Category: Punk
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Martha: Blisters In the Pit Of My Heart
We call this punk because they do, but it’s as much indie as punk, and it’s rather marvellous. Hailing from the splendidly named hamlet of Pity Me (either a shortening of something like Petit Mere or an ironic name for an agriculturally barren area), Martha play a kind of indie emo punk. Musically, it’s bright…
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The Outlines: Streets of London
We’ve been going to Biddulph Moor’s Rock on the Rocks for a good decade and The Outlines are without doubt the best band we’ve seen play. Awesome. It’s not just the music: they were so clearly focused on what they want to say, and had their stage presence sorted down to a T. They were…
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Plague Vendor: Bloodsweat
If an album entitled “Bloodsweat” by a band called Plague Vendor sounds good to you, you’re going to like this. It’s a name for a band playing at the limit of music, be it punk or metal, one that wants a frenzied and loyal fan base to sweat blood in the moshpit at gigs. In…
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Max Raptor: Max Raptor
We’ve been getting Max Raptor material for some years and the raucous punk/rockers get better each time. The opener on this new album, Keep The Peace, is excellent: it sounded like they poured the ingredients of high energy punk into a tube of toothpaste and what came out was more intense and focused than what…
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September Girls: Age of Indignation
We’ve played this the usual dozen or so times but it’s not really an album suited to repeated play. In feeling, it reminded us of PiL for the stripped down intensity, with the vocals/drums giving it the sound of early Siouxsie. There’s a solid drone to the music, with lots of guitar washing over the…
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Heck: Instructions
Mathcore punks Heck were previously known as Baby Godzilla but forced to change their name by a Japanese film company. Which is ironic: play this raucous blast of noise pollution at an invading gorilla whale and it would soon get the heck out. We no longer have to fear alien invasion, at least. Heck are…
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Shonen Knife: Adventure
We’ve never heard of Shonen Knife, who turn out to be a cult Japanese pop/punk trio who’ve been going for 35 years. Kurt Cobain was a fan and they toured with Nirvana, Dave Grohl helping their drummer with the tech stuff. We know this now but listening in ignorance they came over as a jolly…
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The Qemists: Warrior Sound
There are two arguments to make over this album. The negative first: musically this is hugely similar to what Pendulum did a few years back, mixing rock and dance, specifically Dnb, though Qemists have more rock beats. Still, it’s a decade since Hold Your Colour and eight years since the big one, In Silico, so…
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