Dry Cleaning – “Anna Calls From The Arctic”

Dry Cleaning have a pretty set formula – nonsensical, oft-hilarious observationals delivered in Florence Shaw’s deadpan sprechgesang overtop muscular rock guitar riffage – so you’d be forgiven if, when listening to this second preview of their forthcoming second album Stumpwork, you find you’ve spent the whole five minutes waiting for the muscular rock guitar riffage […]

The Chameleons / Edge Sessions

Interpersonal tensions aside, the passing of drummer John Lever in 2017 pretty much put an end to hopes for any kind of follow-up to The Chameleons‘ fourth album, 2001’s Why Call It Anything. Fans have done alright with finding things to buy thanks to a steady stream of reissues of their studio albums and ’80s […]

Wire – “Stepping Off Too Quick”

Wire’s penchant for revisiting and reconstructing old material is a topic I’ve meant to go deeper into for a while, but it’s not happening here or now. Instead, a selection from their latest official release, which is a wide release of a former limited release which was a re-release of a decades-old unofficial release. Not […]

Bauhaus’ Daniel Ash and his Wobble Boxes

I spend an inordinate amount of time researching what kind of equipment players who were so skint they played whatever the could find and afford. It’s not healthy. Case in point, the delicious clangy tone that Daniel Ash got on those early Bauhaus records – not some meticulously crafted tone recipe involving sacrificial blood or […]

mercvrial – “Be That Someone”

Brief Algorithms, the just-released second album from Mexican multi-hyphenate outfit mercvrial comes with an interesting hook for those unfamiliar with them – half the tracks feature guitarwork from twice-former House Of Love guitarist Terry Bickers. And it’s not a “Paul McCartney chewing celery” sort of cameo; his trademark shimmering tones can be heard all over […]