Stay The Course break out their retro pop punk guitars and rock it like the eighties were only yesterday. “Pocket Sand” is the name of their song and it might well make you want to get your skateboard out of the garage.
“Medusa” is a super smooth song that consumes both synthwave and city pop styles and turns them into a sugary confection. Add in delicate female vocals and Milk Talk make the urban jungle sound like the place to be.
Old school soul with funk on the side from an Indonesian band? Indeed it is and “I’d Be Lost” by Thee Marloes sounds like a song that has just dropped out of a time machine from the seventies with singer Natassya Siantur making you believe in love again.
“Bloodbath” is a solid example of the modern day rock song with big guitars and confident vocals leading Wild Oceans along a path towards the stadium rather than the theatre. This band should do good business in the festival season.
If you are going to title your song “Cool” then it had better be a cool one. Hungarian electronic pop act Swim Swim Naked do their retro loop thing stylishly with sweet female vocals adding the sugar and spice. Cool indeed.
Bee Bee Sea would seem to be an Italian psych-garage band. I can’t say that I have heard of them before but “Keep It Cool” is a lively song that gets more than a bit theatrical over it two minutes and change running time. Highly enjoyable.
“Boys Club” certainly sounds like an anthem with some downright robust vocals from Jules and the Howl being paired with all the muscular guitars a song might need to pass the rock finishing line. As a bonus, there’s even lyrics with a point.
Quinn Bailey seems to be well versed in the art of wistful introspection as a musical form and her song “A Meadow In The Rain” proves to be rather endearing in a woozy and misty way. Long may she walk in the rain.
Getting her pop sensibilities from the urban r&b sounds of the nineties does Anya Vincent no harm at all and “Catfight” successfully mixes the attitude of today with the vibe of yesteryear before heading off into the night.
There must have been a lot of post punk bands in Glasgow back in the day. Restricted Code were one of those bands and “Book of Angels” proves that they can make the present sound just like the past and still fresh even after all these years.
Almost post punk in intent yet imbued with rather more in the way of style, Deleo demonstrate that they can make a song work as more than mere entertainment. “Assholes and Ashes” has all the attitude it needs to prove that.
Delicate female vocals lead “We All Deserve to Be Beautiful” over a landscape of loops and laconic lyrics which, most likely, have more meaning than purpose. The art is strong in Arc Iris so the cool kids will like this one a lot.
Facebook Twitter Album and single reviews RSS feed