Football unfortunately didn’t come home, but as of Monday July 19th full capacity gigs are allowed again. The Lightning Seeds played a live gig with Three Lions lyricists David Baddiel and Frank Skinner at London venue 229 as part of the National Lottery and Music Venue Trust’s Revive Live campaign. 00:01 Festival opens at a minute past midnight on Sunday evening in East London this week to welcome in the dawn of a new day (we’ll be there).
The day after the Euro’s finished left a bitter taste in the mouth for us all, both for the rise in domestic abuse cases when England lose a game and for the despicable racist abuse thrown at our players online after the game – never has it been more important to stand against racism and to fight for equality. Back to the music, we’ve picked some of our favourite new releases to wax lyrical about, subjectmatters include dirty energy and The Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the re-wiring of brains in dystopian San Diego, but we start with our new favourite London noiseniks.
Kyoto Kyoto – ‘Gaacher Blitz’
There’s a tensity and nervousness to London newcomers Kyoto Kyoto, the sheer range of styles and influences brings a uniqueness to their debut effort Gaacher Blitz. The vocals arrive in German, the combination of experimental and math-inspired guitarplay is as jittery as it is exhilarating, and to top it off Kyoto Kyoto know their way around a power-hungry rock riff that tears the lid off the track when you least expect it to. It’s jarring and moshpit-ready, clever yet still playful and provides a subtle journey into psychedelia – it’s exactly what a debut single should sound like in 2021.
Fehlt – ‘Light Porcelin’
Leeds outfit Fehlt soundtrack the unusual twists and turns of your recurring dreams. Underneath the emotional weight of the driving rhythms and dagger-like guitars of Light Porcelain lies a sense of impending doom, but the band manage to portray a sense of resolution as the track reaches it’s climax. Light Porcelain’s hypnotic energy and unstoppable momentum threatens to veer off track, brought into line by a beautifully washed out vocal delivery and an accompanying video that offers a sense of calm to the track’s motorik twitch. Beach Fossils and Deerhunter come to mind on Felht‘s new single, mastered by Slowdive‘s Simon Scott the song takes on a thoughtful kraut-gaze hybrid.
Psychic Graveyard – ‘Word Machine’
Enter the electrically-charged world of Psychic Graveyard at your own risk, the San Diego outfit’s excellent new single Word Machine discusses the manipulation of thoughts and detaching ourselves from the machine that runs our lives. Vocally the delivery cuts with a ghostly sense of calm and purpose as it begs for it’s brain to be re-wired and re-homed in another’s body. Sonically Word Machine is an anxiety-inducing krautrock jam that locks you into the groove and doesn’t let go, static rolls through the track and distortion is present at every turn, Psychic Graveyard soundtrack the workings of a human brain attempting to detach itself from a dystopian society.
Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice – ‘Infinite Growth’
Australian quartet Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice make eco-friendly post-punk music for 2021, quaking rhythms, jagged and hook-laden guitar parts and carnival-esque keyboard sounds that reflect the number crunching of every for-profit business in Melbourne’s CBD. Dirty energy and the silent destruction of the Great Barrier Reef – which since 1995 has lost more than half of its corals due to warmer seas driven by climate change – are points of mention lyrically, as the band attempt to make sense of the human race aiding it’s own extinction in exchange for infinite growth in GDP. A huge track with a real message.
The Reality TV – ‘Dirty Hot’
The third release from The Reality TV – the bedroom project of Benjamin Mace-Crossley – is their most cutting to date, incorporating dance rhythms and electronic instrumentation that drives towards early 80s new wave. Lyrically Mace-Crossley documents his struggles with imposter syndrome, balancing the song’s hypnotic groove, punchy synth tones and angular guitar lines with a darker underbelly. Towards the end of the track we’re treated to overlapping vocal parts and a pulsating synth hook which forces the sound into pure ecstasy, Dirty Hot has the pop chops to groove next to the best of them and the human message to connect.
hardofhearingmagazine.com 