Spectres In The Too Pure Sky

I have always had a lot of respect for Bristol's premier label Howling Owl Records. They are, in my opinion at least, actually one of the UK's great labels - and my thoughts hang almost solely on the fact that Spectres resides in the belly of this beast (it helps that they run it). The four-piece's Family EP from 2011 was a fresh blast of fettered air, blowing out the cobwebbs and blasting most no-wave contenders away (not that there are many in this day and age - but when a good one comes around, they are just about the best thing on the planet). They had a split out last year with The Naturals which was pretty great - but this 7" (actually out on Too Pure's Singles Club - get in on this here) pretty much pisses all over it. This is no backhanded compliment either - the A-side 'The Sky Of All Places' is still sonically tearing the ozone down around you, but in a melodic fashion that whilst your ears bleed from hearing too much, your gums bleed from grinning too much. Aural gingivitus? But that sounds bad for you... Then the B-side 'Sooky Eyeball' gut punches you, a squalling high end redliner that feels destined to make the Richter Scale obselete.


SO it makes sense that this absolutely killer single  ends off this Friday night - seriously, one of my favourite bands in the UK right now. And they are spending their first day in the studio today for what will become their loooooooong-awaited debut album. Friday - it was a good day.

These Pure Monsters Follow The Dogs Out Of The Swamp

Back in 2010 the excellent and now sadly defunct Leeds label Brew release Call Me Dragon, the debut from freakoids These Monsters, and it was a diabolical mess of an album that absolutely killed me with its audacity, its dirge and its desire to go to the farther regions of sanity. The boys have only gotten looser (of mind and spirit at least - their musicianship continues to tighten the screws). It's been some time since I've heard the Yorkshire trio - they did release a new album, Heroic Dose, in May though which I somehow missed (*self-flagellate*) - and now Too Pure have sated the longing with a 7" of new recordings. The Swamp/The Dogs is a showcase of the band's burgeoning proclivity for stretching their maniacal, cartoonish dalliances with psychosis to breaking point, and beyond. It's like Pulled Apart By Horses got decidedly slower, weirder, and stoned-er. You can pick up the 7" (Thursday must be "Buy Red Vinyl" Day...) here...

Three Ominous Beaches

 

Its been a very hot summer. Best time to be in a country that loves its pools - and even better, that has incredible beaches. It hasn't been the best for me though - in the UK for most of it, then in hospital, then banned from water like a Mogwai. Sigh. The beach holds so many great memories. Here are three beaches though that you should be wary of though - don't go burying your stash in the sand or off into the dunes with a handsome stranger here. Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water etc etc.

  

This first Beach band (and the impetus for this post) had a release out in the dying light of last year, Pacific. Canberra's Danger Beach is the solo project of Lachlan Thomas (formerly of sadly now defunct Assassins 88). His debut record Milky Way was somewhat a hit out there in the global internet ether, whilst the video for the track 'Apache' was nominated as a finalist for the 2012 Vimeo Music Video Awards. Those lo-fi meanderings aren't entirely gone, yet there is a slicker, darker perspective to these tunes that, if the glossy cover art is anything to go by, lurks in that in-between state between dark and light in the city - where the darkness never truly invades, but never truly leaves either. Think of Michael Mann's Collateral. There are sunny moments like 'Bee' or great track 'Idle Hands', but above all the devil is in the twilit details - especially the sirens that light up the stone-cold classic that is the closer 'Dark Blue' - fucking rad. A great album from a great up and coming band, you can get Pacific through Dream Damage here.

 

Whilst Canberra isn't that far from the golden sands of a quintessential beach, there aren't places much further from such a destination as Scandinavia. Yet this is where we find Cannon Beach, and befittingly the Danish/Norwegian duo aren't likely to break out the Shangri-La leads anytime soon. Having met in the countryside of Denmark, the tracks on Concrete, People And Things stem from approaching music from different perspectives (from folk-oriented Americana to ambient compositions and tape manipulations, with a common neutral ground in shoegaze noise). The result is sparse, eclectic, but oft-times electric. Example in point is ‘Sacred Harp’, an instrumental made up essentially of an autoharp connected to a Leslie amplifier, one guitar-amplifier and one bass-amplifer, a drone experiment that bleeds into the moody atmospherics of 'Loki'. Out through Ikenai! Records, you can grab Concrete, People And Things here.

 

Out of these three beaches, Menace Beach probably has the most recognition, at least potentially. A Leeds-based quasi-"supergroup" featuring members of Pulled Apart By Horses, Sky Larkin and Hookworms, I was immediately enamoured by their scuzzy nature, although they are also the closest to beach guitar pop of the three - their PR even pushes references of Wavves and Ganglians onto us. They are not bereft of ideas though, already rolling out a couple of tracks for Too Pure Records' Singles Club to back up their self-titled debut EP. 'Dropouts' sounds as much Breeders territory as anything else, or mid 90s Britpop that flirted with noisier, more whacked-out guitar settings, whilst 'Tastes Like Medicine' comes from the Williams/Cosentino school of shimmering lightweights that still somehow manage to remain fun and relevant. Pre-order this sucker here.
 

Coolrunnings Is Only The Beginning

Knoxville Tennessee aren't likely to be enamoured with some of their progeny - let's face it, who is? - but I'm sure they have given Coolrunnings the keys to the city. If they haven't, I call shenanigans! The 4 piece have put out a glut of recordings, such as self releasing two EPs Babes Forever and Buffalo on their own label Dracula Horse and a 7", Fool Moon, on Too Pure. The latest purge from these dudes is Dracula Is Only The Beginning (Type Records), an LP that seriously slides all over the FM dial. It may not surprise you that one of the members is an ex-member of Royal Bangs; it may surprise you that this album, with an emphasis on new wave, psychedelia, afro beat and synth pop, actually makes perfect sense. There are moments that I thought this may have been a mixtape. In fact, when put into Windows Media Player (yes, I still use that thing, leave me alone OK?) a bunch of different band names and album covers spring out at me. There is a little Animal Collective and Akron/Family in opener 'Chorus', then the Elvis aping, doo wop debauchery of 'Behold The Cunt' (yes, that is the title) throws everything on its arse. And so it goes. Such a mess should be exactly that, but instead Dracula Is Only The Beginning doesn't lie - Coolrunnings are only getting started on getting your collective lards up and dancing. Rock the casbah, you bloodsucking fiends!


Dracula Is Only The Beginning can be got at here - please do. This review, in retrospect, doesn't do this quirky gem justice. Buy the vinyl, there are only 100. Go on, DO IT! Or not - Ill beat you to it...

Coolrunnings - Chorus
Coolrunnings - Behold The Cunt

Time To Get Your Beaks Crushed

We have another shimmering noise shoegaze pop band from London. And yep, they're good too.

Duo Matt Poile and Alex Morris, better known as Crushed Beaks. Having formed in 2010 through a shared love of Italian horror films (and seriously, haven't we all fallen a bit harder for someone when they get their Fulci hard-on?), Crushed Beaks set about putting their fuzzy wall of melodic noise to record. Their mixture of relentless, pounding drums and salacious, swirling melodies found the two creating a live force to be reckoned with, yet they have chosen their first single proper to take the step into different surroundings to their DIY recording norm. Whilst the guitars were kept in their natural Wendy House environment, the drums were taken to New Cross’ Zion Chapel where they were given the somehow ghostly strength the songs so demanded. It really pays dividends, as you can hear below.

They are set to release their debut single proper through the Too Pure Singles Club on November 21st in the form of ‘Close-Ups/Sun Dogs’. It's the B-side we have streaming below. It's pretty fucking awesome, I'm sure you'd agree! The vinyl will be white, thus luscious, and can be pre-ordered right now.

Sun Dogs by Crushed Beaks

DZ Deathrays Make Big Sounds Both Here And Abroad

Local noise magnets DZ Deathrays will be heading back to Europe in October for the NME Radar tour (plus surrounding dates), since they are making such a splash there (toured with Cerebral Ballzy, in NME's top 50 best new bands, in Q magazine's top 10 acts at the Great Escape festival), which is pretty amazing and good luck to em. Before that though they are playing in Brisbane's Big Sound Live showcase tonight. If you are umming and ahhing about seeing them, aren't sure what the fuss is about, check out their last UK tour jammed into about 3 minutes of nuts-ness...



Then if that doesn't get you dripping wet, the video for their track 'Gebbie Street' (being released on a 7" when they tour through Too Pure) might give you a fair indication of what this dastardly duo do - and the stars they pull...