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Magic 8Ball. Integra Pink
We start this week with Integra Park, a Southern Californian band with a very dreamy rock sound. Singer Leo Mendez has that soft voice that makes you listen to him. Behind him the bass and drums lay down a strict pace, while around him melodic guitar parts are swirling around. A swath of synth sounds come in and out of the song like mist on an early morning. It reminds me of bands like Marjorie Fair, Constant Smiles and Marlin's Dreaming. All bands that lay/laid down a very specific and relaxing atmosphere while hitting the nail on the head in the meantime. Integra Pink is a totally new name to me, so I have nothing to compare Magic 8Ball to as far as this band is concerned. What I'm hearing is certainly to my liking. Knuckles (Right) will be released on 14 November. By that date we'll all know more.
Integra Park's single Magic8Ball is dreamy and so is Lydia Saint George's Lungs. Which song came first to me 'Harry's Theme' of 'Orinoco Flow'? It is irrelevant, as Lungs fits into that category. Mystic sounds that I associate with the mist rolling over the Irish landscape. The smell of peat in my nose and the possibility of running into a leprechaun. I do not know whether peat can be smelled in North Carolina where Lydia Saint George now lives, she has caught the Celtic folk atmosphere spot on and gives it a hint of the modern in the right places, as the recording technique allows easily for that. The double tracked vocals add a little extra to the mystique, as it suggest a ghost track running behind the original vocal recording. An intriguing track Lungs is.
With a third dreamy single, it is already the theme of week 38's singles post. The dreamy part sits mostly in the vocals. The music is of a delicious laziness that suggests a long drawn out Sunday morning somewhere between sleeping and waking. Green Light just sort of rolls over me like a slow wave of lukewarm water. Three songs in today, three first timers on this blog. Part Time Signals is a band from Wales working towards its second album 'Ducks Back, Baby', to be released on 6 November. The four members all have a history in other bands, all names totally unknown to me. Green Light is a soft track, filled with subtle sounds and soft accents. The accents are there though all over the intro and verses and it makes a difference. It prevents you from drifting away. I'm not sure whether a whole album filled with Green Lights would be palatable to me, one Green Light certainly is. For references on this song/music, look at 'Magic 8Ball' above.
Beware, before listening (and not just because the dreamy part of this post is over). Before I was able to type anything the song was already over. 34 seconds! It must the shortest song reviewed here. The good news first. Rotterdam punk band After Elmer released a new song, with more to come in the fall. The bad news is that this will be the last we hear from After Elmer, as the band is calling it quits, like so many other contemporary bands do. You wouldn't think so from just listening to Are You... After Elmer puts the pedal to the metal from the very start. Little melodies come from the lead guitar, there's a beautiful harmony in what could have been a chorus in a one minute 8 seconds long song. Alas, it ends with a nice discord chord at the end, with a deep metal guitar sound. Yes, a band can impress in just 34 seconds.
'Plovdiv' was the first single released from the upcoming album 'Blister' (9 October). With Swarm Tramhaus has caught a trendy word for its new single. A swarm of drones, a swarm of AI agents, all coming with a negative connotation. Not Swarm. Tramhaus shows more or less a new side to itself. Gone is the postpunk, enter alternative rock and a very extreme light and shade plays out in the music. Swarm is a song I instantly like. The two guitars play an interesting game together. Lucas Jansen and Nadya van Osnabrugge alternate the lead vocals. Jansen is his self, but the angelicly sung question "can you believe it?" with music and intensity out of the studio, makes the song very interesting to listen to. Julia Vroegh's bass gets the outro. Deep and slowed down. Swarm is a great new single for Tramhaus. Only three weeks left to go for 'Blister'.
More music from The Netherlands, though Rotterdam 2, Amsterdam 1. Plastic Family returns to this blog with a great pop single that brings together pop from the 60s with indie vigour. 'Love & Heartbreak In High School' was the debut single and reading my review it fits nicely with Quiz On The Radio. If anything it brings to mind Gruppo Sportivo from the 'Ten Mistakes' album. An upbeat sound around a sad/teenage drama themed lyric. The only thing missing is the organ. Plastic Family is able to present an upbeat mood leading to the quiz show on the radio. The Beatles are referenced in a small sequence, 'On My Radio' is quoted for a few seconds. Of course, the quiz goes wrong, again, and the girl friend decides she has to go. Tragedy all over, except in the music. In November the single is released on 7". For now it is available digitally.
Black Doldrums' previous single was called 'Repetition'. The word comes by regularly on its new single Compulsion, but then doesn't compulsion lead to repetition of something. The goth side of the London based band comes forward in the strongest of ways. All is black, like in the heyday of darkness in the early 1980s. Joy Division and follow up New Order to name two bands. The darkest The Cure of 'Faith' and 'Pornography' another. Black Doldroms obviously is a fan. Singer Kevin Gibbard shows the darkest side of his voice and the music matches perfectly. Compulsion has the drive to underscore the title. The beat goes on and on. The lead guitar melodies bring the faintest of lights. In the intro a synth sound flies around like bats in utter darkness. They do not touch you but you can feel the flutter of their wings on your cheeks. The mood of Compulsion is superb. The album 'Repulsion Compulsion' will be released on 13 November.
Through the years covers by U2 made it to b-sides of cd singles and to the 'Rattle And Hum' album, the surprise album from 1988 and one of my first cds. And that for a band that in an early review as I recall said that they were bad at playing covers, so decided early on to write their own material. Come 2026 and U2 is part of a project honouring Shane McGowan and thus The Pogues. The album '20th Century Paddy - The Songs of Shane MacGowan' is set for release on 13 November. U2's contribution is not spectacular, but it is nice to hear how the band turns the song into a pop song and not a U2 song. It is the lightest kind of song I ever heard the band play. And that is something to hear. The lead instrument is a marimba? I'm just guessing here. Besides a guitar solo of course. With two EPs and this song the U2 fan is serviced quite well in 2026, yeah! (Just as long as you don't let yourself be fooled by the title of this single. This song has nothing of the yeah, yeah, etc,, at the end of 'Vertigo'. My favourite U2 single ever.)
It's almost one and a half year go Skyjoggers made their debut on this blog with single 'Tessæil'. Today the band from Tampere in Finland returns with another relentless single. Can it be louder? I do not think it makes any sense to do so. There are some tempo changes and quieter parts. For the most part it's distorted guitars and a drummer who must be the grandson of The Muppets' Animal. Ancient Steel is an instrumental track divided into "akts", where the musical theme or the tempo changes. The heart of the song is strong riffing of guitar and bass over a loud background. If you are into spacerock metal, Skyjoggers is the band to check out.
To think we started out so dreamy this week. Boy, did that change. Therefore we end with a punkband from New Jersey. Do not expect smooth punkrock on The Mirror. Burntmill Ghosts pulls several tricks into this song, that make it a far less straightforward song. The trio doesn't just play with a little light and shade. No, it plays with the format of the song by changing the tempo, several times. The pace of the song is altered by playing differently. Fluent chord changes are altered with stop start moments and fast played chords interchanged with long held chords. Just a few examples of what happens throughout. It all ends with a totally different form of song altogether. In other words, an interesting song Burntmill Ghosts' The Mirror is. An album is not due till somewhere next year.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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