new landscape of sound and imagination, indeed intimation now fully explored and expanded within the new encounter where we would suggest, the Chasing Dragons sound has come of age.

The time since the last EP has also seen the Leeds outfit truly establish themselves on the UK live scene with a big reputation to match, Chasing Dragons sharing tours and stages with the likes of Stone Broken, The Qemists, Skid Row, SikTh, InMe, Diamond Head, Aaron Buchanan and The Cult Classics, Courage My Love, Skarlett Riot, Theia and many more. Featuring nine new songs along with re-recorded versions of the three tracks from the Faction: Prologue EP, the album swiftly ignites attention and imagination with opener Factionless. Part intro part full intimation, the track stretches up from its initial arousal on the ever striking tones of vocalist Tank. Like a flame within unsettled atmospherics, her potent presence is a rich lure and spark for the outstanding piece’s subsequent shadow bound predacious stroll. Portentous yet virally inviting, the track masterfully erupts before making way for the melodically inflamed How The World Went Black. Guitarist Adam quickly spins a web of metallic temptation woven with melodic rock enterprise whilst the track bites through the determined beats of Katie, they courted by the dark rumble from Murf’s bass. Progressive hues emerge as the song evolves, technical craft lining its invention as all the while Tank radiates with her powerful and impressive delivery.

Amongst the band’s influences stand artists such as Halestorm, Avenged Sevenfold, and Bullet For My Valentine, all open spices to the band’s individual recipe as proven again by the melodically vociferous roar that is Parasite and the dramatic exploits of Like Gravity. The latter is a tempest of textures and flavours carrying a volatility which accentuates its warmth and elegance rather than devours them. As many tracks, it is a proposition which grows by the minute through new twists and avenues, all unpredictable and each an imaginative turn along the track’s magnetic journey.

Through the equally tense Bareknuckle Lover, the mercurial attack of the track as alluring as it is resourceful, and the lively emotive roar of For Kingdom For Glory, Chasing Dragons continue to add fresh adventure to their release. The second of the two in some ways promises more than it delivers, certain inventive moments not exploited as much as personal tastes wished yet is still a gripping snare of sound.

The calmer climate and croon of This Time Is Ours allowed a breath as it simply enthralled though it too has a sprightly nature which eventually catches fire with Adam casting another striking blaze veined with mazy temptation before the riveting Devil In Her Eyes wound eager attention around its tantalisingly creative fingers and in turn The Connection takes ears on a saunter through gothic lined shadows and emotionally suggestive caresses before subsequently erupting into a furnace of muscular sonic theatre. The second of the trio is especially irresistible, every moment a clever thread into the next unexpected and virulent turn of the song though then pretty much matched in glory by its successor.

As the classic seeds of the similarly impressing I’m No Devil (I’m Just A Girl) catch fire within its metal/heavy rock drama and Whitehorse teases and fascinates, the album continues to reveal new aspects in sound and craft; the latter’s haunting opening passage an especially mouth-watering incitement for ears and imagination which hints at new corners and corridors for the band to explore ahead.

We Are The Wall concludes the release, the track a ravenous onslaught of sound and intent driven by rapacious rhythms and coloured by wiry grooves and rich melodies as Tank for a final time powerfully incites thoughts as she potently roars.

It is a fine end to an equally ear-catching album which as suggested declares Chasing Dragons at a new level in songwriting, sound, and performance, a plateau teasy to suspect the metal/rock world will be unable to ignore.

Faction is available now across most online stores.

Chasing Dragons November 2018 Faction Headline Tour

2nd – Manchester – Satan’s Hollow – support Ward XVI, Soul Desire, Fear Me December

3rd – Croydon – Croydon Rocks Fest

4th – Southampton – Joiners – support Novacrow + TBC

6th – Norwich – Brickmakers – support The Killing Culture + TBC

7th – Birmingham – Hammer & Anvil – support Novacrow + TBC

8th – Nuneaton – Queens Hall – support Novacrow + Simai + Fleer

9th – Stamford – Mama Liz’s – support Synthetic + Black Hawk Down

10th – Wakefield – Black Mass – support Novacrow + The Sourheads + Seas Of Scarlet

https://www.chasingdragons.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/chasingdragonsuk/ https://twitter.com/xchasingdragons

Pete RingMaster 18/10/2018

12 Stone Toddler – Idiolalia

Oct6

Whilst it is hard to believe wishes generally do come true we have to question that when a long time hope has just been realised with the release of a new album from one of the UK’s most unique and irresistible bands, 12 Stone Toddler.

The band created two of the last decade’s most essential albums for us in the 2007 released Does It Scare You? and its successor two years later, Scheming. They also uncaged a host of tracks which defined the inherent brilliance and unpredictability of their songwriting and sound including The Rabbit, a song which first had us deviously hooked on the band and has never escaped our personal playlist ever since. Though thickly wrapped in acclaim, the band never quite had the rich attention and recognition they deserved outside of their more local surroundings and subsequently seemed to step back into the shadows as its members explored other projects. It is a band though which we know has been the inspiration to a great many artists, all who will be rejoicing with us and fans at their return and a new album in Idiolalia which is 12 Stone Toddler craft and goodness at its most inimitable and mischievous.

With a new line-up seeing guitarist Helen Durden and drummer Robin O’Keefe alongside founder members and songwriters in keyboardist Ben Jones and bassist/vocalist Chris Otero, the Brighton hailing band has linked up with Freshly Squeezed Music for the release of Idiolalia. Immediately as its opener teases ears there is affirmation of what we already knew, the 12 Stone Toddler sound is impossible to pin down or make assumptions about. Musically the band embrace and indulge in strong flirtations with everything from and within rock, pop, and indie to swing, jazz, and more vaudevillian hued exploits; every emerging track individual in character and sound but united in the quartet’s one of a kind touch and imagination.

My Machine starts things up and once its mechanical workings are in order springs a swagger led stroll which needed mere seconds to get under the skin. With a steam punk like breath, the track continues to swing and sway on a manipulative rhythmic pulse, carnival-esque melodies escaping keys to spice guitar bred hooks as the familiar and potent tones of Otero provide a ringmaster like touch. It is an irresistible and irrepressible start to the album instantly setting down a rich marker in the second chapter of 12 Stone Toddler.

The following Give Me the Creeps is just as rousing and magnetic, building its own inescapable lure over a handful of seconds before casting an individual appraisal of life with melodic charm and fascination stirring enterprise. As with their music, the band has always conjured imagery and sparked the imagination with their lyrical prowess and as shown by the first two tracks alone they have lost none of that dexterity.

The animated surf swing of the outstanding Piranha just captivated and mastered inhibitions in hips and feet next while Mirrorball latches fifties seeded breeding to jazz nurtured devilment in its swingbeat flavoured gait for matching success. Add the insatiable rock ‘n’ roll of Just Enough Rope and the almost somnambulistic canter of Carried Away, a track which just blossoms by the listen with its melodic radiance creating something akin to Skylarking era XTC, and you have the kaleidoscopic nature and sound of 12 Stone Toddler in a beguiling nutshell and their ingenuity. The third of that foursome of treats is a wonderfully nagging proposal, its groove niggling away as keys squirt their melodic spicery across the fevered body infesting jive invading the passions.

Across the eager eventful waltz of Heavy Sleeper and the smouldering and increasingly heated melodic sunspot of Nice Surprise, ears are only pleasured by instinctive temptation. Both though still find themselves eclipsed by the following pair of Ride a Donkey and Runaway Train. Neither track was included in the promo sent our way but found to be joining the rest within the album and together providing another major highlight. The first teases with its air scything lures alongside Otero’s enticing vocals before the track’s swarthy landscape embroils country sighs with seaside town quaintness before its simply superb successor takes the listener on a journey of sound and voice escalating the intimation of its title note by syllable.

The final trio of tracks leave no second of sound or pleasure void of bold adventure and imagination, Dig a Hole kicking off the home straight with its virulent manner and step before the senses romancing saunter of The Borrowing Song serenades with the theatre and unpredictability you can actually expect from a 12 Stone Toddler offering. The album closes with one half of the band’s current double-A sided single, Heaven Was Closed, the other part of that teaser opening up Idiolalia. It is a warm and sultry piece of pop rock which simply seduced by the play.

It has been a long wait for 12 Stone Toddler to stir back into life but an intermission in their creativity well worth enduring as they are back as inventive, compelling, and intoxicating as ever.

Idiolalia is out now via Freshly Squeezed across most major stores.

http://www.12stonetoddler.com/ https://www.facebook.com/12stonetoddler https://twitter.com/12stonetoddler

Pete RingMaster 06/10/2018

Millie Manders And The Shut Up – Shutup EP

Oct3

It rapaciously rattles as it tenaciously rolls, aggressively snarls as it leaps around with viral infectiousness. No this is not a riddle but the sound of Millie Manders And The Shut Up on their new EP, Shutup; a proposition which had us instinctively drooling even before the first track of the inescapably mouth-watering release reached its finale.

London based, Millie Manders And The Shut Up stepped out in 2015, the band emerging from Millie’s solo career sharing ear grabbing acoustic enterprise which itself sprung from varied previous projects including Second Sense. With The Shutup around her vocal dexterity and prowess on the ukulele and alto saxophone, the band creates a punk rock bred incitement eagerly embracing varied flavours from pop punk to ska to aggression loaded alternative rock. Similarly though, there are moments certainly within the Shutup EP, our introduction to the band, when essences of styles such as swing, new wave and R&B more than tease. It is truly an appetite rousing crossover flavour which with hindsight shows just why the first two EPs from the band, The Free-P and Obsession Transgression, were so warmly welcomed and praised by fans and media alike and now why, finding its fullest most adventurous character yet, it is a sound which seeds one of the year’s most exciting offerings.

The EP opens up with Right To Life, a shimmer of guitar caressing the immediately striking presence and voice of Millie as the song rises slowly but purposively to its feet. Its sepia jazz kissed sound is alluring enough, Lewis Slater’s guitar winding up the temptation, but it is just a smouldering kiss before the boisterous carnival of its stomp to come. A flick of its hips and the spontaneous burst of dancing flames from the trumpet of George Alan and the tenor sax of Dom Walker spring the track into contagious urgency; ska punk instincts entangling its more spiky rock endeavour as the track bounds along like a mix of Sonic Boom Six, No Doubt, and The Selector. Yet even with those easy to offer references, song and sound swiftly proves its own uniqueness with Millie herself vocally as individual as they come but with a great whiff of Brody Dalle in league with Imelda May and Pauline Black.

The track is superb but instantly rivalled by its successors for favourite track honours here starting with Brave. The imposing ticking of a clock incites the muscular swings of drummer Alessandro Vitiello and as quickly the magnetic tones of Millie. Slipping into a slightly more restrained canter compared to its predecessor initially, the song carries a portentous air; an inviting threat which erupts with fiery blasts of brass searing its chorus placed expulsion. As with all tracks, the body was quickly manipulated by the captivating antics of the song, the imagination and appetite as quickly seduced and enslaved before the equally irresistible Lollipops launched its own compelling escapade. Again Vitiello’s beats thump away with relish and poise as the even grumpier bass of Matt Munford twangs with tenacity, the guitar adding its attitude lined riffery to the virulent slice of punk rock.

New single, One That Got Away, completes the creative scheming and magnificence. The coaxing of the fuzz lined guitar alone offers intoxicating hooks but every aspect of the song from rhythms, brass, and vocals breed their own distinctive barbs to be hooked and aroused by. It might be punk in its heart but as all tracks, it is pure rock ‘n’ roll; manna to the ear and instincts.

Millie Manders has been sharing the goodness for many years now but the Shutup EP is surely the moment attention explodes around the band; so just do what it says and get down to some serious inhibition free rocking.

The Shutup EP is out now @ https://milliemanders.bandcamp.com/album/shutup