The Bar Stool Preachers "Above the Static"
From Rough Trade:
Brighton punks The Bar Stool Preachers release their brand new album Above The Static via Pure Noise Records. The twelve songs that make up The Bar Stool Preachers’ stunning third full-length, Above The Static, were only supposed to be ideas, a guide to what the actual album would and could later become. So in April 2021, together with producer Ben Hannah, the Brighton-based band set up camp at The Waterloo, a three-story pub/venue in the Northern seaside town of Blackpool, to begin the process that would lead to the process of making an album. But when they listened to ‘Flatlined’, the first song they committed to tape there, it dawned on them that it actually sounded like the finished product.
Above The Static captures the moment which inspired it, as well as it capturing the complex, ever-evolving essence of the band that made it. Formed by McFaull and bassist Karl ‘Bungle’ Jeffery in 2014, these days The Bar Stool Preachers are completed by guitarists Tom Gibbs and Karl Smith, keyboardist Alex Hay, drummer Alex ‘Whibbs’ Whibley-Conway and most recently Ray Waters on guitars and many other instruments, all of whom are on a constant search to evolve, something equaled only by their desire to stay true to themselves. It’s that unique combination that’s at the heart of this record, one that sees the band riffing off their ska-punk roots, which also ensures they break the boundaries sonically of the punk genre. With this album, The Bar Stool Preachers want to both push through any preconceptions about the music they make, and ensure that what they do make doesn’t just fall on deaf ears.
Hayden Calnin "A Turning of the Tide: Side A"
A Certain Ratio "1982"
Looking backwards and forwards all at once, drawing on influences from across every spectrum, 1982 is an unpredictable record that will reward a dedicated listener dozens of times over.
Even by the band’s high standards – which includes a gleeful disregard for boundaries of style and genre, their eye fixed firmly on constant movement forwards – their latest studio album 1982 is multidimensional. Recorded by the core ACR line up of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, alongside Tony Quigley, Matthew Steele and Ellen Beth Abdi, it shoots off in every direction, whether via searing Afrobeat, mind-melting jazz breakdowns or moody electronic experiments.
And the album title? Although 1982 might conjure memories of the year that saw ACR put out both the acclaimed Sextet and the cult favourite I’d Like To See You Again, it’s more of a playful red herring than an invitation to nostalgia.
Samiam "Stowaway"
From Samiam:
Most of the songs on this record are about feeling dysfunctional, isolated, and lonely. Trying to find a way to connect to people and be happy. We’ve been a band for over 30 years. We almost never see each other. Two in NY, one in Florida, two in California. We live so far apart it’s hard to get everyone together to do anything. If we’re lucky someone will fly us all in to a city to play a show and we can get there a day early to rehearse the songs we want to play.