The Blue Yellows: Scribble on a Cheat Sheet

Lo-fi quirky folk rockers The Blue Yellows managed to squeeze in some psychedelic rock and baroque pop on their Scribble on a Cheat Sheet EP, filled with five relatable songs about love in all its guises: the start, the end and everything in between, yes, even the one-sided variant (I Wish I Could Fall). The songs revolve around empathy, with having a sense of humour being a close second.

They have been playing for more than a decade, so they have a good grip of what works best for them: being in sync and acting as equal partners to bring their songs to life. Singing along is optional, but highly appreciated.

HCTF premiere - Martyrs: "You've Been Here Before" video

Welsh synth duo Martyrs have made a video for You've Been Here Before, a sound collage from their Church Street EP. Since the main theme of that release was nostalgia, an abstract track about the demise of physical media - note the references to VHS tapes - fitted in nicely along the "proper" songs. The footage looks beat up and blurry on purpose, to show the slow degradation of it that happened over time.

» Martyrs on Bluesky

HCTF review of the Church Street EP

Theatre: You Are

Irish quintet Theatre's new single You Are goes through hills and valleys, with a gnarly grunge guitar and all out folk-tinged vocals, with pastoral interludes acting as opportunities to let it sink in.

The lyrics were inspired by singer's Maeve O’Shea childhood in West Cork, reminiscing about wandering the streets on her own and the mundane act of doing the dishes. She would have been happy with a song back then as a cure for her boredom, but fast forward to 2026 and here it is. The video was directed by Greg Purcell .

Y: Enter

Eclectic London quintet Y serve a mix of post-punk, vaudeville and leftfield dance pop on their Enter EP. They are a hybrid of Nine Inch Nails, the Dresden Dolls and Roxy Music, which should not work, but it does. While most bands would shy away from adding yet another layer, they keep stacking them up to end up with a quivering tower of sound.

Saxophone and rock guitar are trying to command the sportlights, but the vocals, bass and synths are not having it, elbowing their way in to create a groundswell of jawdropping noise. It's OK to go what-the-fuck and press play again to try to make sense of it.

The Shirts: Live At Paradise 1979

As a follow-up for their Live feat. Annie Golden album Brooklyn's power pop meets New Wave band The Shirts look back at their first act again with another rambunctious in concert release. Live At Paradise 1979. The show was recorded for a radio broadcast by local station WBCN at Boston's Paradise Rock Club on August 27, 1979, shortly after their second album Street Light Shine. The tapes were digitized by Wout de Kruif (Dutch Tape Transfers) and demixed/remastered by retired sound engineer Prof Stoned.

It was a weird time for the band. Lead singer Annie Golden had a part in the movie adaptation of Hair and was under pressure to leave the band and become a full-time actress. She turned it down, but in hindsight this period was the high mark of the band's popularity in the States. In 1980 their label would fuck things up promoting the next album, Inner Sleeve, and the band folded soon afterwards.