I adore Allora, seeing them play live is always a thrilling and yet deeply calming experience. Those of you who have read any of my reviews of them playing live will know that I am driven to gush about them in what one of our readers who contacted us described as ‘an overblown and extravagant way’; some of which the band use on their press website. Frankly I think the band deserves that level of gushiness, and I’m not about to stop.

‘Creature’ comes in two versions – a ‘radio friendly’ version and a longer version which includes a prelude to the ‘radio friendly’ version. I’ll return to the longer version later, but first the ‘radio’ version.

For those of you that don’t know Allora, they play a kind of alternative rock (which the band describe as dark pop), but it’s alternative with many influences. You are likely to hear hints of folk, soul, Laurel Canyon singer/songwriter, what I can only describe as psychedelic rock, 70s’ AOR in places. Their music is deceptively simple and yet complex and richly layered. And the thing that I really love about Allora is the vocals, the vocals are the key.

The song opens with what I’m going to describe as mutant surf or even western movie sounding guitar. They crash in. And then you get a quieter section, and the vocals come in. The experience of Allora’s vocals is something you have to hear to understand. For Maisie (Powell – Guitars), Caty (Labbett – Bass) and Shira (Colombick – Guitar) all sing. Sometimes it’s just one of them, sometimes it’s all three of them in harmony, and sometimes their vocal lines intertwine.

The vocals in this song are powerful, scarily powerful. The opening vocals – and I may be wrong but they sound like Maisie to me – are strangely 70s’ rock, and then another voice takes over – I think Shira – that’s soulful and impassioned. And then the vocals gradually layer up and up until they take over your head.

My helpful friend described the band as ‘what Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would sound like if they played alternative rock and had three female singers’. The point here is that the vocals are not just vocals they are part of the music, they add layers and layers of sound that gives the band’s music, and this single, a depth and richness that is amazing.

I described the vocals as powerful but this is how I would describe the song – powerful and hypnotic.

And that is made all the more intense when you listen to the longer version (you’ll be able to do this with the streamed release by allowing it to go from the prelude to the ‘main song’ automatically).

The prelude opens with dark and brooding almost goth bass and drums, adds in guitar, and then the vocals in harmony come in.It’s hypnotic, it’s the calm before the storm. The power of the song crashing in after that is intensified.

This song is powerful, emotional and beautiful. This is a song that reaches down into your soul and tears your heart out. It leaves you drained and wanting that feeling all over again.

Honey Guide (AKA Jacob Andrews) is a new artist to me, however he’s part of Niall Summerton’s band, an artist I’ve reviewed in the past and really like. And Niall plays on this track. So this grabbed my attention.

I didn’t really know what to expect musically, Jacob describes what he does as having a freak folk/soft rock sound. So this was very much ‘take a listen and see I feel and think about the song’. First listen I really liked it, so I decided to review the track.

‘Oh Why?’ is a light, somewhat sad sounding folkish psychedelic pop song. It reminds me in places of The Monkees, although only slightly, and this no bad thing I love The Monkees. It also has hints of The Polyphonic Spree – horn, lovely light keys, a slightly jaunty thing going on.

Jacob has a great voice, his singing is light and pure, and the words of the song are right up there. The words are great, the song, like many great songs, tells a story. The blurb says that the song is ‘a dialogue between two friends about finally finding love then losing it again just as quickly as you found it. Resulting in looking to friends for advice on how to pick yourself back up when you’re feeling down about it’. So the bittersweet feel to the music really fits the words.

For a song that sounds so light, there’s actually a lot going on musically but at no point does it get crowded, there’s space in the way it’s put together.

Look this is a great, well written song, sang and played really well. I love it because it’s one of these songs where the words fit the music and the music fits the words. And it has an emotional impact way beyond what you might think when you start to listen to it. It’s the sort of song that should appeal to everyone, so give it a listen.

The info

Honey Guide is the musical moniker from Jacob Andrews, a Leeds based musician, songwriter and producer. He draws inspiration from contemporary artists such as Sam Evian, Chris Cohen, Andy Shauf and more. His Freak-Folk/Soft Rock sound provides a laid back, easy listening experience that paints a nostalgic, warm picture of Love, Sadness and all the sweeter things in-between.

‘Oh Why?’ was written/recorded/mixed by Jacob with a little help from Niall Summerton on the drums and Tom Kettleton on the saxophone.

Lucky Iris may be a new band to you but its members shouldn’t be. Lucky Iris is Maeve – on vocals – and Jasper – on everything else – previously of Everyday People. If, like me, you had a particular fondness for Everyday People, you may be saddened to hear of the passing of the band. However you shouldn’t be too sad, because this EP is belter.

The title of the EP may be leading you to the idea that the songs in some way relate to the present coronavirus situation but, as the duo say ‘the name was decided on long before this virus became headline news. The EP is actually a concept EP based around a night on the town, and how sometimes they don’t go to plan and it may be better to stay home’.

Maeve and Jasper describe Lucky Iris’s sound as alt-pop, I might describe it as really classy pop, pop with depth. However to be honest I’m really struggling with labelling these (apart from perhaps the opening song) as pop really. The songs feel too big, too classic, to be labelled as pop.

The EP opener – ‘Get Ready With Me’ – is a boppy song, the sort of thing you might listen to before going out – as might be obvious, natch. It has that ‘it’s going to be great night’ vibe, it has that sneaky pre-drink thing going on. It alternates between these bright boppy sections and slower soulful sections. These slower sections hint at what is to come. Vocally Maeve’s voice is upfront and, as you’d expect, great. The music is really cleverly arranged, those transitions between faster and slower sections are seamless. But this opening song only gives you some idea of the musical riches to come.

‘Take 5 (Why Can’t You See Me?)’ is a big voice and piano ballad. Hints of soul, hints of jazz. Maeve’s vocal bewiches and mesmerises. It’s intimate, it’s emotional. And as the song progresses, layers of intertwining voices are introduced. It manages to be both musically sparse and rich at the same time. I have fallen musically in love with this song.

‘Glitter Vision’ is poppier again, it has hints of a big synth pop song. But Maeve’s voice brings a hint of soul, and the music brings a hint of funk. This is until it dramatically slows, almost to a grind. This reflects the words, things are going wrong on that night out.

And now we come to ‘I Fell Backwards’. My favourite track on the EP, and one that brought more than a small tear to my eye, and a lump to my throat as Maeve sings quietly ‘and alone’ at the end of the song. This thing is so bloody good, it’s so huge. It’s another voice and (mainly) piano ballad – but I think describing this as a torch song would be better – but what a voice. Maeve produces a vocal that somehow I knew she was capable of, a vocal performance that comes from deep within her. She’s not just singing the words, she’s performing the song. Her voice goes from intimate, to pleading, to deeply sad.

I’ve resisted gushing until now, but I can’t stop myself. THis EP is stunningly beautiful. The songs are really well written musically and lyrically. The balance between voice and instruments is perfect. It enables Maeve to stretch herself vocally, to showcase her voice – and it’s a voice that deserves showcased without reducing the music to mere backing.

This is Lucky Iris’s first release, and it’s truly brilliant. These songs are beautiful, they deserve to be considered classics. You may think I’m exaggerating but I’m not. I am in fact almost unable to express quite how good this EP is.

Look what you need to do is to listen to this EP – sit down, turn the lights down low, and immerse yourself in them, drown yourself in them. I challenge you not to be emotionally moved by these songs as they unfold the story of that night out.

Everyday People are dead, long live Lucky Iris!

Stream/Download/Listen: https://luckyirisband.hearnow.com

There are some songs that I like immediately but can’t for the life of me work out why. This was the case with ‘We Will Bleed’. This has meant that I’ve taken a while to actually come to writing a review, I needed that time to mull it over, to try and work out why.

‘We Will Bleed’ is a rock song but then again it isn’t quite a rock song – there’s guitar in a rock style in there but there’s loads of keyboards. The vocal isn’t really a rock vocal either – it’s a heavily fx’ed sneery thing.

It starts like a big synth pop song before the drum and guitar come in. And then it kinda sounds like one of those 80s synth and guitar bands. I’m not entirely sure that Cold Culprits would thank me for this but it sounds like The Buggles in places. But then again it sometimes sounds like a sneery New York punk band albeit with synth sounds. And then suddenly it sounds like OMD. It even sounds like The Killers in places.

This sounds like it’s a mess of different things but no, it all works. What’s been done here is to take a whole load of influences and make of them something that is new. Something that is kind of timeless, it’s kind of retro but then again not. You could have played this at a variety of dates from say the late 70s onwards and it wouldn’t feel out of place.

I have to applaud somebody who can do this, somebody who can tread what is very much their own musical path.

So why do I like this so much. You may be saying that just doing something that’s impossible to slot easily into a genre isn’t a reason to like something, and you’d be right. It isn’t just that, it’s because it’s a fantastic song. Words and music – inventive music – that just work. This is an intriguing and impressive debut release. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing more.

The info

Cold Culprits isn’t a band, it’s a guy called Andy Watson. Andy is a musician and freelance writer living on the outskirts of York.

He bought a guitar and performed at an open mic for the first time in February 2017, which resulted in a slot at a local beer festival that year, and the formation of an indie rock band in 2018. When the band decided to focus solely on playing indie rock covers on the pub circuit Andy started to learn drums and keyboards, to create original music as Cold Culprits.

If you’re into Kasabian, The Slow Readers Club or Reverend and the Makers then Cold Culprits could be for you. If you like the songwriting style of Elbow, Joni Mitchell or Patti Smith then you’re going to enjoy the lyrics of Cold Culprits. Influences include Neil Young, INXS, Bjork, The Clash, The Doors and The Germs, and even a little bit of The Prodigy mixed in among it all. Cold Culprits is all about getting stuck in and doing things yourself. The debut single, We Will Bleed, was recorded in Andy’s front room.

The name Cold Culprits is a reference to The Germs, a 1970s LA punk rock band, referencing germs as the culprits of the common cold. The Germs were unstable, self-destructive and incoherent. They also wrote some beautifully poetic lyrics in the few short years before they imploded and their lead singer committed suicide.

I saw the Boxteles play at The Parish (in Huddersfield, of course) some time ago, and although I managed to only catch around half of their set I was impressed. This release impressed me too, it’s a banger of a summer song, people.

It’s a big big, big summery pop-rock track. It’s a great song about holiday romance. It has a tune to die for, vocals that are pure summer sun, and guitars that crash. Words that you’ll find yourself singing along to in seconds while you’re bouncing like crazy It’s just a huge slice of summer fun.

And in amongst that summer fun there’s some great playing, there’s vocal harmonies that are a joy. And those words are great too, they’re smile inducing and, looking at them more closely, clever.

Get ready for summer, get this in your playlists. Simple as.

The info

The band say:

There isn’t much that can stand in the way of this Huddersfield-based group as their loud, boisterous arsenal of bangers stampedes through Britain like a bull in a china shop! Boxteles are here to stay and have no intention of stopping the chaos until their ear-wormy, relatable indie-rock records are well and truly imprinted in everybody’s head. This is music written for football stadiums!

The band formed in the summer months of 2018 and have already started building an army of dedicated fans, they have perfected an air-tight live show, have supported some of the best live acts the UK has to offer including: Kyle Falconer of The View, Glass Caves, Larkins, Courtyards and many more as well as selling out their very first headline show in their hometown venue and favourite place to drink in the world, The Parish.

Named after the old-school box TVs many of us had in our living-room growing up, Boxteles (pronounced Box-Tellys) comprised vocalist and guitarist Tom Bedford, guitarist Brad Mack, bassist Alex ‘ Rex’ Richardson, and drummer Ryan Smith.

Since the release of their debut single, “Il Mio Nemico” these burly boys (and Brad) have had their tunes span on many a radio station, including BBC Introducing West Yorkshire, Jorvik FM, and Sine FM as well as have performed relentlessly up and down the country. Look out for these lads playing a stage near you and make sure you catch their show, you will not be disappointed!

https://www.facebook.com/boxteles/

Sometimes, as you may be aware, I have a bit of a problem with Soundcloud genre tags. Himehabu chose to tag this ‘Psych-Rock’ I may of course be assuming they did. I’m going to additionally assume that the #Punk tag is a joke. The problem with this Psych-Rock tag is that while the track is undoubtedly psychedelic, it’s also jazzy and at times funky. So a better tag may have been Psychedelic jazz-rock. I can see the band’s problem here, jazz-rock is hardly a fashionable thing.

The thing is that this is a wonderful song/piece of music, I just have to persuade you of that. So here goes. And before I dive into that you should be aware, not warned, that this is 6 ½ minutes long.

It starts with gentle jazzy guitar, delicate keyboards, backing vocals drift in. You can think of this as an intro. The song starts sounding like a jazzy slowed down p-funk thing. Completely wonderful lead guitar, the like of which I’ve not heard in ages, punctuates the verses. Keyboards wash in, subtle backing vocals add an extra layer of sound. And then oh so delicate piano-like sounds drop in and gradually layers of sound are added. The guitar goes spacey and tubular. The song ends with drifting sounds that gradually fade out.

But what this completely inadequate description doesn’t capture is the atmosphere, the feeling, the journey it takes you on and the places it takes you to. It doesn’t reflect the obvious musical ability of the band, It doesn’t reflect the way this track is put together or, to put it a better way, composed.

The thing is that while this track sounds ‘composed’ it also sounds as though parts of it are improvised. Or perhaps improvised initially and then honed into the finished recorded version. It has this way of gently surprising you with the twists and turns it takes musically.

This is a beautiful, mesmerising piece of music that draws you and leaves you feeling uplifted, calm and strangely joyful despite what the song is about. The words are not joyful, the subject is not beautiful. The disconnect between sound and subject is something that gives it something extra, a hint of internal confusion as you drift away on the wonderful sounds and then realise what the song is about. You search for signs of that in the music, and they are there, there is something of this in the music under and around the beauty.

This should be enough to intrigue you, to get you thinking ‘I should give this a chance’, I hope. I hope because himehabu have made something wonderfully beautiful with this release.

The info

This is Leeds psych-rock band himehabu’s (pronounced ‘him-eh-ha-boo’) debut single. Recorded at Leeds College of Music in January 2020 with up-and-coming electronic producer Rufus CB, the song reflects a contemplation of current society and its relation to a dystopian future that seems ever present.

“The lyrics reflect on events and feelings of personal, societal and cultural disillusionment” explains vocalist and bassist Kyle Ellerbeck. “Though in response to this, people who relate to each other on the grounds of disillusionment often create things of real beauty and genius”.

Since forming, himehabu’s sound developed quickly into a mix of 70s psychedelia and funk, whilst taking inspiration from 80s style synths and the current UK jazz scene. Their influences vary from the psychedelic Lounge FM and Mild High Club to the jazz-funk of Yussef Dayes, whilst they resonate a similar experimental approach in their playing to early Pink Floyd mixed in with lyricism reminiscent of Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker. Their music sits in with contemporaries in the Leeds scene like cross-genre bands Shaku, Arnold Ziff and The Watermelon Complex, and their more psychedelia elements found in groups like Van Houten and Uncle Buzzard.

Whilst the band flow between genres, they have a strong psych-rock energy as they let ambient loops to be incorporated with heavier, punkish riffs and unhindered improvisation. Having met through the local jazz scene and played in groups such as Nag Champa and Mondo Bizarre over the past few years, they formed only in the autumn of 2019. They started jamming together with no notion of what music they wanted to create. This approach allows each musician a freedom that gives himehabu a distinct identity as a band willing to write and experiment with an evolving alternative sound. They debuted at Belgrave Music Hall as part of the Jamnesty series in November 2019 to showcase their unparalleled music.

With rearranged gigs at Brudenell Social Club and The East Village alongside recording sessions to arrive over the next few months, himehabu start their musical journey with an innovative approach to the classical on ‘Orbifolia’ and aim to continue their rise through the Leeds music scene and beyond.

himehabu consists of Kyle Ellerbeck on vocals and bass guitar, Jemima Edwards on keys and synth, Joe Scott on guitar, Ben Lee on drums and Hamish Irvine on alto saxophone.