I've no idea as to whether this band have ever been a part of a cult or not but they certainly claim not to have been. Ex-Cult are a bunch of snub-nosed, phlegm-gurgling punks from Memphis producing some killer hardcore punk. I was first made aware of them with the release of their Cigarette Machine EP back last year. There's a lot more going for Ex-Cult than three cord punk riffs and they have all the same attitude and bile of their predecessors. The EP's title track makes me want to put my Doc Martens on and kick in the nearest bin or hipster bicycle before a bit of wooziness inducing head-banging and thick snot spitting. There's something sexy to the band too, something of biker chicks in leather jackets blowing big bubbles of bright pink gum, of ripped tights and hands with chipped nail polish. Ex-Cult have a psychedelic almost prog or kraut-rock feeling as they go for energetic bursts before moving into dangerous building riffs. Check out Cigarette Machine below:
Summer of Fear is much more in the energetic burst category. Clocking in at 02:13, it's a searing, eye bulging assault of intense drumming, hardcore vocals and wailing guitar. They've moved away from the more psychedelic side which was on Cigarette Machine which is a shame because that's what hooked me in at first. They offered something different, more instrumentation to the usual hardcore punk attitude that they carry by the bucketload. However, for my money they're producing some of the finest, most raw punk music going right now. They don't feel content with using the well-trodden path of punks before. There's something new and exciting and dangerous here and ultimately that's something to make me grin like a loon when I'm bobbing my head to them. Check out Summer of Fear below and the single's B-side, 1906:
Ex-Cult
Summer of Fear
Famous Class Records
7" Vinyl on limited red or normal black vinyl on: 12/08/2016 at Juno
What immediately drew me to this one is the same thing that drew me to the music of Professor Green. With Prof. Green I was ultimately disappointed but Professor Tim O'Brien is an actual professor, and a professor of Astrophysics at Manchester University at that. What's he doing releasing a 7" record? Well, in collaboration with producers Jim Spencer and Dave Tolan, who have worked with New Order among others, they've created Hello Moon, Can You Hear Me?, a driving piece of electronica all created of samples from the Jodrell Bank observatory and centre for astrophysics. The samples include sounds from Sputnik 1, swirling electrons, a black hole and a dying star among other things. In a nifty move, the B-side has the professor explaining where the different sounds are from and what they mean.
The music itself is a driving dance floor banger. It's got an '80s feel and is as if synths pioneer Giorgio Moroder wrote the soundtrack to a fast-paced space adventure. It is reminiscent of the relentless soundtrack to the 1998 German film, Run Lola Run and has a dystopian future feel to it. I'd love to see how this goes down on a dance floor, it's bound to be out of this world!
Sorry.
Listen to the song and read a bit about it from the Prof. himself at his personal blog, here.
Professor Tim O'Brien, Jim Spencer and Dave Tolan
Hello Moon, Can You Hear Me?
O Genesis
7" Moon Picture Disc (cool) out: 22/07/2016 at Rough Trade
Motorama are a Russian group and for my money, you don't hear enough from Russia. The country has actually got a pretty awesome history of psychedelic rock from the '70s with this tune from Yuri Morozov being a particularly sexy number with a bass line to jiggle ya bits along to. The '80s, as is so often the case in the so-called Eastern Block, was dubbed a Golden Age and Kino were pretty prolific. I annoy my girlfriend no end by nattering incessantly the choppy guitar line from this track. Other than that, Russian music for me boils down to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, which still has me scrambling for behind the sofa after being tormented by a sinister animation as a child. I can still see the scraggly wolf creeping through the twisted trees to those violins and the deep bass.
None of that here, however as Motorama create relaxing, slouch-inducing indie pop on their 7" single, Holy Day backed with Mirror. It's the kind of tune to soundtrack the end of a house party, crushed cans and fags all around, a bloke nobody knows asleep in the bath and the sun just melting through the curtains. It's just you and your proper mates by this point, collapsed on one another in a glorious, sweaty heap. Holy Day tingles along in lo-fi electronic fun and the vocals are indifferent, slurred, as if sleepy but still partying over the driving bass line. Grab ya mates, a bottle of something and let Motorama be the soundtrack to the 5:30am last dance.
Motorama
Holy Day/Mirror
Talitres
7" vinyl out: 8/07/2016 at Talitres
