The best song of the year so far goes to “Blamethrower” by Reuben. An astute mix of shouty rock and lucid vocals, a catchy chorus and riff just this side of immense mark this track as one to get. From their forthcoming second album, “Very Fast, Very Dangerous”, it is available as a download only single from various outlets (I recommend PlayLouder).
As well as joining Reuben on their UK tour this month, Caretaker released new EP “The Sign Of Four”. Featuring some of the tightest time transitions and vocal hooks in recent times, this is a band to be watching.
However, this month was mostly about yourcodenameis:milo. Already marked as one of the UKs best upcoming bands (having won the last Kerrang! Best British Newcomer award), they released a new single, the melodic “17”, and then their debut full length album, “Ignoto”, a week later. On the strength of the three singles (the latest joining previous stunners “Schteeve” and “Rapt. Dept.”), this was always going to be something special. The blistering live pace of songs like “I Am Connecting Flight” and “2-Stone” have made a faithful transition to CD, even if the dampening vocal filters mean that the songs lacks the impact that it could. Why Flood (the album’s producer) chose to apply such an effect is beyond me, since certain songs sound like poor imitations of the earlier demos. Still a great album.
After 10 years or so, The Delgados have split. It’s all amicable and Chemikal Underground will continue as a label run by the band. The reason for the split being that the bass player was leaving and the band felt they’d rather not continue without all of the original members.
EasyTree, the bittorrent tracker site for unreleased bootlegs, was shut down at the start of the month due to record industry pressure on their ISP. Shame though it is, Dime A Dozen“>has already appeared to fill the void.
In a shock move, the excellent Kerbdog have reformed. Unsure as to any official announcement on this, or what is going on with Cormac Battle’s other band, Wilt, but this news is certain. They are playing some dates in Ireland this month and next with the outstanding Fighting With Wire. Excellent news.
Other notable releases in April were Degrassi‘s “Tell Charles I’m On My Way” (looping guitar rock never sounded so good) and Dead Fly Buchowski‘s “Russian Doll”, to which I’m somewhat indifferent but the band continue to show some promise.