Eugene Dubon – ‘Finish Line’
Finish Line is the debut EP from Seattle ex-pat Eugene Dubon. Seven tracks of rhythmic bass-heavy post-punk fuzz atmospherics, with Eugene’s musings on subjects such as the goldrush and clocks drolly delivered in a dead-pan style. Unapologetic and upfront.
Score – ‘COPE’
Made in six weeks at the end of 2022, COPE is Score’s seventh long player for Cruel Nature. The album was directly inspired by the musical descriptions to be found in the autobiographies of Julian Cope: Head On and Repossessed. Using Cope’s impassioned words as instructional starting points for each track, COPE references Mott the Hoople, Patti Smith, CAN, Duane Eddy, The Doors, Suicide, Dr John, Sly & The Family Stone and more. Recorded as it was written, in one or two takes in a tiny garage and drawing on an old quote from the arch-druid himself as a creative manifesto: “It had to be very cheap, very fast, very loose. I needed to be an ambassador of looseness”, COPE is an exercise in embracing limitations and existing in the moment, a lyric-less love letter to Rock ‘n’ Roll itself, and a one-word command to the fried modern human.
Kitchen Cynics – ‘Fractured Memories’
Alan Davidson’s follow-up to last year’s acclaimed ‘Strange Acrobats’, ‘Fractured Memories’ is another perfect showcase of this prolific and talented folk legend, whose work draws on his own experiences as well as the characters and history of Aberdeen. Full of charm, his albums are tender, bittersweet, packed with a dry wit and an ear for a melody that can pluck your heartstrings, whilst the words resonate deep within.
Downtime – ‘Neurotics’
A new project featuring the power duo of Mike Vest & Dave Sneddon. Noise rock slide guitar slipstream. Four tracks of power reverse riffs and dirges.
An intense sonic whirlwind reminiscent of Vest’s work with Blown Out
Neutraliser – ‘Capsule Bowed Space’
The second collaboration from Charlie Butler and Mike Vest. A 1hour 19minute immersive piece fusing bass, guitars, synths, piano and drums, creating sonic still drones, space improvisation and deep meditations, with bursts of mid paced psychedelic rock dirges and haunting space capsule static. Mike Vest is a maximum guitarist of countless bands, collaborations and solo ventures, past and present. 11Paranoias, Blown Out, Drunk In Hell, Mienakunaru, Melting hand and BONG. A master of fuzz drone tones, smashed guitars and eternity sustain, influenced by Takashi Mizutani, Fushitsusha, Tomoyuki Aoki. Charlie Butler is a Reading based artist who began a series of solo releases via Weird Beard, Cruel Nature, Fuzzed Up & Astromoon, and Panurus Productions which explore psychedelic, heavy and hypnotic sounds. He is also a member of Cody Noon, Mothertrucker and Head Drop.
All The Heavens Were A Bell – ‘A Wheel Of Burning Eyes’
ALL THE HEAVENS WERE A BELL is a hypernostalgic syzygy between James Watts (Plague Rider, Friend, Lovely Wife, Lump Hammer, Dybbuk, Möbius) and Esmé Louise Newman (Penance Stare, Petrine Cross, Fashion Tips, 1727). Using both self-constructed and commercially available sound machines, exploring the space between free improvisation and absolute intentionality, theopoetics, illness as vector, abstracted ritual, dread drone, trance-formation, black ambience, doomed electronics, hellfire submergence, and ophanim glow. WHEEL OF BURNING EYES is their second document, recorded deep in their vermillion chamber, during the spring of 2022. It is recommended listening for acolytes of Sunn O))), Coil, Deleuze & Guattari, Bastard Noise, Sarah Kane, William Blake, Les Legion Noires, Mark Fisher, Black Boned Angel, Laboria Cuboniks et al