Industrial - The Ginger Quiff

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 3 – March

April 10, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Another month, another singles round up, and a bumper selection it is too, 61 songs in this month’s list, This month’s selection comes from a range of bands and singers from newer talent such as Dancer, Soapbox and recent BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year Bottle Rockets through to established legends such as Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, as well as home grown legends Arab Strap and the continued welcome return of James King and the Lonewolves ahead of their new album The Mortality Arcade.

The Top 25

Single of the Month

Soapbox – Fascist Bob

Several reasons for this being single of the month for March, first and foremost it’s a fucking great song cementing Soapbox as one of the best of the current crop of Scottish bands displaying a punk attitude in the true spirit of the first wave of punk, kicking against the pricks and railing against the right wing.… Read the rest

Albums of the Year 2023

December 30, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

Before I list my favourite “Albums of the Year 2023”, an apology.

I have been inundated this year with new music, new albums, requests for reviews and features. First, I’m happy that there is so much great music out there and that I’m party to being able to hear and share that new music, but secondly, a huge apology to many bands and artists whose music I’ve loved and planned to review/feature but it hasn’t happened. I’d love nothing more than to spend my life listening to and writing about music (and the book I keep meaning to finish), but that doesn’t pay the bills.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2023 – Part 6 – June

July 1, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

June singles round up featuring some of the best new music around including joint “Singles of the Month” by the mighty Water Machine, Brenda, Bin Juice and KEELEY

I’m afraid time is not currently my friend, so like the May round up…. only just published in July…. There are no write ups of the songs featured.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t listened to all of them. After all, none of them would be here if I didn’t love them all …

Hopefully my time management will improve and normal service will be resumed in July

Water Machine – Water Machine Pt.

… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2023 – Part 5 – May

July 1, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

It’s taken me much longer than it should have to get May’s Singles Round Up done. I blame fatigue from the onset of unseasonably hot weather in Glasgow… as well as a general inability to fit everything I need to do into a seven day week.

Apologies to all the featured bands and artists this month for not getting an individual write up, suffice to say, every single song has been listened to and loved. Much kudos to the vast number of great new songs in May from Glasgow/Scottish based bands and artists here. I hate to choose favourites but special mention to “Singles of the Month” from Sacred Noise, Kohla, Pedalo, Parliamo, Quad 90 and Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something….you… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2023 – Part 4 – April

April 29, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

Four months into 2023 and the new music keeps coming thick and fast, so much to listen to, so much to love. As usual, there is the evil Spotify playlist at the end, try then buy….

Lambrini Girls – Lads, Lads, Lads

Ahead of the release of their EP, You’re Welcome, comes single number three from feisty punks Lambrini Girls, this time tackling the subject of lad culture and toxic masculinity with great gusto, venting their spleen with impassioned fury. Be sure to catch them when they play The Hug and Pint in June, and if you’re going south for Iggy’s Dog Day Afternoon, get their early to see them.… Read the rest

Drunk Gods – The Immortality Project – album review

April 17, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

I honestly thought after hearing nothing from Drunk Gods since their single Found the Lord & Lost My Soul/Pet Hate, back in 2018, that Ewan was on an indefinite hiatus, maybe he had found “the lord” and lost the music mojo? Thankfully this is not the case, with Ewan taking to social media at the turn of the year announcing the imminent return of Drunk Gods, this return now cemented with the release of The Immortality Project, the follow up to 2015’s self titled debut, and album title perhaps a wry observation and a hint that you can’t keep a good man down.… Read the rest

Review of the Year – 2022

January 7, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

If I don’t get my arse in gear, it’ll be February before I publish my round up of 2022. To be honest, I’ve still got a (virtual) pile of albums still to review… as a result, some of my favourite records of 2022 will be in the lists but remain unreviewed!

Singles of the Year

I already published my top 15 singles of the year (well actually I published a list of 80 songs…. but my top 15 were as follows:

15 – Dumb Poets – Magic Happens

14 – Dream Wife – Leech

13 – Syvdoh – As I Lay Dying

12 – The Bobby Lees – Monkey Mind

11 – Collars – Baby I’m Bored

10 – Keeley – Shadows on the Hill

9 – His Lordship – All Cranked Up

8 – Brontes – First Hand Arrogance

7 – Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something Easy Peelers

6 – Sacred Noise – Part of Me

5 – Junk Pups – Miss Behave

4 – Horsegirl – Anti Glory

3 – Pizza Crunch – Wilting Youth

2 – Water Machine – Hot Real Estate

1 – Monica Queen – What is Home?

… Read the rest

Cathal Coughlan – A Unique Talent

May 23, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m getting to that age now, many of the bands and artists I idolised as a young man are going the way of all flesh. Unfortunately many of them have been taken too young, Stuart Adamson, Bill MacKenzie, Joe Strummer, Prince…All of whom I’ve mourned in my own way, as many of us have. People that made music that had a massive impact on us, with songs that take us back to memorable times of our lives.

I’m not a young man anymore, so I was taken by surprise today just how hard I took the announcement of the death of the uniquely talented Cathal Coughlan, ex-frontman of Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, an artist who stood head and shoulders above his peers of the time, and one of those who you could say they broke the mould of when they made him.… Read the rest

DITZ – The Great Regression – album review

April 21, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

The second great album of 2022 that I’ve picked up from Alcopop! Records so far. On the back of January’s superb release This is My World from Helen Love, comes the debut album from DITZ, in the shape of The Great Regression, an album title which is unerringly accurate for the dystopian post Brexit times we are currently living through.

Brooding

An entirely different beast from the Helen Love album, DITZ produce an unsettling blend of abrasive post punk, mixed with often vicious and seemingly threatening metal guitar grooves and riffs, nigh on industrial in places. Elsewhere the mood is much more brooding, on the likes of Instinct, with a low key vocal backed by an equally low key, but incessant guitar line, the song does, however, rise to a cacophonous clamouring finale.… Read the rest

Vore Complex – A Stranger Breed

August 29, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

I was recently sent a link to an album called A Stranger Breed by Vore Complex. A bit of further investigation reveals Vore Complex to be a former solo project by Ben Powers, with a hefty back catalogue of material (check out the bandcamp page). A Stranger Breed is a collaboration with a guitarist (Ed Rose) which in Ben’s words is “generally poppier and more accessible” than his solo projects under the same band name.

A Stranger Breed

A listen to the songs reveals penetrating industrial electronic soundscapes, with carefully selected samples adding to the darkly atmospheric nature of the songs.… Read the rest