Laughter – Future
Why we love it: because this is your future. A dystopian, autocratic shell of humanity. The screams of the helpless, the monotone AI voice giving you your commands. The brief respite for a moment, the sun shines on your day for a flickering few seconds, then the despair returns.
The slow painful death of the human race never sounded so good. Laughter are purveyors of such tremendous noise and melody, played at earsplitting volumes, that you forget yourself for a few minutes and drift off in a woozy dream slash nightmare waking nirvana.
There’s some shoegaze, some psych, some hardcore, but ultimately if this was played on an acoustic guitar in a radio studio with just Mai and Louis it would still sound fantastic. The song is the thing and this one slaps like a hand on the rear of a pedigree stallion.
This is the first single of the year, following on from the Group Bonding EP from 2024 which is equally as ruddy bloody brilliant. There’s more to come. Keep your peakers peeled. (Jim Auton)
the black watch – Achilles Past
Why we love it: because this is sweet. The song’s accompanying video tells us as much. A brilliant assemblage of clips where Homer Simpson, Jimi Hendrix, Dr. Strangelove, Jules eating his Big Kahuna Burger in Pulp Fiction, the black watch, John Andrew Fredrick, plus a vintage cast of thousands are split by a hypnotic spiral swirl concludes with the word ‘SWEET’ in bold letters. But you don’t need a video to tell you how good this song is. Just one listen to ‘Achilles Past’ would have told you that anyway.
Englishman John Andrew Fredrick is the man who formed the black watch in Santa Barbara, California 37 years ago. The band have released nearly as many albums since then and the next one to roll off the black watch production line will be For All The World. Due out 20th June through Atom Records, the lead single from it is ‘Achilles Past.’
John Andrew Fredrick says: “It’s about, as the first line of the song hints, temptation and how sometimes, not always – we can’t avoid it, notwithstanding our best intentions!”
Give into temptation and put this song on repeat. It will be time well spent. (Simon Godley)
Blofeld Sands – Never Been Easy
Why we love it: because the weather is turning, we’re getting wall to wall sunny days, it’s warm, and hazy, dreamlike wistful pop is back on the agenda. It’s fine to listen to this kind of thing when it’s cold and wet and miserable, maybe it helps you, but it suits the warmer months so much better.
Whilst you were hypnotised by Laughter earlier, here you’re rocked gently, in a hammock, with a tall drink, maybe a cigarette, at dusk, purple sky, tequila sunset horizon.
The vocals are, very obviously purposefully, effected to the point of almost being synthetic, just avoiding AI, but in more of an otherworldly, sci-fi way. The guitars sound like synths, synths sound like guitars, and the bass, well the bass sounds like the bass, but that’s fine. The drums have that gated 80’s snare, with a touch less reverb, that hits you right in your childhood.
This is Blofeld Sands second single, out today, following on from their debut track ‘People’. More incoming. (Jim Auton)
S. G. Goodman – Fire Sign
Why we love it: because true to its word, ‘Fire Sign’ just smoulders and burns. The Kentucky-born songwriter S. G. Goodman will release Planting by the Signs – her first album since 2022’s Teeth Marks – on June 20, and ‘Fire Sign’ is the first single to be taken from it.
As S.G. Goodman explains, “After touring relentlessly for 2 years, ‘living like the sun don’t shine / on the same dog’s ass everyday,’ as the song puts it, I came off the road questioning my purpose and choices. People are quick to tell you that you are not working hard enough, but slow in telling you that you are working hard enough. That seems to be up to you, as well as your ‘why?’. Despite this burnout and other personal setbacks, I found the fire to keep pushing and to make what I believe is my best record yet. ‘Who’ll put the fire out?’ The only person who can put my fire out is myself.”
Give this a spin. And feel the heat. You won’t want to put out the flame. (Simon Godley)
THEATRE WORKERS AND TELEVISION UNION – Red Flag
Why we love it: THEATRE WORKERS AND TELEVISION UNION aka TWAT UNION‘s new single ‘Red Flag’, is a biting, punky, satirical take on their experiences in the modern dating scene, released 2nd April 2025 via new label home Alcopop! Records.
Rife with satire and irony that chews up dating nightmares, funny, spiky and vital, sea sawing with percussion, ominous almost hammer horror guitar riffing, bluestery horns and a knowing vocal that sticks its DMs down your lugholes, there are echoes of The Slits, Xray-Spex and for my money it has more lyrical heft than Lambrini girls.
A riot of a single that takes apart the bad men on the dating scene, the stupid things they say that throw up red flags and that they still keep dating. Commenting on the single, the London-based band said: “‘Red Flag’ is a song about all the dating nightmares we experience when, despite the warning signs, we just keep dating ’em anyway. We reckon there’s a bit of comedy in the contradiction there, so thought we’d write some music about it.”
“It was one of the first songs we worked on more collaboratively for the lyrics, playing the riff and going around the rehearsal room all saying different red flags we had encountered – some were ridiculous, some pretty dark, and we chucked in one from Winston Churchill just for good measure.”
The track is the latest to be taken from their debut EP Don’t Look It In The Eye which will be released this Friday 4th April 2025.
Part punk gig, part comedy show they recently-announced UK tour dates follow throughout spring 2025, with festival appearances at Bearded Theory and Rebellion Festival already confirmed for this summer. (Bill Cummings)
Bones Ate Afra – Don’t Leave Me Now
Why we love it: Brighton alt-rock trio Bones Ate Arfa share the hook-laden new single ‘Don’t Leave Me Now’.
Taken from the upcoming EP Just Bananas (April 22nd), the single fires off with frenetic percussion , quickfire riffing and it reminds one of the youthful and punky energy of the Damned and early Idlewild colliding with the gritty indie rock of Reuben. A power pop rocket rippling with heartbreak, it’s addictive and insatiable.
Speaking about the single, the band explains: “Don’t leave me now is a silly pop song about love. There’s not much more to it than that really. We recorded it with our mate Kevin Vanbergen who really brought the song to life in the studio. It sounds crazy and that’s exactly what we were after.” – Arfa (Arthur Wilson, bass and vocals)
“I didn’t even really like playing it live until we recorded it. I thought Arfa was losing his edge” – Bones (Sonny Whittington, guitar and vocals)
Made up of Bones (guitar), 8 (drums), and Arfa (vocals & bass), the trio have made a significant inroads on the UK’s southeastern gig circuit within a short period. (Bill Cummings)
Ello Sun – River
Why we love it: Ello Sun is the project of Elea May Bonnet of London band Japanese Television. Her intoxicating new single ‘River’ which features on Ello Sun’s debut ‘EP1’ set for release on the 2nd of May, envelops with richly drawn pallette of swirling analogue synths, sawing violins and May’s noirish vocals that unfurl into an evocative dive into the deep. The multi instrumentalist and composer channels influences of Stereolab, Delia Derbyshire, and Blonde Redhead into a skipping and sparkling chorus ripe with intrigue that disappears into the mysterious swirl of the water, it’s a real plunge and very promising.
Elea says, “‘River’ was the first song I wrote for this project. It unlocked my creativity and confidence. Growing up in the south of France, I always had that deep connection with the water. However, at the time I started Ello Sun, I was depleted of that joy…my river is grey today”.
Debuting in summer 2023, Ello Sun’s live band has played London’s Sebright Arms, Rough Trade East, Paper Dress Vintage, The Victoria, Marquis of Cornwallis, The Social, Two Palms, George Tavern, Brighton’s Hope & Ruin, and Cardiff’s Psyche & Noise Fest. The EP was recorded at Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera’s studio Gallery with producer Lucas Polo, and assistance from the charity Help Musicians. (Bill Cummings)
