Words: Karl Johnson | Photo: Press Lammping
Lammping
‘Desert On The Keel’
Getting caught up in the subtle, psych-scorched strut of ‘Desert On The Keel’ is a bit like stepping outside your house and feeling the heat of the first day of summer on your face. Hailing from Toronto, Canada and presenting the release of their new single, Lammping meld a heavy drum track and throbbing bass groove with spaced-out guitars and juddering synthesizers. The tight-knit Canadian quartet flourish in a mind-boggling world of melodic and floral psychedelia, bringing together sugar-sweet vocal melodies with a hard and relentless momentum which kicks beautifully at every turn.
The Strangerz
‘Shut Up!’
Wrapped around bending, hook-laden guitar lines and galloping drums that act as a rigid backbone to the track’s lyrical bite, ‘Shut Up!’ is a song of two parts. The verses hit with a clarity and vocal potency, discussing gender norms and attitudes and those that offer nothing but a roadblock to progress and discussion. The chorus is all out explosivity and works on pure impulse, vocals rage and screech against guitars that occupy the darker and heavier corners of alternative rock. The Strangerz formed at college in Doncaster over lunchtime pot noodles and seemingly a love of heavy-hitting punk and alternative rock fury – ‘Shut Up!’ stops you in your tracks and demands that you pay attention.
Band Spectra Feat. The Anchoress
‘Human Reciprocator’
Taking its cues from the 70’s krautrock scene that occupied minds and ears in West Germany, Band Spectra’s origins arrived from an obsession with drum machines and hardware synthesis following a recommendation from a neuropsychologist that it could help with memory difficulties, concentration, language and reasoning. Formed in collaboration with Welsh songwriter and producer The Anchoress, ‘Human Reciprocator’ is a non-stop charge of tangled, manipulated electronics and high-octane drum machines, the deeper you lean into the sound the more detail it offers. Caught up in a world of dreams and interpretations, the track has a night-time feel that soundtracks the complex workings of the hippocampus.
dampsquib
‘white socks’
Brighton outfit dampsquib – the project of multi-instrumentalist Matt Farrugia – ask us to drift into the realms of beat-crafted and heartfelt ambient electronica. On new single ‘white socks’, Farrugia’s vocal delivery takes centre stage, potent in its clarity of storytelling and soaring in its choruses. Bringing together the clattering sounds of industrial, heavy-hitting electronics in the chorus while leaving the verses to soothe and tug subtly on the heartstrings, ‘white socks’ pushes towards the anthemic while holding dear the creative ideas of experimental, lo-fi alternative pop.
bedbugz
‘golf jumper’
It doesn’t take long to get caught up in the brooding world that Canterbury, Kent duo bedbugz have created around their recent releases. Delicate and warm vocal melodies spark against rigid beats and heavy guitars tones like a tethered boat against slowly crashing waves. Fuelled by the overbearing nature of immersive shoegaze sounds, bedbugz’ lo-fi bedroom ideals are perfectly juxtaposed by the emotive storytelling that exists within its core. Happiest revelling in the darkness instrumentally, with nods to the soundscapes created by The Cure and Interpol, bedbugz submerges you in its ethereal textures before pulling you up for air.
hardofhearingmagazine.com 