Originally released digitallyl in May 2022 and now picked up by the ever reliable Devil Town Tapes cassette label, this debut EP by Leicester’s Matt Groves and Sadie Parry (aka Harper) is another in a whole host of recent acts who justify our attention to a bedroom-pop genre that is often dismissed as simply having too much chaff among the wheat. Harper has found their own recipe for absolute beauty across all four tracks. At their most introspective, Us Now, Heavy Fog, and You and Me take the core foundation of the recent Fine sound, all fragile janged riffs and hushed male/female harmonies a ..read more

Long time fans of the blog will know I have a bit of fanboy worship for all things Evan Dando / The Lemonheads within me. That may not be cool, especially considering his propensity to be something of a “spangle”, but the heart likes what the ears find special to rest upon. This debut, Feeling Things EP, by Oslo’s Terje Torkellsen (Palmface, Mats Wawa) evokes the same jangly slacker pop passions within me and so much more. Initially, the opening double salvo of Tears in Your Eyes and Any Other, evokes Dando comparisons as Torkellsen takes languid tempos and augments them with both the informal ..read more

After the lockdown-released The Club Is Open debut album became something of a surprise choice for so many “best ofs” in 2020, the Swedish Fort Not duo of Fredrik Söderström and Robert Carlsson are finally back with a Depressed For Success album that provides more of their spurious jangly bedroom-pop, whilst simultaenously branching out into further musical arenas of verve that may  have been somewhat alien to them previously. At their most perfectly fractious, their signature low-fi jangly bedroom pop is still very much represented with Love Will Find You, Candy Crush, Longing, and Paint ..read more

Freak Slug hail from Manchester and seem to epitomize the sort of perfectly obtuse originality that comes from their town in comparison to their cross-country cousins of Liverpool, whose bands tend to gravitate, at least to some degree, towards the safety net of a Fab Four sound. Unsurprisingly this Viva La Vulva EP is therefore packed with intra-EP difference. Initially, the superlative standout and opener of 27 Club presents a bizarre but strangely true account of the allure of ‘troubled talent’ as it bounces through an anomalous juxtaposition of Spanish tonto-pop and 90s jangly indie/twee-p ..read more

Are you tired of what jangle-pop has to offer? Is it all just a tad too ‘precisely pretty’ to really raise your musical libido ? Well, look no further, for this Human Teeth Parade EP by a young chap whose various biography’s merely refer to him as Josh (aka Squirrel) from Lacey Township, New Jersey offers something as obtuse as it is perversely jangly.   For someone in the fresher throes of life’s journey Squirrel somehow succeeds in grabbing straight at the core of the most kooky of 80’s indie-pop with Don’t Be Scared (Life Is Noise) emulating the curious vocals of Dan Treacy and hi ..read more

Austin, Texas-based solo artist Raul Gonzalez Jr is back with his first new music since the Z Tapes label released the intense lo-fi sound of his Keeper EP in the heart of lockdown times in May 2020 (can you believe such scary times were nearly three years ago now?). Perhaps as a reflection of the more certain and decidedly more vibrant post pandemic times we now reside in, this Wanderer EP, whilst decidedly still bedroom-pop in aesthetic, now seems more polished, fully formed and energetic with the occasional whiff of melancholy generally being usurped by subtle enthusiasm. Such vigour is bes ..read more

I was surprised when I heard Thanks For Coming had signed to the Danger Collective Records cassette label to release this hand-picked 14 track career retrospective compilation by Rachel Brown (who you might better know as one half of Water From Your Eyes). My surprise is purely narcissistic and based upon the fact that the previous going places 2022 (going without you) EP was written purely for me as it simply conversed to me on so many levels of intimacy and emotionality, however a record label makes me begrudgingly concede that perhaps many others were experiencing a similar connection. For ..read more

What is the ‘real’ or ‘primary’ contribution of Bandcamp? Enabling bands and labels to cheaply sell and promote music I hear you cry, with the slight inner smirk of the teachers pet schoolkid who knows they are about to be praised by teacher. Well yes, I suppose, there is that. However, the ‘real’ thing is that the sheer ease of the Bandcamp platform means that Bedroom Pop has become a thing and in fact, beyond that, within the sea of spotty adolescents releasing acoustic covers of Wonderwall every second day, some absolute brilliance is occasionally unearthed. Generally the best of the genre ..read more