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Week 42 – Oct 17th

It can be said that big ideas need big songs. No truer words have been spoken when it comes to Militarie Gun. While it’s aggro-pop energy can be seen as combative, at its heart, lives and breathes a real side of vulnerability that is devastatingly powerful.

A childhood defined by addiction, frontman Ian Shelton was never one to shy away from personal trauma being a catalyst for expressiveness. Since their tenure in Los Angeles in 2020, the hardcore band sprung out of the basement show with their wealth of EPs and haven’t adandoned their energy once. The bands’ debut album in 2023 – a highly acclaimed record befitting for any talent – Life Under the Gun gave view to Shelton playing witness to a lifecycle of hurt amongst loved ones. A debut never bereft of anything but an emotional outpour, it gave direction and purpose that neither Shelton or his fellow bandmates – guitarists William Acuña and Kevin Kiley, bassist Waylon Trim, and drummer David Stalswort – could ever imagined.

Now, two years in from extensive touring cycles and consistent writing, Militarie’s Gun new album pushes off the gas as if we never took a moment out. Jettisoned off the debut’s foundations, the bands’ sophomore of God Save The Sun confides, confesses and collides with the hardest critic to life – yourself. While it teeters into a more melodic indie-punk stance, the cut-throat brutalism and heartfelt honesty forever remain as they plough us headfirst with one of the most exciting records of the year.

Read the full review here.

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The British alternative rock band forge together ten life-affirming tales at their darkest.

When Prelude to Ecstasy was released last year, the girls from London had slowly become one of the most talked-about bands in the country. Bridging the gap between the excess of operatic art-rock and musical theatre, The Last Dinner Party – made up of  Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, and Aurora Nishevci – are a deviously monstrous 5-piece who are never afraid to immerse themselves in their work.

Now, off the back of their enthralling debut, they affirm a devastating return treading a darker, more sonically assured path. A frolic around the fire, From the Pyre is as raw and earthy as any other work they’ve introduced. Instead of taking plcae at an opulent table of indulgence, this albums’ backdrop is looking out over a Medieval landscape invoking scythes and saints. The introductory Agnus Dei is an apocalyptic love bomb as visceral lyrics invoke an incensed character desperate and broken. The mischievous Count The Ways plays out like an Arctic Monkeys’ anthem of old while Second Best is a melodic bitter symphony. This is the Killer Speaking is a metaphorical dancing with the devil amongst blazing infernos. Woman is a Tree invokes cult-like chorals and unsettling harmonies not too dissimilar to fellow field frolickers The New Eves. Nearing the end of the record, The Scythe combats grief and acceptance in an intimate encounter with Death – and how its just another passage to a reunion in another life. An emphatically bold tale as old as time, it is undoubtedly the albums’ best reaffirming that those behind The Last Dinner Party can get even more devastating.

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One of the most influential voices of the decade, Kevin Parker’s Tame Impala and his genre-bending soundscapes of alternative wonderment. Boasting awards and accolades alike, Parker re-emerges on the scene after The Slow Rush in 2020 with fifth, Deadbeat. Off the back of Kevin being a father, the record is a psychedelic synth-pop amble of navigating the new. Parker sheds guitar and keys for drum machine in an awkward attempt to something new and out there – with an end product of being neither new or out there. Lead single of Loser offers a stylistically diverse course and Piece of Heaven is an interesting score. Evidently a beautiful homage to his child – and a rebirth to Impala’s artistic career – it soothes and swathes echoic vocals and lovely piano trills.

It’s evident that Kevin’s priorities to life have shifted since welcoming in a child to the world in 2021. I love Tame Impala but this doesn’t seem to be it.

Just in case you forgot that they existed, yes this band still do music. It has been six years since Icelandic indie-folk outfit Of Monsters and Men have released a full studio album. Now, amongst all the chaos, it’s come at a time most needed. A nuanced depth of atmospheric storytelling, Of Monsters’ fourth album brings about beautiful chamber echos of a band still in love with creating such emotive music. Led by Television Love and Ordinary Creature in folk-fantasy stature, All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade brings back to the Icelandic indie darlings of the forefront yet again. Welcome back folks, it’s been too long.

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Founded from abondoned East London buildings in the early years, Electric Litany have undoubtedly fell upon something too good to conclude. Invoking spectral soundscapes, the London collective are a heavyweight of ambition. Expanding their sound into linear workings of dream pop and electronic minimalism, Electric Litany certainly attest to their work as being a perfect backdrop to a dystopian metropolis.

From their very first ventures in 2010 with How to Be a Child and Win the War recorded within a deserted church to 15 years later with Desires this week, the band have always been devoted to their life’s work, constantly perfecting their crafted sounds through every passing project. For what its worth, Desires may just be their magnum opus. An emotionally resonant piece of dreamy overtones and lush vocals; its an escapists’ electronic dream. Reciprocate is the leading role of spiralling ascendency while what follows, in Diamonds, is a melodic encasing of fast swirling swells. Released this week, Desires is the perfect come down – or the ideal motive for being inspired.

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