Album/Single Review - The Ginger Quiff

Songs and Snippets

October 31, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

As a lover of albums, one off tracks and singles sometimes pass me by, it would be remiss of me though not to highlight the plethora of quality stand-alone tracks, singles, or album teasers that have been waved temptingly in front of me over the past weeks and months.

In no particular order…

Deer Leader

Deer Leader follow up the absorbing Four Deuces with new single Crocodile. The single is an epic taste of what the band can do and fairly whets the appetite for more from this remarkable trio. An enigmatically engaging elegiac start to the song, hypnotic rhythms, soothing and reassuring, becoming softer and lulling you into a safe quiet place ….… Read the rest

The Cundeez – Teckle & Hide – album review

October 16, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve been immersing myself in some Dundonian culture lately thanks to Teckle & Hide the latest, and strongest, album from The Cundeez

An Intoxicating Heady Brew

100% proof claims the album cover, and its claims are not wrong. The sixteen tracks served up are an intoxicating heady brew. The Cundeez cementing themselves as a North East Scotland powerhouse. One minute offering an ultimate good time party anthem, guaranteed to have any party jumping as they provide the raw unfiltered craic, once again promised on the album cover. I’m not going to lie though, the party might get messy, there are no guarantees how things might end up.… Read the rest

IDLES – Ultra Mono

September 27, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m not sure if you’d call this a review. Its more me trying to rationalise why I’m finding it so hard to love the new album from IDLES…

I’ve swithered about writing anything at all about this album. It is a total conundrum for me. I’m having a strange relationship with this one. The first time I listened, I was underwhelmed. The second time I began to appreciate some of the tracks. Appreciate – wow even that sounds like damning praise. The next time again, I found myself picking holes. Time and again I changed my impression on various tracks.… Read the rest

More Pandemic singles…

September 27, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

The Filthy Tongues – Pandemic Pete

The real-life apocalypse that 2020 has become has fucked with The Filthy Tongues schedule of recording the third album in the apocalyptic trilogy they started with the darkly magnificent duo Jacobs Ladder and Back to Hell. To keep Tongues fans satisfied the band have just released the second of their global epidemic related tunes, following up Gas Mask Blues with the mighty Pandemic Pete.

The song is a microcosm of everything you could want or would expect from The Filthy Tongues. Colourful storytelling and characterisation. Biting lyrics with a wry dark humorous edge. The opening couplet drolly listing the ways in which an disaster that writes off a whole year might have announced itself…”I wanted zombies and diamond dogs, I wanted triffids and a plague of frogs….”… Read the rest

Lou Kyme – What’s the Worst That Can Happen? – album review

September 11, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Straight out of the deep south comes the melody packed debut mini album from Lou Kyme. I should point out, the deep south I speak of is deepest darkest Southampton. However, you would be forgiven for thinking these seven radiant slices of Americana/country same straight out of the USA.

Chuck magic

In fact, that isn’t so very far from the truth. Despite Lou’s English roots, and wealth of experience treading the boards with her dads’ band, the Okeh Wranglers, there are several American rootsy factors at play here. None more so than an appearance from legendary Green on Red axe man, and general guitar slinging legend Mr Chuck Prophet.… Read the rest

Mt Doubt – Doubtlands – album review

September 10, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

One of the advantages of membership of Last Night From Glasgow is getting your sticky mitts on the glorious recordings ahead of their release. As the date for the official launch of the latest album, Doubtlands, from the magnificent Mt Doubt approaches (18th September) this stirring collection of songs, which manages to be both darkly melancholic but at the same time upliftingly enriching, feels like it has been spinning on my turntable for years such is the welcoming radiance it exudes. A sound that feels like the missing link between the dark storytelling and deep velvety resonance of antipodean troubadour Nick Cave and the multifarious textures of Glasgow’s own Blue Nile and The Bathers.… Read the rest

Emperor of Ice Cream – No Sound Ever Dies – album review

August 31, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Hailing from Cork, a breeding ground for such acts as Sultans of Ping FC, Microdisney/Fatima Mansions and Cyclefly, Emperor of Ice Cream is a band out of time. Their debut album has just been released. Some 28 years since the band formed back in 1992 and 25 years after they split having been dropped by their record label. This release should have been rubbing shoulders with releases from contemporaries from The Frank & Walters to Whipping Boy, A House to Into Paradise. Fast forward to the release in 2020 and instead they are rubbing shoulders with the likes of Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital.… Read the rest

Carla J. Easton – Weirdo – album review

August 25, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Weirdo. What a magnificently peculiar word. One of those words that sounds stranger the more you say it. Also, one of those words that is bandied about as an insult but more often than not can be worn as a badge of honour. Anyone that has had the word casually thrown at them (usually by tracksuit & baseball cap wearing identikit neds) because of the way they dress, the way they style their hair or the music they listen to will know what I mean. On this more-ish pop-tastic album Carla J Easton is claiming back the word for all the weirdos out there.… Read the rest

Terry Edwards Very Terry Edwards/Stop Trtying to Sell Me Back My Past

Terry Edwards – Very Terry Edwards/Stop Trying to Sell Me Back My Past – review

August 22, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Very Terry Edwards

I’m not sure where to start with this one, or should I say these ones, having received not one, but two Terry Edwards compilations weighing in at a mighty 80 tracks in total. Not only quite a phenomenal collection of tunes, but also a who’s who of just about every musical style you could list or comprehend.

The first, Very Terry Edwards is a career spanning collection of tracks celebrating the 60^th birthday year of this most bountifully talented multi-instrumentalist, with a track for every year of his life. This is an extraordinarily effusive body of work, even more extraordinary when you see the list of some of the bands he has recorded with that don’t appear across this 3 disc set, stand up Siouxsie, Julian Cope, Madness, Tindersticks, Hot Chip and PJ Harvey.… Read the rest

Folk Devils – Forever EP – review

August 19, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

The most recent re-incarnation of the prowling post-punk outsiders Folk Devils recently revealed the lead track, their first new music for 33 years, from their forthcoming Forever EP. The full three track EP is due to be released on the 18^th of September on 10” red vinyl and CD

Lead vocals are provided Dave Hodgson in the current line up following the death of Ian Lowery in 2001. A shimmering intro before Hodgson provides a sinisterly gruff and effects distorted drawl, atop a muscular guitar line underpinned by heavy bass, thunderous drums and crashing cymbals. The track rumbles along with a threatening undercurrent, “remember to smile and laugh at the jokes” Hodgson warns before spitting out the line “nothing lasts forever”.… Read the rest