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Burning Wish. Pennies By The Pound
With the Finnish prime minister drawing more than enough attention to herself and her country, with partying a little (WTF?!), is there a need for more attention? Yes, when a single like Burning Wish is released by Finnish progrockers Pennies By The Pound. On its new, wide-sounding new song, the band brings together a whole range of influences and atmospheres. Burning Wish is the kind of song where all the musicians display their mastery of their respective instruments right at the start, in the long intro. Singer and band leader Johannes Susitaival sings somewhere between tough and kind giving the sound of Pennies By The Pound something extra. He's also the drummer of the band, while playing rhythm guitar and keyboards as well. Fans of bands like Marillion and Porcupine Tree should check this out. Burning Wish doesn't sound like the kind of music Sanna Malin likes to party to, but she can definitely be proud of her countrymen.
Once again a new band from New Zealand on the blog. Gradient is the third single of its upcoming album 'Orbit 1', out on 26 August. Gradient is one of this undercooled alternative rocksongs that is full of passion. The band holds back for a long time, while the emotions seep out of every little crack of the music. Expect a trumpet as the lead instrument, as the guitars are all busy playing nice patterns or broad strokes. The trumpet has the same effect as it has in Soft Cell's 'Torch', without any other musical references to each other. It brings Gradient totally alive. When the band finally let's it all go, the song's statement was long made. The wall of sound it presents only makes it more impressive. If Gradient is the standard, 'Orbit 1' is an album truly to be on the look out for.
Sometimes a song is as simple as can be and still do everything right. Apricot is just that kind of song. It is totally new, yet sounds as if I've known it for most of my life. Rich McCulley and Marvin Etzioni started to work together before the pandemic broke and deepened their collaboration during. Rich and Marvin is more a musical collaboration of two friends than a band. They bounced ideas around and then recorded them with Rich playing guitar and Marvin playing everything else. The result is a song that is as relaxed as the wish voiced in the song to be an apricot. The fun is all in the relaxed way of singing and the little embellishment, in the form of a mandolin that gives the song its extra. Apricot is nothing special, while at the same time it is a great introduction to this duo's music.
Practicing being interrupted by band members going bungy jumping of a bridge? Knees Deep's video is fun indeed. And so is the song. Although The Beths' sound is getting more familiar to me by now, its new song has it all, again. The drive and tempo are simply great. Liz' singing clear over all all the energy beneath it. The guitar solo scorching, like the band's lead guitarist is so good at (and then, watch the video!). The Beths' alternative rock receives a minor stab at a dance rhythm in the intro. There are some tricks in the way the first verse's music is mixed, making the song sound somewhat different without not being The Beths for one second. The song is alive all of the time even when the mix is pushing all the instruments, bar the drums, to the background, leaving room for singer Elisabeth Stokes to excel and she does in this song. Knees Deep is the kind of song that shows why I think this band to be so good.
It was silent around Die Nerven for quite some years. People taking notice will have noticed activities of individual members in other bands, but not the mothership from Stuttgart. With Keine Bewegung the band is back and how. Keine Bewegung is the kind of single that has the allure of a mid 1980s U2 single. The sound is as wide as it is impressive and aimed to be played in a stadium. The 1980s is the right description for Keine Bewegung. The other is Muse without the extreme antics of Matthew Bellamy on vocals and guitar. Die Nerven manages to bring the same sort of tension to its song. The interlude on bass and then the exploding guitar is masterfully set up. Six weeks from now we are already in autumn but with the new Die Nerven album. I am definitely curious based on Keine Bewegung. It may be the best song I've heard from the band up to now.
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Cherie Currie? Wasn't that the singer of the band The Runaways in 197what? The band that launched Joan Jett and Lita Ford? Yes, she was and here she is in a raw single with the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs. Cherry Bomb is the right kind of song mixing hardrock and punk in the exciting kind of way. Reading the notes to the release explains how Currie can look so good in the video. They recorded it in the 1990s. The band is working towards the release of a double album filled with covers and more to be released late in September. Cherry Bomb is a great introduction as it contained a hint of wildness mixed with danger. Currie is not to be taken on without gloves on and the band matches that in the tightness of playing and the great guitar solo. Great punkrock song it is.
Well over five years ago, I found myself wondering whether Fazerdaze would be one alternatively rocking, female fronted bands too many. It was not, as Morningside received a favourable reception on this blog. I have to admit though that I forgot all about Amelia Murray and her album in the mean time. Five years plus later she returns with a single for an upcoming album and I have no doubts whatsoever. Come Apart sort of does everything right. An acoustic guitar, tightly played, starts the song. Murray joins and slowly but surely all the other instruments join in and provide the song with its body and melody. Come Apart is well-built up and Amelia Murray's voice is singing full of confidence. She knows this song is totally okay and sounds it. Nirvana for the twenties with a female twist to it. Exit anger, enter reflection and observation. Impact? Idem.
Blacklist is a band that still lives like it is 1985 with Killing Joke and The Cult being at the top of their game. Pathfinder is a song that is in search of that darkness in its music and finds it. On the one hand the band may sound a bit a darker having let in a little of what happened in the past near 40 years, but the atmosphere of the past is well caught. Blacklist has not released an album since 2009, so the upcoming album 'Afterworld', out on 28 October, can be called a comeback album. If anything the band has caught a big sound, starting with the tribal drumming that drives Pathfinder forward for the whole of the way. The drumming is fully matched by the bass. This fills up the sound no little. It allows for the guitars to spread out over the whole of the song. The double tracked vocals match the rhythm perfectly. Pathfinder is a well-balanced rock song like they used to make them in the U.K. a long time ago. The music found its way to N.Y.C. and received a new leash on life.
In the middle of the previous decade a totally unknown singer really touched me with his album 'If I Should Go Before You'. Dallas Green under his moniker City and Colour delivered a fantastic double LP in 2015. After that I totally lost track of him and nothing he released previously made that kind of impression on me. His band Alexisonfire is back with an album after an hiatus of 13 years without a new album. Mistaken Information has that mystery City and Colour offered. For what I understand to be an emo band, this single is an exercise in restraint. Long held notes that fit more with a progrock band before the instrumental pyrotechnics begin. The interplay between singers Green and George Petit work really well. The emotions go wild in the shredded guitar solo, not in the singing. Mistaken Information is a lot tougher than City and Colour, the quality is certainly identical. I may just have to check 'Otherness', Alexisonfire's new album, out.
Interstellar Bungalow is a trio from Graz in Austria. With the single from its second EP 'Cargo' the band shows its alternative and slightly slacker rock from its best side. The music is described by the band as lo-fi, recorded on one of their couches, the result of the three working together on their musical ideas. From the feedbacking start, I can imagine what the neighbours must have thought, perhaps even said. With the rest though any alternative rocker in the neighbourhood should have been quite happy. Interstellar Bungalow emulated a lot that has gone on before, but knows exactly how to strike a new match to shine just a little more. A few nice lead melodies on the guitar, a nice but tight rhythm underneath it all, with an extra rhythm guitar shining just a little bit more underneath the lead one. Thousand Trees mixes a little darkness with the light sparks flying around in Graz. An intriguing single it is.
Wout de Natris
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