First up some info, just to clue you in, Daysession is a solo project from Jimmy Sweeney the lead singer/songwriter for Leeds band Cliche Cult.

If you think that knowing his Cliche Cult membership is going to give you a clue to what this sounds like, you’d be wrong, so very wrong. ‘I Don’t Like Dancing Anymore’ is a big wrung out pop ballad with more than a hint of those tortured ballads of the late 50s’ and early 60s. So unexpected was this that I also choked on my coffee the first time I played I listened to it. Of course when I say unexpected, I mean this in a great way.

Full blown emotional vocals are going to grab you by the heart, followed by the bloody gorgeous guitar. The guitar sits somewhere in the wang bar bluesy sound of the 60s but it’s amped up, it’s all so gloriously extra.

Look people, they just don’t make songs like this any more, and the world is a lesser place for it; ‘I Don’t Like Dancing Anymore’ is a big shining light of joy in the emptiness. It’s a bold, beautiful move to be making music like this.

Before I end this review, a listening tip. It sounds wonderful on a set of cranked speakers but I got the best experience from having this injected directly into my ears via headphones. Those vocals and guitar really hit the spot then.

This, my friends, is a joy, a thing of beauty. Somethings that will enrich your life. It’s a must listen. I wait with bated breath for further releases from Daysession.

If you’ve been keeping up, you’ll have realised that I am more than rather keen on Mince. I love the way they are kind of post-punk but then again not, I positively adore the ‘on the ragged edge’ sound they have, and I rejoice at the joy you can hear and feel in their songs.

For those of you already on the Mince kick here’s what you need to know. Mince have done it again, this is an absolute belter. Nuff said, go listen immediately.

For those of you who don’t know the band, here’s something a little more informative. What Mince do is to mix it up; you might hear that post-punk sound mixed with garage rock or noise rock or something else. In the case of ‘All I Ever Wanted, Was To Be’ they’ve mixed a kind of deadpan early Cure sound with Indie, a hint of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and a touch of that 60s’ death song thing.

The argument I bet you’re forming in your head right now is that this doesn’t make them a post-punk band at all. Well, yes AND no. Yes, it’s not what you’d expect post-punk to sound like. But no, it’s exactly what you’d expect a band stretching that sound to a point just before the elastic band breaks to sound like, a band who are not afraid to mess with our expectations, rip them into shreds and dance gleefully on the torn shreds on the wet pavement. The other argument I’d like to offer is that music shouldn’t stand still, progress and change are undeniably good.

This song veers madly between dark bass driven post-punk and tear it up Indie, and somehow this suits the topic of the song. The band explain ‘”’All I Ever Wanted, Was To Be’ is inspired by the film ‘Red Dragon’ and the toxic side of ‘self-improvement’ culture. It explores a young man trying to shed his skin, to become something greater, a god maybe. Triumphant in faculty, failed by his pseudo-society”.

‘All I Ever Wanted, Was To Be’ is a hell of a song. Lyrically thought provoking, musically inventive and a bloody joy to listen to. Oh, and most importantly, you can do that stop start jerky post-punk dancing to it. In a phrase, bloody fantastic.

Not Dead Yet’ is the first single release from Moose Wrench the self-proclaimed ‘finest dad-bod alt-core trio in the world’.

While I can’t confirm their claim; – I tried searching for ‘dad-bod alt-core’ to see whether there were any rivals to this title, and couldn’t find any – I can confirm that the single is absolutely bloody wonderful.

For those of you who are in the know – I don’t include myself here, my knowledge of the various ‘cores’ is to say the least sketchy – alt-core is going to let you know the sound immediately. But for the rest of us here goes; there are elements of hardcore, elements of sheer melodic brilliance, more than a touch of metal and punk.

But Moose Wrench are bringing – what I’d love to assume is their own thing – a sense of fun to the track, a sense of ‘we bloody love playing this stuff’ Somehow, I always end up with a grin on my face when I listen to this.

But, and it’s a big but, this isn’t just about having fun. There is some frankly brilliant playing going on here. What holds this track together is some frighteningly good drumming – the transitions between the different feels is seamless. We are also treated to more guitar sounds than is strictly necessary – yep there’s the hard riffing, but there’s also a screaming NWOBHM style sol. And the cherry on the top is the vocals.

Not Dead Yet’ rocks big time, it kicks arse. Play loud people, loud enough to wake up your neighbourhood.

Neoplastic are a band from Hull, they play post-punk. There is probably one more thing you should know, that is that the band was formerly known as the band King Orange.

This may – or may not, it entirely depends on the level of your curiosity – prompt you to wonder whether the name change indicates a step change in their sound. Well, yes and no, the band’s last release under the name King Orange – the EP ‘Another Collapse In The Park’ – did mark a change in their sound. The band indicate that by simply including it in their Spotify profile alongside this release.

Another question you should be asking yourself is what kind of post-punk the band plays. I’ll get to that, read on.

‘Love, Barely’ is a truly majestic track. It combines the harsh sparseness of Bauhaus, the demented harsh guitar riffing of ‘Scream’ period Siouxsie and the Banshees, the industrial bleakness of Joy Division and something of the sound of early Cure. So, you may be thinking, this isn’t exactly unique; but wait for there is more. Somehow in amongst the switches between bleak sparseness and screamingly loud harsh guitar, the band introduce something of an alternative 80s’ pop sound – perhaps the slightly off-kilter sound of The Associates or even the wide vast sound of Simple Minds.

But enough of this musical name-dropping, the key thing is what it sounds like as a whole. It’s majestic (as I said), gothic (not Goth, I hasten to add), compelling, dark and unsettling. There is nothing smooth about the transitions between sparse and unbelievably dense; they come unexpectedly and jarringly. The whole is held together by that post-punk pulse of bass and drums that go from industrial beats to all out thrash at the drop of a drumstick. The sheer musical ability on display is astounding.

And while all this glorious music is happening, there are words that intrigue, that make you want to listen again and again in an effort to work out what the song is about. And I’m sorry, I can’t assist you with this. It’s up to you to do this. And you should know that the vocals continue with the somewhat declaimed post-punk feel, a demented preacher we may call it.

Neoplastic have made something special with ‘Love, Barely’, something with a bleak beauty that is going to leave you emotionally drained and musically exhilarated.

The debut EP from Leeds’ Hardcore band Impale is a short sharp thunderous blast of shock and awe. We are talking four songs in less than 7 1⁄2 minutes, yep you read that right.

Opening track ‘Failstate’ is a slow burner; ominous stalking guitars, For 48 glorious seconds it grinds But this is just the casual listeners take on the track; for there are subtle touches of guitar sound, drums and vocals. It’s just an appetiser. ‘Bury Us *6 Feet Deep)’ is a rush of guitar, drums and those thrilling changes of speed. It’s raw but Impale bring us something new; in all that rawness there is nuance. There is astounding guitar that pierces the rush of sound.

And then there is the full on sonic attack of ‘Saw’. Full on guitar, full on vocals. This is a, if you accept this as a description, heavier, denser.

In a way ‘Sleep’ is the culmination of the three proceeding tracks. It brings in the grind, the hammering riffs. There’s the subtle touches of out of control guitar, the pounding of bass and drums. This is a nightmare-ish sleep.

OK so reviewing hardcore bands is hard. We all know what hardcore sounds like, but what marks out a hardcore band is the differences not the similarities. What Impale do to stake their claim is to bring nuance to their sound.Yep part of that is the grindcore element to their sound, but there’s more to it than that. It’s the, dare I say it, clever and unexpected touches of sound that sit in amongst the sonic attack, the space inside the denseness that allows a small but exquisite guitar sound to stand out.

This EP is a marker, a signal to us, that Impale have something different, bring something different. If you’re into any sort of noisy guitar rock, crank this loud.