Pulse: New Music You Need #16

Abjects


Though this London threesome’s latest EP goes by the title of ‘Gone’, it’s clear from its contents that this trio won’t be going anywhere. Well, anywhere but up, on the basis of their seriously no messing DIY rock and/or roll. It’s all 60s pop rock charm and melody, lo-fi garage squall, frantic and flailing punk rock drive, and clearly just a general knack for writing a great fucking tune.

The band have already found their way to being handpicked for some hefty support slots alongside bands as varied as The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Fat White Family. Not to mention going all out with their DIY leanings and heading up nights of their own design. It’s pretty clear that Abjects are so very far from gone.

 

Post War Glamour Girls


Nick Cave’s duets with PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue can casually boast being some of the finest moments in music, full stop. Imagine then, if four drummers who met at Leeds university were to decide to take up other instruments (well, three of them) and vocals (well, two of them), capture that magic, then attack it with a wide array of influences including Pixies, Joy Division, Roxy Music, John Cooper Clarke (from whom they take their name), and of course Nick Cave at his bad seediest, grinding mannest, and birthday partyingest, then took that and amped up the rhythmic exploration – that would be Post War Glamour Girls.

The four piece are a band contrasts working in harmony. For example, James Smith’s snarled and venomous croon plays off of Alice Scott’s gentle melodious whisper, as each voice in turn contrasts with itself – Smith’s growl boasts a manic glee, Scott’s calm is definitely a calm before the storm with underlying fire. Then you’ve got the juxtaposition of the band’s sinister atmospherics and abrasive aggression with twinkling moments of beauty and irresistible funk-like grooves.

 

LTNT


Adjectives most commonly attributed to LTNT? Fuzzy, filthy. Why? Because they are exactly that. This London-based three piece do not disappoint when coming at them with expectations of filth and fuzz. Their latest single, for example, ‘No Home’ boasts bludgeoning heavy hammer riffs thick with low end fuzz and caked in grungy filth.

The threesome have been doing the rounds for a little while now, steadily releasing single after single of big-hitting bolshie rock that comes with the kind of guitar tone that is almost tangible, cocksure strut and swagger, stoner groove, grunge dynamics, classic rock melodies, and punky choruses. With their debut due, LTNT are sure to blow fuzz and filth all over the place.

 

Van Dammes


‘Better Than Sex’ is quite a claim to make, but that’s what Helsinki’s Van Dammes have done with the title of their second EP. Now, I’m not gonna sit here and tell you this EP, or the music of Van Dammes in general, is better than sex because, well, I don’t know how good the sex you’re having, or had, is; it be could be soul-destroyingly awful for all I know, it could be incomparably, earth-shatteringly awesome, or it could just be plain average – I just don’t know.

However, I will say that you are all beautiful and I do not doubt that you are all equally amazing in bed, so should go out into the world and share your magnificence with one another.

Anyway, I digress, while the music of Van Dammes may or may not be better than sex depending upon your individual experiences, I will say it comes about as close you can get to capturing the invigorating exuberance of being young, dumb, and sporting a serious (metaphorical) horn for the oppostite/same/both/all sexes and life itself. The Van Dammes are brash, fast, wide-eyed, hopped up on fuzz, drunk on punk new and old, and most of all, Van Dammes are fun as fuck.

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.