The rest of the EP is no less striking. Take the aphorism-filled ‘Old Rope’, a track which juxtaposes bullish energy with chronic doubt and lands on something like defiance, the sound loaded with the kind of bitter confidence of those who have longed accepted this world of ours to be rigged against the little man. ‘Chew’ takes things even further, a song of two halves which barrels forward at a hundred miles an hour before stretching out into a weighty instrumental. Again, the presiding emotion is that of exasperation, Gilmore-Innis a man at the end of his rope, pushed too far once too often, and now letting every ounce of gathered frustration pour out in one cathartic breath.

But more than an exercise in self-examination or personal release, Committeemen also use (S)HITS to excoriate the forces responsible for much of our contemporary pain. Taking aim at those who use religious ideology as an excuse for cruelty, final single ‘Control’ is the perfect example. A no holds barred assault on a government who would not only deny healthcare to those most in need, but have the audacity to claim such actions are somehow Christian. “Anything it takes for control,” as the chorus puts it, though you feel such people might not have accounted for the rage they have brought upon their heads.

(S)HITS EP is out now via Rue Defense and available from Bandcamp.

Photo by Clare Kemp

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Now Aversions are back with ‘Base Case’, the first glimpse of a much anticipated new full-length album. With a taut central rhythm and decidely nocturnal mood, the song unspools with the momentum and inevitability of a paranoid neo-noir thriller, every passing minute sinking deeper into a dangerous, miserable world. “All started things must end,” as Coll sings with fervid conviction. “I guess there’s a bit of the… / Flesh and blood brain box / Stuck in the silicon… / Sprayed like a crime scene! / Look for my fingerprints… / Dust of the infinite… / Nothing this limitless, / Works quite the way we…” Such a stream of statements and imagery is the backbone of the sound, and on the track goes, barrelling towards a conclusion that might not be the answer it is looking for, but a terminus all the same.

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To celebrate the album’s release, the band have released one final single, closing track ‘Night Driving’. Drawing together strands of sleepy psych and propulsive post punk, the track follows a meandering dream-logic towards its spiky finale, where the tension of self-censure that lies latent from the off finally bubbles to the surface. The band have also made a video to accompany the track. The animation, hand-drawn by Reichman, captures the song both literally and thematically, as a night-time drive turns strange and surreal from the safety of the backseat. “It’s funny the way we form memories,” she explains. “That’s what I got to play with here, re-creating a sequence of moments from the POV of a kid dozing off in the back seat of the family car: a trip to the bank, through the pneumatic tube to reach the lollipop at the end, then dozing off into a more surreal dream state.”

Hefty Wimpy is out now and available from the MAN LEE Bandcamp page.

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“The album […] grew out of a really patient process,” the band explain. “[It] started to become about the writing process itself, and how tricky details can be when you get stuck in the mire of decision making.” Consisting of Michael Scott (lead vocals, drums), Kelly Steinhoff (guitar), Camila Milla (guitar, backing vocals) and Christopher Scott (bass, backing vocals), and enlisting Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck, July Talk, Sam Roberts Band) and Justin Perkins (The Replacements, The Gaslight Anthem, Screeching Weasel) for production and mastering respectively, Arenas utilise their aforementioned style to push through this potential sticking point.

The title track is the ideal entry point for newcomers to the band. A song which encompasses the dualities inherent within the Arenas sound—be it the interplay between quiet introspection and anthemic soar, or the blend of earnest emotion and wry humour which constitutes the lyrics. “Truth Come Alive is a remark about the lengths humans will go to avoid their own realities, a snake in the grass waiting for fate,” as the band explain. The track digs into this idea with a tone both confessional and sardonic. “Wait, could you give me a break?” Scott sings, “Cut my legs at the waist / Walk around for a day in my shoes / You- Oh I never let you in.” But while this sounds like an individual calling out the truth as they see it, a sense of denial runs alongside it too.

I was woken
Up by branches of daylight
Give me something
Oh, whatever you like

I throw my head back
And then you can decide
It’s the morning time
But I’m closing my eyes, uh oh.

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November sees the release of the debut Eyesore & The Jinx  full-length, Jitterbug. Recorded at Yellowbird Studio during and produced by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, the album represents a new stage for the outfit, though maintains the twitchy, angular sound and sardonic vocals which made their name. Take single ‘Nocturnal Athletes (Ode To Bruno)’, a track which faces up to difficult personal circumstances with frantic energy and acerbic wit. “Bruno Mars and I go way back,” as lead Josh Miller explains. “Our relationship began in mid-2021, shortly after the death of my mother which was followed by a period of ill-health and what was in hindsight a breakdown. I joined a gym in a feeble attempt to somehow rebuild myself and grip some structure which had evaded me like a wet bar of soap.”

Only, true to the Eyesore & The Jinx style, Miller and co. use these circumstances to dig into the bizarre heart of contemporary Britain. The gym as the encapsulation of the country, where an assortment of lonely and overworked people run without going anywhere, lift with no purpose beyond some abstract penance, and stare at screens playing Top 40 videos on a loop. “In order to avoid the kind of people I’d always told myself occupied gyms,” Miller continues, “I began exercising very late at night alongside shift workers, competitive bodybuilders and other similarly self-conscious weight lifters. It was there that me and Bruno met. His porcelain smile, slick dance moves and sustained success beaming down at me from the Pure Gym TV screens, a stark contrast to the wasteland my life had become at that time.”

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Leaning very much into the post-punk end of the spectrum, the track offers a new dimension to the roman around project. It swaps out the smooth tones of the previous tracks for something heavier and more visceral. But beneath the weight lies the same tender compassion, the song both mourning and celebrating our relationship with animals, remembering the companionship they offer and the inherent goodness of such a thing, even when tragedy clouds the relationship.

“Rhythm was my pup who I had for a couple of months,” Rivera explains. “He had a disability that made him walk funny and emotionally extreme. He passed away in my arms suddenly and tragically. Rhythm was not the first animal I watched pass, so this song is a memorial to all my animal friends. Our pets feel like family. Our pet relationships and the way we cherish them should be celebrated.” ‘Rhythm’ might be a bittersweet celebration, but it is a celebration nonetheless.

I wish you know
How much I loved you so
Cause I loved you so

Check out the video by Nicholas Crespin and Roman Rivera below:

‘Rhythm’ is out now via Trailing Twelve Records and you can get it from all the usual places.

photo by Ker

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Take opener ‘Heavy Horse Museum’, its woozy psych opening threatening to rise into post-rock thunder before suddenly thinning into the slack murkiness of its middle section. Maya Harrison’s sardonically spoken delivery charges this space once more, various instruments needling from the edges and eventually gathering into a new thunderhead. But rather than get lost amid the chaos, the band ride its leading edge in triumphant embrace of the disorder. The video directed, shot and edited by Owen Neve captures some of the disorientating atmosphere:

‘OK Roswell’ strips things back for its slow-burning drama, though the entrance of Harrison’s vocals fans the flames, her proclamations pulling the various elements around them into an increasingly ominous atmosphere, winding tighter and tighter until the eventual spark unravels the whole thing into a turbulent blaze. The aforementioned ‘Orfordness Lighthouse’ offers a similar build toward crescendo, though within an entirely different manner, accelerating with elegant poise through its middle section as Harrison’s vocals are swept along in the motion.

Living up to its title, closer ‘Nervous Boundaries’ is no less ambitious, its binding momentum and swirling jazzy intricacies presenting something anxious and full of menace and constant movement. Aligning itself with the latest Protomartyr record in an embrace of dreadful unease, the song is indicative not only of For Breakfast’s experimentation, but their ability to channel this into something at once erratic and purposeful. A harnessing of chaos into pure energy.  Like a descent so quick and astonishing it comes to feel like an ascension, if only for the few moments before you hit the ground.

Trapped in the Big Room is out now via Glasshouse Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

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The result is Personal Best, the first TRAAMS full-length in seven years, to be released this summer on Fatcat Records. An album somewhere between evolution and revolution, clearly indebted to the TRAAMS style but unafraid of bold changes to break new ground. So while some tracks are clearly rooted in the old aesthetic, others represent a transformation. Take the prudent quiet of lead single ‘Sleeper’, swapping out the ferocity of previous releases in favour of something subtle, more human, infused with a certain light.

‘Sleeper’ sees Lowly’s Soffie Viemose lend her vocals, and latest single ‘The Light At Night’ is similarly collaborative. “I had this part where I was trying to sound like a preacher, or someone with unequivocal authority, delivering this ranting speech,” Hopkins explains. “And as much as I tried to get a good version of me doing it, it just wasn’t working. It just sounded like I was trying to be Joe [Casey, of Detroit’s Protomartyr].” So, unlike many a post-punk outfit before them, TRAAMS decided against the cheap knock-off routine and did the only thing left. They asked the man himself.

Building from Hopkin’s hushed beginning, the track ratchets tighter and tighter before unspooling in the back half, Casey stepping in with trademark fervour as the tension releases in the song’s spiralling crescendo. “They implicit in desperation,” he sings. “They wasted hours with Jesuits / They partied in the House of Royal Values / They were partitioned by robots / They saw both cross and boss-eyed.” A sermon delivered in total conviction, walking the line between derangement and assurance with the hermetic logic of an unhinged man.

But the lips still move
What did they say?
What’s that old saying?
Kill the body the head dies

The song comes complete with a video directed and edited by Charlotte Gosch and Lee Kiernan, with production from Holding Hands with Horses and further work by Rob French:

Personal Best is out via Fatcat Records on the 22nd July and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

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The song has been released to celebrate Saloon Dion signing with Nice Swan Records, and introduces them as an inventive and playful addition to an already impressive roster. But more than just having fun, the song pushes under the layers of the contemporary psyche and picks through the mess beneath. “None of us can claim to be perfect, we are all capable of both good and bad,” Sturgess explains of the track. “I found it interesting when writing this song to think about where certain traits of mine came from. There have certainly been times when I’ve stood by people who didn’t necessarily deserve it, and vice versa. We all carry with us certain destructive behaviours that can be damaging to ourselves and those around us if unchecked.”

‘Hey Hey’ is out now via Nice Swan Records.

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Secret Shame are about to head back to Asheville’s Drop of Sun studio to work on a follow-up, and to celebrate they have unveiled a brand new single, ‘Hide’. Despite its relative youth, Drop of Sun has quickly become renowned in the area, welcoming Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Indigo De Souza and Angel Olsen among others, but ‘Hide’ holds the honour of being the first ever single recorded at the studio back in June 2021.

Far from being a throwaway single, ‘Hide’ is every bit as intense as any other Secret Shame track. A ferocious, no holds barred descent into the depths of a psyche, emerging if not triumphant then somehow born again. Seeing the world anew. As Machina writes:

The abysmal valley you’ve been sleeping in for your entire life sparks into a fiery horizon without warning. You’re too caught off guard by this sudden change to notice that flames are growing. Rapidly, they eat up everything on the outside of your shell and pursue the light inside of you. They pull it from you and exfoliate you with sharp teeth and burdens. The flames leave no room for judgment or improvement; they only leave room for denial and the harsh stripping of what once made you who you are. You twist and burn.

Slower this time and with even less thought given towards it, the heat grows cold and lonely. The cold towers over the flames and extinguishes them, ready to move on to better meals. It washes over the embers and creates a consistent ash, smoking on your rubble. Once the heat has subsided and all that’s left is isolating cold, the emptiness makes room for a blinding and spectacular light. Everything parts to reveal something clean and new. It’s a beautiful feeling, but still sharp. This new iridescent light has you realizing you don’t know who you are anymore. You’ve been scalded repeatedly and you can’t recognize yourself. You can’t sink into this. You don’t know how to handle the beauty

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