In Loom: Great Start b/w Yellow Red & Blue

Dutch musicians Gijs Kerkhoven (Showdog) and Sander van Munster (No Ninja Am I) have found the time to enter the studio again for another double A-side single. Great Start goes through hills and valleys, with a fuzzy shoegaze guitar making way for dreamy post-rock interludes and eerie bits of dialog that sound like they were captured from a vintage transistor radio. Yellow Red & Blue starts out as a radio-friendly pop song, before making a sharp left into leftfield psychedelica.

It is a 101 for barebones shoegaze, using only a bass, a guitar and a bunch of choice effect pedals to create a sound that bigger bands are hoping for when they want to go back to basics.

The Guzzlers: The Drunken Tales of Gerry MacLean

Irish punk folk duo The Guzzlers keep it up with releasing good-natured drinking songs. The Drunken Tales of Gerry MacLean is basically a story how it came to pass that downing pints became such a huge part of their lifes and not feeling bad about that at all - not even when they ended up in a fight and the police came knocking on their door.

Taxi Girls: "Secret Handshake" video

Montreal based garage rockers Taxi Girls have made a video for their Secret Handshake single about a Summer fling: "All that's left is a bit of muscle memory and bittersweet thoughts of what could have been, knowing full that it was not supposed to last."

» taxigirls.bandcamp.com

HCTF review of Secret Handshake

Scatterchild: Ocean

Manchester based alternative rock band Scatterchild is led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Plent who wears his heart on his sleeve. The new single Ocean finds him in the midst of emotional turmoil after a breakup and having no clue how to go on. There is a bit of the baroque pop side of Marillion in there, but also the grit of a slightly distorted guitar.

His mate Quentin Wylie, singer of Getner, stepped up to the mike as well, because that's friends do: help out when the shit has hit the fan. As a come down after the vocal pyrotechnics, the instrumental version puts a spotlight on the music as such, with the strings leading the way.

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: Under A Cat

British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires have unveiled a video for Under A Cat, a song from the forthcoming Pets Sounds album, a collection of tunes by various artists singing the praises about their animal mates.

Bilston complains with tongue firmly in his cheek that he could have fixed a lot things - tropical diseases, world peace, or even complete the mundane ask of hoovering the house - had it not been for not wanting to disturb the feline creature sitting on his lap.