2026, week 43. 10 singles (2)

The oldest band to be regularly found on this blog has already released a new single again, as if it is an ambitious new, young band wanting to conquer the world, instead of having already done that in 1964. The pleasure is all mine and yours. This band is mixed with new names and somewhat older ones, plus a new single by a band that is more than ten years younger, while the two principle members today are octogenarians as well. The news may be as bleak as ever, in a way worse, the new music keeps coming, so, enjoy!

Soul Lovers (Quartet). Effi

Listening (and watching) quite mesmerised to the video accompanying Soul Lovers (Quartet), I was totally surprised it lasted only 4.27 minutes. I had the impression to be listening for a far longer time. No one can grab me again like Jeff Buckley once did, but I have to say Effi comes close. She has obviously listened to a song like 'Lover, You Should Have Come Over' and then gives Soul Lover (Quartet) its totally own twist. Connaisseurs will recognise the familiar elements anyway. The other element that caught me is the string section, like Chris and Carla, then of The Walkabouts, used when recording in Thessaloniki with local musicians on their duo live album. Effi makes her song come alive in a totally identical, majestic and superior way. I have no clue who Effi is. Greek, a former chemist making music in the U.S.A. That's enough information for me, if she drops songs like Soul Lovers (Quartet) every once in a while.

Skin. Mood Bored

We have to go back three years and some months to find Mood Bored on the blog for the first time. Since two EPs saw the light of day and today the first single comes by, of the debut album announced for next year. In 2023 I saw the band play in support for Pom in Rotown and it does not come as a surprise in 2026 that the Mood Bored shares a kinship in music. Mood Bored presents a new alternative rock track where the light and the shade is used super effective. The music in Skin goes way beyond the trio format with overdubbed heavy guitars and all. When Mood Bored goes of it goes off big time. To wind it all down in the first verse. And off it goes again. I have to be honest, that I've heard a song like this many times before. It doesn't make Skin a less energetic single though.

Breakfast Of Champions. Library Card

What an energy is released with this single. "I'm crushing all my enemies, it's a great success and nothing less", singer Lot van Teylingen crows in Breakfast Of Champions. The band holds in during the first verse, as the song starts with the chorus. Slowly it works again towards the next chorus. But without some surprises. Breakfast Of Champions is a song that is quite hard to describe. Library Card is not afraid to use different styles and an extreme form of light and shade. Is the start a chorus? Or is it the intro and further on the outro? With in between just different parts of the song? Library Card seems to throw in parts that may have been part of other songs or a part it did not know what to do with and glued  together into one song. Whatever the background, just listen to the bass part in the second part. It is a super one and that goes for just about the whole lead guitar part throughout the song. As I already said, what an energy!

Xono EP. Quiz Show

Two years after the EP 'Flotsam', New Jersey's Quiz Show returns with a new EP that shows two sides of the band. In my previous EP review I pointed to the rock that Smashing Pumpkins launched its career with. This is present mostly in the second song, 'Haircut Sphinx'. The song is loud, sludgy and rocks no little. The deep sounding guitars and heavy drumming of Joe Billy III define the sound of the song. The previously released single 'Xono' is heavy as well but also has a little of The Rolling Stones of old in the melodies, while at the same time the song has something playful within the depth of the sound. It does not all need to be dark and bleak. The second face of Quiz Show is an acoustic one. 'Pom Pom Boy' is played on acoustic guitars and sounds like The Who did a long time ago. Think 'Behind Blue Eyes', but also in the harmony vocals Quiz Show presents. Surprising, but certainly a different and nice side to the band's repertoire so far.

Atomic Girl. Echomatica

When I read Atomic in a title, my mind jumps back over 40 years to one of my favourite Blondie singles, with on the b-side of the 12" single a live rendition of 'Heroes' with Robert Fripp on guitar. Echomatica is a new name to me, but Atomic Girl has a little of the vibe of Blondie's 'Atomic'. That electronic, alternative disco vibe is all over Echomatica's single. This New Zealand band released its first album in 2025, which passed me by. So, I can't compare, but if the album has the quality of this single, it must be good. The music sounds familiar in the sense that it takes some queues from the 1980s electronic pop and the new romantics. The lyrics are just as doomy, as it has the fact that youths will have it worse than their parents today. Well, we had atomic doom, the Club of Rome Report and what not over our heads and my parents were only slowly outgrowing their parents at the time. In 1800 the Malthus Report heralded the end of sustainability. So, let's wait and see what the future brings. If it's music like Atomic Girl, things can't be all bad.

Stretch Under Strain. Lowly

Next up is a piano ballad from Denmark. I can't remember having come across the band Lowly before. It is on route to release its fourth album on 30 October, called 'Softy'. Based on what I'm hearing here, it may well be a soft album. Delicate piano playing is the basis of the track. A few notes are repeated, changing with the chords, not changing the intention of the way the piano is played. Lead singer on this track is Soffie Viemose. She sings with a clear voice over Klaus Staub's piano and keyboard parts. Add a little bass and some atmospherics and the song is there. The added parts add some extras to the song but the main part lies already behind us by then. Stretch Under Strain is a beautiful ballad.

Spectral Eyes. Blondie 

42 Years after its inception and 39 after me hearing 'In The Flesh' for the first time, Blondie is back with a new single. After Clem Burke's demise last year at the age of 71, octogenarians Chris Stein and Deborah Harry are the only ones of the original line up left. (Burke is mentioned to have recorded his parts before his demise.) Ms. Harry's voice may have gone down an octave, she's still pretty much herself. Spectral Eyes is far from spectacular, but certainly is a song that deserves to have the name Blondie stuck to it. Coincidentally, I referred to 'Atomic' in a review of Echomatica's single 'Stretch Under Strain' here in the above. Spectral Eyes has more to do with the Blondie of the late 70s than 1980's 'Atomic'. It would have sound a little wilder at the time, but it would have fitted nicely next to a track like 'Sunday Girl'. If it's possible for me to conclude this fact in 2026, Blondie definitely deserves a spot on this blog.

Tightrope. After Elmer

After Elmer has an entry pass to this blog it seems. That makes it all the more sadder that the band is calling it quits after the release party of its final album, 'Are You Happy Yet?'. The release date is 13 November. The (farewell) takes place in Rotown on 17 December. With Tightrope another veil is lifted of the new album. After the ultra short 'Are You ...?', Tightrope is a classic U.S. punkrock track. Loud, yet slick, wild, but melodic. The song is a duet with Ivyvox's singer Bianca Vrind. One that works really well. Jaap Smit and Vrind take alternating lead lines, while band lays down the ultra smooth punk track behind them. In a better world this song would be a major hit, like Green Day and The Offspring were able to have 20 - 30 years ago. Unfortunately, near unimaginable today. In my universe this song is climbing the top 10 fast.

Who You Callin' Crazy. The Rolling Stones 

New The Rolling Stones songs are released faster than I can keep up with; well almost. Who You Callin' Crazy is also a part of the rerelease of 'Foreign Tongues', called 'Foreign Tongues, Loose Lips'. The original album with five bonus tracks of which two so far have been revealed. In Japan, I found, it's possible to buy such an extra record separate from the older album. Not over here, as far as I know. Why buy 'Foreign Tongues' again, I wonder? Especially as it is not even five months after the initial release?! That aside, I really like this single. It is so relaxed, yet so to the point. Saxophone player Courtney Pine takes over the role from Sonny Rollins on 'Tattoo You'. A smooth, jazzy solo adorns the new release. Who You Callin' Crazy sounds familiar, like the Stones do on the past two records, yet it all sounds smoother than on the four studio albums released before 'Hackney Diamonds'. It's a sound I like and have gotten used to very fast. To me it proves that the band is on a high, while we all know that we are experiencing its end game. 64 Years after forming, the band still delivers, with Mick Jagger and Courtney Pine in the lead roles this time around.

Blue Cheese. New Trash

New Trash is a new band on this blog, releasing its first single, Blue Cheese, on route to album 'The New Trash', to be released in February 2027. Expect a punky track, with postpunk elements, as well as somewhat smoother chorus. New Trash is a trio from Leuven in Belgium. With Blue Cheese, coming with quite a confusing cover artwork as far as the title is concerned, it releases a very energetic track. The music is jumping out of the bucket like the proverbial frogs. Different sounds come from everywhere, also some surprising one in, for lack of a better word, the solo. The electric guitar comes in to smooth things over and pushing the frogs back into the bucket but to no avail. Weird sounds and a quirky guitar riff keep popping up, making Blue Cheese a fun song to listen to from beginning to end.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght 

Seedhead. Avi Engel

Iedereen die de muziek van Avi Engel (vroeger Clara Engel) kent, weet dat de muziek van de Canadese muzikant totaal anders klinkt dan andere muziek en dat is ook weer het geval op het deze week verschenen album Seedhead.

Op de Bandcamp pagina van Avi Engel is inmiddels een enorme hoeveelheid muziek te vinden. Het is bijzonder hoe de Canadese muzikant er steeds weer in slaagt om de middelen te vinden om albums uit te brengen en het zijn albums die alleen maar mooier worden. Het vorig jaar verschenen album Mote reken ik tot de beste albums van Avi Engel, maar het deze week verschenen Seedhead schat ik nog wat hoger in. Ook op Seedhead hoor je de bijzondere klanken die het unieke geluid van Avi Engel bepalen en dan is er ook nog de prachtige zang, die het beeldende en bezwerende effect van de muziek van de Canadese muzikant nog wat groter maakt. Wederom een uniek album van deze eigenzinnige muzikant uit Toronto.

De Amerikaanse muzikante Ani DiFranco baarde aan het begin van de jaren 90 opzien door volledig onafhankelijk van de machtige platenmaatschappijen haar muziek uit te brengen. De vele albums die Ani DiFranco maakte waren niet alleen erg goed en eigenzinnig, maar dwongen ook respect af omdat de muzikante uit New York en later New Orleans echt alles zelf deed, wat in die tijd zeker niet gebruikelijk was. 

Met de komst van het internet is het wel iets makkelijker geworden om als muzikant volledig onafhankelijk van platenmaatschappijen en streamingplatforms te opereren, maar eenvoudig is het nog steeds niet. De Canadese muzikant Avi Engel slaagt er inmiddels al wel ruim twintig jaar in, wat inmiddels een even omvangrijk als fascinerend oeuvre heeft opgeleverd. 

De albums van de muzikant uit Toronto werden in eerste instantie uitgebracht onder de naam Clara Engel, maar een paar jaar geleden besloot de Canadese muzikant om als non-binair persoon door het leven te gaan en werd Clara eerst Avi C. en later Avi Engel. Ik heb de afgelopen 15 jaar veel aandacht besteed aan de bijzondere muziek van Clara Engel en sinds ik Avi Engel op het netvlies heb kunnen ook de onder deze naam uitgebrachte albums op mijn sympathie en belangstelling rekenen. 

De albums van de muzikant uit Toronto waren in het verleden vaak behoorlijk sober en soms zeer experimenteel, maar op het vorig jaar verschenen album Mote klonk de muziek van Avi Engel, mede door het wat vollere geluid, verrassend toegankelijk maar nog altijd verre van alledaags. Mote had wat mij betreft veel meer aandacht verdiend dan het album heeft gekregen, maar iedere nieuwe liefhebber van de bijzondere muziek van Avi Engel is er één. 

In het verleden volgden de albums en EP’s elkaar soms in rap tempo op, maar voor het deze week verschenen Seedhead heeft Avi Engel net wat meer tijd genomen. Wat direct opvalt bij het beluisteren van Seedhead is dat het album echt fantastisch klinkt. Dat is een knappe prestatie, want het album is met bescheiden middelen opgenomen. 

De muziek op het album vult de hele ruimte en is zoals we van Avi Engel gewend zijn geen alledaagse muziek. Seedhead werd gemaakt met zeven gastmuzikanten, die allemaal hun eigen instrumenten toevoegen aan het fascinerende geluid op het album. Avi Engel maakte in het verleden vaak gebruik van bijzondere instrumenten uit alle windstreken, maar Seedhead is vooral gevuld met redelijk gangbare klanken, al is er nog altijd een prominente rol voor de bijzonder klinkende viersnarige gitaar. 

Seedhead opent wonderschoon met het acht minuten durende Gaia Makes Soup, waarin stemmige klanken breed uitwaaien en een hypnotiserende uitwerking hebben op de luisteraar, wat nog eens wordt versterkt door de langzame en bezwerende zang van Avi Engel, die op het nieuwe album prachtig en met veel gevoel zingt. 

Seedhead bevat acht tracks en ze zijn allemaal even mooi. De muziek van de Canadese muzikant is beeldend en door de repeterende gitaarakkoorden enigszins bedwelmend, maar de uit vele lagen bestaande muziek verdient het om tot in de kleinste details beluisterd te worden. 

Seedhead is een typisch Avi Engel album, maar van de vele albums die inmiddels zijn afgeleverd, vind ik dit nu al een van de mooiste en de meeste songs op het album moet ik nog wel een paar keer beluisteren voor ik de schoonheid volledig heb opgenomen. Ik zou iedereen adviseren om eens te luisteren naar de muziek van Avi Engel en Seedhead is een prima startpunt. Helemaal zonder risico is het niet, want als het bevalt ligt er een behoorlijk omvangrijk en echt prachtig oeuvre op je te wachten.

Erwin Zijleman

 

Je kunt Seedhead hier luisteren en bestellen:

https://aviengel.bandcamp.com/album/seedhead 

Dopamine Chamber. Fontaines DC

Having listened to Dopamine Chamber multiple times now, I'm still at the point of what to make of the album. The band moves from its origines by the album, but then I have to own up it took me years to appreciate its debut album 'Dogrel', one of the albums that defined the late 10s early 20s postpunk explosion. I got in with 'A Hero's Death'. By now Fontaines DC leads the pack and plays the bigger venues and co-headlines festivals.

Let's call 1979 the birth year of postpunk, with the early 80s defining the genre in a far sharper and militant way. If we take that as the starting point, bands like Simple Minds evolved into smooth hit bands within a few years (at the time half a decade!). Fontaines DC evolves along the same lines, except that number 1 hits are well beyond possible for this sort of music today. It escapes me why that is, but that is another discussion.

The music is even beyond what the previous album, 'Romance', offered. The line forward is clear though. More keyboards, more smoothness and an ever bigger role for singer Grian Chatten. Whether that makes it more of a Grian Chatten band/album, is something I can't judge. It is the feeling I have, drawn from the band's last two albums. The same happened to Wolf Alice for example. Fontaines DC still erupts every once in a while though, showing its prickly side with relish.

With Dopamine Chamber the Irish band operating from London explores its musicality further. That leads to the use of less guitars and more keyboards, pianos and synths, giving several songs a new feel. It is not just a mood change, like the opening and title song on 'Romance'. That made it very clear something had changed, while still being recognisably Fontaines DC, mixed with a sense of anxiety and suspense. With 'Six Shot Morning' something identical is done but at the next level. From there an adventure is starting that takes the listeners to different levels, moods and musicality that definitely are not Fontaines DC as we knew the band to be.

The reason why I doubt the album still at this point, is that some songs are so simple in structure. Take the opening sequence of 'One Man'. When all is said and done, nothing is happening there. It's almost like the Coldplay feeling I had when I listened to parts of 'X&Y' for the first time. Although the same chords are repeated over and over, finally something does happen, like at the end of 'Fix You', but still, is this want I want to hear from this band? On the other hand there are a few beautiful and surprising songs on Dopamine Chamber that make me like the album more by now.

The song nearly everyone commenting on the album picks out is 'Where Is Gone?', featuring Rosalia. It makes me think of a song, also a duet, I have long forgotten the name of by an obscure singer from the U.S. that I had never heard of before nor since. For the life of me, I can't recall the title or artist*. Just the feel that is so identical. Then take 'Japan'. Fontaines DC takes a pop ballad to perfection here.

Bands evolve, well the bigger and better ones do. Fontaines DC definitely has evolved and will remain doing so, in the mean time gathering more and more fans along the way. My verdict at this point in time remains in the balance. This album can go the 'X&Y' route still. The other option is that it will keep growing on me and turn into one of my favourites of 2026. Exciting isn't it?

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

* Since writing, I ran into the name of the website Noisetrade and that helped me find the song and artist. It is 'Dancing In A Dream' by Jon DeRosa with Carina Round. The mood of the songs are so similar.

 

You can listen to and order Dopamine Chamber here:

https://fontainesdc.bandcamp.com/album/dopamine-chamber 

Murmurate, Oscillate. British Birds

In August of this year duo British Birds debuted on this blog with a long-titled song 'Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas'. Today the album found its way here. What is the verdict?

Let's first focus on British Birds. The brother-sister duo is from Chorley, Lancashire in the U.K. It is totally DIY with Bobby Townson creating all the music and Emma Townson in charge of all the artwork. The drums are played by Dominic Lawson (apart from Michael Aindley on ‘Just Like Them’). The bass by James Robinson. Their first two albums were self-released and sold at shows. Murmurate, Oscillate is released by Skepwax Records, the home of fine bands like Heavenly and Railcard. British Birds fits in just nicely there, so I found.

Does coincidence exist? While I was listening this morning to the album once again, a flock of birds flew into the two trees in from of our house and sat on the top of the house opposite, to take off a while later. Reading the bio coming with the album I found the meaning of the word 'murmurate', that I had planned to look up. It is "the low hum made by those vast, beautifully choreographed flocks of starlings as they simultaneously flap their wings and take to the sky", adding "(s)ome people say that the frequency of this unique, rumbling, oscillating sound can cure diseases". I looked up starling to be certain and found it translated to "spreeuw", what I thought. You can take an educated guess what birds were sitting in front of our house.

Everyone ever having seen starlings do their mesmerising dance in the sky will have been in awe of the beauty it offers. British Birds offer some of that beauty on this album. I know that tastes in music is strictly personal, but when a band sticks the, in my ears, less good song as album opener and from grows and grows, it does something right.

'Ride Alone' is a good song, but does not speak to me like the song coming next. It simply doesn't start strong enough. A little psychedelic it is, perhaps even unintentional. The song slowly grows but remains fairly strict in contrast with the playfulness the band presents later on. In my single review of August, I wrote about one band sticking out most, Dogs Die In Hot Cars. This band folded in 2008 after releasing one album, 'Please Describe Yourself' (2004). I even looked up if the band's singer was not one of the singers in British Birds; no. The voices are so similar.

The single comes next. 'Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas' is so powerful. I will not repeat what I wrote before, but do want to point out the strong mix of Dogs Die ... with Kaiser Chiefs in one song. All while keeping itself in the song. Top song!

In all that follows, British Birds manage to keep that mix of a playful inventiveness and strong arrangements that together make interesting songs. By adding keyboard, alternating the lead vocals between Emma and Bobby. The result is a mix of pop and indie seriousness in the songs that can be called perfect. Again, in the way that Dogs Die In Hot Cars achieved on 'Please Describe Yourself' and Kaiser Chiefs on 'Employment'. British Birds puts itself on the same height of two of my favourite albums from the 00s with its new album Murmurate, Oscillate.

Let me pick out the title song as a final example. The song starts with a 1960 movie soundtrack bit that returns throughout the song, Emma sings like Nancy Sinatra could have and then the chorus hits us as a total surprise powertrack. Again, proof of how inventive this duo is.

Starlings fly over the house once again by their hundreds. As long as they do not settle in a tree around our house for the night. Their din just goes on and on. I put on Murmurate, Oscillate once more.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Murmurate, Oscillate here:

https://britishbirds.bandcamp.com/album/murmurate-oscillate 

A Happy Sad. Coaster

A Happy Sad. Coaster's album title is well suited for the music the band plays. Most songs are downcast, melancholy and sad sounding. At the same time I can imagine the band being totally happy with the end result. The songs are drenched in this mood, while in their own sad way sound vibrant and alive.

The band describes its music as slowcore and the bands names dropped in most cases did not ring a bell or if it did, did not make my heart jump for a second in anticipation. Listening to A Happy Sad other bells did ring, like New Zealanders Marlin's Dream, album 'Paragons' by Constant Smiles and Dutch band I Am Oak. That tickled my fancy enough to keep listening.

Coaster returns to this blog, after its debut album 'Painted Faces' was reviewed in the spring of 2024. As a reminder, Coaster is a duo, Bart Appel and Paul Dijkman, who are mostly guitarists. You will hear acoustic guitars interplay softly while the singer reaches us listeners as through a dream. When things turn electric like in 'Come Softly' it is in a modest mode, with a bass and drums joining in (played by Dijkman). When the band takes of in 'Dust' or final song 'Automatic Pilot', it comes like a shock. The weird thing is that even after many listening sessions with A Happy Sad, it's the quiet side of Coaster that sticks to my mind and not the full band sound. This says a lot about how the band comes across in my mind.

The songs were recorded in the living room and bedroom of the musicians. I can only hope the neighbours were out in the loud parts of the album. Listen carefully and you'll notice guitar parts that most likely were very loud but are mixed nicely into the background of the whole, almost as an anxious whisper.

Contrast is what makes A Happy Sad an interesting album. Appel's dreamy voice always keeps Coaster in a quieter corner than some parts of the songs tell you the album is. Mind, a soft song like 'When It Rains' could have been sung by Simon & Garfunkel. It even has that level of quality and it's not hard to hear an intricate harmony vocal there in my mind.

Promo photo

The album is all about losing and finding your bearings, allowing to crawl back and to start again on a different path. 'Come Softly' is the song that started Bart Appel on that path forward. You can hear singer Immen (Clasine Haringsma) singing with Appel in a soft harmony. An extra instrument is added as well, as in some other songs on the album, making the album broader in sound.

A Happy Sad is released on Tiny Room Records and it fits well there remembering albums by Astral Swans, The World of Dust and Garciaphone. Albums that set a mood and are able to fulfil the promise given at the start of that album. Coaster delivers on that promise big time. With 'Fear' the huge side is made even huger.

What my personal experience taught me, is, A Happy Sad is an album to be listened to with full attention. Before you know it, you'd file it as a folky dreampop album. It is so much more.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order A Happy Sad here:

https://www.tinyroom.nl/coaster-a-happy-sad/