The Brides : Sofa City Sweetheart

I must admit that US fourpiece The Brides are one of those outfits I have been aware of but never really listened to. I now have a back catalogue to go through, but in the meantime I want to review their latest album, because it is just so good.

The Brides bring together a range of musical influences, Goth, Post-Punk, Caberet, Rockabilly, Glam, New-Wave and it is hard to think of many equivalent artists - The Soho Dolls have tried to do the same think in the UK with some mainstream sucess, but The Brides just seem to pull the whole thing off so much better.

Sound for a Pound Collection 2007

What is Punk? Is Punk dead?

Well that is an interesting question. I guess you can go back to the garage rock of The Modern Lovers, through the glam of The New York Dolls, to the art-school influenced work of Adam and the Ants, Wire and all the other acts that spawned Art-Punk and Post-Punk. Punk is raw energetic rock and roll with an intelectual edge that subverts traditional gender and societal roles. From a British perspective it is riddled with folks like me, people from Working Class backgrounds who go to university thanks to a socialist taxation system and want to Rip it up and Start again.

Art Brut: It's a bit Complicated

Eddie Argos. What can we say. Art Brut weave together simple catchy riffs with Eddie's unique vocal style and earthy lyrics about life, love and, well stuff. So a new album, It's a Bit Complicated. A new direction, or more of the same?

Ultravox! : Ultravox!

Released in 1977 Ultravox!'s debut seems to fortell the coming post-punk evolution by two or three years. There is a least one web rockist that claims post-punk is nothing more than the bastard child of art-rock and poncey brit punk. And you know maybe they are right? In a good way.

Deadchovsky: Spiritus Sancti Bizarre

Deadchovsky return with 'Spiritus Sancti Bizarre', the follow up to their rather tasty 'Decadence Revolution'. Describing Deadchovsky is easy, they float some where in the middle of the Atlantic between folks like Sex Gang Children, Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend from the blighty Batcave and the Deathrock pioneers of the ex-colonies like Rozz's Christian Death.

In the patch of deep sea delight they bob about it it is still 1983 and Leeds never existed. Quite a picture. Actually they are from France and share a label with the beyond amazing Frustration. The question is, does 'Spiritus Sanct Bizarrei' live up to expectations?

Screaming Banshee Aircrew: When All is Said and Done

The Screaming Banshee Aircrew have always been one of those bands, not uncommon in the Goth scene, that work better live than in the studio. Hey, there is a long tradition of this going back to late 70's. 'Fishnet Messiah' was a good broad album with some great songs on, but just didn't sound right at times. Maybe a lot of that was to do with the drum machine, which always seems to be so hard to get sorted. But like Devilish Presley the Aircrew have got themselves a drummer, and trust me it makes all the difference.

UK Decay: Death, So Fatal

This one has been out a few months now, but after the last review I had to write about something I actually liked. So just a quicky.

Fxxk The Mainstream

What does 30 euros get you these days? Well in this case it gets you a 4CD set of Gothic-Industrial from Alfa Matrix in partnership with Vampirefreaks.com

In the booklet which comes with the box set, Jet, founder of Vampirefreaks.com states that:

"In the past few years we have seen the gothic/industrial scene slowly declining in popularity. Our club nights are closing down and disappearing, industrial CD sales are going down ... our future as a community has really looked bleak at times."

Well listening to this set of CD's all I can say is thank Fxxk for that.

Last Days of Jesus:
Dead Machines' Revolution

The best thing to come out of Bratislava, The Last Days of Jesus return with a new album, and an evolved sound. Their last album Alien Road nestled safely between the caring arms of Goth, Deathrock and Dark Caberet, and was in a word: Fantastic. Does Dead Machines' Revolution follow in its footsteps?