Category Archives: Industrial

Round Up Time Again – Part 2

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Round Up Time Again - Part 2

Following on from our Round Up Part 1 post yesterday, comes 16 more tracks from the in-box, our favourite blogs and the web in general for your aural delight.

Kicking us off are Summer Hours and their single Close and Closer from forthcoming album Closer Still. Although they may initially sound simple, closer listening reveals complex song structures with intricate bass and guitar melodies.

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Cobalt Cranes blend elements of desert, psychedelic and shoegaze sounds, taking a modern approach to classic California rock. Their debut LP Head In The Clouds (out April 9 via their own Anticc Records) is heavily influenced by hard rock album narratives of the early 1970s and versatile shoegaze rock of the early 90s, as well as modern sounds. The band is offering up a free download of the title track.

Download Cobalt Cranes – Head In The Clouds mp3 (from Head In The Clouds)

After spending time as a musician in both Nashville and New York, Kait Lawson returned to her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee to record her debut album, Until We Drown. Her uncompromising songwriting takes a wry, yet deeply personal look at broken homes and fractured relationships in songs that are haunted by Guthrie and Kerouac, regretful cigarettes, midtown Memphis, squandered youth, temporal angels, perfume from the graveyard, goodbyes and the lies of Judas. Download the wonderful Place In The Ground.

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Seattle’s Pickwick released a three song covers EP this week. The first track is the Richard Swift penned Lady Luck featuring collaboration with Sharon Van Etten and is available for free now on the band’s website. The EP also features covers of Damien Jurado and The Primitives.

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Pere Ubu return with their first new studio album for over three years this month, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the group’s debut (The Modern Dance). Lady From Shanghai will be released on Fire Records and has been picking up some top-notch reviews. This is a disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock, “found” sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, musicians and fans for decades. Click through for a free download of the brutal and bruising 414 Seconds and of another album track Free White.

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January also sees Fire Records reissuing two spectacularly beautiful albums; Eyes Rind As If Beggars by cult NZ noise pop band The Garbage and The Flowers and the beautiful and bewitching SOS JFK from Josephine Foster’s first band The Children’s Hour. Here’s a track each from those records for you to enjoy…just click through to download for free.

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The Lovely Bad Things are a garage-punk four piece who will release The Late Great Whatever on February 26 via Volcom Entertainment (cassette on Burger Records). Taster track Fried Eggs is a gem of a taster.

Download The Lovely Bad Things – Fried Eggs mp3 (from The Late Great Whatever)

We posted recently about the stunning track Honey by Torres and her minimal, ragged and raw self-titled debut is released next week. This is Mother Earth, Father God.

Download Torres – Mother Earth, Father God mp3 (from Torres)

At just 24 years old, Keaton Henson’s songs, artwork and poetry are known by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Yet he is a virtual stranger, whose anonymity is no accident. Keaton has never posted on social networks, has not played live until very recently, and barely leaves his hometown or his bedroom. Lying To You is the superb second single from his forthcoming album Birthdays which can be pre-ordered from here.

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Rice Cultivation Society are an indie rock band based out of Long Island, NY who cherish the DIY work ethic. Self-produced, Sky Burial is not your typical DIY record. Influenced in part by Tibetan philosophy, it’s often a meditative record, clean and spacious with soaring guitar riffs – check out first single Honey Hide and another free track King Midas.

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Thick Shakes non-stop garage punk has featured on MM before. This is I Said So, a free download of their latest high octane single.

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We have another track from psych-pop masters The Ruby Suns new album Christopher. This is In Real Life.

Download The Ruby Suns – In Real Life mp3 (from Christopher)

Finally, for today, we have a track from Alison May’s raw folk tapestry Earnest Keep, which sees a release next week. This is A Good Stone.

Download Alison May – A Good Stone mp3 (from Earnest Keep)

Part 3 tomorrow…

The Blog Sound Of 2013: Long List Announced

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Blog Sound of 2013: Long List Announced.

Shortlist and winner announced 3rd January 2013

The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011. The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up with its own list of emerging artists that was more representative of their community and give the artists that were nominated some extra publicity. Indeed the idea was to compliment the BBC list in many ways by providing an alternative to compare and contrast.

Last year’s final long list provided some interesting alternatives to the BBC list; most notably it included Alt-J, this year’s Mercury Prize winners, who didn’t feature on the BBC list at all.

The Blog Sound of 2013 poll has expanded with 49 UK blogs (including Mad Mackerel for the first time) nominating their 5 favourite emerging artists. Just over 170 acts received at least 1 vote. The winning act received votes from around 25% of all bloggers.

The long list represents the very best of new music and draws from major label, indie label and completely unsigned acts. The likes of Haim may be featuring on a lot of new music tip lists at the moment, but the Blog Sound poll also highlights lesser known bands such as Curxes and Randolph’s Leap, bands that do not have big PR representation, and this is what makes the Blog Sound list fascinating and exciting.

The poll was organised by Robin Seamer (Breaking More Waves) and Andy Von Pip (The Von Pip Express).

Each blog was allowed to vote for five acts and the diversity of the nominations was staggering. Based on the evidence of the spread of votes anyone that says that music bloggers are sheep and are all writing about the same artists has got it wrong. However, the results of the poll show that certain artists do have a lot of support and love from a significant portion of UK bloggers and those artists make up the Blog Sound of 2013 list, says Robin.

Listen to the Full List of Nominated Artists For The Blog Sound Of 2013 

AlunaGeorge - Infectious R&B influenced pop from London

Curxes  - Dark industrial-pop electronic duo from Brighton and Portsmouth

Chvrches – Scottish electro pop trio formed from a variety of other bands

Daughter – Minimal / ambient sounding folk

Haim – Classic rock from LA with pop sensibilities

Laura Mvula – Jazz / soul singer hailing from Birmingham

MØ – Hip soulful female vocal electronic pop from Denmark

Palma Violets – Raw and energetic indie rock band

Pins – Edgily cool and raucous all female indie band from Manchester

Randolph’s Leap – Glasgow based indie folk pop with a twist of brass

Rhye – Smooth and blissful pop duo

Savages – Intense post-punk with female vocals

Seasfire – Modern rock band from Bristol who mix electronic beats with guitars

The Neighbourhood – Atmospheric Californian 5 piece rock / pop band

Tom Odell – Piano based singer songwriter originally from Chichester

While we won’t reveal who we voted for, we are pleased to say that Savages, Haim, Palma Violets and Pins have all featured on MM in the past…

The 49 blogs who voted in the poll are: 

A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Details Of My Life So Far, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, Folly Of Youth, Flying With Anna, God Is In The TV, Harder Blogger Faster, Howl, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Kowalskiy,  Love Music : Love Life,  Mudkiss, Music Broke My Bones, Music Fans Mic, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Bands Better Than Your Band, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Real Horrorshow, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory,  Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too, Storm’s Brewing, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Electricity Club, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Music Hoarder, The Recommender, This Must Be Pop, Von Pip Musical Express, 17 Seconds

Remembering: Whorl

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Remembering: Whorl.

Here is a blast from the past that Slumberland have thrown up on their Soundcloud.

Whorl started in 1987 as Big Jesus Trash Can, driven by a love for The Birthday Party, early Sonic Youth and the Jesus & Mary Chain to pick up guitars and make a noise of their own.

The result was this chunk of minimal nastiness, Mind Revolution. Having no studio experience they didn’t really know that they could overdub guitars so the sound is lean and spare. Pummelling and single-minded, this single neatly encapsulates one side of the early Slumberland sound. Our other track Maybe Its Better, shows their evolution into perhaps their catchiest strum…

The band called it quits in 1991, with members moving on to Nord Express, The Saturday People and a slew of other bands.

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Wednesday Means Seven Of The Best: Do Believe The Hype?

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Seven of the Best: Do Believe The Hype?

Here are a few streams of some of the latest singles and tracks to be creating a buzz round these parts. Worth the hype or not…you decide!

This is Anthem from King Tuff’s self titled album – full-on glam rock revival anyone? Order the record and/or grab yourself a free download of Bad Thing from SubPop here.

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This is Husbands by Savages, part of a double A-side single release (along with Flying To Berlin) and from the very first ominous percussion and insistent guitar line you know you are in for a treat. We’re really enjoying this viciously nihilistic tune.

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Another all-female band very coolly and confidently mining a rich seam of punked-up garage rock are Pins. This is Shoot You taken from their debut cassette which is now available again after a second run.

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Spector have released a new single, Celestine is another catchy indie anthem to follow in the footsteps of Chevy Thunder and Never Fade Away.

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Electric Chair by lo-fi slacker Bleached has been around for a while, but is the epitome of subterranean garage punk, all calculated swagger and sneer. This song could almost own its own scuffed leather biker jacket…

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Prissy Clerks have a sound that is a bit sweeter, with guitars that jangle more than buzz, and a mellower vocal that gives their track No Sir a 90s indie vibe, but delve beneath the surface and the sound is suffused with reverb and a hitherto unseen heaviness that contrasts perfectly with the poppier upside.

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The Dune Rats new single is titled Fuck It, thus guaranteeing them absolutely no radio airplay whatsoever. It sees an official release in July and is every bit as brattish, scuzzy and insolent as you could possibly have hoped for.

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Lastly another all-girl group Haim, have built themselves quite a reputation and this track Better Off, from their new EP shows why. In fact you can download the whole EP for free from their website here.

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Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (24th February)

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Mrs Mackerel's TFI Friday (24th February).

This week, in sunny Charlbury, smallest sprat took a tumble down the rather steep Victorian stairs. Running to his rescue, I had, at that precise moment, chosen to gargle with some mouthwash. Cheeks bulging, I picked him up, caught the (cobwebbed) ironing board in danger of falling on him, then sprinted upstairs to expel said mouthwash. Sadly, I did this in such haste and with such force that it shot into the basin and promptly bounced back and hit me in the eye. Clutching my weeping eye, I descended the stairs to comfort sobbing Joe, trying not to sob myself.

Some little time later, I’m sat (with reddening eye) in the local hostelry waiting for Big Sair. It was empty. I’d booked a table. No-one else had booked a table. Big Sair came in went to the bar asked for a table booked under my surname (Mackerel, of course), they sent her away. I had of course booked it in my first name (Mrs).

Big Sair leaves local hostelry thinking Mrs M is absent/late/fallen in the river. Cue lots of door swinging, which is all I can hear from my lonely table tucked away in the corner for sad cows. Meanwhile, Big Sair goes to another pub, my home, back to the pub I’m in… Farce? Blimey in a town with a population of less than 4,000, I was lucky to ever see her again.

Cheers!

Mrs Mackerel

Long ago, in a far away land called Oxford, I first met MM. I used to go to sleep very late to this album by (the perhaps appropriately named) Therapy? I don’t think MM or my flatmate found it particularly restful, but at least MM found it quite endearing. For a while.

And it only seems fair that after her great endeavours to find me that I dedicate a song to Big Sair this week. As It Stops Raining is by Georgia’s Horse, at the opposite end of the musical spectrum to its predecessor. Perhaps if we’d contacted Georgia and used her nag, we might have found each other slightly more quickly. It’s just a thought.

Download Therapy? – Teethgrinder mp3 (from Nurse)

Download Georgia’s Horse – As It Stops Raining mp3 (from The Mammoth Sessions)

Crushed Beaks / Torches Split Single

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Crushed Beaks / Torches Split Single.

London bands Crushed Beaks and Torches have announced the release of a split download single featuring cover versions of each others songs. Torches’ version of Crushed Beaks’ Close-Ups is the first to be released, with Crushed Beaks’ version of Torches’ VTOO appearing online very soon.

However, appearing first with their lurching cover, Torches reweld the original’s upbeat urgency into something far more dark, brooding and synonymous with their own sound. Echoed accapellas prove to be the calm before an industrial storm of wrenched guitars, pounding drums and mesmerising drones of synthesisers twist the song’s once upbeat atmosphere into a wonderfully terrifying frenzy.

Download Torches – Close-Ups mp3 (from Crushed Beaks / Torches Split Single)

Mad Mackerel’s Albums Of The Year: Part 1 (50-31)

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So, as the New Year approaches, here are our favourite albums of 2011 for your consideration. Feel free to dispute, argue, or otherwise put us right because, if nothing else, music is as about as subjective topic as it is possible to get. Some of these may not be the “best” albums of the year as far as the critics are concerned, but that matters not, as they were the ones we enjoyed listening to most – give them a try, you might feel the same.

50 Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me

Download Jessica Lea Mayfield – Our Hearts Are Wrong mp3 (from Tell Me)

49 Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread

Download Ty Segall - You Make The Sun Fry mp3 (from Goodbye Bread)

48 Wire – Red Barked Trees

Download Wire – Two Minutes mp3 (from Red Barked Trees)

New Album From Blessed Feathers.

47 Blessed Feathers - From the Mouths of the Middle Class

Download Blessed Feathers – Stinging Nettle, Honeysuckle mp3 (from From The Mouths Of The Middle Class)

Download Blessed Feathers – By Song Through The Americas mp3 (from From The Mouths Of The Middle Class)

46 The Men – Leave Home

Download The Men – Bataille mp3 (from Leave Home)

45 Lanterns On The Lake – Gracious Tide, Take Me Home

Download Lanterns On The Lake – You’re Almost There mp3 (from Gracious Tide, Take Me Home)

New Album From The Pack A.D.

44 The Pack A.D. – Unpersons

Download The Pack A.D. – Sirens mp3 (from Unpersons)

43 The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh

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42 Other Lives – Tamer Animals

Download Other Lives – For 12 mp3 (from Tamer Animals)

41 Country Mice – Twister

Download Country Mice – Morning Son mp3 (from Twister)

Mad Mackerel Recommends...Siskiyou.

40 Siskiyou – Keep Away The Dead

Download Siskiyou – Twigs And Stones mp3 (from Keep Away The Dead)

39 The Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

Download The Smith Westerns – All Die Young mp3 (from Dye It Blonde)

38 Jolie Holland – Pint Of Blood

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37 Lydia Lunch & Big Sexy Noise – Trust The Witch

Download Lydia Lunch & The Big Sexy Noise – Where You Gonna Run mp3 (from Trust The Witch)

New Album From Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks.

36 Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks – Heartsick

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35 Wye Oak – Civilian

Download Wye Oak – Civilian mp3 (from Civilian)

34 Jeff The Brotherhood – We Are The Champions

Download Jeff The Brotherhood – Mellow Out mp3 (from We Are The Champions)

33 William Elliott Whitmore – Field Songs

Download William Elliott Whitmore – Bury Your Burdens In The Ground mp3 (from Field Songs)

32 Natural Child – 1971

Download Natural Child – Hard Workin Man mp3 (from 1971)

31 LONG – American Primitive

Download LONG – Shoot Your Dog mp3 (from American Primitive)

Free Halloween Mix 2011

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Free Halloween Mix 2011. While we’re not great ones for themed mixes on MM, Halloween is one of the exceptions we like to make. Here is a perfect mix for whatever ghoulish event you’ve got lined up today! Fifteen corking tunes, from the skewed new wave pop of XTC and off-kilter indie of the Mountain Goats to the trashy surf rock of The Cramps and from the folk-stomp of the Men They Couldn’t Hang and the gothic drive of Ghost Dance to the pounding blues rock of the Scissormen and 22-20s. Enjoy.

Download Ministry – Every Day Is Halloween mp3

Download Ghost Dance – The Grip Of Love mp3

Download Green On Red – Zombie For Love mp3

Download The Roadside Graves – Demons (Aquarium Drunkard Encore Session) mp3

Download The Scissormen – The Devil Is Laughing mp3

Download The 22-20s – Devil In Me mp3

Download Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks – Macabre Holy Pleasure mp3

Download Ghoultown – Killer In Texas mp3

Download The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Ghosts Of Cable Street mp3

Download The Seeds – Evil Hoodoo mp3

Download The Cramps – I Was A Teenage Werewolf mp3

Download The Bodeans – Pretty Ghost mp3

Download The Mountain Goats – Damn These Vampires mp3

Download The Skeleton Dead – Lock The Doors mp3

Download XTC – The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead mp3

And don’t forget our 2010 Halloween mix either – still available here.

Return Of Artery

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Return Of Artery. It is a day of comebacks. Following on from our earlier post on the return of Rocket From The Tombs comes Artery who earlier this month released Civilisation, their first album since the cult 1984 record The Second Coming.

Originally formed in the industrial wastelands of Sheffield in 1978, they released three studio albums and several singles / EPs. Championed by John Peel, they recorded two sessions for the show and featured in the 1982 ‘Festive 50′ at number 9 with the classic Into The Garden. The band eventually broke up in 1985, posthumously releasing a live album of their final gig in Amsterdam.

So in the back drop of a recession, rioting and the World seemingly turning itself inside out, Artery thrust themselves back into the fray with an album littered with modern dystopian commentary and it’s reflected no more in the lead track Civilisation; with its Industrial post punk crash of bass and drums and searing guitar lines Mark Gouldthorpe spits out:

“To the killers and the thieves take a good long look inside to the rapist and the thieves take a good long look deep down and to the little politician with the voice like a broken chain“

Watch the video and download another apocalyptic track in the form of Standing Still.

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Buy the album from Cargo Records here.

Download Artery – Standing Still mp3 (from Civilisation)

New EP From The Soft Moon

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New From The Soft Moon. We have posted a couple of times previously about the pulsing, krautrock inspired post-punk of The Soft Moon and were big fans of their debut album released towards the end of last year.

So it is good to see they are back with a new EP titled Total Decay, which, appropriately enough gets a release on Halloween via the always excellent Captured Tracks label.

Take a listen to the ominous, swirling title track – as the name suggests, it is perhaps even bleaker and nihilistic than previous efforts…

Download The Soft Moon – Total Decay mp3 (from Total Decay EP)

And in case you missed them previously:

Download The Soft Moon – Tiny Spiders mp3

Download Soft Moon – Parallels mp3 (from Parallels / Bones 7″)

Download Soft Moon – Breathe The Fire mp3 (from Breathe The Fire / Phantoms 7″)