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Week 32 – Aug 8:// Another week in August, another set of fine works to listen to. Mancunian post-punks Humour deliver their debut, singer-songwriter Ada Lea brings in fresh folk beauty while raw blues-rock outfit return with an apparent salvation from their tumultuous year. We also have new inspiring tracks from future sounds including burly Notts duo Dredge, four Mancunians of Arkayla and indie-dreamers of Tuxis Giant.

This is new music – worth talking about. //

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A band who had came together amidst lockdown in Glasgow, Humour are striving to cultivate a sound worth remembering – hollering vocals, off-kilter instrumentals are on display as we journey into the mind of a man trying to peel back his heritage. Fit for any with equipped Memorial and Plagiarist, Humour’s Learning Greek is on a knife edge as the four wrestle identity on a rough alt-rock terrain.

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Ada Lea strokes a new glean of darkening folk with when i paint my masterpiece, the latest of Lea as a result of deep artist rediscovery, it is a gorgeous album offering imaginative narratives to life and its colours throughout her other creative explorations as a painter, poet, and most recently an educator, leading songwriting classes at a local university and community groups. 

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After a tour derailing and a record flop last year, the Ohio duo venture into new territory with a safe blues-infused pop imagining. An album bolstered with an uncertain future for the pair, The Black Keys’ latest is a middle-of-the-road subpar – and a far-cry from their visceral, juke-joint roots which made up the majority of what they were all about.

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For David Balfe (For Those I Love), great art – and meaning – can only be found in the grey areas of life, somewhere between hopefulness and despair. You’ll find nothing else that comes close to this than this second album. A stirring portrait of modern Irish life, Carving the Stone is a scathing statement on working class survival and the erosion of home – a devastating report on the scruples of a city losing itself to a cultural death. Innovative and stylistic beat assembly is the perfect hypeman to Balfe’s spoken-word scriptures and philosophies – his voice defiant and clear as water in its purest form.

From what we’ve come to understand in recent years, it’s the Irish artists who do it best.

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>> Honourable Mentions

Dredge: Goblins – a deluge of fuzzed-out sludge metal comes unravelled in Goblins – the debut single from the 0115 duo. A hardened edge with visceral lyricism to an appropriate draw-out on late-stage capitalism – which all comes to a head in an explosive beatdown – it’s the first smattering of Goblins we’ve had a taste of so far. What’s more to follow?

Arkayla: Doctor – As Manchester currently rides the wave of Oasis’ historic return, the next generation of northern guitar are already crashing through and Arkayla are leading the charge. Following their definitive introductory of Ella Malone last year, the anthemic four-piece are looking to pick up where they left off with their first chapter in Arkayla’s next story. A straight-edged indie-rock number, Doctor bolsters the boys’ reasonings that great things are a-comin’.

Tuxis Giant: Days – A brisk and buoyant two-minute track, “Days” fuses the weary with the whimsical as it uncovers the spirit of Hayao Miyazaki’s majestic works. Much like Spirited Away with meticulously plucked guitar, Days pictures the scenic just before the end of the shift. The lucid indie dreamers’ next project, You Won’t Remember This is out in a matter of days, too.

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