Dead Star Boys - RATS

 

Medway, as we've tried to say over the the past year or so, isn't all about Psych Pop and 60s UK Beat. There's a great New Wave Guitar led scene and Dead Star Boys are certainly part of it. The trio's second album is wonderful New Wave.

The band is certainly in your face and a reminder of how great that late 70s / early 80s New Wave scene was. A mixture of the aftermath of Punk, Mod Pop, Canvey Island energy and for all the noise, a way with coming up with killer choruses.

Viv Tucker's vocal is somewhere between Pete Shelley and John Lydon and that backed by a killer rhythm section and an ability to resonate via big chunky riffs. The arrangements aren't ten a penny and allow you to believe that the trio offer a high energy live set.

The pure Punk energy of the splendid Killed By Dreams grips you and adds a surprise Organ accompaniment. So great a song, that it deserved to be the opener. But the equally excellent Plastic Age obviously prevents this. An inspired Buggles cover.

There is such a raucous feel to the whole album. A rawness that drags you in. A hope that the energy of 1979 could be with us again. I was around for that and it fuelled by musical tastes. The noise hides the melody at times, but this is a great set of songs.

You can listen to and buy the album here. The CD is available here.

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The Violet Twilight - Between The Colours And Me (Bandcamp Name Your Price)

 

I am a massive fan of Tim Butcher, the Australian multi instrumentalist behind The Violet Twilight. He offers up extraordinary pastoral Psych Pop albums that just appear with little fanfare. Everyone as good if not better than the last.

He deserves much greater attention. Part of me wants to shake him and tell him that you should put yourself about more, because I don't hear anyone out there offering up better music in the genre. Australia, in particular, is laden with similar sounds that are nowhere near as good as this.

At times, he sounds like a less poppy Orgone Box, other times he resonates with the late 80s / early 90s Neo Psych revival and yet he can also sound 60s hippy trippy. The songs just resonate, particularly instrumentally, in a sort of Kula Shaker way.

But these songs drag you in to an all peaceful listen that kinda washes over you. But a song like Fade Away is a much more all encompassing arrangement that veers close to Toytown. The Reaper is ultra jaunty, almost Brit Pop.

Lost To Time appears twice, the second version is a revelatory Harmonium version that is just captivating. Between The Clouds And Me is a mellow listen, deep, thoughtful, almost shoe gaze at times. An album that provides complete relaxation and that is exactly what is needed in these times.

You can listen to and buy the album at Name Your Price here.

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The Loft - Badges

 

The second album since their 2023 reunion underlines everything that is great about the quartet. Four decades on, they stand as relevant as any of the newer upstarts from both here and the States. Badges is no nostalgia trip.

Around as C86 became prevalent, an early Creation signing and reverential platitudes from the next generations, this could easily be a paean to what has gone before, similar ages to myself, around at a time when music influenced me most, but this is none of that, because the whole listen reveals this to be an album that could be a debut now.

This is beautifully arranged and performed Indie Guitar Pop. Built on inspired riffs that mirror that late 80s scene, but with an intelligent lyrical bent, the songs are great story telling affairs. Instrumentally, they flirt with Paisley POP and the long gone IRS scene.

These are riffs to die for, never more so on the meandering Ex-Lovers And Long Lost Brothers. The twang on Goodbye Saturday Night and that intro riff on Junk Shop make you stand to attention. 1955 is so wonderfully reflective and laidback.

Campervan is a killer song, moody and magnificent with a delightful engaging handclap. Sad Comedian is so Bolan-esque, with its Ray Davies like storytelling and inspired video featuring Stewart Lee. Proper songs built on proper arrangements, what a stellar album!

You can listen to and buy the album here.  The Vinyl and CD can be bought here.

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No Buses - Boys Loved Her

 

One of the things that concerned me about being in a Blog format was people not noticing older Reviews. The 7 posts front display meant that much previous could be missed and although each artist was tagged, that provided a really long tagging list, too unwieldy to be of great use.

So it is delightful to see that the current most popular post over the past 30 days is a 2019 Review of the superb No Buses album, a Japanese band with incredible Intelligent Indie credentials. They are still around, albeit sporadically, I just wish that their music was a little bit more organised distribution wise as they are a superb band.

I put a lot of work into Google Analytics around 2019 and 2020. It was really boring stuff, lots of reading and tip getting, but it does work. Older posts get spotted much more often such as Mick Dillingham's Interviews. It is great currently to see this album and a Listening To This Week Playlist from 2024 both getting such attention.

I Don't Hear A Single has always been a bout the artist and older posts getting attention leaves me with a big smile. In the same way, that I hope people reading a review of a new album then go back to listen to the artist's back catalogue.

I'm no advocate of anything Google, it sort of swallows up everything great and its latest focus completely on AI is totally welcome. But Analytics continues to work with little personal attention. I just wish other initiatives could make new music more accessible. Spotify is never the answer.

You can read the review of No Buses by clicking on the link in the most popular posts section at the top of the left hand side of the Blog. Alternatively, you can click on the review link here.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 18 May

A shorter 22 selections this week. A really strong playlist with some real eye (should that be ear?) openers and one of the best kick offs that we have had in a long while.

The song order is not about song preference, but how the playlist flows.  All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about those who appear here. 

Good Reverend - Fine

The Get Alongs - Sunday Afternoon

The Pretty Graves - Nothing Passes Like Time

Joy Vibes - Someone To Open Up My Eyes

Amateur Ornithologist - I See Faces

TV Star - Reality Cheque

Proun - Miracles

Soft Girl - They Bugged Our House!

Thee Windows - Um Something

Vanilla - Black Saturday

Swive - Fading Out

Rusty Shackle - Your Arrows

Rusty Shackle · Your Arrows

U.S. Highball - Copenhagen Chemistry

Tim Gambles - Through The Sound

Elephant And Stars - Take It All

Foliage - U Love Me

Ram Vela & The Easy Targets - Zoloft Rock City

Ram Vela & the Easy Targets · Zoloft Rock City

The Hollywood Stars - I'm Not Broken

Blueboy - Stardust

Girls Are Waiting To Meet You - Zombie Girl 

Go Sports Team! - Screen Time

Sunny Jim - It's No Joke

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Amateur Ornithologist - The Haunted Life Of Architecture

 

It is very rare for a debut album to reach our Top 10 albums of the year, 2024's Hide did just that and could have been Number 1, but for the quality ly original. on display from that year. You can read my review here. I've been dying to tell you about the follow up for ages and now I can.

The Haunted Life Of Architecture is every bit as good if not better. Daniel Clifford is up there with the likes of Andy Partridge and Stephen Duffy and when Clifford brings the songs home to Sunderland and the other five band members, they become arrangements of the highest order.

Amateur Ornithologist summon up the soul of XTC and the beauty of The Lilac Time. Stunning Orchestral Pop with extraordinary gravitas. Soulful, blissful and incredibly arranged. Songs that are not afraid to take unusual directions when they are already gobsmacking. 

It isn't just the arrangements, the vocal harmonies and rhythm section enhance the joy. This is one incredible listen. At its heart, it is Guitar Pop, but the six take it so far as to be incomparable to that, each song takes you in a different direction.

But, more often it is Pastoral Psych Pop, something that is hard to master, hence my comparison to Partridge and Duffy. Complex arrangements married to vocal harmonies and unique arrangements that are just jaw dropping.

I could have written reams and reams about these 10 songs, but similar to whenever I discover such a great album, I prefer to direct you to a full album listen. I've picked my three favourites that will probably be different tomorrow. Prepare yourself for an extraordinary listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Good Reverend - Sweet Tea And Cigarettes

 

We don't venture into Guitar Rock too often, too often it sounds too good ole boys and come on girl. It isn't that we don't acknowledge the ability, it is just that lyrically, it gets too samey and all Guitar Solo hell. There are exceptions and Columbus quartet, Good Reverend are certainly one.

Yes, they can't half rock, but it is done with such variety, melody and style. Tongue in cheek at times, a little like The Darkness without the high pitch. Across these nine songs, there are so many styles incorporated without ever losing the fact that they are a rock band.

Damn Good Time edges towards Chinn and Chapman Glam Rock. Apple Core Face gets very close to Prog. Icarus even adds Queen like harmonies to something that isn't a mile away from Queen I. My words suggest something that isn't ordinary. It certainly isn't.

Then there is Fine which is absolutely off the scale in weirdness and sheer invention. Rocked up Pop Rock that completely surprises you and makes you halt the album listen to hear it again. Two and a half minutes of sheer joy.

Chocolate Fingers is heavy Psych Pop, totally incomparable to the all out Rock of Mosquito. There is also a surprise 7 minute song halfway through as Whatever You Want meanders on a hypnotic groove that is totally absorbing.

The lesson of the story is don't believe what you initially think. At face value, Sweet Tea And Cigarettes would appear another of those Classic Rock affairs, but one listen and you realise you are in the court of greatness. What a welcome surprise and what a totally splendid listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can buy the album on CD or as a download.

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