This is the second charity compilation celebrating unreleased material from an incredible range of artists from across the area covered by the M62 – including Manchester, York, Leeds, Hull and Grimsby – released by Formed By A River. The proceeds from the sales of this volume will be split and donated to both Music Venue Trust and Stagehand.

Some of the bands on the album I’ve both heard of and heard, others not. Your experience is likely to be the same but that’s the advantage of something like this, you get to hear bands you might not otherwise have found.

The album opens with The Household Dogs’ ‘The Great Depart’. A huge dense and gothic melancholic song. Hints of post-punk, Drama to the max. An incredibly impressive sonic performance. I have grown addicted to the drama, the power. A highlight for sure.

New to me are SLAP RASH. I had to look them up. They hail from Manchester and do kind of noisy DIY in a kind of jerkily funky style with lots of semi-spoken word sections if ‘ …In A Ditch’ is anything to go by. This is one of those ‘I love it, but for the life of me can’t say why’ things. It’s quirky, and I like quirky music but that isn’t the only reason.

Next up are The Black Lagoons with a cover of Goldfrapps ‘Lovely Head’. It’s kind of hard to describe but they’ve taken the song and applied what I’m going to call a dose of Nick Cave to it. All the bits of the song you’d expect are there but they’re warped and, sometimes, frankly wonderfully strange. I like this more than I do the original.

I reviewed the original release of Crush’s ‘All My Plants Are Dead’ when it came out but this is different. Let’s call it a re-interpretation. They’ve taken the original frankly jaunty song and turned it into something moody and atmospheric using just voice and guitar. This sort of thing doesn’t always work but this is outstanding.

The strangely named ‘ICSIIY’ by TALKSTOOMUCH is a smooth somewhat ambient kind of pop song with depth. It’s not really my sort of thing but objectively I can hear it’s good, very good. This is followed by ‘Need Me’ by Sarge. Now I wasn’t sure about this to start with but actually this has grown on me. Jazzy edge, hints of 70s’ pop, sparse, put together beautifully. It’s charming and I’ve been charmed.

Talk More are next with an acoustic version of ‘King Street’. Now I understand that they are an indie band but this isn’t. It sounds more like Laurel Canyon singer/songwriter than indie. Intense vocals, raw acoustic guitar.

The Howl & The Hum thrill with ‘Portrait I’ (recorded at The Oporto). This is one of those tracks that quietly takes over your mind. Mesmirising, hypnotic with vocals to die for, that pierce your very soul. Utterly fantastic, you get me.

And then there is Last Of The Wonder Kids who bring the rock with ‘Statues’. Noisy guitars, urgent drumming, compelling vocals. Lovely stuff. The blast that is ‘Grandma’s Pen’ by Bull follows. This was released as an album teaser, so read my review.

I have fallen in love with Eric Dimmack’s ‘Drop In The Ocean’. Funky, jazzy hip-hop with the sweetest guitar. Spoken words, sung sections beguile and intrigue. One of my album highlights.

Fever are next with ‘Time Will Define’. A fab song with a great tune. I guess if I had to put it into a niche I’d say it’s indie-pop – although it’s more pop than indie; if you get what I mean. Lovely stuff.

‘Flume’ a Bon Iver cover by Alice Simmons. is basically all about her voice. Sure there’s a guitar there but it’s the voice that holds you enthralled; intimate but strong, powerful but fragile it’s just beautiful.

‘Average Wave’ from Talkboy was, as with the Bull track, released as an album teaser. Read the review.

Codex I’ve not heard of before but their song ‘Grin’ is immediately compelling. I guess you’d call it electronica but it’s a track that builds from gentle beauty to up beat. Carefully chosen sounds layered perfectly. So perfect is the build that you are never jarred; this thing is as smooth as you like.

British/Somali poet, rapper, and neofolk singer/songwriter Knomad Spock closes the album with ‘Maps’. As it started I was suddenly open-mouthed with amazement. This is truly stunning. He speaks quietly over acoustic guitar, he speaks words that cut deep, that feel so personal it almost seems wrong to be listening. They feel like thoughts floating above the guitar which is more structure than tune – it follows the words. If you only listen to one track from this album (not that’d encourage you not to listen to the whole thing) make it this.

If you didn’t already know we had it, this album showcases the brilliant bands and artists we have across The North. And yes as a compilation there are different genres and styles so it’s likely that you’ll have favourites but if you listen objectively to the tracks that fall outside your usual genres of choice you’ll hear the quality and maybe discover a new band or artist.

This album is full of great music, and not only that by buying it you’ll benefit some great causes; who could ask for anything more. So go buy this. Do it now.

I like punk, I like punk a hell of a lot; and I especially like it when it’s loud, raucous and raw as fuck. The Marigolds’ track ‘Smash and Grab’ ticks those boxes 100%.

I also think, by the way, that their name is rather cool; The Marigolds isn’t quite what you imagine a loud and raucous punk band to be called. I’m loving that misdirection.

The band’s brand of punk lies somewhere in that intersection between The Ruts, Anti-Nowhere League and Dead Kennedys. The vocals, guitar and the groove – and this thing grooves people – has that Dead Kennedys thing going on, the sense of attack and tune is quite Ruts-ish and the rawness is ANL all the way. And this, my friends, is one hell of a sonic mix. It bites, it bites hard.

But are they content with that; no way. They throw in some Garage Rock for kicks. And a revved up end that is so Dead Kennedys it hurts, and it does hurt it’s like being run over by a charging elephant.

I also rather like their casual approach to dropping more than the odd swear word. I am talking about the non-radio edit version here (which you may want to seek out), the radio edit removes those swear words. Something this raw sounds better with the swearing. Still I guess you have to make allowances for radio. You could bleep it for radio I guess and it would still sound fab. Unlike The Dead Kennedys’ ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’ which I recall hearing on daytime radio; rather more bleeps than actuall music.

Look I’m not dismissing the radio edit, it’s fantastic. It still has all the good good musical things I mentioned above, and you can still lose your shit to it (and should).

It may be punk but if you’re into loud raw riff heavy guitar music of any kind – metal, garage, psychedelic grunge, psych-garage – you’ll be into this. I’ve said it before, and will probably say it again, but this sounds better the louder you go. Set everything to 11 and blast.

Stream/Download: https://ditto.fm/smash-and-grab

Because this release contains the absolutely wonderful ‘Sleepwalker’ the degree of anticipation I felt about reviewing it was, as you can imagine, high. I call it a ‘release’ because with seven tracks it sits on that fence which is ‘is this an EP or a mini-album’. Gawjuss are calling this an EP so let’s go with that; although I, having memories of vinyl EPs, think of an EP as being four or at the most five tracks.

Before we go on, there’s a theme to this EP, Kieran Wade Clarke explains “A lot of the tracks are about the alienation of others, addiction and the paranoia that comes along with it. There’s also the reality of having to face up to something coming to an end, yet refusing to acknowledge it’s a situation you’ve more than likely created yourself. A lot of the lyrics come across as vague on this record; I wanted the listener to find their own meaning within the song, or just be able to enjoy the tunes.”

Opening track ‘Sunbeam’ kind of sets the aural scene; it’s in that alt-rock structure – you know quiet/loud – but isn’t sound or feel wise. It’s loose, way loose and it has this kinda elastic loping feel. It’s also a little poppy. Raw guitars provide the loud. Kieran’s vocal is way down in the mix – it echoes distantly. I am struck by the fact that in some ways it reminds me of early REM; just a bit and this is no bad thing. Lyrically you get more and more the more you listen; it had me straining to piece together the words, but my take is that ‘Sunbeam’ is not what the title might suggest.

Next up ‘A Collective Sigh’ continues that halting guitar figure feel. It does the quiet/loud thing more conventionally. Although this is no ‘blast your ears to pieces’ rock track. It’s actually somewhere in there pop, and weirdly quite Country in places. But it’s compelling and addictive, and decidedly earwormy.

‘Peachy’ has this odd Americana feel, at least to start, before it takes off into something Garage-y and raw. It’s wonderful, you just have to hear it, it’s hard to describe. It’s fantastic, it’s that simple.

‘Morning, Mourning’ is a ballad; I really can’t describe it in any other way. It’s a ballad with a heavily strummed guitar, vocals that sit some way under that. Somehow it feels very sad, and makes me feel sad; even though the vocals are emotional but strangely bouncy. It’s the contrast that does it for me.

Next up is ‘Sleepwalker’, I see no reason to change what I said ‘it starts with a glorious slightly twisted vocal that’s just not a rock vocal at all, a raw strummed guitar, a loping rhythm; that’s the quiet. Then a strident guitar sound – that’s the loud. Are you getting this now? There’s wonderful warped guitar breaks. There is somewhere in there a dash of blues. And through it all runs that vocal; taking a tone that is one part early Bowie and one part DIY music of the 80s. It makes me go all wobbly.

‘Dead Plant’ returns to ‘it reminds me a bit of early REM’ sound; it’s that strident plucked guitar, the weird shifts in key, even the bent note guitar stabs. But what this track does is to layer guitar sound on guitar sound to make this driving rhythm, and the build in the track from sparse to multi-layered. But for all of the layers there’s a feel of space, and a vocal and words that have a sense of isolation. The power of this track is the music, words and vocal tone working together in perfect harmony.

Closing track ‘Killer’ starts as it goes on; off-kilter guitar, a plaintive quiet vocal. Like the vocal the power of this track lies in its quietness. This is even though the guitar is actually almost loud; the contrast between the vocal and guitar is exquisite. This is only pointed up and emphasised by the burst of louder guitar at the end.

This is a collection of songs that are so so wonderful; across the seven tracks there’s not one that you’d identify as filler. Gawjuss take a delightfully inventive approach to music making. The result is not something that sits in any easy niche; and this is no bad thing. The songs feel like they go straight from Kieran’s mind, and for that matter heart, to the finished tracks and, as a result, have this beautifully unpolished feel. The looseness and unpolished edges are all part of why they sound so good.

For me this is one of the highlights of the year so far; Gawjuss are something special, very special.

The info

Since 2019, Kieran Wade Clarke (AKA Gawjuss) has released a steady stream of singles and EPs as a way to capture something, release it and move on, constantly exploring. On his latest release MIXTAPE//002, he is pushing forward to more certainty, putting a band together and adding production support, while still retaining a raw approach to themes and topics covered. This feels like the beginning of Gawjuss.

With the addition of James Douglas Wilkinson (bass) and Blue (drums), Gawjuss feel more than a one-person exploration. Despite Kieran recording the majority of the songs alone, James supported with arrangements and Blue programmed the drums.

Kieran grew up in the North-East but is a serial wanderer, finding home in several different areas of Yorkshire over the last few years. James also has his solo project Weak Genes, which features Kieran and Blue – both projects will overlap as each songwriter takes centre stage. Weak Genes will release their debut album in late 2021, with the debut Gawjuss album to follow in early 2022. They will then go out on a joint UK tour later in the year to support the releases.