This time two years in the past, Syrian band About Silver gained our Tracks Of The Week competitors with their single Silver Shadow. Effectively, they’ve solely gone and completed it once more, with new single Rock I am Rollin’ In, mobilising their fanbase to vote in huge and keen numbers and eking out a slender victory over Northern Eire’s very personal The Reply.
So congratulations to each of them, and to Norfolk’s most interesting Oli Brown & The Useless Collective, who weren’t too far behind in third spot. They will all be again once more, we are able to virtually assure it.
Here is final week’s successful entry once more, after which it is onwards with this week’s election choice. Hear onerous, vote more durable.
Crown Lands – Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II
A phrase to the sensible: don’t be delay by the size of this monitor, if descriptors like ‘lengthy music’, ‘prog epic’ or ‘quite a bit like Rush’ sometimes have you ever operating for the hills or your AC/DC assortment. Certainly, in the event you assume that every one that stuff isn’t your jam, this Canadian power-duo’s new single may be what converts you (and if it’s your jam…properly, it’s all excellent news from right here). Starlifter: Fearless Pt II is that rarest of issues; an eighteen-minute prog rock epic with out an oz of flab. Virtuosic frills and other-worldly themes are tempered by more-ish Rush and Zeppelin-y riffs, constructed on a melodic narrative that ebbs, flows and absorbs the listener with ease. It’s elegant, intelligent stuff that wishes you to take pleasure in it – not really feel alienated by it. Candy.
Ashes Of Billy – Shamed
Unsigned Danish trio Ashes Of Billy dropped us this monitor completely out of the blue, and we’re glad they did – and in the event you like basic grunge with hummable tunes, you can be too. Shaped in 2021, and born precise many years after the ‘Seattle scene’ exploded, the band celebration prefer it’s 1992 on Shamed (i.e. moodily, in shades of flannel). It’s like listening to Stone Temple Pilots’ metalhead kids, with scuzzed up riffs that chew and swagger with confidence. If you’ve completed weeping at how younger all of them are (aged 13, 14 and 15 respectively), make a remark to take a look at the EP, The Proper Place, mastered by Metallica producer Flemming Rasmussen and out on 1 March.
Ingrid & The Ministers – Damaged Leaves
Kiwi DIY-ers Ingrid & The Ministers hit us within the face (metaphorically; they didn’t truly come all the way in which over right here and sock us one) with this messy, groovy, horny fistful of ragged punk n’ blues. “This blues groove got here to me after I found Jessie Mae Hemphill’s album She Wolf (1981),” says Ingrid. “It’s full of fantastic blues rhythms you can jam to for hours. I rapidly realised, although, that I wished it to be quite a bit rougher, and the lyrics to be trendy and relatable – undoubtedly not too well mannered.”
Miesha And The Spanks – It’s My Yr
How the hell did it turn out to be February already? In the event you’ve discovered your self pondering this over the previous couple of days, and will use an additional shot of inner oomph for the 12 months forward, Miesha And The Spanks may also help. It’s My Yr feels a bit like what may need occurred if Cyndi Lauper fronted the Runaways, in New York throughout the early 00s guitar wave – in different phrases, a tasty antidote to the winter blues. Because the band say: “Every little thing is uncertainty till the refrain hits and tambourines, synths and hovering vocals elevate a storage rock music into the anthem of the 12 months.”
The Damned – The Invisible Man
With a model new album, Darkadelic, coming later this 12 months, The Damned are luring us in with this primary piece of sweet from that forthcoming deal with bag. And what a candy piece it’s; if by ‘candy’ you imply darker than Devil’s wine cellar, with a louche, soiled guitar hook and early Stooges-style keys that swerve into psychedelic freakery. If that is something to go by, that album title is fairly spot-on. 5 years on from their earlier album, Evil Spirits – and forty-six years after their first – they’ve nonetheless bought one thing.
Tempesst – Sundown at Maria’s Pt. II
Written rapidly (for all its lushness and considerate textures), the indie romance of Sundown At Maria’s Pt II seems like an clever balm for the soul and the ears, with a fantastically bittersweet, Scott Walker-esque coronary heart. “That is very a lot a music the place there’s gentle to counteract the darkness,” says singer Toma. “Generally relationships could be a wrestle, however there are additionally many moments of bliss and celebration.” Discover extra on their subsequent album, Prisoner Of Want, is out in March.
Rock-Criminals – Get Your self Collectively
Finnish rockers Rock-Criminals (we’re undecided about that hyphen both, to be trustworthy) requested the good Michael Monroe to write down the lyric for this refreshing blast of thoroughbred rock’n’roll, and the top result’s simply what you’d count on. It rocks, it rolls, there is a bit the place the whole lot breaks all the way down to hand-claps and “naaa-na-naaaa” singalong vocals, and it is livelier than {an electrical} cable tossed right into a pond filled with koi carp. There’s additionally a bit that appears like The Smithereens’ basic Behind The Wall Of Sleep, so bonus factors for that.
Screaming Females – Brass Bell
It took a short time to get our tiny heads round this one, however now that we’ve we are able to heartily advocate it. Kicking off with overclocked techno synth, Brass Bell picks up with the form of riff that will really feel proper at residence at a Device rehearsal, earlier than launching into an instrumental part that reminds us of the primary riff of the Scorpions’ 1977 basic The Sails Of Charon. “Brass Bell is a music about surrendering your autonomy to one thing so overwhelmingly highly effective you willingly relinquish your ambitions and self-worth,” says singer/guitarist Marissa Paternoster. “My intention was to attract an attention-grabbing dichotomy between the muscular nature of the music and the reasonably bleak, fearful lyrics.” So now .
