Temples’ name has become synonymous with a band with an adventurous spirit; constantly exploring new ideas.

On their fifth album, 'BLISS', they shake up the perception of the Kettering-formed four-piece with a record that ventures into electronic territory while staying true to their core DNA. Euphoric and melancholic melodies of late ‘90s dance music blend with psych-tinged riffs and loops to create something fresh.

Though the band missed the late ‘90s rave culture firsthand, 'BLISS' channels that era’s bittersweet euphoria, drawing inspiration from Faithless, Underworld, Prodigy, Air, Röyksopp, Moby, Massive Attack, Orbital, Portishead, and more. Psych and dance share a natural lineage, with repetition, loops, and trance-like states forming the album’s foundation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jet Stream Heart
2. Revelations 
3. Megalith 
4. Glimmer 
5. Blue Flame 
6. Vendetta 
7. Jaguar 
8. Horizon 
9. Waiting On The Echoes 
10. Fantasy Realm

Art is my life and my life is art . . .

The story of the twentieth-century avant-garde is a story of resistance, of the outsider, of strangeness, of individual freedom, of rejecting the ordinary and overcoming marginalisation through self-invention. It is also a story that can be told through the prism of one of its most renowned figureheads: Yoko Ono. From her early life escaping aristocratic Japanese society and the horrors of World War II to adventurous and productive exile in New York, Ono's work built upon the histories of Dada, surrealism, Zen Buddhism, and experimental music.

A significant influence on the elusive Fluxus artistic network, she was connected to all its major personalities. Pursuing dreams of revolutionary liberation and aiming to recreate shattered post-war reality through performance, art and text, she established a legacy - despite her tumultuous personal life - as one of the most visionary artists and activists of her generation. Marking the intersection of biography, cultural history and artistic meditation, Love Magic Power Danger Bliss explores the deep history and vitality of the 20th century avant-garde movement and the inspiring, provocative figure who became its most celebrated, most misunderstood icon.

'Existence is Bliss' is the sophomore album from London-based post-punk six-piece Deadletter. This album follows their critically acclaimed 2024 debut, 'Hysterical Strength'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Purity I
2. To The Brim
3. Songless Bird
4. It Comes Creeping
5. What The World Missed
6. Cheers!
7. Among Us
8. Focal Point
9. (Back To) The Scene Of The Crime
10. Frosted Glass
11. He, Himself, And Him
12. Meanwhile In A Parallel

Efficient Space continues to bind its mind with Altered States Tapes, offering another service to "How So?", Th Blisks' 2022 debut in home-cooked experimentation. A blurring of three vastly different heads into a single disjointed, but fluid organism, "How So?" finds Yuta Matsumura (The Lewers, Keanu Nelson), Amelia Besseny (Troth, Impatiens) and Cooper Bowman (Troth, CD3) working with vocals, melodica, deeply pulled samples, guitar, drum machine, synths and resourceful percussion. An Elixa-blueprint of sideways ambient rituals, fog-thick melodica dub and paranoid trip hop by way of Sydney's pioneering industrial collagists, the LP recirculates beyond its original 150-copy confines for those who missed its first apparition. 

'How So? cures hyperactivity; no dopamine spike to be expected – the finest white-people dub since Peaking Lights. For anyone wondering what a blend of The Cure, Augustus Pablo and Carla Dal Forno might sound like.' - HHV Mag

TRACK LISTING

A1: A Sylph
A2: Gasper
A3: Alaska
A4: Guesthouse
A5: Avoska
B1: Garfitti
B2: A Salve
B3: I Don't Fade
B4: Taipei Dubble

Vintage recording equipment has long been a bit of a fetish, but to sound pioneers Voka Gentle, even the most magical machines are a means to an end. The band, made up of twins Ellie and Imogen Mason, along with Imogen’s husband, William J Stokes, are a family band in the truest sense. Whilst they started out as a folk trio, their new album Domestic Bliss is an album of throat-grabbing, avant-garde indie rock songs studded with eccentric choices: a synth with its keys jammed, playing a tune of its own making; field recordings – Morris dancers, motorbikes – captured on binaural headphones.

Domestic Bliss is concerned with power: the abuse of it, being on the cusp of it, and what it really means. The album is teaming with imaginary people in picaresque scenes that reveal the band’s rich cultural storehouse. The songs draw on history, literature, everyday life and pop culture references (specifically Jude Law’s 1995 Vogue cover), with tracks like Cheddar Man reflecting on climate change and prehistory and Creon I tracing the unease of authority through the lens of Greek mythology.

Recorded in the orchestral studios of City University, the album folds intimacy into scale, from phone-recorded vocals and samples of breath to heavy, tribal electronics in grand acoustic spaces. The result is by far their most refined record yet, where the band treat the recording studio like an instrument.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Cheddar Man
2. Creon I
3. Torpedo Mike
4. Battle Sequence (I’m Atomic)
5. You Deserve It!

Side B
1. Kinema
2. The Creature
3. K Sees The Deal Go Down
4. Jude Law For Vogue (1995)
5. Ultra Aura Glow Feat. Hamish Hawk

BONUS CD (DINKED EDITION ONLY)
Creon I (Goat Girl Remix)
Cheddar Man (Sonic Boom Remix)
K Sees The Deal Go Down (Jonathan Snipes Remix)
Creon ! (state51 Factory Session)
Cheddar Man (state51 Factory Session)
Battle Sequence (I’m Atomic) (Dope Isotope Mix) By Curtain Twitcher
First Snow (Bo Ningen X Voka Gentle)

De La Soul. Mobb Deep. LL Cool J. Justin Bieber. Moby. These artists - and countless others - have one thing in common: Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution." Released in 1973, Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution" started off as a throwaway B- side to his single "Reward." It would go on to become one of the most frequently sampled songs of the late 80s and early 90s, a legacy that continues to this day.

TRACK LISTING

Synthetic Substitution
Synthetic Substitution (Just Blaze Take 6 Master Mix)

The Numero Group guide to private issue new age.

Featuring Laraaji, Iasos, Joanna Brouk, Don Slepian, Peter Davison, Master Wilburn Burchette, Jordan De La Sierra, David Casper, Robert Slap and nine other pioneers of the Perrier underground.

Adorned with Marcus Uzilevsky’s ‘Linear Landscapes’, this double LP compilation is housed in a sturdy tip-on jacket and is accompanied by a 32-page booklet.

The fourth world awaits.

TRACK LISTING

Joanna Brouk - The Space Between
Laraaji - Bethlehem
David Naegele - Eternal Sanctuary
David Casper - Carmel Valley Sunset
Don Slepian - Sea Of Bliss
Vernal Equinox - Silent
Dream - The Real Dream
Steven Cooper - Soulmate Suite Part 1
Peter Davison - Control
David Storrs - Night In The Vortex
Iasos - The Angels Of Comfort
Robert Slap & Suzanne
Ghiglia - Ocean Echoes
Upper Astral - Crystal Cave (Back To Atlantis)
Alex Johnson - Music For Earth Orbit
Georges Boutz - After The Storm
Dervish - Somebodies
Peter Nothnagle - New Snow
Jordan De La Sierra - Music For Gymnastics
Master Wilburn Burchette - Eternal Light

New York pop savants Charly Bliss want their new album Forever to crush you under the weight of pure feeling. They want to sweep you up in a hurricane of heartbreak. They want you to pour your soul out singing along at their shows and alone in your bedroom. In short, says singer Eva Hendricks, they want to destroy you...but in a fun way.

Produced by Jake Luppen (Hippo Campus) and Caleb Wright (Samia) along with the band’s Sam Hendricks, Forever follows five years after their critically acclaimed 2019 album Young Enough. Full of the band’s biggest, brightest batch of power pop yet Forever crams a lifetime of feeling, decades of friendship, and years of craft into a batch of sonically tight but emotionally vast songs that activate the pleasure centres in your brain whether you’re listening alone in your headphones or in a packed room at a live show. The songs shimmer and burst, the way fireworks look like they should sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tragic
2. Calling You Out
3. Back There Now
4. Nineteen
5. In Your Bed
6. I’m Not Dead
7. How Do You Do It
8. I Don’t Know Anything
9. Here Comes The Darkness
10. Waiting For You
11. Easy To Love You
12. Last First Kiss 

700 Bliss is the forward-thinking duo of DJ Haram and Moor Mother. Their first full length for Hyperdub is an album of noise rap that ties together the raw edges of club music and hip hop with punk energy, jazz, house-party catharsis, percussion-heavy analogue sound design, and cheeky skits, ranging from experimental rap tracks with rolling hi hats and lyrical bravado, to poetry set to noise and sound collage.

Moor Mother and DJ Haram started collaborating in 2014 and eventually formed 700 Bliss, a blistering live act in Philly's DIY scene, releasing their 2018 debut, Spa 700 on Halcyon Veil / Don Giovanni Records. Since that time, both artists have grown global followings. Moor Mother is a prolific solo artist and collaborator, writer, and member of Black Quantum Futurism while Haram has been curating and creating radio shows, DJing, and producing (including an EP for Hyperdub in 2019).

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a smart, danceable revelation, a chiseled soundscape of dive bombing bass, piercing bleeps, crunchy distortion, and wavering synth lines. Welcoming in a variety of voices from their extended, cross-genre scene, 700 Bliss also bring along a cast of collaborators, including vocalists Orion Sun, Lawfandah, Ase Manual, and Ali Logout (from the band Special Interest), plus Palestinian producer Muqata'a, and writer M Téllez who delivers a surreal sci fi monologue over a pounding kick drum on ‘More Victories’.

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a deeply layered rewriting of hip hop and electronic music that gives more with each listen. You won't hear another rap album like it in 2022.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Nothing To Declare
A2. Totally Spies Ft Lafawndah
A3. Nightflame Ft Orion Sun
A4. Anthology
A5. Discipline
A6. BlessGrips
A7. Easyjet
A8. Candace Parker Ft Muqata’a
B1. No More Kings
B2. Capitol Ft Alli Logout
B3. Sixteen
B4. Spirit Airlines
B5. Crown
B6. More Victories Ft M. Téllez
B7. Seven
B8. Lead Level 15 Ft Ase Manual

Since the release of his last album – 2017’s Finding Shore, a collaboration with Brian Eno – pianist and singer-songwriter Tom Rogerson’s life has undergone a number of dramatic transformations. While writing his new album Retreat to Bliss, Rogerson had a child, lost a parent, and received his own diagno[1]sis of a rare form of blood cancer. The new decade brought him from Berlin to the Suffolk of his childhood, composing profound pieces of minimal songwriting in the church next to his parents’ home.

Rogerson studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music under mentors like Harrison Birtwistle, and he made his live debut as an improvising pianist in 2002, before releasing an improvised record with Reid Anderson (Bad Plus) and Mike Lewis (Happy Apple, Bon Iver) in 2004. He formed the band Three Trapped Tigers in 2007, expertly blending elements of electronic, jazz and noise rock into a cohesive whole. The band earned a reputation for innovative live shows and went on to perform and collaborate with artists like Brian Eno, Deftones, and the Dillinger Escape Plan. It was working with Eno, another Suffolk native, that eventually led Rogerson back to his roots and back to a place where he could write Retreat to Bliss, his solo debut album.

“All my life, the piano has been my constant companion, my confessor, my best friend, and my worst enemy,” Rogerson explains. “I’ve always written music on and for the piano, but it felt too personal, too private to release.”

Indeed, listening to Retreat to Bliss feels almost like eavesdropping, as though you’re crouched in the belfry of a Suffolk church, bearing witness to a form of musical bloodletting. For the first time in his noteworthy career, Rogerson has combined masterful piano playing and subtle electronics with the texture of his own voice, an attempt to express deeply private emotions that were difficult to articulate using instrumental music alone.

“The last few years have brought some struggle, some joy, and a lot of change. My response has been to retreat to what I trust the most: the piano, my voice, and the landscape I grew up in. That’s how the album got its title, and how I came to be ready finally to release a solo record.”

The eleven tracks that make up Retreat to Bliss were recorded by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, David Byrne, Grace Jones) over the course of just a few days, a process that emphasized spontaneity and the artist’s own commitment to improvisation.

Secular yet devotional, intensely personal yet profound, the experience of listening to Retreat to Bliss seems to evade characterization. It’s physical and emotional, a glimpse into the mind of an artist who has chosen exposure over withdrawal, who uses his command of the piano to chart an unflinching path forward, never looking back.

TRACK LISTING

01. Descent [5:22]
02. Oath [4:36]
03. Buried Deep [3:31]
04. Toumani [4:04]
05. Drone Finder Part 2 [2:25]
06. Chant [4:32]
07. Rapture 1 [4:08]
08. Open Out Span Wide View [3:47]
09. A Clearing [4:01]
10. Retreat To [6:10]
11. Coda [1:37]

“It's about the in-between moments.” - Hattie Cooke “Bliss Land” is the new LP from Brighton born artist Hattie Cooke. Her third album and debut release for Castles In Space opens up her sound by managing to find a balance between the introspective and the communal. It is an album that looks forward whilst acknowledging the creators past creating a work full of a nostalgia that also feels vitally current. Initially conceived as a soundtrack album, during its creation, “Bliss Land” morphed into a beautiful set of personal songs born out of anticipation, excitement and anxiety.

Speaking about the themes of the albums, Hattie says: "It wasn’t until the album was finished that I realised what it was about. I had recently graduated from university and people were beginning to take more notice of my music. I was excited about the possibilities of the future, but at the same time the immediate future had been put on hold due to the pandemic, so I was frustrated and anxious. And then whenever I think about the future, I can’t help but think about the past and where I’ve come from and what I’ve been through to get to that point. So in some ways it’s a reflective record and in other ways it’s a record full of anticipation. “One Foot Out The Door” is a track that really resonates with me - it’s about that liminal space between the past and the future when you’re on the threshold of something. I think that’s what the album is about, it’s about the in-between moments. "I grew up on a small council estate on the outskirts of Brighton in a house that was full of music. Both my parents played guitar and my dad also bought and sold records for a living. I taught myself the guitar when I was twelve and made plenty of music throughout my teens. At 17, I won a scholarship to study at the British Institute Of Modern Music and continued writing and playing local shows. I also started to learn how to record and produce my own music on GarageBand as a necessary alternative to going into an expensive recording studio. GarageBand has some fantastic synth and electronic drum sounds and that’s when I became more interested in electronic music and music production. In 2015, Third Kind Records approached me after hearing my songs on a homemade demo CD that a friend had passed on. We released my debut album in 2016 and I’ve been making and releasing music ever since.”

Hattie writes, records and produces all her own albums, however she is keen to express how others have helped shaped parts of Bliss Land: “The record isn’t a completely solo effort, I had people along the way to help shape this album into what it became, although I had complete artistic freedom to let the album grow into what it wanted to be. I had invaluable help from Dom Keen who helped me mix the album. We spent a good number of nights in his studio drinking gin and trying to get everything just right. He did things to the music that I would never have even considered doing. I had no idea what compression really was until the making of this record, which probably sounds mad considering I’ve produced three records but when you’re self-taught you can miss out learning about so much! Antony Ryan’s mastering added a whole new dimension to the record as well.”

“Bliss Land” is an album soaked in the outer edges of pop music making it a cohesive and beautiful album full of dense textures held together by Hattie's unique voice. It’s an album that will undoubtedly chime with a cross section of audiences. So where does Hattie see her music in the landscape of the current UK electronic scene? "There’s a lot of instrumental/soundtrack music coming out of the scene, a lot of synthwave music which seems to be a real throwback to the 70s and early 80s. I think that’s because so much of the music coming out of the scene is made by those who grew up during those decades. So I think I’m a bit of an outlier when it comes to the UK electronic scene for two reasons. Firstly, I’m at the lower end of the age range and secondly, I’m a woman in an extremely male dominated scene. “Bliss Land” is intentionally quite poppy, which seems to be less in fashion at the moment whereas my other instrumental stuff is more inspired by classical music than by IDM or ambient music, so I think I’m coming at writing and producing from a slightly different angle. However, I still definitely feel part of the scene. There’s a particularly strong sense of community within the UK electronic scene on Twitter and I’ve been nothing but welcomed and supported by the artists, fans and labels. It’s like being part of a strange and wonderful family.”

You’ve made a video for the track “Youth” with Chris Standley from Rogue Robot which is both funny and shot through with real melancholy. “Youth" is about reflecting on the past. I turned thirty this year and sometimes (more than I'd like to admit) I worry that I've gotten more boring as I've gotten older. I was pretty wild and unhinged when I was younger and sometimes I miss those mad nights out where it felt like absolutely anything could happen - although saying that I just don't have the energy to stay up for three days or the stomach to cope with the hangovers anymore. Still, there are days when I miss the way that everything feels new and exciting when you're in your late teens/early twenties - everything is more intense when you're younger and the world around you seems bright and buzzing with life. I've been thinking about it a lot this past year. I've not had much to do for the last twelve months besides walk around on my own and reflect on the past, since the future has basically been put on indefinite hold, so that has almost certainly fed into some of the lyrics and maybe even the feel of the music.”

The album is already garnering a lot of attention and praise. What’s next for Hattie after the album is released? "Who knows what’s next! I have plans to tour the album when the world opens up again. I’d also love to have the chance to score a film or to work with some other artists doing guest vocals or some remixes. And I’d like to get back to doing some music-related charity work again as my family were supported by a number of charities when I was growing up and think it’s important to give back when you can."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having formed one of the most enduringly superb 'pseud-ost' releases of the past few years in 'The Sleepers' for the excellent Spun Out Sounds, Cooke hits electronic stalwarts Castles In Space for her excellent new LP 'Bliss Land'. Brilliantly toeing the line between electronic and acoustic, there are moments of pure Broadcast-y bliss and echoes of the soundtrack moments from the previous LP too. Do not sleep on this one.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. I Get By
2. Mistaken
3. Cars
4. One Foot Out The Door
5. Youth

Side B
6. Don’t Wanna Talk
7. Invisible Lines
8. Fantasies
9. Lovers Game
10. Summer Time

Dinked Edition Bonus 7”
1. One Foot Out The Door (Acoustic Version)
2. Above My Bed

The Gravity Drive have a slick professionalism but a soulful feel about their music and an inbuilt positive vibe (which I put down to being) born out of Ava and Elijah Wolfs relationship. Not only as husband & wife soulmates but as an artistic songwriting team who are truly independent as a business which makes commercial art.

The three most striking songs on the Wildlight are the ones which have been released as single tracks: Kaleidoscope, Wake of the Dawn and the title track. – A slow-building epic and a classy piece of melody, harmony and crescendo. Piano-led with lush strings and a host-of-heavenly angels backing… An irresistible bit of mainstream alternative pop with great soaring vocals and “an orchestra of echoplex guitar, otherworldly strings and synths”… and – The Wildlight has a Doors-y feel to start, and a touch of Gimme Shelter about the guitar…respectively.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hits Like A Star
2. Shooting Star
3. The Wildlight
4. Forever
5. What Is Love?
6. You Are More (Than You Think You Are)
7. Kaleidoscope
8. Inside Out
9. Alone Together

Here we have the superb new outing from We Are Willow, a self-styled 'multidisciplinary arts collective', who present a beautiful two-tracker in aid of Stockport Mind, an independent mental health charity working at delivering a range of essential services around the Stockport area. 

First up we get the original mix, featuring an emotive stripped-back guitar line gently accentuated with Chris' gentle vocal line over the top, breaking out mid way through into a cavernous sweep of strummed and slide guitars, working around each other above the organic percussion. We revisit the quiet contemplative respite before the full choral power kicks in around the half-way mark, culminating into an emotive crescentic soar, as beatiful as it is effecting. 

 On the flipside, we get the emphasis based more on the reticent percussive backbone behind the original tune, but accentuated with a spoken word section interjecting before breaking into minimal acidic territory, providing an entirely contrasting idea but entirely in keeping emotionally. It's a bold juxtaposition, but one that ultimately helps to enhance both the diametric ideas and bring them together into a choesive and enjoyable whole. 

Once again, conceptually superb and for a brilliant cause to boot. Top work once again from the venerable We Are Willow. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Ignorance Is Bliss 04:25
2. Ignorance Is Bliss - Bopperson Remix Featuring Ben Mellor 04:46

Atlanta, GA’s Blis. debut LP, No One Loves You, avoids the trope: it’s an album of a band that’s lived a lot of life, exploring sonic realms that on the surface, should not go together, but manage to find cohesion. The record mosaics their influences—the intricate rock riffs of American Football, Pedro the Lion’s midtempo balladry gone awry with crucial aggression, indie rock sensibility that has mainstream press publications referencing Modest Mouse and Silversun Pickups. It was their 2015 Starting Fires in My Parents House EP that inspired Sargent House Records to sign them. The band officially started recording under the Blis. name a few years ago, but frontman/primary songwriter Aaron Gossett has been pursuing the project for much longer. “It’s pretty much the first musical endeavor I did after high school,” he recounts.

The quartet—drummer Jimi Ingman, bassist Luke Jones, guitarist Josiah Smith and Gossett—have found a system that works, though the process was arduous. In the two years since their last EP, they’re at home with their lineup, they’ve spent an impossible amount of time on the road (including a two month U.S. tour with now label mates And So I Watch You From Afar). No One Loves You is a record of complex musicianship and even more complicated emotional development—despondent songs that criticize the negative forces in Gossett’s life while never feeling particularly hopeless. Almost every track mentions God or religion. He explains. “If you get to the core of a lot of religions, they’re kind of awful: really disgusting homophobic, misogynistic shit.” It’s harsh, but near the heart of Blis. There’s loving sentiment beneath the percussion, beneath the moments of riotous riffing and explosive texture. Even the title of the record itself reflects the duality of Gossett’s interpretation. “Lost Boy” is a love letter to his partner and a criticism of blind belief. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Dumb
2 Stale Smoke
3 Take Me Home
4 Servant
5 Old Man
6 Lost Boy
7 Ugly
8 Home
9 Christian Girls
10 Pathetic
11 Broken
12 Instant Lover

Horse Thief are purveyors of a panoramic yet nuanced sound, flowing from intimate to anthemic, the mood from vibrant to contemplative, with frontman Cameron Neal’s lyrics ranging from confessional to metaphorical. The result evokes the wide-open spaces of America’s Midwest but infuses the sense of grit and wonderment with edgier emotions.

TRACK LISTING

Intro
I Don’t Mind
Human Geographer
Devil
Holding On
Already Dead
Little Dust
Dead Drum
Let Go
Come On
Warm Regards

Sissy & The Blisters release their new double Aside single, ‘Killing Time’ on new label Not So Pretty.

“The Vaccines, The Strokes and Interpol are contemporary references, but the roots of Sissy & The Blisters feel a lot deeper - taking in everything from Thee Headcoatees to The Standells. Fans of garage rock take note” - Independent

“The sound of scurrilously reinvented garage pop falling time in a massive egg timer” - Steve Lamacq, 6Music

“A riot of doom-laden garage rock” - Sunday Times Culture

Following several low run self-releases, this is Swiss group Bliscappen Van Maria’s debut album proper, comprising of two side-long pieces merging all from frazzled electronic swirl, drones, ethereal hums, guitars, percussion, banjo and the overall hue of the imaginary psychedelic western movie soundtrack these improvisations actually had in mind from their outset.

Lavishly packaged in reversed card sleeve and limited to 500 only, this comes highly recommended to those who enjoyed the Zsolt Sores Ahad 2CD on Fourth Dimension/AudioTONG or for all lovers of interstellar minimalism and the likes of Circle, early Pink Floyd, Ash Ra Tempel, Taj Mahal Travellers et al. A blissful debut by this group with roots in a number of others to have emanated from Switzerland’s ‘90s post-hardcore punk/noise/post-rock scene (Equus, Montevideo, Forceed, Knut, etc.)

This expanded release of Biffy Clyro’s ‘The Vertigo Of Bliss’ has been re-mastered over three sides of vinyl for improved sound quality. The fourth side contains six non-album B-sides.

Available on coloured double vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

“Based on the evidence of ‘The Vertigo Of Bliss’, Ayrshire's Biffy Clyro have matured massively since their debut album, ‘Blackened Sky’. While retaining a highly refined melodic sensibility that manifests itself mostly in their effortless vocal harmonies, they've added a metallic heaviness to their sound, and bravely given themselves full range to experiment.”

“‘The Vertigo Of Bliss’ is never predictable, hardly even stable. Most of the tracks here are in constant flux. Pastoral acoustic guitars, fuzzed bass and sweet strings slip in and out of the mix, leading on to the next folksy interlude, wild jazz break or punky firestorm. One example of this is ‘With Aplomb’, where a pretty acoustic riff is gradually submerged in lush strings and vocal harmonies, before the band engage in a series of brief solos rising to a kind of Elizabethan rock climax recalling Ritchie Blackmore. Elsewhere ‘Diary Of Always’ is a bizarre ballad driven by a Laurie Anderson-style vocal pulse, while ‘Now The Action Is On Fire!’ mixes turbulent guitars and staccato strings, like a cross between John Cale and Ozzy Osbourne” - Dominic Wills