Loud And Quiet

Variously going by the names OCS, Thee Oh Sees, The Oh Sees and Oh Sees, John Dwyer’s revolving and prolific DIY project will reach a couple of milestones next month – 20 albums in 20 years, with the release of ‘Memory Of A Cut Off Head’ on November 11th.

There’s something poetic, then, in how this new album returns to Dwyer’s original plans for his group, in name (it’ll be released as OCS) but also in tone.

20 years is a long time to be flying through garage rock in the manner that Oh Sees do, but while most of us have come to know them as a ferocious scuzz-rock group, that’s not how they started – OCS were a hushed, melodic affair, with vocals that sighed rather than shredded.

That was ultimately down to Brigid Dawson’s ’60s folk vocals, which are back again on this record. It’s billed as a true collaboration between her and Dwyer, with Dawson writing the lyric and Dwyer arranging the music.

Here’s brand new track ‘The Fool’, which follows the bands’ sharing of the album’s title track last month.

Dawson says of the song: “On the one hand, it’s a just a simple song about love-lost. About watching your man drive away, and being left behind for his pursuit of the muse, whatever or whoever that may be. When that happens a few times, how foolish it makes you feel.
And on the other hand, I was listening to a lot of Jeanne Lee when I was writing, and wanted this song to be an experiment with her sound-singing, no words just shapes and sounds.”

It’s a different vibe to August’s ‘Orc’ album.

Back in the summer Mush shared ‘Alternative Facts’, a 10-minute garage rock song about one of the Trump administration’s more regrettable additions to popular language.

Now, the Leeds foursome are preparing to release a new 7″ single, ‘Luxury Animals / Comment Section Creeps’.

The pair of tracks will come out via Bristol-based label Art Is Hard on 17 November. You can pre-order the 7″.

In the meantime, you can check out ‘Luxury Animals’ below.

The band are also playing the following dates:

Soup Kitchen, Manchester, Soup Kitchen (w/ Ulrika Spacek) – 10 October
London, Oslo – (w/ Ulrika Spacek) – 12
Leeds, Oporto – (Pilbeams noise night) – 15
Glasgow, Hug and Pint (Massive Sanctions all dayer) – 21
London, Shacklewell Arms (with Drahla) – 9 November
London, Rough Trade West instore – 11
Bristol, The Old England (with Goat Girl – single launch) – 12

Flat Worms are a threesome with enviable pedigree.

There’s Will Ivy on vocals and guitar (Dream Boys, Wet Illustrated and Will Ivy Band), Tim Hellman on bass (currently in Oh Sees, and in the past Sic Alps and Ty Segall‘s band) and Justin Sullivan on drums (he was in The Babies, and also played with Kevin Morby once he’d started doing solo stuff outside that band).

Their self-titled debut album is out later this month, on 13 October, via Castle Face.

In the meantime, they’ve just shared this new video for their track ‘Pearl’. The stop-motion clip features them doing some mundane things like making the bed, making a banana milkshake and wearing a dog mask, all done with a sprinkling of surreal humour.

They’re about to play a few shows with Ty Segall and the Freedom Band in the States. In a couple of weeks they’re in the UK, playing a sold out headline show at London’s The Shacklewell Arms along with the following dates:

London, Lock Tavern – 12 October
London, Rough Trade – 13
London, Shacklewell Arms – 13
Newcastle, Cluny – 14
Glasgow, Broadcast – 15
Manchester, Eagle Inn – 16
Margate, Olby’s Soul Cafe – 17

Back in the height of summer, we shared the first track (‘Ghost Printer’) to be lifted from Crystal Palace-based duo JOHN’s debut album.

At the time we pointed out the dead-pan appeal of two guys called John starting a band called JOHN. Their new photos (above) are even taken in St John’s Wood. Good PR all round for people called John.

Anyway, they’ve just shared another new track. It’s called ‘Squad Vowels, – which we assume – people who know a bit more about the Internet can tell us – is a play on the popular social media slang.

John – we’re not sure which one – explains: “‘Squad Vowels’ focuses on the common craving for nostalgia. Taking aim at the traditions and gestures that we so readily accept through convention.”

So, yeah, here we go.

Their debut album ‘God Speed In The National Limit’ is coming out on 20 October, via Pets Care Records. To mark the occassion the duo are playing the following shows.

London, Old Blue Last – 18 October (‘God Speed In The National Limit’ LP launch)
Bristol, Mother’s Ruin – 21 (‘God Speed In The National Limit’ LP launch)
London, The Brewhouse – 1 November (with The St Pierre Snake Invasion)

You may have read a bit about CHUNK – the thriving DIY rehearsal studio, venue and arts space in Leeds.

ZoZo, formed in 2014, are something of a product of CHUNK, five friends who got together after discovering their mutual taste for NYC post-punk.

They spent much of the last two years touring, but in 2016 booked into Suburban Home Studios (run by MJ from Hookworms) to write and record a new EP. ‘A Bitter Gourd’ will be released via Hatch Records in November.

“It covers a wide range of influences designed to make you move and think,” say the band of the new release. “Lyrically it touches on topics of consumerism, isolation, memory and violence.”

Along with that news, they’ve also shared a new track, ‘NONO’.

‘NONO’, as well as being on the EP, will also appear as part of a new singles compilation series put together by Leeds-based organisation Come Play With Me.

“They’ve organised many fine gigs and put out some top singles over the past couple of years,” add the band. “Moreover, they are extremely patient when dealing with bands who can’t reply to emails or return paperwork on time, which is nice of them. It’s even nicer of them when they let said disorganised band have the first track on the album. Good label, good compilation.”

ZoZo have just announced a new show at Leeds’ Hyde Park Book Club, with support from Esper Scout, on 24 October.

Dave Clarke doesn’t rush his albums. In fact, it’s been 14 years since the last one, ‘Devil’s Advocate’ in 2003.

Next month (27 October) he’ll release ‘The Desecration of Desire’, and, well, it doesn’t sound like what you’d like a new album from Dave Clarke would sound like at all. There’s very little techno. Not because he’s done with it, but simply that it was time to reflect his interests in other types of music.

Which is why some of the collaborations on the album have raised a few surprised eyebrows. Firstly, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees/Queens of the Stone Age/Gutter Twins), and Anika, lead singer of post-punk band Exploded View. 

The latest track he’s shared from it chugs along on a dark, grimy, distorted bass line. It’s called ‘I’m Not Afraid’.

“I wanted to make an album that was not a collection of club tracks,” says Clarke. “I listen to many types of music all the time and I felt free for the first time to implement this approach for my own project.”

‘The Desecration Of Desire’ is out on 27 October via SKINT.

Coming out this Friday (29 September) is ‘Killer Brilliance’, the third album from the Leipzig-based project White Wine.

We’re not going to pretend it’s a breezy listen – according to the group it’s an exploration of the ‘killer’ instincts which exist within all of us set to a sonic backdrop inspired by ’60s-style film noir. The group say they aim to fall in and out of the cracks between genres “finding the nerves not yet hit.”

In his review of the album Loud And Quiet’s Greg Cochrane wrote: “The LP doesn’t “poetically reframe” the madness of our times; it simply pours the fear into a dark, simmering caldron of experimental ideas.”

It’s true, the project, led by former Tu Fawning and 31 Knots member (also touring member of Menomena and The Dodos) Joe Haege, along with Fritz Brückner and Christian “Kirmes” Kuhr, often feels uncomfortably compelling.

“We’re all killers in some way or another,” explains Haege of the theme. “Some kill hope. Some kill honesty. Some kill fear. Some kill greed. Some kill out of greed. All kill, in some ways, for our sheer survival.”

White Wine play in the UK this autumn at the following places.

London, 1000 Islands – 19 October
Stowmarket, John Peel Centre – 20
Glasgow, Hug & Pint – 22

Pre-order the album.

PINK KINK’s shows, mostly in the north west where they’re based, have been causing a stir for a while now.

Having met at university in Liverpool each of the five members in the collective hail from a different European country. They’re not just an outfit of clashing nationalities, but also styles (both aesthetic and musical).

Until today, they’ve not actually shared any recorded music. Now, they have, and it’s a song called ‘Bubblebutt’ (out 27 September via Big Score), a gothic-disco-punk number that clocks in at less than two minutes.

Sonically, it’s reminiscent of Chicks on Speed or The Horrors or The Cramps or maybe Gang of Four or The Moonlandingz or HMLTD. Point is, there’s a load of disparate elements being brought in the mix. A strong message to all the creeps, too.

PINK KINK begin a UK tour with Dead Pretties, starting later this week:

Manchester, Castle Hotel – 28 September
Newcastle, Think Tank – 29
Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s – 1 October
Leeds, Oporto – 3
Birmingham, Sunflower Lounge – 4
Leicester, The Cookie – 5
Brighton, Sticky Mike’s – 6
Southhampton, Joiners – 7
London, Boston Arms – 12

Other shows:
Cardiff, SWN Festival – 21 October
Bristol, Simple Things Festival – 21
Liverpool, Music Week Closing Party – 4 November

For their debut single ‘Eating People’ it’s like London duo Sons of Raphael asked the question: ‘where could we perform our music where it would be least at home?’

The answer: probably midway through a church service being held an an all-boys boarding school.

So, here they are, brothers Loral and Ronnel, bewildering the congregation with their squally debut track ‘Eating People’.

We interviewed them in the latest issue of Loud And Quiet – read the digital version, or pick it up in these places – or at least we tried to, until the conversation was interrupted by a guy in a tracksuit claiming to their bookie wanting to collect their debts.

Just a hint at the mythologised world Sons of Raphael are seeking to create.

‘Eating People’ will be released alongside another track, ‘Rio’ as a double A-side on 17 November, via Moshi Moshi. 

Soon, they’re playing these places:

London, Paper Dress Vintage – 12 October
Birmingham, Institute – 21 (supporting Metronomy)
Brighton, Dome – 22 (supporting Metronomy)