Meatraffle: Base & Superstructure album
Meatraffle's third album Base & Superstructure is in the shops now. Released on black and limited edition (500) red vinyl as well as CD and download, the album shows the band's sound evolving with a mixture of live instruments and electronic backing, catchy tunes you could sing in your Power Shower and lyrics reflecting the results of politics on our daily lives told with a world-weary stoicism and humour. Steve Lamacq has to date played tracks six times on BBC 6 Music and single Industrial Lovesong Complex was judged second best single of the week on his Roundtable show, beating the Stones and prompting Rick Astley to say it was "like Bowie in another universe". Street pop for modern lovers. Available in all good record shops.
"they tickle all my dopamine receptors with their scuzzy, sardonic charm" LOUDER THAN WAR
"It’s funny as fuck, but deadly serious. Dub basslines, wonky dance grooves and triumphant brass combine to fantastic effect.... Revolutionary socialism never sounded so appealing 5/5" NARC MAGAZINE
" a pop-tastic delight, seasoned liberally with Zsa Zsa Sapien’s sweet trumpet lines and world weary musings. They, and all the other names the album calls to mind (Pulp, New Order, Happy Mondays, Human League, The Fall, Altered Images, Ian Dury, Sleaford Mods) belong to a long tradition of forward thinking working class pop" ECHOES AND DUST
"Biting satire from the searing to hilarious in this catchy, fun album of electro-pop with added trumpet. Packed with toe-tapping melodies and caustic, killer lines" SONG BAR
" Like many of the great British artists they channel (Ian Dury, PIL) the record is full of humour... A boot up the arse of the largely apolitical British music scene" MORNING STAR
"a mix of DIY pop and attitude, with moments of psychedelia and mariachi horns in the breaks which really make it come alive" ELECTRONIC SOUND MAGAZINE
Thomas Truax with Budgie: Dream Catching Songs LP
Thomas Truax is an American musician and inventor now based in Birmingham, England. Since 2000 he has travelled the world performing with his evolving band of self-made musicians including Mother Superior (a motorized drum machine made from bicycle parts), the Hornicator (a gramophone horn with strings and kazoo) and the Stringaling (made from a washing machine hose and other oddments). He also plays guitar and writes poetic songs which sound like the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch film. His supporters and collaborators have included Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, James Smith of Yard Act, Bob Log III, the Dresden Dolls, Terry Practchett and drummer Budgie (Slits/Banshees/etc).
"Dream Catching Song" is his tenth album (and second on Blang) and is a collaboration with the aforementioned Budgie. Out on vinyl here.
"Truax and Budgie's collaboration is a clear success" (Cult Following)
"If you're a fan of Nick Cave, Jim White or David Sylvian, this may be of interest to you...An album packed with outlandish ideas and offbeat idiosynchrasies." (Livewire)
"great art-infused and inventive rock'n'roll" (Something Else)
"post-punk surreal Americana...fantastic 9/10" (Sound And Vision)