Savages – I Am Here EP

Savages - I Am Here EP

By Paul Faller

It’s been a good week for Savages – not only did they release their debut EP I Am Here, they also gave an incendiary performance on Later… With Jools Holland that exposed Mumford & Sons as the tedious dullards they really are. For any band to release a live EP so early in their career is a bold move, but for Savages it’s simultaneously a logical one – it’s logical because the band’s current reputation is built around their live shows, and bold because it demonstrates a significant level of confidence in their own abilities.

For those who are new to the band, they’re a London based, all-female four-piece who make brooding post-punk that’s not afraid to get loud and chaotic – savage, if you will (sorry). Think Siouxsie Sioux fronting Joy Division, or for a 21st century comparison, a more focused version of what The Horrors were doing on their first record – less shock, more awe. (I don’t mean that in an unkind way, either – I liked the first Horrors record.) … Continue Reading

Cuddly Shark – Body Mass Index EP

Cuddly Shark - Body Mass Index EP

By Kenny McMurtrie

Young Knives were the initial point of reference that came to mind when first playing these few sharp and energetic new tracks from the Highland trio, Cuddly Shark. Body Mass Index EP is their first release since 2010’s self titled album, and they’ve clearly expanded their musical horizons that little bit further from what was already a widely ranging palette. … Continue Reading

Dum Dum Girls – End Of Daze EP

Dum Dum Girls - End Of Daze EP

By Russell Warfield

Whether you like the fact or not, it’s becoming clear that ‘Coming Down’ was not just the emotional centrepiece of the fine Only In Dreams LP, but also a pivot upon which the entire Dum Dum Girls trajectory is turning. Of course, Dum Dum Girls have always primarily been a vehicle of necessity for delivering Dee Dee’s material, but ever since ‘Coming Down’ – and never more so than with this End Of Daze EP – there’s been an even more pronounced foregrounding of Dee Dee’s vocal, song writing and personality. This is an approach which, while boasting certain emotional merits, has the effect of marginalising her backing band to the detriment of the entire sound, and more crucially shows the cracks in song writing which strives for a maturity it hasn’t yet achieved. … Continue Reading

Cate Le Bon – CYRK II EP

Cate Le Bon - CYRK II EP

By Russell Warfield

The logic behind the title CYRK II is simple enough: the EP is comprised of the five tracks recorded during the CYRK sessions which didn’t end up on Cate Le Bon‘s ten track LP earlier this year. Good enough, considered in such a literal manner. But as an artistic reflection of the record, it makes a great deal less sense for CYRK II to effectively share a title with its parent album. With ‘Cyrk’ meaning ‘circus’ in Polish, the word encapsulated Cate’s approach across the LP quite nicely – switching up from sloppy garage stomps, to clattering rhythms, to experimental patchworks of noise on a dime. CYRK II doesn’t share this capacity for loose and carefree aural playfulness, but instead offers up a much more tightly focussed collection of tracks – darker and more melancholic, sure, but boasting a more assured shared identity, and ultimately delivering a more satisfying listening experience than its wilfully scatter-shot predecessor. … Continue Reading

Why? – Sod In The Seed EP

Why? - Sod In The Seed EP

By Kenny McMurtrie

Having previously enjoyed Why?’s psych-tinged output I was a bit surprised to see the press release accompanying this offering describe the band as “Californian Hip Hop cult icons”. To further complicate matters they’re soon after referred to as hailing from Cinncinati which last time I checked ain’t in Cali. What the hell’s going on? Only one way to find out… … Continue Reading

The Antlers – Undersea

The Antlers - Undersea

By Russell Warfield

One of the most amazing things about The Antlers is that they’re not consistently just referred to as ‘that cancer band’. And that they shook off that unsavoury fate with the quality of just one follow up album – an album of such quiet majesty as to blow off the cobwebs of a breakthrough album hinging upon, in slow and painstaking detail, an extended metaphor in the form of the tale of a cancer patient wasting away. Undersea severs the tie to that portion of their career completely – a subtle, but typically robust half hour slice of immersive repetition, haunting-yet-seductive falsetto and devastatingly cumulative drama. … Continue Reading

Jacques Greene – Ready EP

Jacques Greene - Ready EP

By Greg Salter

In amongst the huge, ever-mutating world of dance and electronic music, Montreal producer Jacques Greene has spent the last couple of years distinguishing himself and winning fans. Tracks like infectious ‘(Baby I Don’t Know) What You Want’, the Brandy-sampling ‘The Look’ (released at a point when not everyone was sampling Brandy), and the storming ‘Another Girl’ took up elements that had been bubbling through the underground and gave them a crisp, luminous sheen. More recently, he stood out from a fairly strong crowd on Radiohead’s remix album, contributed productions to Azealia Bank’s new material, and moved closer to R&B with his Concealer EP, released earlier this year on his own Vase imprint. … Continue Reading

Saint Max and The Fanatics – Saint Max and The Fanatics EP

Saint Max and The Fanatics - Saint Max and The Fanatics EP

By Kenny McMurtrie

Looking a tad like the hipster younger brother of The Proclaimers, Saint Max thankfully has a vocal style more in line with that of Smiths-era Morrissey than the dedicated walkers from Leith. This spritely five track debut kicks off with a blast of Mariachi-like brass and then jangles along with the trumpets parping and trilling away over the top for an enjoyably upbeat couple of minutes on track one, ‘A Life Worth Living’, with the boy Max displaying a deft mastery of lyric writing as well as delivery of said lyrics. … Continue Reading

TNGHT – TNGHT EP

TNGHT - TNGHT EP

By Joe Bates

If there was anything that defines Glasgow-based label Lucky Me, it’s the wedding of bass music to more commercial chart fodder. From Jacques Greene’s emotive R&B vocals giving his tracks shape to Rustie’s hyper-appropriation of synthesised pop trends, the music it provides a platform to owes as many debts to hip hop, pop and R&B as it does to any genre of club music. Out of the three, hip hop is the one which Hudson Mohawke and, especially, Lunice have gravitated towards in the past, so their coming together as TNGHT with this 5 track EP isn’t especially unusual.  Their individual productions are influenced by the simplicity and brashness of some of the more low-fi hip hop production, so you’d expect the duo to gel well over these shared starting points. … Continue Reading

The Chapman Family – Cruel Brittania

The Chapman Family - Cruel Britannia

By Alex Ward

After their successful debut album Burn Your Town, The Chapman Family are back. This EP of five songs includes new material to wet our taste buds for more hard-hitting music from the Stockton on Tees band.  With most EPs the starting track is rather dull and mediocre, but not in the case of Cruel Britannia. ‘No More Tears’ is a great song with eerie backing guitar similar to ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths. As politically themed songs go, this packs a punch with great sing along parts such as the ending where they chant “No more lies, No more fear, No more hate, No More tears”, mark my words, you’ll see that on protest banners going down Whitehall. … Continue Reading