Best of the rest

Other new releases out this month.

Swedish Death Candy

haSSle

Are You Nervous?

From phase-shifted psychoactive psych to deep-in-the-desert QOTSA, London-based trio SDC blend youth, dynamism and anxiety to excellent effect on this emphatic and experimental second album. 8/10

Little Bob Blues Bastards

FreeworlD

New Day Coming

Diminutive R&B belter Leetle Bob: as Gallic as Lautrec, yet somehow as Canvey as Wilko. While his bastards honk themselves dizzy, Bob sounds as weary as an 80s Iggy Pop. 6/10

Miss June

Bad Luck Party

Blending a serrated edge of Sonic Youth bite with a SCUM manifesto’s worth of Le Tigre femme power, Annabel Liddell’s NZ quartet deliver a punchy, strident debut. 7/10

The Pukes

Never Mind The Buffet

A punk ukulele band. It’s happening. Deal with it. Three plinking women up front, two lads at the rear. All original tunes, a bizarre unexpected charm, and even chords for joining in. 1-2-3-4! 7/10

Block Buster

FrontIerS

Losing Gravity

Genuinely teenaged Nordic newbie quartet match reassuringly brutal riffing with slick melodic sensibilities and priceless ‘DC swing. With songwriting chops to the fore, BB are ones to watch. 7/10

L’Epee

Diabolique

Pitched somewhere between Cale-era Velvets and Jesus And Mary Chain, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe provides a tense cinematic backdrop to Emmanuelle Seigner’s deadliest deadpan ennui-soaked Gallic cool. 7/10

Danny Beardsley

SelF releaSeD

Blood From A Stone

Parallax Method guitarist Beardsley takes centre-stage with an assured set of complex yet accessible material. A strong vocal, a hint of Cornell, it’s an album you’ll admire rather than love. 6/10

One Eleven Heavy

BeYonD BeYonD IS BeYonD

Desire Path

Channeling Frisco psych Americana, Grateful Dead tropes with engaging Stones-y swagger and the down-home bounce of an adrenalised Allman Brothers. Triumphal stuff. 8/10

Kobra And The Lotus

napalm

Evolution

Flashes of genuine fire are persistently submerged beneath thick coats of production gloss to accommodate and accentuate Kobra Paige’s faultlessly saleable musical-theatre vocal. Magnificent, yeah, but mostly meh. 6/10

Tiger Army

rISe

Retrofuture

Musically: part Stray Cats (three-piece, stand-up bass, rock’n’rollabilly) part psycho – a dash of Man Or Astroman? shlock. Vocally: Nick 13 croons like a Pound Shop Morrissey. Oh dear. 4/10

Gruff Rhys

rough traDe

Pang!

Highlife electronica meets understated Celtic folkiness on charmingly whimsical, multifaceted, Welsh language (with a short lapse into Zulu) sixth album from the ex-Super Furry Animals vocalist. 7/10

Kal Marks

Let The Shit House Burn Down

exploDIng In SounD

The perfect eviscerating soundtrack to a psychologically crippling descent into despair and disgust, Boston’s masters of indie sludge bluster, skew and bludgeon with a rare finesse. 7/10

Reverence-era

One Eleven Heavy-season