Oh boy, Dim Imagery are doing the business in a huge way with this release.
In contrast to their last release ‘Three Degrees’ this is a less edgy but more rocky sound. It builds from sounding like The Doors doing The Mission – including spoken vocals – to something that is raucous and punky – angry, angular and stabby. It’s still recognisably post-punk but yet again Dim Imagery have their own take on the genre; a take that takes in inspiration from before and after post-punk. They sit in the vanguard of what I’m going to call ‘the Nu Post-Punk’; where artists are taking the original post-punk and taking it to new and thrilling places.
Musically the guitar and vocals on this track positively shine, they gleam, they compel. The build is a glorious thing that is unexpected; I mean seriously this could have gone on as it started and it would still be fabulous. This is a band who really know how to put a song together for maximum effect. The sound of the track is live, just the best live you’ve heard. This really is how they sound live.
And as huge as the track is sonically, it addresses something equally significant. I’ll let the band explain “‘Fishing In An Empty Stream’ grew thematically from a frustration of the lack of diversity within rock music in the UK. The frustration that festivals can go 30 years with only one female headliner. The frustration that artists of colour are consistently overlooked within our genre. The frustration that those who gave us the tools have been neglected and forgotten throughout history, and that their legacy to black artists of the future is being eroded with fewer opportunities for black rock to flourish. We could not exist without Burke. Nor without Waters. Nor without Hendrix, Okereke, or Vylan.
“The song attempts to celebrate them. To celebrate the black artists from within our
community like Simi Brown who appears on the cover”.
And with festival season fast approaching, and a very low percentage of female artists headlining the big festivals; this is a timely reminder that the industry needs to try harder.
For those of us who have already been turned on to Dim Imagery, this is a confirmation that the band make wonderful music. If you’ve not got on board the train, make this your starting point. This is one enormous release. It rocks.
TOMORROW’S GHOSTS FESTIVAL has announced its Spring Gathering in Whitby for next year.
Following an exceptional demand for tickets for the upcoming Halloween event in 2022, Whitby’s Goth music led festival has confirmed the return of its ‘Spring Gathering’. Taking over the Whitby Pavilion – Friday 28th & Saturday 29th April 2023 – it will be the first such seasonal offering for over 4 years.
A true celebration of all things Gothic, Tomorrow’s Ghosts invites you back to the home of Dracula for a darkly exhilarating weekend of alternative music and culture. With an international line-up that caters to a broad range of sub-genres and tastes.
In its first announcement, Tomorrow’s Ghost’s is over the moon to lock-in an exclusive Friday headline appearance from the cult darkwave visionaries Cold Cave, who fifteen years into their career have established themselves as long-running luminaries of the underground and worthy headliners for any connoisseur of sonic carnage. Sublime supporting sets across the evening will also come from Leeds’ legendary goth-rock originals The Rose of Avalanche and UK-Irish post/punk acolytes Siberia. Fans should keep their eyes peeled for the announcement of some Very Special Guests to be confirmed in the coming weeks too…
Following up on the Saturday night, Yorkshire-formed titans New Model Army will be continuing the celebrations for their 40th Anniversary in seismic style. Earlier in the night, expect a *very special guest* slot from Lebanon Hanover, with the shadowy British-German duo bringing their evocative darkwave sounds out to play for this very rare UK appearance. Adding to what is an excellent bill the Saturday night is stacked with sizable supporting slots from Mancunian industrialists in ascendance IST IST, plus a theatrical set from revived gothic rock devotees The Nosferatu, who will perform as *Special Guests* and open the Saturday night event.
As in previous years, Tomorrow’s Ghosts will also be offering choice club nights into the early hours. No strangers to the Whitby crowds, Leeds living legends Carpe Noctum and the supernaturally talented scousers Planet X will be resurrecting goth classics for the afterdark masses on Friday & Saturday respectively.
LINE UP SO FAR
Friday 29th April 2023
Cold Cave
Very Special Guests To Be Announced
The Rose of Avalanche
Siberia
Club Night: Carpe Noctum
Saturday 30th April 2023
New Model Army
Very Special Guests – Lebanon Hanover
IST IST
The Nosferatu
Club Night: Planet X
As with the 2022 edition, the Tomorrow’s Ghosts festival will be partnering with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. A charity committed to stamping out prejudice, hatred and intolerance everywhere, the ideals of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation and Tomorrow’s Ghosts couldn’t be any closer aligned.
15 years on from Sophie’s tragic passing in a vile hate-related crime, Tomorrow’s Ghosts will be supporting the exceptional work of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation throughout the weekend.
This Autumn, the 2022 Halloween edition of Tomorrow’s Ghosts will see goth trailblazers Fields of the Nephilim and garage-rock supergroup The Loveless (comprising Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Neal X (guitarist of Sigue Sigue Sputnik), plus Mat Hector and Ben Ellis (Iggy Pop’s rhythm section) and James Beaumont) headline each night of the festival. Support across the weekend comes from fellow gothic luminaries including very special guests Into A Circle, Ghost Dance, and Balaam And The Angel, plus exclusive performances from Bootblacks, All My Thorns and Evil Blizzard present… ‘Blizzoween’. Final tickets are on sale now.
Dabbling in the dark arts to provide one of the most unique festival experiences in the country, expect diverse performances and surreal happenings aplenty when Tomorrow’s Ghosts returns for its first ‘Spring Gathering’ in 4 years in 2023.
TICKETS
Tickets for Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival are available for pre-sale today. Tickets will then be available for general sale this Friday 27th May at 10:00am.
Ages 8+
Under 14s to be accompanied by an adult over the age of 18 at all times.
Over 18s only for after show club night events.
Doors 6.00pm / Curfew 02.00am
This is the debut EP from Pleasure Centre. It’s sadly the first thing I’ve ever heard by the band, and all I can say is ‘why in the name of all that is holy have I never even heard of this band before, this is amazing’.
Pleasure Centre play a kind of shoegaze/alternative rock/indie thing; although this is nowhere near enough descriptive of their sound. Yes, there’s the heavily fx’ed guitars that wash over you like a wave of sound. Yes, there’s the quiet loud thing. And yes, there are catchy tunes sometimes buried in there. But somehow it doesn’t capture the glorious strangeness of the way the songs are put together, the hints of the Cocteau Twins’ sound that lurks within. Nor does it describe the ethereal beauty of the sound they make. Nor does it encompass the way they drop in spoken word sections almost randomly but wonderfully.
Yes, from the strange clicking noises and then the big chord that introduces ‘Intro’ – an instrumental that feels almost psychedelic – to the organ like keys that close ‘Tungsten’ this enthrals, it mesmerises, it fascinates. This EP takes you into a world of sonic magic.
And yet, because this has overwhelmed me with beauty, I have been forced to start at the end of the review rather than the beginning.
The beginning that should have been
‘Intro’ creeps up on you; there are small sounds, and then the aforementioned ‘big chord’ which merely signals the arrival of waves of synth that swirl and build into drums, guitar. The sound comes at you in waves; sometimes gentle, sometimes less so.
And this takes you to the next track ‘Blue (Bertha)’. This takes a more indie sound but there are sudden swerves to a disturbing dropped in voice, builds to a wave of guitar big enough to drown you. All the while maintaining a melody that is catchy but sometimes hidden under layers of other sound.
Confusingly the next song is called ‘Opener’ which, I guess I’m forced to describe, as shoegaze/alt-rock. Guitars on the edge of noise, vocals that are engaging. A sound that almost forces you to thrash yourself into a heap. Darkly joyous.
There is a change of mood with ‘Talkboy’. A track that starts out sounding sweet, 60s’ pop like; just with a guitar that almost falls over the cliff into feedback. And then melts into pure sound, pure wonderful noise.
‘Tungsten’ is fragile, ethereal. Yet at the same time huge. It’s on the edge of reminding me of something but it’s elusive. And then it comes to me; it sounds like a shoegaze version of a John’s Children track, it’s the mixed back spoken vocal. Yet this is just my old head working in weird ways because really it isn’t at all. Stop thinking, just let yourself swim in the sonic sea.
The end
This is a simply astounding EP of songs that sound like nothing I’ve heard before. This enthralls, it mesmerises, it fascinates. This EP takes you into a world of sonic magic.
The info
This Debut EP see’s Pleasure Centre finish their introduction as a band, from the bands conception to today the songs contained within this EP sum up the youthful and jagged nights, relationships and emotions from their seaside hometown Scarborough; although they are now based in Leeds. The five track EP showcases material from first studio sessions to crafting a sound that runs back to front as a progression of experimentation and complete noise.
“Our Debut EP is a bit of a progression from when we started the band, not really knowing what we wanted, if we wanted to be punk or more classic rock like. The songs contained in this project show how we’ve got to where we are now, the themes we based all of it on are extremely personal and come from experiences that were haunting and needed yet fun from when we had no clue what any of us wanted to do.”
The band has inspirations such as Slowdive, Sonic Youth and My bloody Valentine to The Ninth Wave and BDRMM.
“We think this EP has formed us as a band to some extent, in no means are we close to finding our exact need and desired sound from our material but the noises we’ve created within this EP have helped us form our individual tastes and in a more personal sense helped us progress from being teens into adults moving away, knowing what we want to do with our lives owes a lot to this body of work…”
The EP was recorded at Young Thugs Studio, York and Leeds Conservatoire
Heir make pop music inspired by classic 70s and 80s organic pop sounds; if you wanted to place ‘A Million Followers’ into some sort of time bracket it’s kind of broadly 80s’ electro-pop.
To be honest, when the inspiration for a song comes from isn’t that important, it just gives you a vague idea of what it sounds like. So let’s try and give you a more than vague idea. Firstly this thing grooves like hell; from start to finish it’s a dance fest. The sound is sparse electro-pop heavy on the beat. And yep, there are 80s’ sounds aplenty. Bloody hell, does this take me back or what. Along the way come some fabulous harmonies, an electro-pop guitar break.
If I’m making this sound all too retro then let me make this clear; it doesn’t sound exactly how pop sounded in the 80s, but how I remember it sounding. As time passes your memory of it gets changed; usually to recall it as sounding way better than it did.
Also in a break from 80s’ pop this song is actually about something more than a relationship, a night out, you know the sort of thing. The song addresses one particularly challenging aspect of carving a career as an artist in the digital age. Sam from the band explains “I guess the prominence of social media has been a bit of a double edged sword for the band. The direct line to our fans has made it possible to establish the project by ourselves which is very empowering. However with the natural desire to grow and with this ready made, worldwide audience sat at your fingertips the seductive tentacles of potential reach start to suck you in. Forging a balanced and healthy relationship with these interactive online profiles becomes quite hard, especially when cultures like social media influencing teach us that profiles are products themselves”.
It does this via some compelling lyrics that make the song one you really want to listen to closely.
And by the way, the video does a kind of nod to Heaven 17; so go check that out.
If you’re into great pop then Heir are a band you should be listening to, and this track is a great intro to the band. Great song, brilliantly danceable. It’s a party wrapped up in 3 minutes of glorious sound.
This a cappella group gave a programme of music from the 15th to 20th centuries. It ranged from religious songs to the praise of a cricket (the insect). They sing unaccompanied and, with four men and four women, there is a full range of beautifully blending voices.
Don’t worry if you don’t know a madrigal from a macaroon, go and hear Cantorelli. They are on in Heptonstall on June 26. Details from www.cantorelli.co.uk
How to review a festival of three days and eleven venues?
Impressions included “Folk Customs of the Borderlands” with Oakenhoof to add clog dancing to tales of strange local customs, Outside the Box’s storming, “Kishon Commandos”, and Cobalt Tales singing about the Pendle witches (so called), but there was also the dancing outdoors, and many other acts to enjoy. Old songs came back and recalled modern problems.
The overall feeling was of the energy of talent finding release.
This work tells the dramatic story of the prophet Elijah. It was performed by Todmorden Choral Society and Todmorden Orchestra, conducted by Antony Brannick. The soloists were Hugo Herman-Wilson, who gave an expressive and beautiful performance as Elijah, Eleanor Sanderson-Nash, Sophie Dicks, and Adam Magee, along with some soloists from the Choral Society itself.
The choir, orchestra and soloists gave a brilliant performance of a long and demanding work, in which dramatic and peaceful music both featured.
The absolutely fabulous Leeds based 360 Club have teamed up with the explosive FUDGE. to create Nothing But Noise, their first joint curated one-day festival showcasing some of the most exciting and innovative – and often noisiest – bands currently coming out of their home city, which will take place at Leeds Belgrave Music Hall on Saturday 21 May 2022.
The event will be the first date on the FUDGE. co-headline UK tour with Dim Imagery. It coincides with the release of their new five-track ‘The Town Hall Session’ EP on the same day. The release of Dim Imagery’s single ‘Fishing In An Empty Stream’.
The line-up for the all-dayer can be described simply as kick arse; this is not something you want to drop into late just to catch the top of the bill bands.
FUDGE.
Look people, FUDGE. are a band you just have to see if you’ve not had the experience. This is now it went down the first time I saw them.
As the time draws closer to Fudge coming on, The Lending Room gets more packed, it gets ‘sold out, doors locked downstairs’ packed. There is a group of Fudge t-shirt wearing fans massing at the front of the stage. I am completely stuck at the side of the stage, there is no way I’m going to get anywhere nearer the centre to take photos, let alone the other side, there’s just no way through.
And then they start, they start with Cam standing on the bar at the back, and then all hell breaks loose. And even at that moment I was thinking how in the hell do I review this, taking notes was impossible. And the thing is, I was warned it would get messy, friends who I told I was going to see Fudge said ‘Frank it’ll be messy, you’re going to be bashed to hell if you try and take photos at the front of the stage’.
To describe this as merely a gig would be an understatement, it’s an experience, a shared exhilarating experience. There was moshing, there was stage diving, there was crowd surfing. There was crowd participation. You could feel the connection between the band and the crowd, that feeling had a physical presence. It was incredibly exciting. It was a gig I wanted to be truly part of, not standing at the side making mental notes because I couldn’t write notes down and trying to take photos.
But beyond that madness Fudge make fantastic music. Even as the band throw themselves all around the stage, the music they make is incredibly well played. Otto’s guitar playing is compulsive listening, the bass and drums lock and provide the foundation their music needs. And Cam is one hell of a great singer as well as being visually this presence you just can’t take your eyes off. And what you notice is that there is way more than just rock going on in their songs – there are hints of rap, there are hints of that Manchester thing (and boy does Cam swagger), and there is that punk thing.
The set stand-out for me was ‘Not A Threat, Just A Warning’ – rather predictably I hear you say -which just has an extra venom in the delivery live.
But there is more that just songs, Cam does these, I’m going to call them, monologues before certain songs. They bring on a special guest vocalist for one of their songs. They even have this guy who steps up to the mic to rev the crowd up before their encore.
I was left overwhelmed, buzzing with excitement (and slightly disappointed that I hadn’t said to myself ‘fuck it, I’m not reviewing this, I want to be part of it’ and plunged into the moshing crowd) and promising myself that I would see Fudge again as soon as possible.
I miss gigs like these, I miss that madness, that group madness, that a band who truly connect with their audience can generate. My recollection is that gigs back in the day – and I may be looking backwards through rose-coloured glasses here – were more likely to be like this. Granted some of the rather more, let’s say, esoteric bands I used to go and see were more likely to have the audience sitting cross-legged listening to the band rather than moshing but even so. I go to way too many gigs where people just stand and listen, not even vaguely moving to the music.
You need to go and see Fudge play, you must go and see Fudge play, if you want to see a band who generate that energy, that excitement, go and see them as soon as you can.
Come to the festival and be part of the special thing that is a FUDGE. gig.
Dim Imagery
Dim Imagery do post-punk; and before you leap to conclusions here, they do in their own special way. Yes, you’re going to hear things that kind of remind you those classic post-punk bands – Gang of Fours, The Cult, the edginess of Joy Division, and more besides – but frequently these come in the one song. Their music is danceable, joyously dark and full of surprises.
I know you can’t cross the road at the moment without bumping into a ‘post-punk band’ but Dim Imagery are one you need to see.
Allora
An entrancing alternative powerhouse of a band with slick riffs and epic harmonies, deceptively simple, yet richly layered and complex rhythms adorned with scarily powerful vocals.
Allora might be described as an alternative rock band but this is nowhere near describing them properly. Somehow in their hypnotic sound they mange to weave the sounds of West Coast Americana, the odd psychedelic sound, something that could be described as funky, and much much more.
Flat Moon
Part of the Monomyth Records family, Flat Moon are difficult to describe. This is my somewhat inadequate attempt.
I was both completely blown away by their set and I was left not knowing what the fuck to actually say in this review beyond ‘that was unbelievably good’.
Maybe I should start by – if you haven’t the foggiest idea what Flat Moon do – with an introduction. But even this is difficult because defining the music they play is difficult. I find myself asking the question ‘are they a jazz-rock band, a jazz-funk band, a band that’s taking the concept of Nu-Soul to the very edge and beyond, a psychedelic funk band or even a progressive psychedelic jazz-funk band?’, and I answer ‘yes, all of the above’. Honest.
But there’s more, there’s pfunk, there’s the out-there groove of Sly and The Family Stone and the strangeness, at times, of Frank Zappa. That’s not to mention the warped sounds of Gong in jazz mode, and the manicness of Cardiacs and Shatner’s Bassoon.
They are a band who are difficult to pin down; ‘you’re not kidding me’ I hear you scream in frustration.
However the thing you need to know is Flat Moon sound absolutely fabulously fantastic on their releases but live it’s kicked to a level I can only describe as musical nirvana. Whatever it is they are playing it’s fucking funky, it grooves, it comes at you in waves, it goes straight to the dancing part of your brain like a musical injection.
And in that sound are three guitars – one of which doesn’t always sound like a guitar but does impressions of an organ, and one that does the most fantastic guitar breaks. There is bass which not only pulses out the rhythm but is a lead instrument in its own right. And there is saxophone.
And not only this but the band put on a show. There is banter, there is movin and a-grooving. This is a band who love and adore what they play.
Flat Moon are bloody fucking incredible and you need to see them.
Helle
After an apt comment was made in one of the band’s first year university kitchens, Helle was formed. Their screaming vocals, screeching guitars, storming bass, and killer drums reveal a mixing pot of punk, grunge, and riot grrrl influences. Shouting about feminism probably never sounded so enthralling.
Household Dogs
Do you really need an introduction to Household Dogs? Surely you’ve seen or heard them? OK, if you insist. Household Dogs could be described as post-punk; or perhaps not at least some of the time. I get Nick Cave, Tom Waits, mutant orchestral ballads. I haven’t come close to coming up with a genre that neatly encapsulates the sound of this band. Americana post-punk, Gothic Americana rock, mutant orchestral pop, all figure but don’t come close. Whatever we’re going to call it, the music is put together with an outstanding level of skill. And while the songs may vary in sound, they have a feel, a mood, that hangs them together. And there is darkness, there is menace, there is the edgy sound of anxiety.
Check out their latest EP ‘To Be Adored’, and start your journey with them.
Infinite Corners
An alternative indie rock band with angular rhythms, an unerring post-punk bite and a psychedelic warmth, they cite influences such as The Pixies, The Velvet Underground, Television and Roxy Music.
Nothing But Noise Festival
Leeds Belgrave Music Hall
Saturday 21 May / 4:30PM – 10:30PM
I am partial to – actually more than partial – a heavy dose of hardcore; obviously hardcore rock before you leap to the wrong conclusion. Without Love bring the melodic to their hardcore for the extra thrill.
Opening track ‘Surrender’ will set you for their sound. It’s hardcore heavy – drums battered to within an inch of their percussive lives, guitars turned up to the max, vocals right on the edge. But hey there’s a tune you can hum, well almost. But there is definitely a great classic heavy rock tune there. It does an amazing thing; it turns everything up to 11 but keeps the tune there.
There is something of ‘a classic heavy metal riff’ to ‘Status Symbol’ that sits there reminding you that this is not thrash it out noise but carefully crafted music. In fact, I’ve become heavily addicted to this track with it’s unexpected light and shade, the way it chops and changes riff and speed seemingly at random but meshing together into one fucking kick arse track.
‘Out of Reach’ batters its way out of the speakers and into your ears at breakneck speed; knocking the wind out of your lungs. And in around a minute is gone. Perfection in 67 seconds. There is something epic about ‘Aftermath’. Is it the dual vocals, is it the doom laden guitar, is it the numerous head spinning changes? Yep it’s all of these. All of this in 2 minutes.
Closing track ‘Strength In Numbness’ surprises with its earwormyness; that’s the only way to describe it. Like ‘Surrender’ it does that turn everything up, way up, but keeps the tune.
What’s surprising about this EP is that the songs are actually accessible; even my helpful friend, who’s usually turned off by hardcore levels of noise and sonic agressive, said that she found herself going back (and back) to the EP. It’s the edge, the hint, of melody that makes it easier to be open to it. And once you’ve ‘let’ yourself listen to it you can appreciate the obvious skill of the band; the guitars are a bloody joy, the drumming blows your fucking mind and the vocals compel.
Without Love kick arse, this EP fucking kicks arse. Crank your musical device to the max, and let it change your life.
The info
Without Love are a new melodic hardcore band. Band members having previously played in bands including Grader and Half Sight.
Mince are new to me, they’re a post-punk band from Leeds. And this is their debut single. As you and I know, post-punk is a broad church; so let’s find out where in the pews Mince sit.
This is fabulous, really really good. It’s kinda harking back to way back in a kind of Bauhaus way but it’s not only that. It’s raucous, it has more than a touch of noise about it. It has the kind of sawing guitars you’d expect but also it has something of a proto-punk/garage sound.
So like the new crop of post-punk bands (and some are from Leeds) their sound is based on the original post-punk but they are mixing it up with sounds from before and after. And this I love, this I applaud, as a fan of post-punk from way back then. It’s great to hear it back again but developed, expanded, made anew for now.
Before I go on let’s tell what the band say about the song ‘Ditch is from the perspective of a worried mum and spiralling thoughts about the demise of their kin’. And in ‘form follows function’ musically the song gradually spirals up and up, becoming more tortured. It’s a tough listen, but that’s great because I’m getting the feelings and emotions in the song. And this is not only a product of great playing but songwriting too.
This is incredible. Mince are doing something new with post-punk, and on the evidence of this song, something fantastic.
The info
The info