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May 16: Week 20 of the year. Big names this week: Sports Team, downpour, Pachyman, Smerz and new up-and-comers Home is Where.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK: A band thriving on the chaos of live music in the UK, Sports Team have been a telling backdrop to the absurdities of a modern and messy Britain. A boisterous vocalist of Alex Rice interloped with a sprawling bass of good old-fashioned guitar music from the likes of rhythm Rob Knaggs and lead Henry Young, the band feed themselves on both a wavering line of affection and disdain.

Read the full review here.

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A notoriously underrated group in the Midwest emo collective, Charmer have been charting the big bad high since their self-titled debut in 2018. Spurred on by the soundtrack for youthful anxiety Bummer Summer, the heartfelt emo band heralding from remote Marquette, Michigan, have been a course of delights with their sombre guitar inflections and emotional vocals. While formation changes caused inevitable delays to scheduling, the band have reprised designs and returned, all the more eager to show off what they’ve been cooking for five year plus.

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A post-modern dabble of Norwegian alternative, smerz offers a different perspective to that of a sprawling city landscape and perhaps more a glowing magnifying glass to the witty charmers and outlandish characters that make up a cities’ nightlife vibrancy – or oddity. A proper Pitchfork-skewering normalising un-normal, Big City Life is throwing a big black-and-white pot of paint at a canvas and going with whatever sticks.

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An individual once coined as a dub-reggae maestro, Pachy Garcia – under the moniker of Pachyman – has been a master of crafting proper global grooves. A time which spans four records so far, Pachy has become a wizard at the ambience – befitting for any coffee shop or elevator. He has also come to learn the importance and power of repetition in a world craving on ear worm after ear worm. Another Place is just one more to get hooked onto.

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One of the most diversive and experimental on the Florida coastal scenes, Home is Where are a bunch not to be sniffed at. A powerhouse attempting to bring about the ‘The Great American Song’, Home is Where blend different facets of the American music world but are only ever present here in fleeting moments. The cathartic harmonica-present of migration patterns is one of those moments, as is indie-twang milk & diesel. According to the band, this record details all thirteen Elvis impersonators in a fire each grasping for life. While I prefer the route of indie-country twang setting the scene to find the best American song, this concept of an all-consuming Elvis effigy is perhaps more fitting – and far more American.

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