I am more than keen on Classic Rock – or as I call it Heavy Rock because frankly when I was but a youth Heavy Rock was what it was. Still I suppose it serves a purpose in signposting what sort of heavy sounding rock we are talking about.

With Wolforna’s ‘Broken Bones and Gritty Fights’ what we are talking about is melodic heavy rock. Yes it comes with the crunch of guitars but it also comes with a tune and a great vocal melody.

That’s the summary, and I could leave it there but this track has so much going for it I’m not going to. It has, and this isn’t a term that I think is applied to heavy rock rock often, sophiciation. There’s great light and shade going on here, the like of which I haven’t heard in a long time. The guitar solo has what I’m going to call restrained attack; it’s gritty but it’s not an all out freakout. The vocals are fantastic – both lead and backing vox.

Almost by definition it has something of the retro going on, but the thing is it sounds like I remember heavy rock sounding rather than what it actually sounded like in all but a few exceptions. It’s retro through the eye of now, if you get what I mean.

People, this track rocks (Obviously – Ed), it’s simply the best melodic heavy rock song I’ve heard in a long long time. Play loud and proud.

The info

Wolforna are a 4-piece rock band from Leeds, UK, that formed in January 2019. Initially a 3-piece acoustic band, Wolforna soon introduced percussion to begin their heavy hitting, hard rock style Wolforna’s musical approach is a blend of classic rock ‘n’ roll style rhythm guitar, strong bright lead undertones and crisp melodic vocals combining to make the individual sound they have today. As the band grows, they continue to develop their sound.

Broken Bones & Gritty Fights sees the band further develop their newfound rock sound after the introduction of their new drummer, Theo, in early 2021. The song is Wolforna’s most ambitious music to date and builds upon their previous singles as both a three and four-piece band. After the release of their debut EP “Harlequin” in June, the band spent months writing and recording new original material and developing their sound.

A little while ago I reviewed the title track from this EP – ‘I’m Alice’ – which was released as a single. That was a wonderful thing and promised much for the three remaining tracks on the EP.

‘I’m Alice’ is an eclectic mix of electro-pop, jazz and way out strangeness, but there’s a depth beyond the strangeness. For this is a sonic representation of something – an actual syndrome – Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Augustin explains ‘“As a kid I used to get strange visual and perceptual distortions while awake in bed. My limbs and head appeared and felt to grow enormous or contract to a tiny size. I also got loads of sparkly TV snow fx when I tried to close my eyes. I thought it was just my daft brain but a few years ago I found out it is actually a thing. Never happens now though”.

Once you know what the song is about it all makes musical sense; the warped, elastic sounds, the fantastic soundscape it evokes. The combination of subject and music is fabulously compelling. You are drawn into the soundscape and the deeper you go the more there is to discover. Surprising sounds emerge, jazzy sections juxtapose electro-dance, sudden shifts in feel that throw you in different directions.

‘Make Up Your Mind (You Will Never)’ is built around an insistent bass riff but has a strange but compelling rhythm. This is dance music; in fact it’s so much a dance track with the repeating keys, drop-outs and vocals that provide yet another rhythm that I could describe it as meta-dance. This is until the most wonderful trumpet solo – by Danny Gough – comes in. This just isn’t your usual dance thing.

‘Lover And A Fighter’ returns to the strangeness of ‘I’m Alice’. Sounds dart out at you, electro-beat is juxtaposed with afro-beat jazziness. There are periods of calmness that surprise and delight. But you see you can dance to this, it has the most wonderful tune that is carried through the track. It’s actually much more earwormy than you might at first think; it has this quality of stalking you, and finally lodging it self into your head.

The EP closer ‘Ariane’ is a sonic dreamscape. You are falling into the layers and layers of beautiful sounds that waft and drift around you. At its heart it’s a ballad but it’s been warped and stretched and put through something that mutated it into this soundscape. This, my friends, is beautiful – musically and sonically.

This EP is special. It’s the sound of a musician who is pushing the envelope with creative juices flowing like crazy. But it never crosses over the line of experimentation for the sake of experimentation. Every sound is there for a reason. This is undoubtedly clever music but it is music with soul, heart and feeling. This, my friends, is lovely wonderful music that you need to hear.

The info

Augustin is from Bradford and has played with Gurgles, Mucky Sailor, Henry Parker, Nope and many others as well as performing as Lord Adonis, and remixing as Tomorrow’s Dad. He has recently been co-producing Saint Etienne’s latest album. He’s performed improv sound and noise, solo and with others at Bradford’s Threadfest, Fundada Festival in Halifax, Vespertine Festival in York and the launch of the Doctor Who exhibition at the National Science and Media Museum with jazz pianist Matthew Bourne and baritone guitarist Andy Abbott.

He has written theme and incidental music for lots of TV shows, a number of films and hosted a BBC6music show. He has also remixed bands including Bearcraft, Printed Circuit, Cowtown and Lark.

Recently Augustin has been working on new material with Saint Etienne and playing with improv trio Nostril.

He’s also finishing a new Gurgles LP.

I have seen Teeff exactly once – at The Lending Room in Leeds – and that was a set that has stuck in my head. ‘Find Out’ wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

I was expecting something fuzzier with a bluesy edge. But this is a melodic anthemic rock track. Kinda alt-rock in the quieter verses and big noisy chorus but not exactly. There is an infusion of dreamy sounds that adds that specialness. And does this have a great tune, it has a tune to die for.

‘Find Out’ is the second in a three track commentary on post-Brexit England, the first being ‘England Today’. It tells the story from the point of view of a socially-conscious younger generation.

I was pretty much immediately hooked in by the music which is compelling and addictive. Then came the exploration of the song’s words which are well worth the effort of listening to properly.

‘Find Out’ is huge sonically, covers an important subject and is, simply put, brilliantly played. Go listen now, right now.

The info

Based in Sheffield and Leeds, Teeff already boast an impressive back catalogue and resume having played at Y-Not, Live at Leeds and the Leeds and Reading Festivals. Teeff have also been championed by BBC Introducing and 6 Music’s Tom Robinson. They are now signed to Elephant Arch Records.

July saw Teeff release the punchy ‘England Today’, the first track in the series, which focused on the rise of populist right-wing figures.

Leeds’ post-punk band Pop Vulture debut single ‘False Alarm!’ isn’t exactly what you might expect from seeing the phrase post-punk. It again demonstrates that post-punk is a genre of many colours. Hey I feel an aside coming on.

Aside: What is post-punk?

You may have an idea of what post-punk is. I think, and I may be wrong, that most people will mention such bands as late period Siouxsie and The Banshees, the avant-garde angular funk of The Gang of Four, Joy Division, and music types like Goth and early electronica.

However I think we need to take a wider view – post-punk by its very meaning means music that came after punk. It may take its sound from an extension and development from punk or, and crucially, it may take the DIY ethos, the lack of respect for conventional musical forms or the plain we’re just going to do what we feel like doing.

So it will include such bands as The Raincoats, The Aupairs, Swell Maps, early Scritti Politti, Delta 5, Girls At Our Best. And extend to include bands on the Postcard label – like ORange Juice, the genre Twee, bands like The Pop Group, The Slits and Rip, Rig and Panic.

In the US, after New Wave which you could describe as pop friendly punk, came No Wave, bands such as The B52s, The Cramps and so on.

So post-punk is a wide church.

I can recommend Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984; a book by Simon Reynolds on the post-punk musical genre and era, if you want to delve into this.

And we are back

Pop Vulture’s ‘False Alarm!’ has a very much No Wave sound. I might compare it to ‘King Heroin’ by James Chance & The Contortions; an NY No Wave band. ‘King Heroin’ has an interesting history of which more below. It also has something in common with early Scritti Politti and Lou Reed.

The sound is halting, off-kilter, twisted. The vocals are spoken, dead-pan. The feel is bleak. That is until it bursts unexpectedly into sweet pop; the grooviest drumming, tuneful keys with the sound of jazz. This is but a brief respite.

The sound and feel reflects what the song is about – formed over a lonely, intense lockdown, the track emerged as a response to the isolation that adulthood presents, as well as the dependencies that arise in life. As singer and drummer Luc Gibbons puts it, the song is about ‘a resilience to things that will help you out of a rut and a naive feeling of not knowing where to turn’.

This reviewer has difficulty deciding what’s more important; the words or the music. Is the music a backdrop to what are words that are very much worth listening to, or are the words a decoration to the mood set by the music. I think I put that badly; what I meant was what actually catches my attention. I’ve found it varies depending on what I’m doing while it’s on or the mood I’m in.

The impression I may have given is that this song is so much like the things I’ve mentioned that it’s copy-ist. This is in no way true, the band may be taking these as a sort of starting seed but they take it to a place that is of their own and of now. To the point where we could consider a new genre name.

This is an intriguing and compelling debut release that marks Pop Vulture out as a band to watch. This is absolutely brilliant.

The info

The band are

Ben Udin – Percussion and Guitar
Jacob Tresidder – Guitar
Luc Gibbons – Drums and Vox
Sam Curwen – Bass and Vox

‘King Heroin’

The anti-drug song was originally recorded by James Brown and was written by him, David Matthews, Manny Rosen and Charles Bobbit. Brown recorded this poem set to music at a studio in New York with session musicians in January 1972 and released it as a single in March.

James Chance also recorded this with another band James White and The Blacks. This version is a lot more soul-y.

Let’s be honest you could basically choose any of Monomyth’s roster, put them together on a bill and it would be a fantastic night. This, however, was a great bill for me; the return of Tranqua Lite after 2 years away, my first time seeing Blue Kubricks and Luka, and Cat Una’s new ‘band set-up’. Let’s dive in.

After falling deeply musically in love with Luka’s releases this was, I’m ashamed to say, the first time I’ve seen her live. Recorded there is something about her voice that can tear your heart apart; live accompanied by a single acoustic instrument it gains in impact.

She can turn a song about keeping fish – ‘Fish Bowl’ – into something that triggers something deep inside. By the way I think, given my emotional response to this song, that this really isn’t about keeping fish at all. Her songs are like that, never quite what they seem.

Three songs in and I am in bits inside. Externally people will have seen a person frantically scribbling notes and taking photos but inside, which is where her songs send me, I was a mess.

She previews her next single – ‘Happy’ – which is wonderful and very definitely one to watch out for.

LukaAbout halfway through her set she switches from acoustic guitar to ukulele. I initially found this odd but it took only a few moments to prove not odd in the least. It added a melancholic feel to the songs, something oF a timeless feel, that was fabulous.

I urge you to do two things; firstly seek out her recorded material, and secondly, take the first opportunity you get to see her live. It’s an experience you won’t forget.

Next up was Cat Una. I’ve seen her play before but during lockdown what they do has changed from Cat and an accompanying guitarist to ‘Cat Una the band’ with a basic – but rotating set-up – of guitar, bass and drums.

There has been one release so far of the songs written for this set-up – ‘’Temporary Blues’ – but the rest of the set is new. I was afraid I’d miss the intimate nature of her previous acoustic singer/songwriter style but no, the songs still have the same level of impact; just a different kind of impact.

There’s a drive and power to the songs that is, in part, due to Cat’s vocals; they are stronger, less restrained. What hasn’t changed is the careful putting together of the music and the wondrousness of the words.

This was almost like seeing a new band but then again not at all like that. There was something there to grab onto, to help me get the music, that was common to this and the previous set-up, but the change was almost unsettling.

My overall experience was that I really loved the new material but I’m some time away from being able to narrow it down to ‘analysing’ individual songs. I want, no need, to see them play again now I’ve got the idea of what they do. This may sound like I’m fence sitting; I’m not. I loved the songs, the music and the performance. I just want to go deeper.

So, Blue Kubricks. I’m going to admit that it took time for me to get what they do when I reviewed their releases. The live experience – my first live experience of the band – kind of puts it all into place. This is because what they do is put on a show, one hell of a show.

The show starts with the band coming on individually in shorts, short shorts to be honest. This didn’t appear to surprise those in the audience who had obviously seen them before but for a first timer, well you can imagine.

What the band play is eclectic – there’s funky rock, songs with more than a hint of yacht rock, indie. It’s all kind of hints of retro. But this is all played incredibly well – I’m going to do a shout out for the lead guitarist who played some amazing solos but this is not to put the rest of the band down.

The band introduce Molly Rymer who does backing vocals. Then at a later point in the set get Laura Kindelin onto the stage, induct her into the Order of Blue Kubricks and she joins Molly on backing vocals.

This is bizarre but then again not bizarre, it’s a show, a fucking fantastic show. And all of this wouldn’t work unless the music was good, and the music is fantastic. So it works. This is a band who are are ‘dangerous, so motherfucking dangerous’.

The band close their set with the last single – ‘Comfortable Ride’ – and a dancer joins them on stage. This was kind of surprisingly unsurprising. This is entertainment, red hot music and a show to match. Go see the show.

Finally the return of Tranqua Lite. They’ve been away for two years; it seems like it’s been longer than that. But as they burst into that brilliantly spiky groovy music they play the two year gap melts away. It is the sound of celebration, of the joy of making music; a joy that draws in the crowd.

They have called what they do dance-indie, but to my admittedly older ears, I get sounds of the post-punk funk of The Gang of Four, the electro-pop of Thomas Dolby, the energy and drive of Talking Heads and even Big Audio Dynamite. Whatever we call it, it’s music you can dance your arse off to, that demands that you do.

And if you’re not up for dancing, you’re not left out, for the music they play is absorbing and compelling, intricate, complex. There are layers of rhythm, layers of sounds made by synth, guitar and bass. Which brings to mind another sound I hear in there; the sound of 90215 period Yes, yes I mean that. It’s music you can immerse yourself in.

Has it really been 2 years? I’ve missed this, welcome back Tranqua Lite.