Hexham Heads - Hexham Heads EP

 

We don't discover everything ourselves, our peers also help. Dennis from the excellent Add To Want List made me aware of this. It sounds so Stiff Records that I was amazed that the quartet come from Melbourne. This debut EP is the absolute dog's bollocks.

Van Walker's vocal is very very early Costello, but the whole sound reminds me of the glory days of UK New Wave. It feels like 1978 again. I mention Stiff, but the arrangements and production are much bigger. The arrangements in particular are magnificent.

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The hooks are plentiful. Big riffs, ace solos and killer choruses, the 4 tracks just left me wanting more and more. Even the slowed down, Music is completely engaging. There is a fine jangle to Say It Again with its catch all chorus. 

My personal favourite is Can't Live Without You, it has everything that you could want in a Guitar Pop song. But, Let Me Go is a close second. It reminds me of great times when music mattered much more to people than something in the background. If this EP were longer, it would be a contender for Album of the Year. It really is that great!

You can listen to and buy the EP here. It is available on 7 Inch Vinyl and as a download.

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Mr Magpie - The Fever Dreams Of Mr Magpie (Name Your Price)

 

For just one week until Sunday 21 December, Mr Magpie have made their second album available to listen to on Bandcamp, where you can also download at Name Your Price. It will then be unavailable until its physical release and only be available to the streamers then.

Call it an early Christmas present if you like, because it is an extraordinarily great album. The Peak District up a heady mix of restrained Jangle with a hint of Gentle Psych Pop and journeys across both Folk Rock and Classic Rock.

The album is wonderfully restrained allowed the atmospherics and vocal to breathe. It is almost chilled at times. Nervous Breakdown is the song that probably best expresses what they are about incorporating all the genres that I've previously mentioned.

The Boy You Never Knew is splendid Folk, still a hint of Jangle, but acoustically led as a lot of the album is. The song is hypnotic. Dead Orchard Voodoo is a haunting listen until a surprise chaotic Slide Guitar outburst at the close.

Meet Me By The Lighthouse is lyrically adept and almost a Porch or Campfire song. Lloyd Loom is almost Americana and Amanita allows you to envisage endless beautiful landscapes. The album is very laidback yet a cracking listen. Too few bands grip you with such restraint.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The Elbow Patches - Achingly Familiar

 

I'm a big John Dunbar fan and although The Elbow Patches may appear to be just another pseudonym for his adventures, there is more to the story. The name was originally suggested for the rockier The John Sally Ride.

However, the sad passing of Sal Maida rightly meant that the group couldn't continue. So here are those planned songs recorded by Dunbar. This really is Pop Rock excellence with Dunbar's gentle melodic vocal lighting up the arrangements.

The title track is really strong. riffs all over the place with a slight Psych Pop Guitar feel. When There's Nothing Left is a jaunty shuffle with a great Country Twang. A song that reveals Dunbar's ability to deliver up sad, slightly snarky at times, lyrics and match them to catchy arrangements.

A Dull Celebrity closes the album wonderfully, again with big hints of Psych Pop, matched to a hypnotic drum beat and almost reaches 60s Garage Beat. You Can't Kid Yourself Any More is possibly the best song on show, but the whole album oozes Pop Rock charm.

Much is made of Dunbar's vocal strength and his self depreciating lyrics, but the album underlines what a great guitarist he is. The self depreciation can hide the talent and I still get frustrated at how little he pushes himself forward. This is a great listen and highly recommended.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Listening To This Week 15 December

 

24 songs this week. A little more diverse than usual and a little noisier in parts without losing sight of what we are about. Plus, the return of Andy Partridge to begin proceedings. The weekly playlist is largely for submissions, not just the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

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 the artists who appear here. 

Andy Partridge & Chris Braide - I Like 'Be' With You

Drool Brothers - The Song That Nobody Heard

Anamanaguchi - Sparkler

you, always - Xanax

Felix Tandem - Hey Now (Back To The 90s)

Fatecrimes - Chemical Default

Teenage Tom Petties - Kudzu Pop

Shapes Like People - Under The Rainbow

The Finest Hour - Needle & Thread

The Planes - Cliff Diver

Fish Night - Splicetime!

furiousball - Separate The Laundry

furiousball · Separate the Laundry

The Unknowns - All Grown Up

Alexa Kate - Forever

Alexa Kate · Forever

Vanilla - Hollow Man

Greg Hill - Glass Blown House

Chris Roach - The World's A Match And He's Dynamite

CrowsVSRavens - Beyond Repair (Monday Mirror)

Oli Swan - Sit And Wait

Oli Swan · Sit and Wait

Hollow Star - Capital

Lemon Ants - The Hill

Stone Tribe - Syncing

Deep Sea Camels - Same Rules Apply

Arn-Identified Flying Objects And Alien Friends - The Crow

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The Magic Castles - The Lore Of Mysticore

 

We don't cover many re-releases, simply because there is so much to deal with that is new. We do make the odd exception and this is one. I've loved this album since its initial release in 2008. I picked it up around 2015.  However, it now gets a Cream Vinyl Release courtesy of the new label, Dust And Memory.

Dust And Memory is a reissue label set up by Alvaro Lisson, owner of one our favourite labels, Meritorio Records which is a massive supporter of the new. The Magic Castles are a five piece band from Minneapolis and the album's base camp is gentle melodic Pastoral Psych Pop.

The album is very much a soundscape, filtering in Shoegaze, Chill Out, Folk Rock and Shoegaze whilst remaining incredibly melodic and engaging. The Psych Pop excels on 10,100. Largely, these are shorter songs than the usual length of this sort of genre.

But, the band do lengthy well too. All Of My Prayers morphs into heavier Psychedelic Guitar and gets very hippy trippy.  Ballad Of The Golden Bird is more wordy, a little shoegaze, but equally Prog, an hypnotic listen.

Hey Kids is surprisingly noisier, true Psych with the Organ sound drilling into your head and revealing how well the vocals work with the sounds. It even gets a little Madchester. The download is available separately but free with the Vinyl and adds the mind-blowing 13 minutes that is Cave Troll Blues. The whole thing is an hypnotic listen.

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You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Greg Hill - twenty-seven

 

I first came across Bighampton New York's Greg Hill via a Listening To This Week submission and Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind still sounds as wonderful. Pop Rock with a hint of the 80s and a tint of Prog, it is a top notch slice of Pop.

A look at Hill's Bandcamp page lists a whole mass of Genres, ambitious hyperbole you might think, but to be honest there are others that he has missed. twenty-seven is quite astonishing for a self performed, arranged and produced album. There is some talent here.

A song like Head First, Upside Down is ace 70s Pop Rock, a little Alan Parsons Project at times, beautifully and performed. Hill does Pop Rock so well, melodic, catchy with big choruses, Glass Blown House sounds more modern, but hits similar targets.

There are changes in direction too. 40 Miles is 80s Synth Pop, Honestly is Acoustic, stripped, a sort of Porch song, a little folk.Dissipate is built around piano and a mesmerising Guitar sound, very West Coast laidback in feel and adds a splendid Guitar solo.

I Know I'm Running Late is something that would bother the current Top 40, hypnotising in places and I haven't yet mentioned the stand out Great Escape. twenty-seven is an awe inspiring piece of art mixing the old and the new. What a great listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on CD and as a download.

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The Planes - Motel For Lightning Bug

 

If we could turn back time and then name bands that should be on the IRS label,  Brooklyn's The Planes would be high on the list. They have an ability to be straight ahead and yet wonderfully obtuse. Sounding Post Punk one minute, yet 90s Rock the next. An ability to be noisy, but then follow it with something so Indie Rock.

If I was to choose my favourite of the six songs, it would be the magnificent Cliff Diver, noisy as hell, but built on a groove, a little Psych, yet stunning avant garde heaviness. But that would be an arrangement that perfectly fits what I listen to away from me.

Tear The World Apart fits more tastes, a hypnotic riff matched by a driving bass. Great Post Punk that breaks into a 90s Rock chorus. This is the band at their most accessible. Radio Summer runs it close though with its UK Indie C86 vibe.

Sleep / Gash is beautifully arranged, a little Radiohead like perhaps. The beauty of this quartet is that they can be incredibly inventive on the like of The Box, but change direction into something less chaotic and frantic. This isn't something for the Pop Kids, more something to blow your mind.

You can listen to and buy the album here. 

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