Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s Recommendations July 2015

Review: An early recording of Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams with his Orchestra. Vocals by Bobby Parker. A previously unissued master for the first time on vinyl. The original cut is on the R&B Side and an edit (with slower BPM, and original pitch) is featured on the Popcorn side, perfect to DANCE THE POPCORN!

Review: The name Wolf Alice is derived from a story by Angela Carter, and appropriately enough this savage and infectious debut does have more than a little of the fairytale gone macabre about it. The band's indie-rock sound veers in a myraid other stylistic diversions, taking in delicate folk-pop, kraut-tinged groove and My Bloody Valentine guitar scree whilst Ellie Roswell's charismatic whisper-to-scream presence remains fervent and compelling at the mic. Moreover, these songs not only have claws but know how to use 'em, rendering 'My Love Is Cool' more than a mere zesty reinvention of grunge yore, but somewhat akin to the sound of a major new talent taking their first blood.

Review: Fiercely righteous, intensely passionate and politically driven, the Atlanta-birthed Algiers are carving out a unique niche for themselves with a brand of gospel-punk that is as experimental as it in incandescent. Noiserock shapes, electro grooves share space with startlingly rich and powerful vocals from Franklin James Fisher. Emotionally charged ditties like 'Blood' and 'Black Eunuch are as influenced by Nina Simone as industrial hip-hop troupe dalek, and the resulting record makes Algiers a powerful argument against anyone who claims that modern music is apolitical and the art of the protest song is dead.

Review: Starting off life as a scratchy lo-fi punk troupe, Pins have matured into a band whose ambition is matched by an expansive indie-rock sound that's resides as much in the world of The Pretenders as that of Savages. 'Wild Nights' does occasionally move into Dum Dum Girls-esqu '60s beat-group stylings as well as stomping barchord-driven raunch, yet the overarching ambience here is of a band very confident with their own chosen brand of attack, delivering an assured and enduring collection of sharp, salty pop ditties that sound made for festival stages. Proof positive that a band can transcend its original feral origins with both bark and bite remaining in its arsenal.

Review: Manchester's Everything Everything have invariably appeared ahead of the pack, their itchy art-rock overloaded with ideas and energy to the point that they provoked bewilderment as readily as rapture. Yet this third album appears to be the point where they're united with the wider world at large, and their newly enormous and heinously catchy sound appears ready to conquer it. Produced by pop doyen Stewart Price, 'Get To Heaven' is embarrassingly rammed full of hooks, innovative textures and complex yet memorable tuneage, securing this curious four-piece's position as a truly unique star in the modern rock firmament.

Review: Few people adhere so gloriously to the old-fashioned idea of a pop star than Brandon Flowers, who more often than not comes across - in classic Ziggy Stardust fashion - much like an alien emissary who's landed on the planet designed solely for this purpose. By no means a master of understatement, he nonetheless maintains a positively effortless expertise in making the kind of stadium-ready barnstormers that many others struggle to create. Moreover, he's excelled himself on 'The Desired Effect', producing an uplifting, refreshingly unselfconscious selection fashioned entirely from bombastic pure pop glory; the influences of Pet Shop Boys and Springsteen may be manifest, but this confection is Flowers' and his alone.

Review: Hailing from Italy, Opez are specialists in a particularly dusky, understated brand of instrumental melancholia that they style themselves as 'Latin Desert and Funeral Party Music'. Whilst some listeners may be reminded of the likes of Ry Cooder's 'Paris Texas' soundtrack and Calexico, the truth is that the inspiration for 'Dead Dance' comes mostly from this duo's heartland home. With '50s tinges resonating alongside a richly orchestrated yet entirely acoustic palette, 'Dead Dance' is twilight music replete with style and grace Regardless of this outfit's origins, fans of Los Lobos, Cowboy Junkies and Angelo Badalementi will find themselves every much at home here.