NimfoniA – Vicky White

The echo of the experience involving lost love, Vicky White is the new single from Hungarian outfit NimfoniA. It is a song as sultry as it is melancholic; a serenade of beauty and immersive shadows bred of an emotional tempest we have all experienced.

Consisting of guitarist/vocalist Zozo Debreczy, bassist Gábor Vermes, keyboardist Krisztián Kun, and drummer Zsolt Jánky, NimfoniA draw on the broad inspirations of artists such as The Beatles, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Doors in their multi-flavoured sound. The latter pair most comes to mind as Vicky White seductively crawls through ears with the surf spicing of the guitar also resembling a reflective mix of The Shadows and Thee Oh Sees. It makes for a magnetic affair around a lyrical heart borne from the “sweet nightmare” Debreczy experienced in love with a girl named Vicky.

The track opens with the inviting strum of guitar, its gentle invitation lying within the similarly subdued but enticing mist of keys. Within their lure Debreczy’s dark Nick Cave meets Tom Waits tones unfurl emotional self-reflection, the sturdier gait of rhythms rising alongside to further capture the imagination.

Easily infectious and atmospherically compelling, Vicky White blossoms into a captivating siren of a song fuelled by love and tragedy; a memorable moment with a band you get the feeling we will be hearing a lot more about ahead.

Vicky White is available from September 15^th.

http://nimfonia.com/    https://www.facebook.com/NimfoniA    https://twitter.com/nimfonia

Pete RingMaster 12/09/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Playboy Manbaby – Don’t Let It Be

 

With their recent single still inciting mischief and bad behaviour, Arizona post funk punksters Playboy Manbaby have just uncaged their new album Don’t Let It Be, eleven tracks of creatively nefarious goodness infesting body and spirit.

The union of You Can Be A Fascist Too and I’d Like To Meet Your Parents was a devilish punk riot of a single leaving greed part of appetite and anticipation awaiting the band’s third album. The Dirty Waters/Lollypops Records released Don’t Let It Be soon shows that the Playboy Manbaby sound is broader than ever, bigger than an elephant’s backside in flavour and sound. Having caught up with their previous full-lengths in Bummeritaville and Electric Babyman, both released 2014, that variety will be no surprise to fans but their successor has really gone to town in adventure and diverse fun to truly leave all before it in the shade.

The Phoenix hailing sextet of Robbie Pfeffer (vocals), Chris Hudson( bass), TJ Friga (guitar), David Cosme (trumpet), Chad Dennis (drums), and Austin Rickert (sax) have become a big deal locally and across their homeland, shows alongside the likes of  Mike Watt & The Missing Men, King Khan & BBQ Show, King Khan & The Shrines, Rocket From The Crypt, Thee Oh Sees, Cosmonauts, The Spits, Black Flag, The Descendents, The Replacements, The Slackers,  and Teenage Bottlerocket to name just a few, pushing their reputation as potently as their sounds. Now having been already tenderised by the last single, global attention is surely poised to embrace Playboy Manbaby and Don’t Let It Be. Justice is never a given of course but neither do anything to deter that expected and deserved embrace.

You Can Be a Fascist Too gets the revelry going, a surge of guitar jangle and bass throbbing swiftly joined by the slightly derange and excitable tones of Pfeffer. Spicy melodies and tenacious riffs almost barge into each other as the garage and punk essences of the track bound through ears, salacious harmonies sparking thoughts of UK band The Tuesday Club. For less obvious reason, The Tubes also come to mind a little too as the song stomps around like a belligerent pup, its raw power pop punk quite irresistible.

The zeal pumped diversity quickly comes to the fore with the following Last One Standing, brass instantly flirting with ears with saucy flames as the bass swaggers with deceptive innocence. There is an agenda at play; an intent to turn the listener into a physical puppet and there is no escape for feet and hips to the virulent lures of the rhythms and grooves teasing and taunting within the ska kissed funk escapade. The earnest screwy tones of Pfeffer again are sheer magnetism as too the evolving dark bait pulsating out of Hudson’s bass.

The outstanding track is quickly matched by the even livelier dance of Bored Broke And Sober, its catchy jazz funk garage punk as loco as it is skilfully woven to lure untied bodies. Hooks are as flirtatious as rhythms, every fondling by and flash from the Friga’s guitar ear chaining rascality, and the whole song as those before slavery.

Cadillac Car saunters in next, its low slung groove temptress like as vocals dance with drooling expression of defiance and attitude in the garage punk crawl before Self-Loathing In Bright Clothing throws its post punk/punk tendencies into the ring. A few blows short of a brawl, the track springs its creative agitation with infection loaded enterprise creating a rough and ready tango of fiercely captivating Reuben meets Dead Boys like provocation.

The sultry flirtatious garage r&b of Cheap Wine and the scuzzy pop punk of Popular bring body and soul to the boil again, the latter like a raw Mighty Mighty Bosstones in some ways while I’m So Affluent slips in with a slinky grace as noir lit air hugs skittish rhythms and vocal suggestion. Jazzy with a dark indie jangle recalling The Jazz Butcher, the song quickly blossoms its dark rock ‘’n roll into another majorly bewitching moment within Don’t Let It Be, one with an increasingly tenacious bounce complete with band calls just impossible to be left out of.

That indie sound fills next up Oprichniki too though as all songs it soon shows a jumble of spices and styles in its ballsy pop with Don Knotts In A Wind Tunnel straight after  engaging in dirty rock ‘n’ roll with a certain Rocket From The Crypt fever to its irritable bawl and brass igniting flames. For us it is joy to be unable to pin a sound down, this pair alone showing Playboy Manbaby get just as big a kick from defeating any attempt whilst pleasing their own devious imaginations.

Dark rock ‘n’ roll brings the album’s closing treat of White Jesus to ears, its meandering stroll and creatively incisive accosting portrait of a certain new world leader initially Nick Cave/Tom Waits like before ending as a concussive explosion of Dead Kennedys toned ferocity and bedlam.

The last Playboy Manbaby single set up anticipation for Don’t Let It Be perfectly but barely hinted at the bold inescapable fun and adventure to be found, both which will be hard to find any better on any release across the rest of the year too we suspect.

Don’t Let It Be is out now on CD through Dirty Water Records and cassette from Lollipop Records @ https://lollipop-records.myshopify.com/products/playboy-manbaby-dont-let-it-be-cass with its digital outing available @ https://playboymanbaby.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ButterGravyButter    https://twitter.com/playboymanbaby   http://playboymanbaby.com/

Pete RingMaster 03/03/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Playboy Manbaby – You Can Be A Fascist Too b/w I’d Like To Meet Your Parents

How to describe Playboy Manbaby? Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, they are a six piece punk band where imagining the Banana Splits meets Swell Maps in cahoots with The Tuesday Club and Zebrahead feels the closest in portraying the band’s deliciously creative rioting. They are mayhem in the speakers, irreverence in the imagination and quite simply and as shown by their new single, irresistible.

Described as “the contradictory soundtrack to the contemporary life experience”, Playboy Manbaby is made up by the combined creative mania of Robbie Pfeffer (vocals), Chris Hudson (bass), TJ Friga (guitar), David Cosme (trumpet), Chad Dennis (drums), and Austin Rickert (sax). The past five years has seen the band steal the hearts and support of their local music scene and tear up stages alongside the likes of Mike Watt & The Missing Men, King Khan & BBQ Show, King Khan & The Shrines, Rocket From The Crypt, Thee Oh Sees, Cosmonauts, The Spits, Black Flag, The Descendents, The Replacements, The Slackers, Teenage Bottlerocket and many more. Grabbing major attention on broader landscapes has yet to find Playboy Manbaby, we ourselves only being introduced to them through latest proposal You Can Be A Fascist Too b/w I’d Like To Meet Your Parents, but thanks to the ever impressive discovery of talent by Dirty Water Records, things could be about to explode for the band.

With new album Don’t Let It Be in the works, Playboy Manbaby tease the appetite with You Can Be A Fascist Too, the first single from the impending release. Originally scheduled for a February unveiling, it was brought forward to coincide with the US presidential inauguration. From the off it assaults and lures with a belligerent guitar jangle quickly followed by the raw incitement of Pfeffer’s vocals. Second by second new invasive hooks and salacious grooves fling themselves into the punk mayhem, band shouts and off kilter harmonies wagging a beckoning finger as effectively as the caustic riffs and tenacious rhythms.

The track is a treat and mischievous brawl easy to devour as too is its companion I’d Like To Meet Your Parents. In fact it just about steals the show with its less intrusive but just as virulent dexterity in sound and flirtation. Leading up to a chorus which needs mere seconds to recruit and chain listener participation, the song strolls with minimalistic yet alluring melodies and enticing hooks as vocals make a plaintive proposal with a similarly swinging canter. It is glorious stuff with a foot in seventies punk as the band’s unique modern day mania bellows.

Dirty Water Records have a growing reputation for the eclectic range of their releases, the Playboy Manbaby adding yet another thrilling facet and while becoming one of the label’s best singles yet.

You Can Be A Fascist Too b/w I’d Like To Meet Your Parents is out now on Dirty Water Records and through http://playboymanbaby.com/shop/ and https://playboymanbaby.bandcamp.com/

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Pete RingMaster 01/02/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons – Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll

pic debbie-attwell

As the band work and finish material to grace a new album, British rockers Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons have linked up with Dirty Water Records for the long awaited digital release of second album Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll and quite simply if you missed it first time around and have an instinctive appetite for insatiable bordering salacious punk infested rock ‘n’ roll, than it is a must.

Formerly in a band just called The Johnsons, the Basingstoke hailing trio is fronted by the wild feline wiles of vocalist Puss Johnson with founding guitarist Dirty Jake (Feckle, Lube) and drummer Filfy Antz (The Krewmen) alongside uncaging their own raw and incendiary antics. It is an explosive combination which saw their 2010 debut album Exercise Your Demons earn many plaudits as too over the years a blistering live show seeing the band share stages with the likes of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Thee Oh Sees, The Fuzztones, Mad Sin, The Damned, 999, The Polecats, The Creepshow, The Rezillos, Bow Wow Wow, The Meteors, The Vibrators, Resurex, DragSTER, Trioxin Cherry, and Atomic Suplex.  Three years later, Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll was the cause of even greater eager attention and acclaim upon Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons; a spotlight sure to be regenerated by its digital uncaging ahead of as mentioned a new album.

Featuring eleven tracks spun from attitude loaded threads of everything from punk, garage rock, glam, psychobilly, garage punk and any other form of rock ‘n’ roll you wish to offer, Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is an explosive riot for senses and body alike. Produced by Alex McGowan and featuring guest double-bassist Phil Bloomberg of The Polecats on a couple of tracks, the album instantly prowls the listener as opener Burying The Bodies settles in to place, once set continuing to stalk but with an infectious swagger led by the biting beats of Antz. Straight away there is an obvious devilment in the band’s sound and the lusty roar shared by Pussycat, her presence and delivery a snarling seducing. With big hooks and winding grooves, the slab of predacious rock ‘n’ roll is an irresistible start to a release proving to be unrelenting in its fiery creative and aggressive incitement.

Hell Bent is swift agreement, its whining grooves courting flying rhythms and Pussycat’s plaintive cries, all united in another tenacious track which eyes you up with distrust yet reveals the most compelling enterprise amidst mouth-watering unpredictability before Livin’ With Mum And Dad sees the band move from raw rock ‘n’ roll into a more seventies flavoured encounter as much glam rock and power pop as it is old school punk. For personal tastes, it lacks the bite and spark of those around it but with its Pistols-esque hook and caustic catchiness there is no escaping being sucked in.

Psychobilly flavours the magnificent stomp of Get Outta My Face next, Bloomberg bringing his masterful slaps to the Batmobile meets Imelda May scented stroll with Pussycat like a punk Wanda Jackson. Fiery guitar and senses badgering beats bolster the seriously rousing proposal as the song shows another aspect to the album and the Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons sound.

The scuzzy blues punk of She Don’t attacks and excites next, its corrosive character and sound as virulently infectious as anything upon the album while Mirtazapine uses similar strains of flavouring for its own individual trespass. With a touch of post punks Bone Orchard to its untamed garage punk challenge, the track is a superb mix of rapacious restraint and unbridled furor taking ears and imagination into the darkest shadows of the fiercest volcano.

There is no let-up of the enjoyably exhausting confrontations as Why Do You Hate Me? sears the senses with its punk rock lava around a rhythmic tempest while Dirty Li’l Dog, with the magnetic craft of the Polecat returning, leaps around with uninhibited rhythmic rioting as blues guitars embrace numerous other spices around the carnival barker leadership of Pussycat.

The final trio of songs just epitomise the variety and devilish imagination in the band’s songs; Sort Yourself Out a fuzzy blend of growling punk and toxic blues within The Pirates like rock ‘n roll and Souvenir simply one glorious invasion of garage punk with a scent of The Cramps, Animal Alpha, and In Evil Hour in its unique best track earning triumph.

Closed out by the adrenaline fuelled and feeding Hideous, a final belligerent detonation of rabble-rousing incitement, the outstanding Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is its title and so much more. It might not be a new release but it deserves this new exposure and Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons the fresh attention ahead of what can only be anticipated as another uncompromising uproar.

Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is available digitally through Dirty Water Records @ http://www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk/shop/#!/Pussycat-and-the-Dirty-Johnsons-Dirty-Rock-n-Roll/p/75045471/category=2793895 with physical options @ http://thedirtyjohnsons.com/shop/4564430166

http://thedirtyjohnsons.com   https://www.facebook.com/thedirtyjohnsons/   https://twitter.com/Dirty_Johnsons

Pete RingMaster 14/12/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

The Eastern Swell – One Day, A Flood

If one word had to be used to describe One Day, A Flood, the debut album from Scottish quartet The Eastern Swell, it has to be spellbinding. From the first listen the tapestry of genres which shape its songs catches the imagination but it is with subsequent listens that the real bewitchment blossoms. Inspired by and weaving together essences from the likes of progressive folk, experimental rock, and neo-psychedelia among numerous other flavours, The Eastern Swell combines poetic storytelling and melodic suggestiveness in one impressive captivation.

Edinburgh formed, The Eastern Swell emerged in 2014; the Anglo-Scottish foursome of guitarist/vocalist Chris Reeve, vocalist Lainie Urquhart, bassist/vocalist Neil Collman, and drummer Andy Glover first going by the name of Lainie & The Crows. With a well-received EP, name change, and the signing with excellent Scottish label Stereogram Recordings under their belts, the band set about creating their debut album with producer Pete Harvey (Modern Studies, Meursault, and King Creosote) in his own Pumpkinfield Studios. Themed by tales of “about vulnerability and the frailties of being human”, One Day, A Flood casts individual reflections linked by the underlying premise and a fluid movement from one song to another. Enjoyably working individually, the album’s tracks also impressively create a single experience which is just as potent, maybe even more so, taken in one listen. With self-admitted inspirations to the band, when creating One Day, A Flood, including the likes of Syd Barrett, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, Pixies, Thee Oh Sees, Cat Power, and Gillian Welch, it is fair to say that the album is a rich collusion of styles and flavours honed into one kaleidoscope of imagination.

The album opens with the outstanding Rattling Bones, a track drenched in drama and emotive intensity. A sonic mist first encases ears, this quickly followed by a gloriously evocative riff soon joined by an equivalent lure from the bass. A sudden drop into a sombre air of melancholy with a dour but tempting melody, as the warm tones of Urquhart caresses ears and thoughts, then enjoyably wrong foots. Soon though, the track develops a lively stroll to its gait, marked by the bold roll of rhythms as provocative strings from guest Pete Harvey further toy with the imagination. The song is superb, a seamless patchwork of enterprise and creative hues setting the scene and character of the album.

What’s Done Is Done is next up; sharing the dark throated riffs and bass tone of its predecessor as essences of psychedelia and late sixties/early seventies melodic rock merge and the great blend of harmonies across Urquhart, Reeve, and Collman embrace. It oozes a seductive touch with every exotic sigh, warm surges and electric impulses uniting in a gentle but dynamic rousing of ears and spirit. The excellent proposition is followed and matched in temptation by 1000 Yard Stare where the vocal mix again grabs attention as they immediately cradle ears while psych and folk pop streams of enterprise kiss the imagination. Crescendos of lo fi intensity contrast and work perfectly with this golden glow of voice and melody, the compelling encounter almost tempestuous at times in its Wicker Man like climate and emotion.

The acoustic grace and warm melancholy of Temples is next, Urquhart’s voice uniting with the evocative strains of the cello before brighter guitar melodies and quaintly lit keys dance in ears. Its captivating low key proposal is echoed in the individually bold serenade of Muckish Mountain straight after before Too Little, Too Late reveals its own swing of rhythmic hips and melodic gaiety. Once more the fine and contrasting blend of male and female vocals seduces, a match emulated in the dark throes of the rhythms and radiant smile of guitars and keys. With a subsequent hook to lust after, the song is an intimate yet all-embracing festival of sound and energy providing another major highlight to One Day, A Flood.

The fuzzier air of Quick As A Whip makes a swift engaging between song and ears, harmonies and warm textures only reinforcing its potency before the album’s best moment arrives in the shape of Dancing Zombie Blues. Like a devilish concoction bred from The Dead Weather, Bird Blobs, and Old House Playground, the song rattles and rolls with gothic folk majesty, coming to an abrupt end from which a sonic wash brews and develops into closing enticement Run Down Country Palace. Its nature is of similar breeding though once its raw climate is set, the track’s electric veil parts for the reflective charms of vocals, strings, and a folk honed melodic appraisal. As all tracks though, things are never straight forward, The Eastern Swell creating tapestries that perpetually move and evolve.

Another reward provide is that One Day, A Flood never seems to stop growing in ears and imagination listen by listen, creating an adventure very easy to recommend from a band in The Eastern Swell that we will surely be hearing much more of ahead.

One Day, A Flood is out September 16th via Stereogram Recordings.

 http://www.stereogramrecordings.co.uk/artists/the-eastern-swell  https://www.facebook.com/theeasternswell/   http://www.theeasternswell.com/

Pete RingMaster 15/09/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Los Trasgos Muertos – Eponymous EP

Creating garage rock with a psyche rock aspiratory system, or is it psyche rock with garage rock blood…however you wish to describe it, UK rockers Los Trasgos Muertos have woven a seriously compelling encounter with their self-titled debut EP. Consisting of four-tracks which simply whisk the imagination away into a kaleidoscope of seventies seeded adventure whilst immersing ears into a web of bluesy sonic curiosity, the band’s first offering is quite simply a delicious introduction.

Los Trasgos Muertos hails from Manchester and consists of Captain Reed (bass/vocals/organ), Von Beek (guitar/vocals), and Il Fleishe (drums), three protagonists no strangers to each other from their individual time and experiences in varied bands over the years in their city’s music scene. Once united, the band whilst taking inspirations from the likes of Billy Childish, Thee Oh Sees, Hi Ho, and Ty Segall into their own invention was soon clutching a horde of songs ready for recording, which they did at Eve Studios in Bredbury. Now the sultrily flamed first encounter is upon us all and what a treat it really is.

It all kicks off with Fire In The Sky, a song swiftly binding ears in a spicy blues crafted groove and bass grumbles as beats flash their sinews across the senses. It is soon striding with tenacious energy and creative enthusiasm, hooks and the ever increasing lure of the grooves as tangy and contagious as the lively vocals and melodic endeavour. There is an earthiness to the song which easily grabs ears whilst equally there is a drama to every psychedelic clothed note and anthemic swing. The track continues to bluster like an autumn wind, warming the bones whilst offering haunting shadows and pagan like unpredictability.

The following Step One makes a less spectacular entrance but soon has senses and thoughts wrapped in its opening mesmeric melodic shimmer and vocal embrace. Soon a sixties beat feel adds it’s tempting to the garage rock stomp as the song hits the ground with a lively gait. As its predecessor the virulently catchy encounter swiftly ignites an even greater appetite and satisfaction whilst being relentlessly fascinating though its expectations defeating adventure, a quality which is even more exploited by It Rises!

The third track makes the best entrance of all, its initial slap of beats the trigger to a winy blues rock bred groove which coincidently is almost straight out of the major seduction that is the Karn8’s song Sick. It was an essence extraordinary there and just as irresistible here with its particular haunting colouring. Around it the smouldering tapestry of the song flows like sonic honey, sticky and flavoursome melodies gluing their lures to ears and emotions as the increasingly impressive vocals add their distinct spice to the brilliant proposition. Sometimes there is no escape from the touch of a song no matter what and here is one of the most stirring examples.

The release closes with the dark romance of Roll With The Punches, a track merging the garage punk of The Orson Family and the fuzzabilly styling of Eighteen Nightmares At The Lux with the garage rock styling of The Electric Eels and the psyche temptation of The Doors. It is an enthralling almost intrusive embrace of body and thought, a mouth-watering and riveting end to an outstanding debut.

The Los Trasgos Muertos conjure their own world and psychological adventure with their strangely familiar but openly unique sound; one already ears and appetite are impatiently waiting for more of.

The Los Trasgos Muertos EP is available from February 2^nd

http://lostrasgosmuertos.com/

RingMaster 02/02/2015

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Sparrow & The Workshop – Murderopolis

Sparrow and the Workshop is one of those bands that music always needs, a temptation which is as beautiful as it is shadowed and as expansive as it is intimate. Previous albums, the debut Crystals Fall of 2010 and Spitting Daggers the following year, marked the Scottish band as melodic entrepreneurs of imaginative weaves fusing indie folk and rock pop, songwriters creating rich and emotive escapades soaked in aural colour and resourceful enterprise. The Glasgow trio return with third album Murderopolis, a release which explores their invention for greater and deeper adventure whilst sculpting a kaleidoscope of passion tingling elegance. It is a seduction of evocative textures and mesmeric caresses which quite simply is rather special!

The band consists of Jill O’Sullivan (vocals, guitar, violin), Gregor Donaldson (drums, vocals), and Nick Packer (bass guitar, electric slide guitar, basstard), a threesome which have not been strangers to acclaim certainly since their debut album. The name of Sparrow & The Workshop has equally been wrapped in hungry responses for their live performances which across the time has seen them play alongside the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, British Sea Power, Idlewild, Broken Records, Sivert Hoyem, The Lemonhead, Thee Oh Sees and more, as well as numerous festivals to great success. Released via independent label Song, by Toad Records, Murderopolis strolls through another potent plateau which matches the virulent seduction of previous album Spitting Daggers, whilst walking further diverse adventures.

The band arguably unleashes their greatest shadows at the start of the album, though those dark tints are always teasing the senses and thoughts throughout the album musically and lyrically. Opener Valley of Death is a smouldering triumph, a track which instantly sets the release into the strongest wash of acclaim. Bold yet reserved beats and moody melodic provocation pokes the ear first, opening up attention for the as ever sirenesque tones of O’Sullivan. Her voice is one which seduces and caresses the senses but has a nip in its caress which allows darkness to play with the enchanted emotions already inspired. Like a sun in the skies of the dramatic she guides the listener into a warm soak of colour fuelled melodies and harmonies for the chorus, the track then returning to that provocative hypnotic enticement which started things off for the verses. Those dark and expressive leads have the same kind of wanton visual and emotive sway that marked the opening credits to eighties UK TV show Tales Of The Unexpected, a tempting yet menacing seduction. It is a powerful and riveting track, a song with a sixties call to its breath and vocals, which alone seem like a mix of Helen Shapiro, Kristin Hersh, Chantal Clare, and Debbie Harry.

From such a potent start the album retains its compelling grip with the following Darkness, another shadowed call for the passions which sows the seeds with an opening throaty bass beckoning and reined in male vocal chants. It is a slowly prowling encounter, the song walking with intent around thoughts with lone strands of melodic taunts riling up the appetite further. With a touch of The Passions to it the song widens its lure with the again excellent vocals of O’Sullivan before sealing the lustful deal with heated flames of soaring vocals and acidic mastery, crescendos which ignite the fullest appetite. Like the first, the track explores the depths of light and dark with breath-taking craft and imagination leaving an already awoken hunger for more seized by rabid urgency.

The album continues to show it is as diverse as it is absorbing, starting with the stunning Odessa, a song as different to the opening pair as it is a continuation of flawed light and emotional incitement. A melancholic mesh of vocal, keys, and dark strings gently wash through the ear at first before a strong pause makes way for an equally rich narrative of guitar and rhythms which turn up the heat a touch more. It is a vibrant passion sculpted song which haunts thoughts with classy enterprise and emotional exploration, its latent energy brewing up and exploring the limits of the impressive songwriting, its realisation becoming more intense and magnetic the further towards its fiery climax the band drive.

Through the likes of the first single from the album Shock Shock, a meeting of The Pixies and The Shangri-Las in a folk rock atmospheric haunting wrapped in a sonic senses courting ambience, and the tantalising Water Won’t Fall with its scenic paint and crystalline touch, the band raise new emotive adventures whilst the title track is a noir tinted flame of seventies spiced melodic rock and Wicker Man laced folk which transforms the landscape of the album into a new distinct dance of mystique.

Released the same day as the album, May 27^th, new single The Faster You Spin sets another pinnacle for the album. Another song rippling with an almost predatory intent through heavier melodic rock feistiness, it conjures the strongest contagion with searing flames of sonic and melodic… well eroticism seems the best word to describe it, complete with an ardour inducing addictiveness to its suasion.

Further songs in the scintillating Avalanche of Lust with its wonderful bass itch and the deliciously incendiary Flower Bombs, a song with an array of bewitching infectious climaxes around slow post punk taunting ingenuity, push the boundaries of the album and listener’s greed yet again whilst the closing pair of The Glue That Binds Us and Autumn to Winter leave an irresistibly effective temptation to start the whole emotive course of triumph again.

Murderopolis is a scintillating release from a band which walks beauty and darkness like no other. If Sparrow and the Workshop have yet to guide you through your and their invigorating passions than this album is the perfect introduction.

www.sparrowandtheworkshop.co.uk

9/10

RingMaster 26/05/2013

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Sparrow & The Workshop: Shock Shock

    

    2011 saw the release of Spitting Daggers, an impressive and enthralling album from Glasgow based band Sparrow & The Workshop which certainly for us triggered a lingering attraction to the imaginative indie folk sounds and invention of the trio. Now they have returned with new single Shock Shock and a new evolution of their already striking presence, the song as enthralling as anything they have produced before but with a deeper expanse and richness of ideas to fully capture the imagination.

Formed in 2008, the threesome of Jill O’Sullivan (vocals, guitar, violin), Gregor Donaldson (drums, vocals), and Nick Packer (bass guitar, electric slide guitar, basstard), soon were drawing critical acclaim with the release via Distiller Records of debut album Crystals Fall in 2010. The following Spitting Daggers elevated their reputation and recognition further with its engaging and evocative creativity whilst tours and performances alongside the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, British Sea Power, Idlewild, Broken Records, Sivert Hoyem, The Lemonhead, and Thee Oh Sees only further enhanced their status.

Released on Song, By Toad Records, Shock Shock is the fore taster of the third album from the band due later in the year and a compelling declaration of the new venture in sound the band is exploring. The single finds the band fusing their still vibrant folk enchantment with a feisty fuel of rock and haunting ambience. Within seconds the song offers a sinew and intensity new to previous releases though it is an evolution to their already impacting ideas and imagination which marked their previous album. From the start guitars paint an emotive fiery tapestry to wrap the melodic vocal caresses of O’Sullivan in, whilst the bass of Packer adds inciting yet inviting shadows with its throaty resonance. It is the atmospheric wash though which adds the final provocation for thoughts and senses, its passion courting sonic cloud a slightly abrasive yet golden voice to bring an additional delicious persuasion.

Inspiring loud whispers of The Pixies, Throwing Muses, and The Shangri-Las in many ways, Shock Shock is the perfect invitation and temptation to Sparrow & The Workshop and their upcoming album, a release which is sure to have much anticipation waiting for it after the single ends its own persuasion.

http://www.facebook.com/sparrowandtheworkshop

8/10

RingMaster 11/03/2013

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