Single and EP Reviews

A welcome return from Birmingham based noisemongers, Vanitas, sees them stretch out as they release their take on ‘Sonic Frontiers,”I’m Here” (cover version)’. It’s not just a video feast, but also an audio one of mood changes, giving off a challenge to the listener, to try and take it all …

Wow! How has Treeman slipped past my radar in 2023? They’ve just released a very impressive debut single ‘Society’on all download/streaming sites,(with an accompanying music video), on the CAT Records Music Label, and plans for a full length album are already underway. It’s three thudding minutes of heavy industrial music …

Recorded back way in 2020 during lockdown, The Night Owl And The Lark EP from Elles Bailey will finally see the light of day on February 23rd 2024. It seems rather surreal reviewing this beautiful piece of work, whilst looking at torrential rain, but these five sunshine enducing songs save …

They’re back! So let’s give a big festive hug to Chasing The Fall, Crewe based power pop punkers, with their brand new single, the supreme ‘Lonely Nightmare’. The quirky quartet deliver a powerful message, making it not just a song, but a statement of intent to try and free yourself …

A most welcome return from Bristol based chanteuse Elles Bailey, sees her release ‘Lean On My Love’, second single taken from her, ‘The Night Owl And The Lark’ EP, due out on February 23rd, 2024. This single is a gospel drenched heartbreaker that still manages to raise a smile, such …

Born on July 18th, 1939, Dion proves that music does keep us young at heart, as this octogenarian releases ‘Soul Force’, second single taken from a forthcoming studio album ‘Girl Friends’ via Joe Bonamassa’s KTBA Records on March 28th, 2024. Releasing over forty studio albums in a long career, his …

London East Ends finest, Gypsy’s Kiss return with a new single ‘Gone For Good’, taken from their 74 album. It’s a power ballad with balls, as lead vocalist David Smith captures the desperation in the song, perfectly. Prominent bass runs bubble around potent powerchords. Choruses are full of woe, as …

Welcome back Robert Jon & The Wreck, currently on tour supporting Blackberry Smoke, release a brand new single ‘Help Yourself’ on Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records. Formed in Orange County, California, 2011, the song has a trademark straight from the heart lead vocal from Robert Jon Burrison, over laid back Southern …

Welcome back Scarborough, North Yorkshire based band This House We Built, and what a return as it takes some bravado, not to just attempt a song of this magnitude, but to put a twist on the John Farnham 1986 classic ‘You’re The Voice’, but to emerge with heads held high. …

Farnham based skate rockers, Kit Trigg have just released a very impressive four track EP, ‘Goin For Glory’, via Earache Digital Distribution. These tracks show great promise, point proven by the title track of the EP. An attention grabbing main riff drives this feelgood headbanger along, punctuated by shout em …

Welcome back Takeaway Thieves, who formed five years ago in Blackpool, recently releasing a new single ‘Sundance’, playing their biggest gig so far this weekend at Planet RockStock, Trecco Bay Holiday Park, Porthcawl, on Sunday, December 3rd which surely should have them singing, “Oh we do like to be beside …

Leaf Band UK, recommended to me by a friend, Julian Lloyd who saw the Stoke-On -Trent quartet recently at the Underground in Stoke, return with a recently released single, ‘Get Back On My Feet Again’. Pronouncing themselves as “A real rock band – No backing tracks allowed!”. Forming in 1992, …

My first hearing of The Rods was from their self titled album in 1980, followed up by Wild Dogs in 1982, two essential purchases of mine back then, but are the band still relevant almost forty five years later? Hell yeah they are, as they unleash a brand new single …

2024 looks like it’ll be off to a great start, as Joanne Shaw Taylor releases a new single, ‘Wild Love’, taken from a forthcoming studio, released by Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records. She states, “I love this track, I wanted it to be dark and sexy. I think with the boy’s …

Beginning in 2011, Orange County, California rockers Robert Jon & The Wreck flex their muscles for their latest single ‘Hold On’. They proclaim,” It’s a powerful, classic rock track that hits close to the heart for touring musicians like us, pondering how long we can hold on to this life …

Welcome back These Wicked Rivers, as they unleash ‘Force Of Nature’, brand new single taken from a forthcoming album of the same name on March 1st 2024, via Fat Earth Records, and judging by the potency of the single, the album will be a must buy! The Derbyshire based five …

Wounded Cross return from the wastelands to unleash their latest single ‘Monument Of Bones’ to tackle the subject of our environment and focusing on climate change, asking, “What will be left of our planet if we continue down the path we’re on?” It’s the first single taken from an upcoming …

Welcome back to the lonesome cowboy on the trail, Troy Redfern, with his latest single ‘Getaway’, not to be confused with Troy Tempest from 60’s TV programme Stingray, although he does whip up a storm for four fiery minutes of hurricane damaging ferocity. Beginning with a guitar tone so dirty …

Photo credit : Laura Schneider. Songs don’t really get more touching as this as Elles Bailey releases ‘Mumma & Me’, a brand new release from Elles’ brand – new EP, due for release in early Spring 2024. She croons sublimely over soothing keyboard nuances, wringing every last drop of emotion …

Welcome back Joanne Shaw Taylor with her brand new single ‘Black Magic’, second single taken from a forthcoming studio album to be released by Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records in 2024. Joanne proclaims, “I originally wrote the music for my album ‘Nobody’s Fool’, intending for it to be an instrumental called …