Fri 4 Dec – ATP Nightmare Before Christmas curated by My Bloody Valentine

As we drove the car through the Butlins’ gates we got that familiar tingle of anticipation, here we were again, and then we saw the queue to check in… and then we saw the other queue, the one for the My Bloody Valentine wristbands, the one that stretched back and back and back in to the distance in the dripping rain and realised that, just for once, ATP had got something rather wrong. Surely there must have been a better way to dole out these wristbands, especially…

I love albums like this, the ones that arrive unheralded and unknown but turn out to be gobsmacking. Yet another product of Leeds’ overactive music scene, Itch are eminently well named, making what is ostensibly raucous indie music but with something of an unsettling edge, just slightly twitchy, off kilter and well, Itchy. Not the most prolific of folk though these guys, ‘Illusions Of Grandeur From A One Trick Pony’ is their second album, coming something like ten years after their debut! Read More…

Hailing from Bristol, but eschewing the traditional ‘Bristol Sound’ in favour of a power rock / grunge kind of thing, come The Chemists. A muscular five piece not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, these guys write massive rock songs built to fill stadia, even though they are still playing small clubs, but on this evidence I suspect they won’t be for long. Read More…

Like many Rammstein fans, I have been waiting in anticipation for this album for a while now. Hopes were high but the sensation has been tempered with the knowledge that we might end up with something akin to ‘Rosenrot’ which never really satisfied. Read More…

Ten down, two to go. Unbelievably we are already down to the damp, scraggy end of 2009 and it’ll soon be time to start compiling those end of year lists and thinking about who we are going to put the kiss of death on for next year, meanwhile here’s some of what October had to offer. Read More…

Links:
Rachel Grimes
Shelley Short
White Belt Yellow Tag
Sound Of Guns
The Chemists
Eaststrikewest
Gaunt Story

Two bands with similar outlooks and inhabiting similar musical territory both serve up new albums this month but achieve quite different results. Read More…

Links:
Pelican
Russian Circles

Blitzkrieg bop out of Belgium, yes you read that correctly, Belgium. Following in the blistering footsteps of dEUS and…er….um…well, you know… dEUS, come The Hickey Underworld. Read More…

The Poison Arrows have been around in one form another since the middle of the last decade but only in the last few years has the line up solidified in to the threesome we see today and ‘First Class, And Forever’ is their debut offering. Driven by the menacing bass of former Don Cabellero member Patrick Morris, ably supported by the sullen vocals of main man Justin Sinkovich and tight drumming of Adam Reach, The Poison Arrows offer up 10 tracks of what could really be post rock if it wasn’t for the singing. Read More…

I don’t think we’ve ever featured any music of Portuguese origin on E&D before but if this is representative of what it’s like then we’re going to have to find a whole lot more because ‘Lylac’ by Bruno Miguel’s :papercutz project is one of the most extraordinary albums I have heard all year. Read More…

Japanese Voyeurs come spiting and cursing out of London’s underground with this raucous three track EP debut. Taking their cues from grunge, swamp blues and punk they create a sound that’s something in the way of Nirvana if they had been fronted by and eleven year old girl. Read More…