While I’ve been listening to – and reviewing – a lot of things recently that have caused what we might call ‘an extreme reaction’ in me, I’ve also been listening to this. The four songs on this EP have become my go to ‘I just need to chill out and get mellow and relaxed’ music.

They are folky with a slight edge of twangy country or, if you will really laid back country with an edge of folk. I guess some people will reach for Americana, I’m not entirely sure I’d agree, it’s too poppy for that. And yeah there’s that hint of slight poppy-ness that I now understand indie-folk has. They are also wonderfully kinda lo-fi, there’s no over-production here or layers and layers of sounds. This is all except one track where the song kinda breaks the mould in the most wonderful way. But crucially what these songs show is a great song writer, who just let’s the songs do the talking.

With the opening song ‘A Little Bit’ you’re going to notice that it’s way laid back. You’re also going to notice that mellow mellow slightly twangy guitar which is just the most beautiful thing. Niall’s vocals are understated and almost casual. The words he sings are simple but meaningful and just, well, right.

Things move up a bit with ‘Aimless’ – look it’s not lots, it’s just that bit more up-tempo. This has a country-pop feel in places, in places it feels rather strangely to me like a 50s’ ballad. Again we have those seemingly simple words, but simple words are all that Niall needs to convey meaning.

‘Mixed-up’ has me slightly confused – it’s country-ish in places, in places folky, and in places poppy but to be honest that matters not one jot. It works OK. The key thing here is the sparseness – it is just basically Niall’s voice and guitar with odd twangy guitar. It’s so sparse in places that it almost disappears. I have found this song to be oddly addictive.

But, and I told you there was one song that broke the mould, ‘Oh. To Waste My Time’ takes it up a level, it’s richer and lusher sounding, there are more layers of sound. There is sax, the most wonderful sax. It is jazzy, not full blown jazz, but jazzy. It is gorgeous.

These songs don’t bore into your head, they just gently but insistently worm their way into your head, until you find that they’ve lodged themselves there never to leave. They leave you feeling calm and mellow, and we all need that sometimes. Complaints – four tracks of Niall’s music is just not enough, I found myself wanting more, much more.

The info

Niall Summerton’s softly crooned indie folk came from a culmination of inspirations. He began writing songs in school and, with the bonus of recording from his bedroom, has sculpted a sound that is very uniquely his own.

Upcoming gigs

2nd June – Moat Rules Festival, Wharf Chambers, Leeds
8th June – God Save Our Scene, Wharf Chambers, Leeds
3rd August – Peddler Sheffield

It’s my first visit to The Lantern, something which is a pity because I’ve missed out on some storming gigs there, and it’s a cool place – good sound, seemed friendly, good vibe in the room that sort thing. If you’re within gig travelling distance of Halifax I’d recommend checking it out. For different reasons I was pretty hyped up about seeing these bands so I was pretty excited as I made my way to the venue.

I’ve reviewed plenty of releases by Klammer but this was the first time I’d actually seen them live. I love that dark gothy post-punk thing they do.

The band are two tracks in and it’s as dark as fuck, darker somehow than the recorded material, it’s heavier too. At this point, for some strange reason, I actually found it quite scary; it’s a while, a good while, since I’ve heard music like this live. I have to take a sec to release the inner Goth that lies within me, thankfully all was good from that point on. No scrap ‘good’, fantastic. The bass throbs, drums pound and that guitar does that wonder scything sound thing. While the band’s singer – fab voice – pulls perfect post-punk poses, it’s all in the face people.

What’s immediately clear is that the obvious great playing you hear on the recorded material is there and present when they play play live. All of band are great musicians.

Klammer cover the post-punk bases but their songs hang together, they have a recognisable sound so it works – things get poppier, they get angular post-punk, they get punky post-punk (if you see what I mean) – and variety is of course the spice of life. The heavier songs have more impact after something sparser or poppier.

Of the songs I’d not heard before the absolute standout was ‘Production’ a punky sounding thing that, and I may be wrong here, seemed to be about workers’ life in East Germany. It had a bite to it that really grabbed you.

I was waiting, rather predictably I hear you say, for songs I’ve reviewed. ‘Being Boiled’ (the current single and a cover of an early Human League track) was rawer than the recorded version and really benefited from that. ‘Modern God’ completely rocked, I’ve fallen totally in love with that song.

And then to what is probably my favourite out of the releases I’ve reviewed – ‘Spiral Girl’. Look people this swirls, it twirls like a twisty thing. It’s a joy. It’s heavier than the recorded version but it’s still poppy, and it still has those wonderfully clever archly sang words.

The band close their set with two heavier songs – it’s a storming end to a great great set. You like post-punk, go see this band

So it’s, oh bloody hell, more than half a lifetime since I last saw Peter and The Test Tube Babies. They’ve changed, you expect that, I’m not the person I was when I saw them last, I didn’t expect them to be the same band. This isn’t to say I’m not aware of what they do now, I have all of the bands recorded output – the result of a rather over-tired Amazon spending spree late at night.

The set comes with loads of banter, a whole load of which was jokes about the North, in a different Northern place and with different people present this may have rather backfired but the band got as good as they gave – if you get what I mean.

For people whose memories of the band lie in what we might call ‘the early days’ the sound how is heavier. At times it almost drifts into something slightly metally. It’s still punk though. The playing is great and the vocals rock, boy can Peter sing.

Opening with ‘Moped Lads’ the set, amidst the banter races by, it’s crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser. Some of the band’s songs, for those of you that know them, come with words that leave you grinning helplessly and that was there. ‘Spirit of Keith Moon’ hits about halfway through the set, I love that song and live it’s brilliant. The crowd loved it, outbreaks of ‘dancing’ gradually building into a frenzy towards the end.

On one level I loved the band’s set, it rocked. There was a great vibe and the songs I had only a passing acquaintance with were fab. This is if I approached the band as a band I didn’t know. The thing is that my favourites – with some exceptions – lie in the early years of the band. I haven’t grown with the band while they developed. This is the problem with seeing bands you loved after a gap of, what is frankly, decades. My memories of the band sit with ‘Elvis Is Dead’ and ‘All About Love’, not the more recent stuff.

This sounds as though I didn’t like the band at all, and the truth is far from that I loved the set enough to make one of those mental notes to see them again, To want to get to know the band again.

You want loud punky music, great playing, loads of banter and songs that make you smile inanely go see Peter and The Test Tube Babies.

All photos on this page © Frank Roper Photography – More photos can be found on his Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/frankroperphotography/

I’ve reviewed Sifaka’s single releases in the past and have really loved what they do but the tracks on this came as something as a bit of a surprise. I was expecting something of a soul/blues influenced rock feel with sometimes out there psychedelic freakouts. What I wasn’t expecting was some tracks with a feel of say Van Morrison. Yep it’s soul-y and blues-y but tt doesn’t do that freakout I was expecting.

I wasn’t disappointed just surprised for the songs on this album are incredible, sophisticated, fantastically well played and with something of a Celtic folky influence. And yes, there are parts of these songs where they build to an impassioned loudness. And the surprises don’t stop as you find. But there are, for those of you want it, tracks with that Sifaka thing I expected from the singles I’ve reviewed.

The opening track ‘Lady Blue’ illustrates exactly what I saying about the Celtic soul thing. It’s heavy on the organ and sax. It has some really fab mellow guitar. And yes it builds to an impassioned end but it’s a kind of blue-sy soul-y feel not a rock feel at all. The thing about this, and if I’m honest the album as a whole, is that the sound of it is, well retro. It sounds as though it was made in the 70s. For me this is a great thing I love things that sound like this, but I’d be the first to admit that others may not feel the same.

‘Little Brother’ continues in the same vein. It even has sometime of a Van Morrison vocal phrasing. And note I say ‘something of’ not copies, it’s an influence. This track comes with a slightly country feel in the arrangement.

But it is with ‘Small World’ that the first real surprise comes, for this is a country track, I guess if you pushed it you might say mellow country rock. And yes it features the odd burst of sax and organ but that really works. ‘Family Man’ really goes for that country rock thing.

‘Evangeline’ is an oh-so gentle ballad, with these soft swells,, and then all of a sudden it does that Sifaka thing, the thing I expected which is an absolutely gorgeous guitar break. And with a joy this comes back at the end. And the words of this song are just lovely.

And we are back with a rocky soul-y thing on ‘Sunday Morning’ – this has the most fantastic organ on it I’ve heard in a long time. Sifaka do that ‘well it may start off sounding like a mid-tempo slightly rocky track with a sixties feel but just wait’. As well as the lovely organ there is sax, there is sax in large amounts.

The mellow ‘Little One’ has some builds but they’re gentle. The guitar is great but it’s restrained, and all the more effective for it. The swapping between guitar and sax leads is really great. This one very definitely has a Van Morrison thing going on.

And the album closes with ‘Song For Jonny’ and people this is huge. It’s, well I’d guess you’ll call it, a ballad. But it’s big impassioned ballad. This people has everything, yummy backing vocals, those sustained organ chords, a huge sax break, an oh-so creamy guitar break. It’s just lovely.

So while I was surprised by some of the tracks on this album, reflecting on the singles (and taking a reminding listen), if I think about it the feel of the music and the mix of styles shouldn’t have come as a surprise, they’re all there in the singles. The album, and this is what albums should be for, has given the band a chance to stretch out and explore those influences in more depth.

What has resulted from that is something that sounds like a classic album. The songs don’t sound the same but as an album they hang together so well. The care taken to make each and every track as good as it can be is obvious, there’s no filler tracks here. And like the best classic albums there’s something here for everyone, if you want something on the light and country feel that’s there, if you want something heavier that’s there as well.

So while this is an album you can pick and choose from, I’d suggest that it’s best listened to as a set of songs in the order the band has put them in. Doing that the album builds towards it’s closing track ‘Song For Jonny’ which is for me the absolute stand-out track. I know this isn’t what we do these days, we pick and choose and shuffle, but this is an album that benefits from that ‘old way’ of listening to it, all the tracks in the order the band decided to put them.

While Sifaka’s singles have a sophisticated sound to them, this steps up a level. The tracks are well written and arranged and played brilliantly. They sound organic and meant, they have passion and the feel is wonderful. And while it may sound to a certain extent retro, the way the band have mixed and merged the different sounds and styles is of them, and that makes it bang up to date. I love this album, it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

So if, like me, you’ve been yearning for something that reflects music of a certain kind from way back when, this is for you. If you’re into soul, blues, R’n’B with a tinge of rock, you got it. If you’re a fan of music that is played incredibly well, and that’s your only criteria, go for it. Or if you’re willing to just try something new, I suggest this is a great choice.

While I am frequently moved to tears by music I hear – as you’ll be aware if you’ve read my reviews – this is the first time a song I’ve reviewed that has left me in a small sobbing heap. This is just so emotional, it oozes emotion, no that’s just so wrong, it is emotion. It is achingly sad, so achingly beautiful. And while the situation that it reminds me of was an age ago, it brought it all back. And we’ve all been there or at least know somebody who has.

It starts simply, Matt sings over plucked guitar and oh so sad sounds, and somewhere there in the background is LIO’s voice. The story the song tells is just incredibly sad, so poignant. And then it builds, and with that first swell it happened, I started to lose it. And with that second swell of music, with that wonderful organ, LIO’s voice, I lost it completely. And now I only have to hear the opening notes of this song, and I get the same reaction.

I am sorry in some ways that I’ve opened this review by telling you how I reacted emotionally but in some other ways I’m not. Because that’s clearly what Matt set out to do with this song, it’s written and arranged to tell a sad story, the tale of a really sad situation, and to provoke a reaction, an emotional response. And no, before you ask, I’m not embarrassed to tell you what the song did to me – music, good music, provokes an emotional response in me; it may leave me manically happy or depressed or terribly terribly scared of my own shadow, or sad and weepy, or make me cry (and the other week I stood in a venue with tears running down my face at the sheer wonderfulness of a certain song by a certain band).

Look I could tell you, and perhaps I should, what it sounds like but that won’t convey what this song is on an emotional level, and that’s the important thing isn’t it? For the record the opening is slightly folky and americana but as it builds it becomes something that I can only describe as an alternative rock ballad. But that doesn’t tell you that Matt’s vocals are just so plaintively simply sang, and that you can feel the pain. It doesn’t tell you that there’s an ache in the big swells in this track, an ache that you feel deep down inside, a beautiful ache. And it doesn’t tell you quite how much LIO’s vocals add to the emotional feel.

I get that most of you won’t have the same reaction I did, some of you might. But what you can’t do is to not see (or hear) the emotion in this song. You can’t fail to hear the beauty, fail to recognise that this is a fantastically written song that has been arranged and played so beautifully.

Look, I’ve tried to tell you quite how good this is, I’m not sure I’ve succeeded. I’ve tried to convey quite how beautiful it is but the thing is it’s so beautiful I don’t really have the words to explain. For that you have to listen to it, and I’m going to urge you to do that.

The info

Beneath a skylight window, The Attic Movement flickered into life. In the dusty converted loft of a terraced house – nestled amongst the famous green hills of Sheffield – lead singer, Matt Williams, set himself the challenge of writing a song a day for a month. The inspiration ebbed and flowed but finally, after 30 days, he emerged with a book of hopeful sketches that were ready to be refined.

Teaming up with Grammy Award winning engineer/producer, Chris Wilkinson, the pair set about transforming the scratchy lo-fi demo recordings captured in the early days of writing into fully formed productions. The first of these to be released is the single ‘Leave The Car’.

Embracing the ethos of fluidity in the line-up, the track also features a dynamic vocal performance from Dutch singer LIO. The Attic Movement are, although the line-up is currently – as Matt says – fluid:

Matt Williams (Songwriter, Vocals, harmonica)
LIO/Leonie Sloots (Vocals – only on Leave The Car at present)
Chris Wilkinson (Producer, engineer, mixer – basically the George Martin of TAM)
Samuel Taylor (Guitars)
Adam Crofts (Drums, Keys)
David Glover (Bass guitar)

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