Sounds Like Now #9 | Gruff Noise
Shucky ducky quack quack! It’s YOUR best and worst tracks o’ the week. Let’s get to it.
SUPER COOL COMPILATION OF THE WEEK
GruffWuff – BarryGruff
Intrepid blogger and connoisseur of damn fine music BarryGruff celebrates five years of his excellent blog this month. To mark the occasion, he’s compiled 19 brand new, previously unreleased and exclusive cuts from some of his favourite acts over the past five years and assembled them all in a ‘Pay what you want’ collection available via his Bandcamp page. Artists include SertOne, Monto, Knoxville Morning, Anderson and Galway garage guitar merchants Oh Boland, who you can hear below.
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BEST OF THE REST
Rusangano Family – ‘Wasteman’
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“What exactly is a ‘Wasteman’ ?” Rusangano Family – the former God Knows + mynameisjOhn – tell you all you need to know in wonderfully sharp and rhythmic fashion. Remind me, why weren’t these guys nominated for the Choice Music Prize again?
Spies – ‘Quincy Morris’
Pensive, arresting and sure to draw comparisons to The Smiths, Spies’ new one is bolstered by a thoughtful and terrific video. As ever, Michael Broderick’s vocals carry the Dublin outfit on waves most wistful.
Mylets – Audiotree Live Session
Mylets has gone and done a highly dextrous live session featuring tracks from his forthcoming Arizona debut. ‘Trembling Hands’ remains a vicious knockout punch. SO MANY PEDALS, btw.
Sea Bed – ‘Caves’
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There’s something very ‘I just stumbled into the final remnants of a dimly-lit house DJ set in my local run-down club in 1995’ about ‘Caves’. In other words, it’s minimalist electronica with the usual well-timed peaks and valleys and a vocal line that you’ve heard a hundred times before but you’re more than happy to hear again.
Hookworms – ‘Retreat’
[soundcl[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/196296727" params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166" iframe=”true” /]Hookworms have been on fire for the past couple of years, with Pearl Mystic and The Hum standing out as two of the most interesting and immediately engaging records of recent times. ‘Retreat’, the closing track of the latter, plays with their now-established rough and raw psychedelia in hypnotic fashion.
‘OH JUST PLEASE STOP’ OF THE WEEK
Muse – ‘Psycho’
I once bought a Muse zip jacket type thing. As these things go, it was actually relatively understated and stylish. I swear. But yeah, I was a big fan. The first time I heard ‘Plug-In Baby’ it blew my tiny little mind. Though they would lose a little power with each new album, there was enough gems to keep you interested. Hell, even the last two records had their high points, most notably ‘Undisclosed Desires’, ‘Madness’ and the glorious ‘Panic Station’.
But hey, when they’re bad they’re pretty goddamn godawful. Step forward ‘Psycho’, the militaristic, ham-fisted, dull-as-fuck mess that trails new album Drones (whose artwork has to be seen to be believed). Some are hailing Muse for returning to their big riff roots but this is as terrible as it gets. It’s not even fun bad.
The Coronas – ‘How This Goes’
I’ll tell you how this goes. Dodgy, bland, useless band sign to a major label and all of a sudden their watered-down sound somehow becomes even more diluted, ripping off Two Door Cinema Club and other trendy ‘in’ acts in a bid to expand their impressionable and depressing audience. Great job, guys.
