Album/Single Review - The Ginger Quiff

The Bikini Bottoms – Bikiniland – album review

September 20, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

What are you up to this weekend? Me? I fancy a trip to Bikiniland…

It just so happens, Bikiniland is the stonking new album from the frantic maestros that make up duo The Bikini Bottoms. The album saw its official release last Friday at the Graveyard Bash in McChuills, by all accounts a rocking great night of frenzied hellraisin’.

The Bikini Bottoms have been around for a while now, building up a cult following , honing their edgy rockabilly sound and creating the full immersive package with their furiously paced live show, trademark fringed cowboy shirts and a sideline in natty merchandise.… Read the rest

The Reverse Cowgirls – Bag O’ Bones – album review

September 18, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Should you have come across the music of The Reverse Cowgirls, you would have been forgiven for assuming their origins were the Southern States of the US instead of the environs of the Dear Green Place.

I am shamefully late to the game when it comes to The Reverse Cowgirls, having recently seen them supporting Reaction in McChuills and being blown away by their set. I have always been aware of the name and been in attendance, in body at least, at a gig where they played before but the less said about how I ended that evening the better.… Read the rest

The Zips – IOU

September 14, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

The Zips , arguably the finest Scottish punk band to emerge from the first wave of punk, and definitely, and defiantly, the most vital and valid to this day, just listen to Hear Hear from Down With The Zips, a more perfect analogy for the debacle that is Westminster you will never hear. Jonzip is a prophet.

Another prophetic announcement arrived this week in the form of the artwork for The Zips new album due later in the year. The artwork is a collaboration of Strummer/Clash fans, the band and local talented artists Stephen Scott. Stephen has produced a number of paintings of The Clash over the years (a print of one of these takes pride of place on my living room wall).… Read the rest

Quotes of the Dead – Twist or Stick – new single

September 13, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Today sees the release of the new single and video from Glasgow’s Quotes of the Dead. The song Twist or Stick is a gloriously feisty three and a half minutes of alternative/indie guitar rock with a sinister undertone.

Seemingly telling the seedy tale of several unsavoury characters and their unconventional habits after dark… “welcome to the party where the rooms are painted red, bring a plus one and join me in my bed…” The song is both intensely dark and uncompromising while retaining an upbeat groove. Animated riffing and high-spirited melodies form the backbone to the track as the guitars soar and the resounding roll of the bass verges on ska phrasing on occasion.… Read the rest

Carol Hodge – Hold On To That Flame – album review

September 9, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Carol Hodge (great name ) – and I make no apologies for writing about an album that came out last year. Unfortunately, I only heard it for the first time earlier this year otherwise I’m positive it would have featured in my end of year lists, as it is an album I keep coming back to time and again.

Stop the World…

From the piano of the opening bars of Stop the World in its Tracks through to the affecting close of the deeply personal and raw Bear with Me, I am overwhelmingly emotionally invested in the album. Music is nothing if it doesn’t grab you and fill you with emotion, it doesn’t matter what that emotion is – joy, anger, sadness… anything that engages you, allowing you to lose yourself in the music and feel your skin tingle with raw emotion is alright with me.… Read the rest

ElectraJets Transatlantic Tales album cover

ElectraJets & Fur Dixon – Tarbeach Records new releases

September 2, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Vox

I have just finished reading a disturbing novel, Vox by Christina Dalcher, a frighteningly dystopian view of a future America where men have taken away all women’s rights, limiting them to speaking 100 words per day in the process.

Thankfully, we are currently in a place where strong women are celebrated, a situation reflected in the latest two releases on New York’s own Tarbeach records.

Fur & Cynthia – Bass legends

Bass playing legends of the alternative music scene Fur Dixon (The Cramps, The Hollywood Hillbillys) and Cynthia Ross (The “B” Girls, New York Junk) feature front and centre and as usual both are loud and proud, Fur on a new 7” single, preceding the vinyl release of her magnificent WTFukishima/Return 2 Sender album later in the year and Cynthia on the imminent Electrajets debut album release.… 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

Katherine Aly – Sunny Days – new single/video

August 29, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Katherine Aly follows up The Skin I’m Made Of with new single and video for Sunny Day.

Another charming slice of bewitching piano driven pop genius. The initially sparse hypnotizing vocal layered with harmonies and piano, rising to a crescendo this beguiling tune once again showcases Aly’s mesmerising vocal.

I for one am looking forward to an album’s worth of these tunes.

Watch the video here.

Katherine Aly – website

Katherine Aly on Facebook

Katherine Aly – twitter

Katherine Aly – soundcloud

Katherine Aly – Spotify… Read the rest

Tenement & Temple – album review

August 27, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Tenement & Temple aka Smillie and Queen, highly sought after legends of the Scottish music scene, have released what is set to be possibly one of the most heart-meltingly beautiful albums of 2019.

Thrum

In one of their previous incarnations, Thrum, they delighted with songs like So Glad & Illegitimate Clown, and a magnificent cover of Crying (more about magnificent covers later) gigging regularly and generally being an abundantly talented pair, resulting in them being sought after for many collaborations over the years. Recently contributing in no small part to two of my favourite albums of the last few years – Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders Scenery for Dreamers and Reaction’s Keep it Weird Keep it Wired.… Read the rest

Fragile Gang - A Plausible and Desirable Future

Fragile Gang – A Plausible & Desirable Future (album review)

August 23, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Fragile Gang is a band from El Paso, Texas, their new album A Plausible and Desirable Future takes its name from the novel Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. The songs on the album share some of the book’s topics. As you may expect from a band from their location, the socially conscious songs are influenced by a number of subjects, including migration.

Indie/Noisy Pop/Shoegaze…

The band describe themselves as “indie/sometimes noisy pop/shoegaze” a description that pretty much accurately sums up what I hear when I listen.

Good to Go opens the album opens with a vibrating electric hum, pulsating with energy, building and crackling before it bursts into a mellifluous combination of driving guitar, crashing drums and sonorous melodic vocal.… Read the rest