Irish quintet Theatre's new single You Are goes for through hills and valleys, with a gnarly grunge guitar and all out folk-tinged vocals alternated with pastoral interludes.
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 .
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.
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.
Montréal based experimental post-rockers Atsuko Chiba made a video for Torn, a track from their self-titled album: "The six tracks are mood pieces about subjects that are close to their heart, with subtle rhythmical shifts, vocals buried in the mix, and a prominent role for the bass to keep it altogether."
Live dates:HCTF review of Atsuko Chiba
The Zela Margossian Quintet are at crossroads on their Remedy album. Should they for easy-on-the-ears jazz or dig a little deeper and head for the backroads where something more interesting might happen? The latter approach is in full bloom on Waves Unveiled on which pianist and composer Zela Margossian uses her knowledge Armenian folk to construct a track that allows sax player Stuart Vandegraaf to cut loose. In Flight soars and sighs, and while the band always is in control, each member gets a place in the spotlight, with Jacques Emery's short but sweet double bass stealing the show. The fast Repetance features a cool conversation between piano, sax and percussion, before slowing down to a late night vibe.
By contrast tracks like Clarity and Kintsugi are playing it safe. They are not bad as such, but fail to make a lasting impression. The short time money is in the mainstream - it always will be - but the chances of having any longevity increase dramatically when the safety nets are taken away.
