Alan Dearling delves even deeper into the alternative cabinet of out-there music!
The Pink Diamond Revue – ‘At the Discotheque’
Frantic, staccato, unnerving. Tim Lane at his utmost psycho-fuzziness. This track sums up the freak-out, with machine gun rhythms, whirling synths all wrapped up in a flurry of pounding drum dance beats, courtesy of Rob Courtman-Stock.
‘Go Go Girl’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFazCv6GeIc
It’s invasive, in yerr-face from the get-go. Blasts of electro-funk often matched with a militaristic beat, as in the opener, ‘She is’ (a model!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuKJ3f5apM8
It’s all head-bobbing, head banging, apocalypse music. Welcome to the Disco Riot Squad. Lots of disembodied voices, full-on noise attacks, guitar assaults, repetitive raw fuzz and always ‘aCiD DoL’ keeps the disco beat chugging along, and on the track of that name, she is amidst an air raid warning, in readiness for a sonic invasion. As in live performance, ‘Elvis Presley’ is one of the stand out tracks. A real show-stopper. A musical epitaph to the rock gods, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Little Richard.
Other scribblings I made whilst attempting my review: “ ‘Way Out’ – she’s so far out there”, like an AI-generated ring-modulator that’s blown a fuse, but goes on beating its electronic heart… ‘At the Discotheque’ – it’s kind of D-E-V-O-ish, a mongoloid anthem… And ‘Lux’ takes you on a spaceship trip into the underworld, a deranged disco sound that warps and twists the anthemic theme: ‘You are listening to the Pink Diamond Revue’. Frighteningly deranged, yet strangely hypnotic! And at 16-tracks, great value for your dosh.”
Bones Shake – ‘Purge’
This vinyl musical odyssey is made to be played loud. Live, when I saw them earlier in the year, Bones Shake were a little more bluesy – but that may be how they are evolving, or, just allowing access into one side of their chameleon character. ‘Banshee’ opens the proceedings…breathless vocal overload, fuzz attack, the bite of the demented banshee. As they say of themselves: “A scuzzy, fuzz-enthused garage rock trio from Manchester.” David J Brennan fronts the band, behaving like a primordial Jim Morrison playing Rock-God. Or, even more worrying, there’s a little of Charlie Manson there too. On ‘One Kiss’, David intones: “You wanna be someone/You wanna be me!”
Live performance from Sour Grapes TV in 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VraVCG1ht3o
‘Pretty Little Things’ is a bit more restrained, a bit more ‘purged’. But still offering a heavy-weight pile-driver of drumming. ‘The Creeper’ continues the journey down the River Styx. ‘Let Go!’ is a riot of aggression, and David harnesses his inner Alice Cooper as an Old Rocker on the title track, ‘Purge’. It all ends in a bluesy swamp rocker in ‘Stench’. A band to watch out for. Plenty of un-restive development potential…
Pillarstone – ‘Mono Lit’
With emotive, soft-rock vocals, soaring guitar licks, this album is a good example of folksy Celtic rock – chock full of ‘60s vibes. I particularly liked ‘September Sun’, a lilting Irish love letter. There’s plenty going on throughout the album, which offers quite a diverse range of musical styles from the relative darkness in ‘The Fog of War’, pop commercialism in ‘What in this World’, a ballsy rock aria in ‘Hammer the Nail’, a touch of Springsteen in ‘All I Want’, and ending in an unusual musical landing zone of ‘Call for Mercy’, which offers an acoustic soundscape akin to the ambient worlds evinced by the likes of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Pillarstone appear to be something of a musical collective, led by Paul J Bolger and Alex Soikans.
‘What in this World’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUSdnzdshMw
Frank Zappa – ‘Ahoy, Eighties!: 1980 World Tour’
This is a ‘bootleg’ double CD remixed and mastered by the Godfather Records. It ranks up there as one of the most impressively recorded and performed live albums that I’ve ever heard. And, probably Frank would be full of hate-filled, snarling aggression at the audacity of the record company. The show had been broadcast of Dutch radio, but this is a “seamlessly edited stereo definitive version” of the concert. It’s Frank and his considerable musical friends at the top of their musical game. Ray White and Ike Willis on guitars and vocals, Tommy Mars on keys, bass from Arthur Barrow and Dave Logeman on dums. It thunders in with a guitar assault on ‘Chunga’s Revenge’, and there are a suite of new songs from what will become the ‘You Are What You Is’ album, plus plenty from ‘Joe’s Garage’ and ‘Sheik Yerbouti’.
On the second CD, ‘Bobby Brown’ is one of the standouts:
“Oh God, I am the American dream
But now I smell like Vaseline
And I’m a miserable son of a bitch
Am I a boy or a lady, I don’t know which?”
Another fab moment features Ray White’s inimitable vocals on ‘The Illinois Enema Bandit’. Wonderfully musically eloquent, definitely not-PC, and packed full with satire and obscenity! Worth searching out.
‘Bobby Brown’ live from the 1980s’ tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOqOpb1x_ak
The Only Objects – ‘An Excess of Hauntings’
An oddball offering. Its commencement seems like a M.R. James episode from a radio broadcast: “A warning of an excess of hauntings.” It starts in a Scottish library, “…a work from outside time itself…ghosts of his life…” Spoken words, melting into found sounds, clocks and a few bumps in the night, and music that offers a little nod to the days of Ian Curtis/Joy Division/Placebo/New Order, breathy vocals, and instances of free jazz, post-punk Kosmische and curious sonic signs…
A musical curiosity, a dream-pop melange… Literate, wordy…and a bit Floydian in terms of the production. There’s something of Rick Wakeman’s ‘Journey to Centre of the Earth’ and Jeff Wayne’s ‘War of the Worlds’ – it’s a big production, theatrical. One expects Vincent Price to suddenly appear! Or, Peter Cushing on the Summerisle of ‘Wicker Man’.
From the advance PR and images, I expected a little more Wiccan on this album from this band based in Adelaide, South Australia, but it’s all quite enchanting, a tad unsettling at times, and the book that accompanies the CD, is a real art-work and full of hauntology, autoethnographic stone tapes, and even a guide for travelling through time. Dr. Patrick Lang leads the Only Objects and says of ‘An Excess of Hauntings’: “(it leads towards) lost futures, cultural memory and the things that remain when something else has disappeared.”
Actually, it all pounds along with swirling synths, drum clashes and a bombastic, almost militaristic beat that conjures up images of the machines that arrived on Earth in H. G. Wells’ epic War. I have previously reviewed quite a few albums from Steve Kilbey and The Church, especially the science fiction tales in ‘The Hypnogogue’. This album nestles alongside that tranche of epic-music-story-telling, Space Rock genre. If this were early 1960s, I think it might get a ‘Prog-Rock’ label.
Patrick’s video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ugQEXcFIObc
The Crotches – ‘Fuck The Crotches’
I was sent this little vinyl, ticking punk time-bomb by post from the USA, but hey, they actually hail from the Levant.
‘No Respect’ single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO3-WmKn2Eo
‘Tis a good intro to their sneering, snarky, punk, rock ‘n’ roll with attitude, with an almost ‘50s feel, and a little of Dr Feelgood and Iggy and The Stooges about them. They know how to ‘nasty’ as Frank Zappa would say, and it really doesn’t take too many prisoners!
The recording creates layers of phasing, bombast, fuzz, lots of retro, almost-footbally hooligan howls of indignation. ‘Procrastination’ provides plenty of opportunities for guitar histrionics, then comes a sort of of novelty track, a punk ‘Monster Mash’ mixed up with ‘Speedy Gonzales’, on ‘Moto Bicicleta’. In fact, lots of the album tracks, take glances back into the sounds of the ‘60s from the likes of the early Kinks (in the days of ‘All the Day and All of the Night), Pretty Things and even Gene Pitney vocals on ‘See you soon in Sin City’.
Vinyl Side 2 made me smile: “You will love me the same, cause I’m strange…until we go insane.” By the end of the album, I think I had begun to understand The Crotches. All very tongue-firmly-in-cheek retro pastiche. A good musical belly-laugh, methinks.
Amass/Cress – ‘What is the government frightened of?’
Ranty, fast, furious – the album is a double-header from the two bands involved. The vinyl with its fold-out art work, the cover itself, and the additional bits and bobs is a genuine labour of musical love – a Real Punk Art-e-fact!!! Having been involved for many years with festivals and Travellers around the festi scenes, it really is something of a piece of memorabilia and celebration of that lifestyle. The title track from Amass even features the words and voice from ITN news presenter, Kim Sabido which was used over the footage of what became known as the Battle of the Beanfield. Equally, Cress take up the political cudgel with their track, ‘You can’t park there’. Having seen these Anarcho-DiY bands perform live on a number of occasions, it is great to be able to listen to the words of their songs, and the good musicianship, which is often submerged in the morass of hard-core, heavy grunge sound of their onstage musical onslaughts. Andy and Marnie Burden from Amass also guest on the Cress side of the record. Hard core gems of the North-East of England.
Amass Sweary & Live at The Bunker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icLy-_hbA-M
Massive Attack/Tom Waits – Boots on the Ground/The Fly
Not available on Spotify, but here is the full video organised by Massive Attack for this new collaborative track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-57FrioeuE
Mister Waits is perfect for the curator of these words in the song, ‘Boots on the Ground’. It’s darkly heavy and hypnotic. It’s reminiscent of an old prison chain-gang chant. Here’s how Massive Attack describe the piece:
“Film created by Massive Attack (working with US photo artist thefinaleye). This montage work portrays a momentous American epoch that is yet to be named, and comes in the aftermath of the largest public protests in American history – focused on opposition to ICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism.”
And, here’s the video B-side of this specially released single. It’s a spoken word piece by Tom Waits with additional buzzing!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5MMxyaxiW4&list=RDM5MMxyaxiW4&start_radio=1
The Dirt – Monkey Punch
Video for ‘Demon Seed’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PehyfB8bwEI
Second album from this duo fronted by Jack Horner (aka Leon the Pig Farmer). Formed by the Anglo-Japanese marital duo with Jack (fast-firing, spoken-word vocals, and looped percussion) and Sachiko (Rickenbacker guitar loops and effects). Lots of words, “…dark forces…This is The Dark…Welcome to the Monkey Punch.” Angry, apocryphal, incendiary sounds – a bit like a musical eight round, heavyweight musical mixed martial arts event. Not for fans of quiet, ambient, New Age Music. I was very impressed with The Dirt live at the Firedance festival mid-summer 2026. It’s an electrifying, pounding, noise & word-fest, “Let’s Go!!!”
Having reviewed The Pink Diamond Revue earlier, the overall sensory overload is rather similar. ‘Monkey Punch’ is specifically designed to cause distress, to disturb. The sounds really do resemble the track titles, such as, ‘Demon Seed’, ‘Bed of Nails’ and ‘Chaos’. If you are in the right mood for more than a little musical masochism, like in the idiom, ‘No Pain, No Gain’. You might require Novocaine and respite care. You have been warned…this really is an auditory battering ram…