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The Spook School return with their brand new album. Try To Be Hopeful is brim full of noisy, tuneful and triumphant queer pop songs about identity, sexuality and being awesome.

The Spook School are Anna Cory (bass/vocals), Adam Todd (guitar / vocals), Nye Todd (guitar / vocals) and Niall McCamley (drums). Since forming in 2012 they've become increasingly involved with the DIY queer punk scene, taking inspiration from the passionate, like-minded people they've met along the way, and from bands such as Martha, Joanna Gruesome, Trust Fund and Tuff Love. Citing influences including Buzzcocks, T-Rex and the noisier end of C86, the new album is louder, bolder, fuller-sounding and captures more of their live sound'aided and abetted by producer MJ of Hookworms. It follows The Spook School's critically acclaimed debut 'Dress Up' which received plaudits from the Guardian, Uncut ('a rewarding, multi-layered debut') and Loud and Quiet ('this is music for the young and disillusioned, but identifiable to anyone who's ever been frustrated by the grievances of identity and growing up.')

The Spook School have since seen their music used on TV, having recorded the theme tune for BBC 3 series 'Badults'. They have also toured the US, where they became the subject of a Rolling Stone documentary and met Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! Lyrically, its more direct than their debut, exploring issues around gender and identity, the destructive stereotypes that are generally accepted as the norm, and the difficulties of fighting them and building alternatives. Nye was undertaking his own personal journey during the making of the record too, beginning to really embrace his trans identity and starting testosterone therapy, a side effect of which meant that his voice kept changing throughout the recording process. The Spook School are a band in the most communal sense of the word. Songwriting is split between all 4 members, giving a different perspective and energy to each song. 'Richard and Judy' talks about conservatism and how easy it is to accept that this is what 'normal' is and how schools are 'such horrible little places of enforced heteronormativity'.

The opening track, 'Burn Masculinity' (on a new Plan-It-X Records comp), is an empowering anthem for our time that challenges male privilege. The first single proper, 'I Want To Kiss You', captures the excitement and anticipation of meeting someone, thinking they're the most interesting person ever and not wanting to wait to see them again. 'It's totally about kissing people,' concludes Nye. Perhaps the standout track is 'Binary', a song about questioning gender norms, something that Nye's experience of coming out as being trans has forced him to think about..'I'm so proud and fortunate to know quite a few amazing people who openly identify as non-binary, genderqueer or other non-binary identities - they exist in the world on their own terms and consistently challenge something that so many people just take as read. This song has quickly become a live favourite, prompting massed choruses of the 'I am bigger than a hexadecimal' line.

Try To Be Hopeful is the sound of a band growing up, embracing their identities, and taking charge at the world. The Spook School are the shot of optimism we've been hoping for.

Tracklisting:
1. Burn Masculinity
2. Richard and Judy
3. Friday Night
4. Speak When You're Spoken To
5. August 17th
6. Everybody Needs to Be in Love
7. Vicious Machine
8. I Want To Kiss You
9. Books And Hooks And Movements
10. Binary
11. Try To Be Hopeful

Available on Blood Red Vinyl and CD.

Initially lurching from the UK noise underground in 2003 like a bedraggled audial creature rendered from toxic waste in a VHS horror movie, the musical growth rate of Hey Colossus has been quite a spectacle to observe. Yet from the nightmarish murk of early driller-killer works such as 2004's debut Hates You'and 2008's Happy Birthday'to more recent nuggets of perversity like 2013's Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo', this beast has mutated and evolved into something uncommonly alluring.

The six-piece London-via-Somerset troupe began 2015 with February's release of In Black And Gold'- in which the brawny repetition-driven raunch they built their sound on was furnished and burnished by dub-derived spatial awareness and cinematic drama, making it both a bold reinvention and an uncommonly compulsive avant-rock document. Yet not content with this, the band immediately set about following it up with their second album of the year, and one that further ups the ante on their savagely graceful assault.

Radio Static High'is the sound of a confident outfit honing their attack to become a veritable force of nature. With the band citing - tongue presumably firmly lodged in cheek - inspirations as diverse as Jane's Addiction, Fleetwood Mac (Tango In The Night era) and Cypress Hill, songs were constructed at a fierce rate of knots, yet with a focus and intensity partly instilled by band members living hundreds of miles apart, and partly by the relentless passage of time.

'We have noticed a small wave of incredible goodwill towards us. We want to give as we receive.' notes guitarist Jonathan Richards, whose chiming lead guitar plays a notable role in the album's Paris,Texas-esque midday ambience..'Maybe the knowledge of our 12 years together makes us aware of our mortality. Time is limited. A band's purpose is to create' Songs took shape from demos, exchanged riffs and drunken text messages alike -one such from guitarist Bob Davis to Richards demanding an homage to Neil Young's Cortez The Killer'resulted in a demo to that effect a mere 20 minutes later. which eventually became album centrepiece Memories Of Wonder'.

Elsewhere, Hop The Railings'takes the powerfully propulsive groove of Can and cross-pollinates it with Beefheartian interweaving triple-guitar skronk to make a heat-haze-dwelling juggernaut of intimidating proportions, whilst the closing double-drop of Hesitation Time'and 'Honey'hits like Joy Division repurposed for the soundtrack to True Detective. 'After 12 years functioning in a Noiserock/Doom/Kraut/whatever scene of sorts and being aware of unwanted repetition, we feel it is more subversive for us to compose songs with rigid song structures than it is to absentmindedly clang off another riff-athon.'

Richards adds:
Indeed, with all the bulldozing primal drive of heavy AmRep-style rock and none of the cliches, and a sound infused with leftfield sleight-of-hand yet hitting home like hammer to anvil, Hey Colossus prove themselves as potent as they are prolific. What's more, 'Radio Static High', in all its sunkissed widescreen glory, is set to leave most all their contemporaries eating their dust.

Tracklisting:
1. Radio Static High
2. March of the Headaches
3. Hop the Railings
4. Numbed Out
5. Memories of Wonder
6. Snapping Undone
7. Another Head
8. The Mourning Gong
9. Hesitation Time
10. Honey

#Order now and get an instant download of the EP.#

Very limited 7' single (300 only worldwide)

'Human Requirements' is the next single to be taken from Batteries, the debut solo album from Sci-Fi Steven from bis'new band Batteries, which is out now via Do Yourself In. The single will come out on 11 September and will be available as a double AA side single with the song 'Softhead', a new recording exclusive to this this 7'. 

As Sci-Fi Steven Explains, the song "Human Requirements" is a 'thinly veiled political rant about the desperate inability of the electorate to fundamentally put collective welfare ahead of short-term selfishness. The "say-one-thing, vote-another" mentality that pervades and my frustration at conservative negativity. Somehow, it seems to have turned into a pop song with a skinny-tie sprightliness."

More info about Batteries:

Batteries is the self-titled debut solo album by Steven Clark (professionally known as Sci-Fi Steven) from Glasgow's Punk/Disco legends bis. An exercise in short, sharp new-wave snappiness, Steven has ramped up the guitars and latent aggression to create a new sound which has already been compared to Devo playing Queens of the Stone Age or vice-versa. Nagging melodies abound with some darker twists and a cynical sense of positivity informs the lyrics. There are plenty of pop hooks for the bis faithful, but Batteries is an angrier beast. 

"Irresistible post-punk pop." Vive Le Rock 9/10

"The self-titled debut album from Batteries fizzes with post-punk energy across its 12 tracks, poking you in the ribs with arpeggio riffs that are all angles and elbows." The Herald

 

"The lead single, which like the project and the album is also called Batteries', is the perfect lead in to the project. It's a sharp-edged three minutes, pushing itself forward with stop-start rhythms, and bloody hell it's catchy." CMU

Tracklisting:
1. Human Requirements
2. Softhead
3. Human Requirements (Skylab Remix)
4. Human Requirements (Glitterous Remix)
5. Human Requirements (Video)

Links:

www.batteriesmusic.com

https://www.facebook.com/batteriesmusic

https://twitter.com/batteriesmusic

 

Limited edition of 500 on coloured vinyl (coke bottle clear vinyl).

Manchester's The Underground Youth is here with with yet another hauntingly beautiful record that blends shoegaze, post-punk and psychedelia.

TUY is the name under which Manchester's underground poet, Craig Dyer, has produced his records since 2009.

In 2011, Fuzz Club Records started putting out his prolific catalogue, bringing to light a number of LPs and singles that had only circulated virally on the Internet.

Since then, TUY, with Craig and Olya Dyer as the core of the band, have expanded to a five piece, gaining a solid international fan-base and touring all around the UK and Europe.

Drown In Sound said of their Eindhoven set: 'combining the mesmeric rhythms of The Velvet Underground - Olya Dyer's driving beats make her the new psych generation's Mo Tucker - with rippling feedback associated with Bad Moon Risingera Sonic Youth and a dash of the Mary Chain thrown in as well, they're a captivating force'.

Tracklisting:
1. Collapsing Into Night
2. Haunted
3. Dreaming With Maya Deren
4. Self Inflicted
5. Drown In Me
6. The Girl Behind
7. Slave
8. Deep Inside Of Me
9. Returning To Shadow

Salad Boys came together at the end of 2012 with members from other illustrious Christchurch groups T54, Bang! Bang! Eche! and the Dance Asthmatics.

Recorded, the Salad Boys are deceivingly charming, presenting a careful but curious balance of well-informed pop melodies, hypnotizing rhythms and heady instrumentation.

The group's self-titled mini-album released in 2013 caused something of a mini-sensation, receiving praise from the likes of Stolen Girlfriends Club, Mess and Noise, hhhhappy.com and many more. In real life, the Salad Boys perform a wondrous assault: a charged up blitz of clanging guitars, intoxicating drones, head-down acid repetition and an abundance of dazzling pop hooks.

This notoriety has scored the group a wealth of engagements up and down New Zealand including slots at the Camp a Low Hum and Chronophonium festivals, gigs with Sebadoh, The Bats, & Parquet Courts as well as a highly honorable spot performing as backing band for David Kilgour of legendary NZ group The Clean. 2015 finds the band prepping their proper full-length debut "Metalmania" out in September on Chicago label, Trouble In Mind Records.

Tracklisting:
1. Here's No Use
2. Dream Date
3. Daytime Television
4. Better Pick Ups
5. My Decay
6. No Taste Bomber
7. Bow to your Sensation
8. I'm A Mountain
9. Hit Her And Run
10. First Eight

Limited Edition 7" on blue vinyl.

"Propped Up" is the first single to be taken from the debut album Hide and Seek from Mammoth Penguins, the new band fronted by Emma Kupa, formerly of BBC 6 Music favourites Standard Fare.

With a stirring chorus that makes you want to pump your fist and a call-and-response section that begs you to join in ('regrets, mistakes, - ¦'), Taken from the band's new album.

"Skinheads Home For Christmas" is a Christmas single in the classic pop tradition, from US hard-mod/punk band Hard Left. Brought together by the music, held together by the outrage, pressed on red vinyl for extra Christmas vibes. 

Hard Left are a band borne out of a desire to explore leftist political ideas and marry them to rabble-rousing music worthy of the worldwide struggle against capital. Far from a dry exercise in doctrinaire thought, Hard Left's songs are great punk first and foremost, and ripping good fun. The band members have been involved with punk and DIY music for nearly a century combined, including time in bands like Boyracer, Juke, Whorl, Ciao Bella, Lunchbox, Black Tambourine, Kids On A Crime Spree and operating the respected labels 555 and Slumberland Records.

Initial Hard Left recording sessions in Spring 2014 led to the release of two limited edition lathe cut singles, the Situationist-inspired "What's That Sound?" and the tough-as-nails "Safety." Now they follow-up with the first fruits from their August 2014 album sessions. Carefully packaged to recall the classic look of 70s UK pop singles, "Skinheads Home For Christmas" is a thumping tune with it's tongue in cheek, but only just.

Slotting into a long tradition of holiday-themed pop singles, Hard Left bring that feeling of hopefulness to to the grittier end of the musical spectrum. And of course it's a top tune, worthy of it's street-punk lineage. On the flip side the band tear into the Bay City Roller's classic "Yesterday's Hero" with characteristic flair, amping up the tale of faded glory into an anthem of resistance.

Crammed with guitars that soar and rage, terrace chants and raw-throated vocals, the song builds to a huge climax. A worthy (and rather unlikely!) addition to the punk canon. Scattered across the east and west coasts of the US and the Arizona desert, Hard Left came together to bring you great punk, with a message of passion, resistance and hope.

Call it "utopian Oi" if you will, or "hard mod," but keep your ears open for more music soon from this compelling band.

As has often been noted, psychedelic music can involve causal links between getting out of it and getting into it. Conversely, expansion of consciousness can be found by heading deep into the roots that a band explores, and journeying to the centre of their inspiration.

Thus, a curious paradox is attained, whereby the traditional elements of an outfit's sound are superseded by them blasting their core vibrations into unchartered territory. Such is the case with the new opus from third-eye visionaries Hills, a dizzying journey that traverses through the band's origins and beyond to new dimensions.

The Gothenburg-based Hills are entering their ninth year of existence, in which they've released two full-length albums, the second of which, Master Sleeps'saw a vinyl outing on Rocket last year. Part of a rich scene in their homestead also including friends and Rocket Recordings label mates Goat, they form the new chapter in a tradition of Swedish psychedelia that found its origins in late-'60s and early 70s freakouts and mind-melts by the likes of Baby Grandmothers and Þlgarnas Trädgård - not to mention the unholy trinity of Pärson Sound, International Harvester and Träd Gräs och Stenar - before being developed by the likes of The Spacious Mind and Dungen in the last two decades.

These inspirations make their mark on Frid'by journeying inward, via mantric repetition and hip-shaking pulsations as on the ten-minute monolith, Och Solen Sänkte Sig Röd', yet they can also lurch into the unknown via the fuzz/wah odysseys of the aptly monikered National Drone'and the ceremonial exhortations of the closing Death Will Find A Way.'As they also showed recently at a rare and spellbinding appearance at Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia, Hills have landed on a rich and intoxicating sound that sidesteps the cliches and humdrum stylistic foibles that often plague modern-day psych, in the process breathing new life into an approach that can sometimes seem in danger of appearing redundant through lack of imagination. 

Frid', their most out-of-mind and out-of-sight effort to date, crystallises everything that makes these Scandinavian satyrs stand out from the global herd; adventurous experimentation and fearless hallucinatory intensity, rendered with brass-knuckle fortitude. The end result is 38 minutes that translate into a feast for seasoned crate-diggers and fresh-faced converts alike. There is, indeed, gold in these here Hills.

Tracklisting:
1. Kollektiv
2. National Drone
3. Anukthal Is Here
4. Milarepa
5. Och Solen Sänkte Sig Röd
6. Death Will Find A Way

4 track EP cut at 45rpm on green vinyl. 1000 copies worldwide.

'Sweet psychedelic pop from your new favourite Swedes.. nocturnal track, California Owls is hypnotic, this is dream pop at its absolute best.' i-D

 

'Our dreamiest pick this week - ¦ "California Owls," pairs reverb-soaked vocals with a harpsichord-like synth that sounds like sunlight filtered through water.' NPR

'California Owls' could almost be Beach House. At least until it descends into a two-minute cascade of bird noises. Enchanting stuff.' Loud & Quiet / 'Nilsson's vocals bob in an ocean of reverb on California Owls'evoke everything from Czech cinema soundtracks to The Velvet Underground channelled through their uniquely distorted lens' Clash

'California Owls,' a tidy three and a half minutes of airy-pop gorgeousness followed by two more combining chirping birds and tones reminiscent of a distant calliope amidst the reliable retro-futurism.' The Vinyl District

Following the success of their critically acclaimed To Where The Wild Things Are'released in May, Death And Vanilla return with EP California Owls'EP, featuring two non-album tracks. Forming in Malmö, Sweden by Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson, Death and Vanilla utilise vintage musical equipment such as vibraphone, organ, mellotron, tremolo guitar and moog, to emulate the sounds of 60s/70s soundtracks, library music, German Krautrock, French Ye-ye pop and 60s psych. They revel in the warmth of older analogue instruments to create a more organic sound, each loose wire and off-kilter noise adding to the rich atmosphere. 

Creating deliciously enticing soundscapes, full of moody moogs and breathless vocals, their influences are as diverse as their music. Passionate about the culture of the 60s/70s, Death And Vanilla have the retro-futuristic edge of Broadcast with Stereolab leanings and the electronic library sounds of the BBC Electronic Workshop. Opulent and timeless, California Owls'is a reverb soaked spectral-pop song drenched in 60s-psych while the dark and swirling melodies of Follow The Light'has a Walk Away Renee pace'(Guardian).

Their new EP brings together old songs with the new, much like the samples and the instruments they use, whilst capturing the haunting and wild dreamy experimental edge of To Where The Wild Things Are'.

Tracklisting:
1. California Owls
2. Follow the Light
3. Erté
4. Reality From Dream

Blank Realm are still bent on mixing the diamonds with the rough, and on Grassed Inn that particular swirl is at its most intoxicating.' Pitchfork 8/10

'Balancing the arty with the party to make for a set of danceable, hook-filled songs that bubble and bloom with an almost biological rampancy, shooting out tendrils of strange, snaking melody in every direction like vines enveloping a ruin' Guardian 4*

'A cracking selection of scuzzy, fuzzy psych-rock songs that recall Royal Truax and Sonic Youth' Uncut 8/10

'Blank Realm generate scruffy, VU's-Sister-Ray-loving grooves, coloured up with blooping synths, and yowling, way-off vocals' Mojo 4*

Blank Realm's transformation across the Australian mystic from sprawling spaced out psychotic punk blues, through the startling maverick pop psychedelia of Go Easy'to the widely acclaimed Grassed Inn', continues in its unrelenting quest for that quintessential synergy of chiming pop anthems.

Hook-laden throughout they unleash their wild yet tender new album Illegals In Heaven'which offers up freaked out reflections on life, love and circumstance. As knowing as the Chills or the Pretenders, loner ballads are as gnarled and world weary as Dylan in a cacophony as bruised as Royal Trux yet with the playfulness of Half Japanese.

Recorded and produced with Lawrence English (head of the Room40 label) on a late night at The Plutonium studio in Brisbane, the album sees them on their first foray into a recording studio. While it wasn't exactly Abbey Road, it truly captures the chaos and majesty of the band's formidable live shows.
It would be all too easy to say that Illegals In Heaven'is their finest work to date, but the simple truth is that Blank Realm have been without peers for a trilogy of albums, so it just might be as Sarah huskily intones, "Gold" too.

Tracklisting:
1. No Views On It
2. River Of Longing
3. Cruel Night
4. Costume Drama
5. Dream Date
6. Flowers In Mind
7. Gold
8. Palace Of Love
9. Too Late Now

Green Lanes' is the second album from London-based band Ultimate Painting.

Formed as a loose collaboration by Jack Cooper (Mazes) & James Hoare (Veronica Falls) the project quickly turned into a full-fledged band in 2014 with the release of their s/t debut album on Trouble In Mind. That album received praise worldwide from NME, Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound & more & with 'Green Lanes' the band is poised for more accolades.

The album is focused & cohesive, the result of two voices becoming one and each member 's songs complimenting the other, carving out a distinct & unified voice as Ultimate Painting.

Slinking out of the gate, the first song 'Kodiak' is an hummable future-classic with Cooper & Hoare's guitars dancing around each other with ease. The licks & lyrics conjuring up images of Sixties California & Seventies New York; a picture of dark clouds on a sunny day. The rest of the album follows suit with the air y, lush harmonies of 'Sweet Chris' & 'Two From The Vault ' and even kicks up some dust with the chooglin''(I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues' and the manic 'Woken By Noises'.

While their s/t debut was all Cooper & Hoare, this time out, they are augmented by the addition of their live drummer Neil Robinson who provides propulsion on all but one of 'Green Lanes's tracks.

The album artwork was once again provided by Portland artist Bradley Kerl, who portrayed Hoare's London flat & recording space chock full of the equipment used to record both the band's albums casually tumbling toward the viewer. 2015 sees the band hitting the road again, with appearances at UK & European Festivals as well as a full US Tour in the fall in support of 'Green Lanes'

Tracklisting:
1. Kodiak
2. Sweet Chris
3. (I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues
4. The Ocean
5. Two From the Vault
6. The Ocean (reprise)
7. Break the Chain
8. I Was Lost
9. Tee Zee Em
10. Paying The Price
11. Woken By Noises
12. Out In the Cold

`Gatefold CD / Vinyl LP (180g vinyl + DL, ltd to 500).

The debut solo album from Simon Love, formerly of John Peel & Marc Riley favourites The Loves, is a sweary and irreverent tour de force, full of catchy hooks and offbeat lunacy. Taking its inspiration from maverick Seventies singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson & The Lovin'Spoonful, the album features guest appearances by comedian Stewart Lee and 60s pirate radio DJ Emperor Rosko, while indiepop ensemble for hire A Little Orchestra contribute lush strings and Rob Jones of The Voluntary Butler Scheme provides brass.

Described recently by the Guardian as being 'more early Kinks than the early Kinks', Simon formed The Loves in Cardiff in 2000. After releasing their debut single on Radio One DJ Huw Stephens'Boobytrap Singles Club their second album Technicolor was made Album Of The Week in The Sunday Times. The band went on to play 4 Peel Sessions and as many for Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music before calling it a day in 2011.

Full of giant pop songs and peppered with bitter love stories about bad relationships, It Seemed like A Good Idea At The Time opens with the expletive-heavy '**** (Is A Dirty Word)' before moving on to jubilant lead single 'The New Adam and Eve', in which Simon threatens to 'punch a man in the face, with fists made out of jellyfish' before going on to 'deny him any of my piss'. There's a Paul McCartney cover version ('Dear Boy') a song about the voluntary removal of Simon's penis ('My Dick') and a song about people who fuck you around ('Motherfuckers'), before side one closes with the 5 minute long psychedelic wig-out that is 'Wowie Zowie'.

Side 2 opens with the gorgeous, string-laden 'Sweetheart, You Should Probably Go To Sleep' and the mid-paced 60s pop of 'Don't Get The Gurl No More' before Simon and band pull out their best Booker T groove for 'The Meaning Of Love', featuring comedian Stewart Lee reciting the definition of love straight from Wikipedia. This is followed by what in the late 70s would be called a rocker, 'You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?', resplendent with sax solo, before the song most likely to lead to litigation, the epic 'Elton John', written from the perspective of Elton John's ex-wife Renate.

The album closes with the title track 'It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time', with the album credits read out over the outro by 60s pirate radio DJ Emperor Rosko.

Love's debut solo album is daring, unique, and definitely a good idea.

Tracklisting:
1. **** (Is A Dirty Word)
2. The New Adam & Eve
3. Dear Boy
4. My Dick
5. Motherfuckers
6. Wowie Zowie
7. Sweetheart, You Should Probably Go To Sleep
8. Don't Get The Gurl No More
9. The Meaning Of Love
10. You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?
11. Elton John
12. It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time