A Few Of This Month's Releases - June 2015

June has seen us hit heat waves, seen the ladies of English football get themselves to the semi-final and of course, full with music galore. So taking a look back at the month’s releases here’s a few that have proven popular and if you've missed them, here’s your chance. 

Fidlar '40oz on repeat' -


The LA skate/surf punks made a triumphant return with these guitar thrashing screamer of a track. With a cool music video ripping into the industries more famous faces and providing the comedy we expect from the Califorinia quartet. 

The release of these came with further excitement as they announced their Sophomore album, Too. With a confirmed release of September 4th courtesy of Wichita Recordings and if that wasn't enough they've confirmed a whole bunch of headlining dates in support so you can really get your grunge on, and if their self-titled debut is anything to go by we have more of the same with the promise of edgy songs with a hint pop and as always a slap in the face of humour, and we’re okay with that.


Label: Wichita Recordings 
Released: 2nd June 2015


Robert DeLong 'Don’t wait up' -




Washington based one man performer DeLong with a penchant for face painting is a pretty unusual artist, taking it upon himself to take anything from a Wii remote to a GameCube controller and a MIDI interface to create his own brand of Indietronica. 

Taking influence from Moombahton and EDM, the singer-songwriter plays keyboards, drums does the vocals and creates his own samples in what is a frenetic and exciting performance, now after releasing his debut album Global Concepts and a few other singles he drops what could be his most mainstream track to date. Don’t wait up is a pop filled track with a big beat and will have you singing a long in no time whether your driving, in the club or having to hoover the upstairs landing it’s sure to have you bouncing and jumping.

DeLong’s UK performances are few and far between but with a second album 'In The Cards' scheduled for September a string of UK dates this Autumn wouldn't go a miss. If you get the chance to see the American performer I recommend you don’t wait up.







Label: Glassnote Records
Released: 16th June 2015








Foals 'What Went Down' -



Oxford’s indie-rock Goliath's Foals have been busy over the last few months. Since the release of 2013’s Holy Fire, the boys have been touring and have received quite the accolades for their efforts.

2013 saw them voted best live act in Q and NME’s reader nominated poll and Holy Fire for “Best album of 2013” and their single 'My Number' getting “Best song of 2013”.

Foals told NME they were headed back to Oxford to write in the ‘stinkbox’. Now I'm not even going to try and find out what the hell that means, all I know is that the dark and brooding 'What Went Down' is a nod to their work on Holy Fire and a promise that they’re heading in the right direction. They’ve returned louder, stronger and all we need now is the tribe influenced ritualistic rhythms of Holy Fire and We have got ourselves a hot new album.





Label: Transgressive Records
Released: 17th June 2015







Album of the month -

Everything Everything 'Get to Heaven' -



Northumberland’s Art rockers received wide spread and critical acclaim with Arc, an album that brought with it a sense of dystopian predictions and the possibility of total destruction brought by the human races own pitfalls. With talks of fossil fuels, earthquakes and global warming we had an album with a message.

Now on to their third attempt, 'Get to Heaven' follows suit with similar themes and feelings. After taking time out from touring, frontman Jonathan Higgs started watching news on a loop and as he proclaimed to Mark Savage of the BBC, Higgs stated he had written “a horror bible” and as for themes Savage wrote “Ebola, missing air-planes, beheadings, the rise of UKIP”. 

It's seeming likely that Everything Everything’s album is Higgs’ vision of the years news and the ghastly predictions come in the form of his lyricism which as usual remains often enigmatic and at times weird (‘sunken monkey chin’ on Distant Past is a personal favourite) but aside from the concept, the proof is in the tracks. 

The album more or less features tracks which at times are not too dissimilar to their last effort, with all the hallmarks of previous material, which could come as a disappointment for audiences preferring some sort of progression to their sound, however there are tracks which stand out as testimony as to why Higgs and the alt-pop boys are as strong as before they stopped touring.

Singles 'Distant Past' and 'Regret' show their real strong suites with the first being a fresh and exciting track that allows Higgs to show of his vocal range and his lyric ingenuity and the latter being a homage to cultist ideas and having a video which is thought provoking and visually stimulating.

Arguably after these singles the album remains mostly filler using a similar formula to produce the same sort of tracks, doom and gloom and Higgs’ warbling voice. However this is a band playing to their strengths and going in their own direction and so a message from myself to the haters: what’s wrong with the same twanging guitar strings? Let Higgs ramble on about his prophecies for global decimation, it sure beats checking out that latest fail compilation on YouTube and will definitely get you thinking. This is an album that’ll persuade you to actually pick up a paper, see the bullshit and make you think about the world, this is an album with the ability to give the younger generation a push to be more aware culturally and economically. If the album doesn't provoke your thoughts, it is still sure as hell entertaining to listen too.




Top tracks: Distant Past, Regret, Warm Healer, Yuppie Supper
Verdict: Not all Doom and Gloom (7/10)

Label: Sony RCA
Released: 22nd June 2015





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