I can’t put this off any longer. For the past hour I’ve been looking at the Soundcloud page that this is on thinking ‘I’ll listen to it now’ and then finding yet another reason not to do that. To be quite honest it took me over an hour before I even clicked on the link from their Facebook post to Soundcloud.

‘So Frank, why is this happening?’ you may (or may not depending on whether you have any interest in this) be saying. I think what I’m doing is trying to reproduce what happened when you had to actually go into your nearest record shop to actually buy things on vinyl, and one of your favourite bands had a release out that day. First you had that anticipation of knowing it was going to be there at the end of your journey, then you had the return journey time to study the sleeve, look at the song titles (and try and work out whether any songs you hadn’t already heard were going to be good). Then you had that period when you tried to slit the shrink-wrap perfectly so – in the case of non-gatefold sleeves – the record was actually protected. And then after one final read of the sleeve and an attempt to work out what the sleeve told you about the music and where the band’s heads were at the time, you might actually listen to it. With digital streams and downloads there isn’t that quite delicious delay.

And yes, as you may have already worked out, Pepe Sylvia are one of my favourite bands. This is a band that I have seen live exactly once (they mainly play in Leeds and I can’t get back home from gigs in Leeds the same day on the train, I’d need to stay over and right now I can’t do that) and only heard the two releases they’ve put out but I have become quite, let’s say, obsessed with. I feel about them the same way as I did with say The Ravishing Beauties (you can read my column about The Ravishing Beauties here) way way back then (and strangely there are some hints of The Ravishing Beauties in Pepe Sylvia, it’s the vocals I think). It doesn’t feel exactly seemly for somebody of my age (and no, for the 100th time I’m not going to say how old I am) to be ‘in the throes of fandom’ but there it is, I’m not sure I really care.

So, that said, on with the review – and it should be noted that I’ve not as yet actually listened to the EP. It helps that there are two songs I’ve heard before – ‘Hannibal’ and ‘Wax’. There is a track, ‘Rotten’, I may have heard or not heard live. But these are wrapped up in intro/outro and interludes. There will now be a gap while I actually listen to it, I’ll be back.

And I’m back

I’m back and I am completely overwhelmed by the music on this EP. It has left me feeling either happily sad or sadly happy, it’s really hard to pin that down. And I’m almost too embarrassed to say but I actually have tears rolling down my face. This is achingly beautiful. I am so overwhelmed that right now I can’t actually say any more, I might need to take a short break while I work out what to write.

A short while later

So I’ve listened to the EP some more and I’m still not sure that I know exactly what to say but here goes. The songs and intro/outro and interludes work as one seamless piece (on Soundcloud there is this small gap between them but I’ve managed to tune that out).

The intro could really be described as a soundpiece (as could the outro and interludes), this is an extraordinarily evocative piece that appears to feature a variety of sounds that includes a musical saw (as least I’m fairly sure that’s what it is, I’ve seen pictures of a recent gig which show this). It starts sounding a little like whale music to be honest with these wonderful little sounds that flit in and out, and then there is guitar. It was at this point in my first listen that all I could think was ‘this is so so beautiful’ and I lost it completely.

This blends into ‘Hannibal’. I’ve already reviewed this but this is a good a time as any to think again. It is the most bizarre thing, it almost shouldn’t work, the mix of things on this song. It sounds vaguely folky and Americana-ish at times, and then at others psychy, then sort of post-punk or I’d guess shoegaze. It’s loose but way tight. It has what I will describe as utterly lovely vocals, that shift between perfect harmony and slightly ragged. It even has this sort of trip-hop breakdown and horn sounds. It is, and this will be a theme I’m sorry, beautiful.

‘Interlude (i)’ is this strange sort of tumbling thing, slightly fuzzed, what I can’t work out is whether this is a guitar or a keyboard, but I like a sound I can’t work out. It has this strange feel, at least to me, of church organ music.

‘Rotten’ is dark and brooding. I love and adore the main vocal on this, this isn’t to criticise the backing vocals at all, they’re really really great. It’s sort of stalky in feel at first, it’s all sort of bass synth pads and rattles. And then it sort of explodes into soaring psychy shoegaze-y fuzz with the most wonderful vocals under it.

‘Interlude (ii)’ is back with those whale type sounds. And then ‘Wax’. Now ‘Wax’ is one of those songs that makes me cry around half the times I listen to it. When I said ‘it’s beautiful, beautiful in an epic bringing tears to the eyes way’ in the review I did on it’s single release, I meant it. Actually it’s those builds that do this to me, it’s the power of the emotion in them, and then it’s those vocals right at the end, they finish me off.

It starts quietly, there’s guitar gently picked over some synth and what sounds like the sound of children, and then these breathy male vocals come in. And then it builds to something briefly, the guitar crashes, there are these what I can only describe as weird warbling synth noises. And then it drops and there’s a female voice with a response. It builds again, there is guitar crashing in, there is some utterly lovely vocals and it fades on washes of synth. And those builds are epic. It appears to be some sort of ‘there’s two sides to every relationship (breakdown)’ story. But what it sounds like mainly is the sound of something hugely sad going on. There’s something in the arrangement and the vocals that just grab at your heart.

The ‘Outro’ is the strangest thing I’ve heard in a long long time. It sounds like sort of 1920s/1930s music played on modern day instruments – bar the musical saw of course. It is weirdly very moving and sad.

Trying to sum it all up

Pepe Sylvia’s music sounds like nothing I’ve heard before, but then again there are hints of lots of things I’ve heard before – folk, country, post-punk, shoegaze, bits of psych, 80’s classic pop, 70s ballads from big AOR bands (oddly that’s what I get in places), those sort of loose 80’s Peel type bands with female vocalists, weird electronica – but these are all filtered through what I now call the ‘Pepe Sylvia’ thing. It’s loose but tight, it’s the way that sounds are put together,. It’s the way the songs are put together with such obvious care and attention to detail. It’s those oh so lovely vocals.

What comes out of this is something that is beautiful and, here I am going to use a word that I don’t use lightly, perfect. There is nothing you could do to these songs and soundpieces to make them any better.

Pepe Sylvia’s EP is now available on Spotify and all the other normal places you listen to your music.

The info

Pepe Sylvia are launching their EP at Mabgate Bleach Leeds with an EP Launch Party on 24th May. Also playing will be jellyskin (another of my favourite bands), Van Houten and Floral Øpulence.
https://www.facebook.com/events/211539962786333/

Pepe Sylvia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pepesylviaband/
Pepe Sylvia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pepesylviaband
Pepe Sylvia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pepesylviaband/

As I’m starting this review I am only half way into the 14 tracks that make up ‘Artgod Dogs’ and I have already been surprised, reeled in wonderment, and frankly shed a tear at the sheer brilliance of the songs on this album.

I’ll get back to the review proper in a moment but first let me tell you that when the band’s manager got in contact to ask whether I could review this new album he told me that ‘the violin is back’, huge news for me, a fan of the original string driven sound – although looking at the band credits it’s credited as a viola which goes some way to explaining some of the sound tones we hear. It sears, it saws away in the background, at times adding this sort of manic folk feel to some of the tracks.

Look, as I said there are 14 songs on this album and I can’t do them all justice in this review. If you bump into me at some gig somewhere and you have say two or three hours, I’d be happy to tell why this is so so good in – perhaps excruciating – detail and why you must listen to it but for the purposes of this I’m going to concentrate on my highlights. Where I think it’s important, or in some cases just because I feel like it, I’ve said what I think the song is about. The words are great, honest. But in some cases they are the sort of lyrics that could be interpreted in as many way as there are listeners, which isn’t a bad thing at all, I love those sorts of lyrics.

Broadly speaking the sound – bar the viola of course – follows on from the previous release ‘Manco Diablo’. It doesn’t have some of that frankly heavy rock riffage of that album. It’s sort of heavy in places but, I don’t know, it’s more ‘Stonehenge Free Festival’ to my admittedly old ears (I’m not that ancient by the way, just older). Look I’m making this sound retro, it isn’t, it’s way up to date both in sound and song content but it has this thing going on, OK? And as will you find out there are songs that just come out of bloody nowhere, that are just so unexpected that they make you reel.

The album opens with ‘The Broken English’. This thing just keeps changing, one moment it’s this crunching guitar thing, the next it’s a manic viola driven reel. Then it’s this grinding thing. Then it speeds up into this whirling thing. Fuck, this is going to be brilliant live (yes King of The Slums are playing live in June, something I am hugely looking forward to). Lyrically, well from what I can work out, it’s a commentary on the current state of us (and them), although I’ve been led to understand that it particularly refers to the Grenfell Tower Disaster. It’s just hugely effective, and strangely moving. You can listen to the track here

‘Cut Throat Living’ is perhaps more, let’s say, rocky, more guitar driven but there’s that viola there adding that certain extra thing. The song could be summed up lyrically as being about the grind of working to live and what that does to you. It’s one of the tracks on the album that I keep going back to. And it’s hard to say exactly why, perhaps it’s that dropout section where the vocals go all echo-y, perhaps it’s the violin sawing away. Whatever it is, it’s got me hooked.

The song ‘Storm Linda (Part 1)’ is one of my favourites. It took me completely by surprise on my first listen through. And even with the words in front of me I still can’t work out what it’s about. It’s this delicate, sort of psychedelic thing, at least at first – think sort of early Floyd or even Gong. The viola on this is so so haunting. It changes, it’s less delicate but it’s still a trip people. There’s this pulsing guitar that swirls in your head. The drumming on this track is just brilliant. And those vocals, light and delicate one moment, fuzzed and echo-y the next. Wonderful stuff.

‘Goya, Pinter, Honey, Bed’ is this big rocky – sort of space-rock – track with this quite quite fantastic backing vocal. And then it’s this spoken conversation. And then it’s back to being rocky. It’s about what somebody has done that day – look at a book of Goya pictures, read some Pinter, eat some honey and then go to bed – and bizarrely the conversation is with a flatmate who’s in a band who’s been on a trip to Berlin, Stockport and Stockholm. Somehow, just somehow, I’ve got horribly addicted to this.

And now to ‘Dirty Little Artdog’ a track that actually brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. It’s simple thing, a delicate ballad sort of thing with a kind of spoken vocal. The viola is just so effective, so emotional. Quite what a ‘Dirty Little Artdog’ is and why you might want to ‘stick it in your pocket’ I have no idea, but I don’t care. This song is just so moving, even though I don’t know what it’s about, it’s that well done.

Small update – having listened to the song for way too many times, I think it’s just a song about a pet dog and taking said dog to an art gallery (yes really). I say ‘just a song’ but it isn’t ‘just a song’ at all. It’s a tribute.

So that gets us halfway through the album with my highlights. Deep breath, compose yourself Frank, onwards we go.

‘Crow Syndrome’ had me thinking poppy Here & Now. It has a groove you could lose yourself in, but it’s light, at least in places. And then the guitar just lets go. Another of my big favourites.

I’ve included ‘Deathsex Reality Check’ because it was the title of the song that grabbed me first of all. But the song itself is this crunchy guitar thing. It’s another track I keep going back to time and time again.

‘Salt Of The Earth’ opens with these guitar crunches and then the violin comes in, just sort of pulsing away. The vocals come at you and suddenly it has this psychedelic section, I was so surprised by this at my first listen I had to check it hadn’t actually managed to switch to another track. But no, this is one of those tracks that just keeps changing. The fantastic thing is that while it keeps changing, it works wonderfully.

The album closer ‘Diamante Swansong’ is another one of those huge surprises. It’s another of those changing songs, one moment it’s a slow sort of ballad-y thing, the next it’s a whirling rocky thing. The next it’s a viola showcase solo thing. It’s something I could imagine as a live set closer, it has that ‘let’s all lose it together’ feel.

There comes a point in a review where the reviewer is supposed to make some general comments about the album and then drawn this together in a pithy sentence – the sort of thing you see bands using in their publicity. BUT I’m finding this impossible, try as I might I can’t come up with that pithy sentence.

The songs on this album are songs written and played by a band who are not afraid to push the boundaries or even have any boundaries at all, so different are some of the songs or so different things can be within songs. But although they do play in a variety of styles somehow you just know that it’s the same band. The songs have this certain thing that says yes these are King of the Slums songs.

To do that a band have to be good, and King of the Slums are good, the playing on this album is incredible – at one point during the repeated listening to the 14 songs I started listening to the individual instruments more closely. The thrilling thing about the viola playing is the variety of sounds you get – it sears through the other instruments, it pulses away, it saws. The guitar is just great – it crunches, it’s delicate, it swirls. The bass – where it’s prominent – is amazing. And the drumming is hugely impressive.

One question you might be asking is is this a progression from ‘Manco Diablo’, and the answer, at least to my ears, is yes and no. It’s yes in that at least some of the songs could be from that album, there are things that are similar in sound and style, but somehow they are more inventive. It’s no in that some of the songs are just so different from the songs on that album that it’s almost like they mark a turning point in the band’s style. And this isn’t a return to their original sound, even if the violin/viola is back. This is a band who are progressing, going forward and not sitting on their laurels.

OK so having reconsidered my pithy sentence, the best I come up with is to repeat my opening sentence. I was surprised, I reeled in wonderment, and frankly shed a tear at the sheer brilliance of the songs on this album, it’s that good.

So do I recommend this, hell yes, it’s great great album with a range of song styles that really hang together, with something for everybody. If you were a fan back in day but haven’t listened to any recent stuff then get this. If the band are new to you, then give this a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Physical copies of the album are available from http://www.kingoftheslums.com
Digital downloads will be available later in June

The info

King of the Slums play Night & Day Cafe Manchester, 23 June
http://www.nightnday.org/event/king-of-the-slums/

Website: http://www.kingoftheslums.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kingoftheslumsMD/
Learn more about KOTS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Slums

Skylights’ new single ‘Take Me Somewhere’ is one of those joyous indie rock tracks. It’s bouncy, it’s danceable, it’s full of energy, it’s gonna make you come away with a huge smile.

“OK” so I hear you say “aren’t there lots of indie rock bands that do this, what makes this different?”. Well it just has these moments when it soars, when it turns it up a notch or two. And it has this slightly punky edge that sets them apart from a lot of indie rock bands. And I’m going to have admit that I’m not always a huge fan of indie rock, there just seems to be so much of it around. And much of it, at least to me, sounds similar, perhaps I’m just jaded. Having said that I’m always open to being surprised by an indie band, but they need something that marks them out for me. In Skylights’ case it was that raucous edge that did it. Actually this is one of those tracks that doesn’t benefit from listening on headphones, what you need to do is to listen on a system, turn it up loud and just listen. Give those guitars some space to work.

It races along, it seems to be much shorter than it actually is. The guitars are big but they’re mixed down. This gives the track some weight and depth. The drumming is not flashy but drives it along hard. The mix is great, it’s not too tight. It sounds like a rock band, albeit one with a pop edge.

Look this is great, it made me sit up and listen, something that for an indie band isn’t easy. I’d suggest you did the same.

The info

Skylights are an indie rock band hailing from York and Leeds.

The band are:

Rob Scarisbrick – vocals
Turnbull Smith – guitar
Jonny Scarisbrick – bass
Myles Soley – drums

The band are heavily influenced by the sounds of Leeds band The Music, Manchester’s Oasis, Wigan’s The Verve as well as the punkier tones of the likes of Sex Pistols and The Clash. They are regulars on the York and North Yorkshire BBC Introducing show.

Website: http://skylights2018.co.uk/home/

This, my friends, is like falling down a well of noise, you spiral down and down, hoping against hope that it doesn’t ever end (but of course it does in a welter of effects).

“So yeeaaah Frank, enough already, is it any good?” I hear you say. It is, it’s a blast, a huge blast. However, and it’s not a huge however, I didn’t find this as immediate as ‘Irreversible Knot’, that may just be me, you may be grooving to this straight away. But after a couple of listens I was hooked.

It starts with this ‘let’s ease you in gently’ intro and then it’s full on, blast it in yer face riff driven wall of sound. And quite what the hell is going on with those vocals, I haven’t heard vocals like that since like years. And it just doesn’t let up, except it does just to hit us with the most fuzzed up bass thing I’ve heard.

And yet if you listen to it enough what starts creeping through is these little subtle things – quite the most wonderful cymbal sound, little whirls of sound, a bass line that grooves hard. These are the things that make it listenable (is that even a word?) to again and again, you’re always hearing new things.

This is just the most wonderful 3 minutes and 20 seconds of fuzzed up, cranked up, psych-garage I’ve heard in ages (well since the last DENSE single). Welcome to the noise people, play as loud as you dare.

‘The Smoke’ is available now on all major streaming platforms.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2K0yNRawmp6agLNqR4aF9M
Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-smoke-single/1377067303

The info

DENSE are:
Charlie Fossick – Vocals/Guitar
Dylan Metcalf – Bass Guitar
Sam Heffer – Drums

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dense-music
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denseband/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/denseband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialdense/

Although I had heard of Leeds’ band The Harriets I’d never heard anything by them until I was offered a chance to review ‘Harry’ their latest single. I got around halfway through the track and I was grabbed and I said yes immediately.

OK so I’d better ‘fess up here, one of the reasons I really liked the track is that it reminds me of one of my favourite 80s garage psych (although we called it The New Paisley Underground sound) bands The Playn Jayn. It’s that dual vocal thing and that sort of rev’ed up R’n’B sound. Plus what we might call a rather prominent bass line that really sets up the groove.

Aside: Personal trivia: The Playn Jayn were incidently either managed or promoted by Neil the Ents VP of Chelsea College where I went to university, he’s actually pictured on the inner sleeve of The Playn Jayn’s live album ‘Friday The 13th’. Nice guy except for the fact that he nearly turned a free gig offer by Marillion. In fact he was going to turn it down until persuaded that this was a bit of a coup. He did however really like Here & Now (after I’d lent him all my Here & Now albums so he he could work out whether he did like them) which makes him OK in my book. The Playn Jayn actually played at Chelsea in a strange semi-underground building usually used as a coffee bar, pool room and band rehearsal space.

Aside over. In addition to the rev’ed up R’n’B dual vocal thing The Harriets bring a slightly out there punky edge. Something that really had me grooving. And I have developed a certain liking for the words of this track which are just brilliant. Look any song that starts with the line ‘Harry wears a green shirt’ you know is just going to be fab, and this song is fab, it’s really fab.

Look this isn’t anything deep and meaningful it’s a just a huge blast of fun, a huge blast of slightly fuzzed up, raucous R’n’B influenced punky edge psych. Add in those vocals – all slightly loose and a guitar solo that just thrills, and it leaves you with a huge smile on your face and tired dancing feet.

Put this on, get up and get down, repeat till exhausted.

The info

The Leeds-based duo, made up of the musical minds Daniel Parker-Smith and Ben Schrodel, have made waves in the Yorkshire music scene since day one, being chosen by independent industry expert judges such as Alan Raw from BBC Introducing and organisers of festivals End Of The Road and Tramlines to work with Higher Rhythm as part of their Breakthrough development programme. More recently the duo have been picked up by BBC Introducing and BBC 6 Music’s Tom Robinson.

Daniel and Ben form the perfect formula, dealing in jangly, melodic tunes, with a focus on the bright distinctive vocal harmonies. Adding another layer to their live shows is Ryan Bailey on the drums.

As well as writing and producing their own music, The Harriets create content based around their DIY musical process, which you can watch on their YouTube here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnpamMW41ZA