As we move towards our sixth issue, we’re taking a look back at some of the writing that shaped our very first release, MEANS issue 1! Check out our fledgling music reviews below!
A’Bear: Glammy Racket (Self Released)
Emotive, epheral electronica from A’Bear: driving, multi-layered beats contrast with repetitive synths and glacial vocals, a weirdly playful montage of electronic styles. It’s pop music for sure, but with a unusual charm both of its reliance on the eternal juxtaposition of mildly complex rhythms and acidic, almost naive synthesis: moments stolen from a 90’s Warp compilation break out suddenly into otherworldly arpeggios, before giving way to Reichian passages of cyclical dead ends. Despite drawing on a whole host of fairly well-used musical materials, A’Bear pulls them together in a refreshing manner, seemingly unafraid to loiter at the very moment other composers might change tact. Incongrious snares battle with haunting vocals, 80’s tom-drums and cheesy string-synths repurposed to frame an almost industrial aesthetic.
The heavy-breathing, mildly-spooky What Remains is the stand out track here, reminiscent of the shockingly overlooked group sleepover, all drifting, dusty basses and reverb-drenched vocals that never seem to go anywhere, achieving a slither of greatness in the process.
Assitant: You Should Know (Self Released)
Yes, you should know! Assistant are a best kept secret unless you already know. Then you can pat yourself on the back and if you own a copy of their Zine “In the April Sun” you most definitely “know”. They formed in 2002 and almost lost touch as navigating life got in the way of making music together, they missed each other and the music and reformed almost 20 Years later and started writing and playing together again, a lovely tale of Friendship and music reuniting folk. This track “You Should Know” is part of a reissue programme from their record label Subjangle, and includes two nice home demo versions as well as the Live 2024 version, so it’s a sort of mini-EP and marketed as one. Its Shoegaze but not as you know it, that opening guitar riff the Bastard Son of AC/DC’s Angus Young straight into jangly pop infused guitars that are still slow enough to maintain that element of Shoegaze spewing its guts up into that signature early 2000’s Indie sound this track captures that perfectly, from those catchy guitars, lazy sun-drenched vocals transporting you back to Festival fields with a band growing into and moulding their own slightly off kilter melodic sound. I first got interested in their music via
“music” Twitter or X as its currently branded. The bands account isn’t just about their music, this summer I enjoyed a travel log of one of the band members Family camping trips around Italy, from a campsite in Puglia, coffee in Matera with a soundtrack of great new music recommendations along the journey way, really wonderful
Dereos Roads : Until I Seen it All (Self Released)
Dereos Roads returns with a new e.p. of hip-hop jams, channelling a soft leftfield summery aesthetic that instantly conjures imagery of hot young people play-fighting past open fountains on America’s inner-city streets. Roads unashamedly harks back to the classic era of hip-hop – tunes drenched in positivity and chipper singalongs almost as if Gangsta rap never actually happened. ‘Until I Seen It All fizzles with gentle picked guitars and boom-bap beats, whilst
‘Flowers In The Rubble’ paints pictures of octopuses and social deprivation and horticultural weather phenomena in a way that only abstract rappers can. I’ll straight up admit that I am not exactly the target audience for this sort of thing, and no doubt am missing a whole bunch of necessary context: but my own ignorance aside, its great stuff, a wonderfully lyrical journey held together by extremely polished production. With hooks like ‘Burning Down Australia’ Dereos Roads’ manages to be both excessively catchy and avoid the sort of trite language that can make similar ventures fall flat: which is to say, I largely have no idea what he’s on about, but it’s a joy to listen to none the less.
MEANS 