BEST OF THE REST

Other new releases out this month.

Deux Furieuses

My War Is Your War XTRA MILE

With a widescreen political vision and vast, spacious sound, vocalist/ guitarist Ros Cairney and drummer Vas Antonaidou’s edgier, antsier second album boasts the direct ferocity of Dry-era PJ Harvey. Exceptional. 8/10

Wives

So Removed CITY SLANG

Like a heavy-lidded Velvet Underground or a heavily sedated Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Wives ooze malignant NYC cool from every pore. Spiky Sonic Youth metallics, grooves that only slouch. Attitude on ice. 8/10

Birdeatsbaby

The World Conspires EDEL

Produced by John Fryer (NIN, Mode) , this fifth from the increasingly metallic, Brighton-based dark proggers comfortably inhabits fresh soundscapes. Expansive ambitions, string-driven psychodramas and (in Painkiller) a stone-cold classic. 8/10

Warmduscher

Tainted Lunch LEAF

Blood-Sugared pervoid disco-funk-metal, haunted by the spectre of Jon Spencer. Stately subterraneans Iggy Pop and Kool Keith guest, deviant grooves cut deep, raw tales blaze. You’ll feel dirty. In a good way. 8/10

Lesbian Bed Death

Born To Die On VHS PSYCHOPHONIC

LBD’s sixth features returning original singer Luci4 and various horror flick covers (Ramones’ Pet Sematary, 45 Grave’s Partytime). Which probably seemed like a pretty good idea in the pub. 5/10

Anthony Phillips

Strings Of Light

ESOTERIC ANTENNA

This first album in seven years from the founding Genesis guitarist delivers 24 instrumental compositions in stereo and 5.1. Clever, dextrous stuff, but significantly more Tales Of The Riverbank than Trick

Of The Tail. 6/10

Deaf Rat

Ban The Light AFM

Carrying off the difficult beards-‘n’-eyeliner look, Swedish hard rockers Deaf Rat (gotta love a language barrier) walk/swagger/stagger a fine line between 80s W.A.S.P. and 90s Alice. Big-ass tunes? Check. 7/10

Revival Black

Step In Line CARGO

Liverpool’s RB, formerly Black Cat Bones, boast a tidy take on 70s-informed classic rock. An Alan Rimmer/Adam Kerbache dual guitar front line soar in support of Dan Byrne’s emotive, powerincarnate lead vocals. 7/10

Tainted Lady

Sounds Like Freedom // Feels Like War

PRIME COLLECTIVE

Displaying enough testicular fortitude and technical chops to rock out with their cock out all the way to the bank, TL (five male Danes) demonstrate genre-transcending sophistication inexplicable in a band so atrociously named. 7/10

Wolfbrigade

The Enemy: Reality

SOUTHERN LORD

Wolfbrigade deal in ‘Lycanthro Punk’. Which, we’re told, combines Swedish hardcore and death metal, but which combines Killing Joke and Motörhead if Geordie and Lemmy had only been a guitar player and bassist. 6/10

Pamela Sue Mann

Break MANIAC SQUAT

Deliciously uncomfortable intimacy, keyed dreamscapes, warm synthetic rhythms. There’s a seductive hypnotic quality to Mann’s diaphonous signature vocal and otherworldly sound palette. Arty, avant, ambient. An alt.pop joy. 8/10