Tuesday 26 September 2023

Week 38 2023, 10 singles

It's not every week that this weekly post updating you on recent singles starts and ends with a German language song. There's a first for everything, so you find an introduction to the bands iedereen and All Diese Gewalt, first-timers on this blog. You will find more new names and relative new ones this week. So explore and enjoy!

GKO. iedereen

No, this is not a Dutch band. Surprisingly iedereen is from Germany. Iedereen means jeder or everyone in Dutch. That aside, iedereen is punkrocking with the best of them. It does take some taking used to but over the past years, it seems I have. Where BAP's 'Kristallnach' was an outlier 40 years ago, GKO fits in nicely with many bands that come by and often through Hamburg's Glitterhouse Records. GKO, if I understand correctly Geht K.O., is a totally guitar driven song. Yes, huge drums and bass are a part of the song, it's the guitars that make sure this is a punkrock song. The dynamics within it allow for audiences  to explode in wild abandon. The softer parts allowing for the necessary breather in between. Nice introduction to iedereen GKO is.

Honey. Cloud Café

Cloud Café returns to the blog with a nice alternative ballad. Honey is in the mid-tempo with bursts of musical violence in all the right places. Tara Wilts' voice is almost muffled into the mix, as if she's singing through a pillow, clearly influenced by a singer that I can't get my head around. Most likely from New Zealand on the Flying Nun label. It will come to me when this is published most likely. The way of recording the singing gives the song an alienating atmosphere. Like there is a screen between me and the recording. This does not stop me from liking the song. The heart of this band is in the right rock place. Honey is the kind of alternative ballad that is able to explode and turned into a rock song. Which it does, while in the middle Honey is reduced to Wilts' voice and an acoustic guitar - and that screen. The first song after the band's debut EP of earlier this year, makes me want to hear more.

Don’t Cry (It Doesn’t Suit You). Dirty Blonde

The video of Don't Cry has exactly one response on You Tube. A mikenorris5378 writes: "absolute banger". Listening to Dirty Blonde's single, I can only agree. I have no clue how I ran into the song. It's not important. The two blondes and three men behind them absolutely rock. The number of influences to mention are simply too long. Dirty Blonde does all the right things with these inspirations and comes up with a melodic rocker of fairly big proportions. A huge solo brings it to a high. Dirty Blonde fits into the Wet Leg category, except the band is more serious and rocks in a more determined way. The tongue-in-cheek is missing. If the band can come up with more songs like this, I'll become a fan alright.

Letting Go. Angie McMahon

Like the title suggests, Letting Go is all about freedom. Being liberated from all that keeps a person back. "I must've been lying six months on my living room floor", Angie McMahon starts her song, suggesting there's quite some room for liberation or how hard it is to reach that state, to be able to get up. "The trick was simply to surrender", she shares later. "It's o.k. to make mistakes", the lesson learned. The music underscores the process to positivity. Letting Go is a powerful song, full of energy, vibrant, with a hint of U2's drive of decades ago. The kind that shouts it from the rooftops. Literally it seems when the song reaches its end. McMahon recorded most of her upcoming album in Durham, North Carolina with producer Brad Cook. 'Light, Dark, Light Again' is scheduled for release on 27 October. On the basis of Letting Go it is an album to be on the look out for. The song is so powerful that it really gets to me. Impressive alright.

(I'm A Kadaver) Alakazam. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets

More music from Australia. (Angie McMahon is also.) Now from Perth. My introduction to PPC is from a few years back already. Alakazam is less psychedelic and more rock. It does have its moments though. Especially in the "I'm sorry, Mrs. Robinson" section. Check it out to hear the rest of lyric. PPC rocks in a 1990s way. A band like EMF comes to mind, as does Dog Eat Dog's one hit the band had. PPC would not be what it is, if it wouldn't throw in a few curveballs. The intro is utterly weird and returns later. The band rocks hard while managing to throw in a few pop aahsss in there over the loudly soloing guitars. Just like one can never know what happens when a wizard says alakazam, PPC does what it likes to do. The result is a weird song, full of imagination but, most importantly, provides a rocking good time.

Colourpicker EP. Trout

Trout is the nom de plume of Iranian-British singer-songwriter Cesca. They release their debut EP filled with alternative/indie rock songs. The six songs show two side of Trout. The singing is soft and almost modest. The music can be very direct, with stabs like a left hook on the chin. The guitar(s) sound dirty without a lot of embellishments. Trout's music is to be taken for what it is. It's not there to please at first hear. Either someone opens him/her/themselves to it or, it will be switched off quite fast. Listening does pay off though. You will find that Trout is a new branch on an attractive tree. 'sad sad sad sad sad' (she beats The Rolling Stones here with two sads!) is a price song. I simply love how the song moves into the chorus. Although things may sound sad, the music is uplifting. It has the quality to lift one's mind and that is a big achievement and compliment in one. Cesca do not appear as the happiest person in the world, they have their songs. They seem to come from a well of treasure where the artist can dip into and a fountain of joy for all who get to listen to the songs that have come out of that well. Colourpicker shows that there will be more to come and to treasure.

Gator. ON

You rent a place to write new songs and record. It turns out to be in a gated community and to come with alligators in the central pond. Double lock in, I guess. ON was inspired to write a great rock song based on these facts. The band has its origins in the 1990s and that can be heard quite easily. Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, in a way its all there. We are 30 years down the grunge line and ON does exactly what it is good at, play a dirty rock song with enthusiasm and zest. Gator rocks in a way that makes one on the one hand hanker after the years long past, while on the other making one feel totally alive today. We all travelled the long route and are here to tell and rock. Lucy Di Santo with drummer Dan Cornelius and guitarist Steve Fall have travelled from their past band Acid Test to today's ON. They lived to tell in a surefire way. Gator rocks, but I already told you that.

I Know When You Care. Thala

U.K. based artist Thala is in a hurry. Her debut EP is only a few months behind us, her new one announced a few weeks back. I Know When You Care is the single that precedes it. In "the old days" the two EPs would have been released as one album. Nowadays the album format seems a less normal way for a debut album. You Tube and Spotify, et al, may be the cause. People play songs more and more and not albums. I Know That You Care is Thala's new song. As such it is a song that brings to mind rock music of the past 30 and a little years. Light, shade, dirty guitars, girl like vocals, it all sounds familiar. Thala makes the most of it though as the song rocks. I Know When You Care is more consolidating than expanding but certainly has the quality to give Thala more than the benefit of the doubt here.

Up And Comer. Sprints

Sprints returns to the blog with another great punkrock song. Up And Comer has the energy and gritty atmosphere to convince with ease. The build up is great, slowly but surely the listener is pushed to the edge of delightful anticipation. Band and listener jump of the cliff together and start a great flight on the basis of the huge chorus. Singer Karla Chubb really lets it all out. She shouts like Courtney Love in her great days and like Dana Margolin can nowadays. There's nothing playful on Sprints' music, this is all work, exorcising despair. Chubb and guitarist Colm O'Reilly, drummer Jack Callan and bassist Sam McCann create a huge wall of sound together, with a guitar solo that all but explodes my speakers. They are on fire though. You will even find a Wet Leg like interlude in the song, no pun or fun to be found, it's the devil himself who comes knocking here. The world has to wait till 5 January to learn more but on the basis of this single and the two preceding it, 'Letter To Self' holds the promise to be the first great release of 2024.

Alles Ist Nur Übergang. All Diese Gewalt

We end this week as we started, with a German song released on the Glitterhouse label. The contrast is huge though. All Diese Gewalt presents a ballad. A slow song, soft voice, soft music, although there is a bite further on in the song, like a siren mixed into the whole. All Diese Gewalt is singer-composer Max Rieger. His new song, from the upcoming album with the same title (10 November), is so well composed and arranged. It starts with just a piano, but before the voice comes in the first hint of what is coming can already be heard. More instruments come in, almost 'Tubular Bells' style, in fact they can be heard, slowly changing the mood of the song and sound. Alles ist nur übergang indeed. Despite that the composition does not have any inner changes, the song as a whole does change and that is exactly what intrigues me profoundly. Alles Ist Nur Übergang is a beautiful song. The only question I am left with is, how is it possible that this song reminds me of punkrock band Die Nerven?, also on Glitterhouse.

Wout de Natris

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