Into Music Reviews: Yet More New Music May 2021

New music and recent releases have steadily been coming into our world here at Into Music and we’ve tirelessly been working through them to bring you the creme de la creme. So do read on…….

Artist: Fat Cops
Song: Plan Of Attack

The six-piece Fat Cops are certainly no strangers to adversity with their self-titled debut album recorded in the midst of “the beast from the east” storm a couple of years back. The band have reconvened during a different type of lockdown to record a series of tracks which will be released digitally before forming a fully fledged vinyl EP release later this year via the Last Night From Glasgow label.

First up is Plan Of Attack, which cruises along with a distinctive and groovy bluesy feel to it. Half way in, the track takes a temporary psychedelic shift with hymnal keyboards and a middle eastern style riff from Robert Hodgen’s 12 string Fender guitar and a beseeching vocal from Chris Deerin which may or may not be about a certain Susannah from The Bangles.

Keep up to date with the Fat Cops via their website here.

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Artist: Lost Ships
EP: Nostalgia

Having first surfaced in the early 1990’s as The Kites, the band have reformed in recent times and are now known as Lost Ships. Their third EP release on the Subjangle label is the 5 track Nostalgia.

Lead track Weight Of The World indulges in slacker indie pop whereas Shirley From Shirley is a more layered effort and perhaps harks back to the softer (Blue)tones of the early britpop era.

Thereafter, Inside My Head and Come To Me combine the best of psych/ indie/folk and pop with the former providing an infectious guitar wig-out which crackles and bristles towards the end of the song, the latter a more measured yet mesmeric and contemplative track.

The title track, Nostalgia is a brief instrumental and neatly closes things off. Without doubt, Lost Ships are sailing along nicely, check them out via their Bandcamp page here.

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Artist: Jasmine Minks/ BMX Bandits
Release: John Peel/Janice Long BBC Sessions
Label: Precious Recordings of London

The early to mid 1980’s was such a fertile period for the Scottish independent music scene with a number of bands making and recording sublime guitar-led harmonious pop. Two such bands were The Jasmine Minks and The BMX Bandits who feature here on their own separate releases (and the first/second) from a new, boutique label, Precious Recordings of London.

Comprising original sessions recorded for John Peel and Janice Long (1986/1987) the recordings are available in double vinyl format in gatefold sleeves (red for Peel, yellow for Long) as well as digitally.

Both bands have elements of shared history, signing to Creation Records and consistently delivering clever, harmonious vocals, airy guitar and carving a blueprint for others to follow.

The Jasmine Minks are on imperious form, the likes of The Ballad Of Johnny Eye and (personal favourite) Cut Me Deep still as fresh now as they were when first played on the radio all those years ago.

The BMX Bandits including mercurial singer Duglas T. Stewart as well as Norman Blake provide a rollicking version of Strawberry Sunday with the vocalist in fine fettle singing “they’re so nice and they’re so sweet”, a line that could very well be said of the band too. Elsewhere, the band finish with the weird and wacky psychedelic sound of Take Five, a cover of the Dave Brubeck Quartet jazz standard.

Further classic BBC sessions are expected to be released (including Blueboy, Heavenly and the Weather Prophets), so keep up to date via the Precious Recordings of London Bandcamp page here.

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Artist: The Dupont Circles
Album: In Search Of The Family Gradunza

It would be a fair assumption that after 30 odd years as a band and with nothing more than a few singles and some hard to track down compilation tracks, the chances of a fully-fledged album release by the Washington D.C. popsters would be difficult to grasp, but…………

That debut album is here and tracks the band’s career to date. Taking over five years to bring it together, it really has been a labour of love collaboration between the band and their label The Beautiful Music. First track Everywhere Girl is a lo-fi indie burner and reminds of Murmer era R.E.M. Further on, Joke’s On Zandra is a straight-up post-punk, no frills rocker, whereas My Picasso Girlfriend would easily fit it with the sound of C86/Creation.

The band loosen their belts on Get Down Off My Back, a stomping Carnaby Street/60s-infused garage belter. Elsewhere, Sarah The Weather Girl (with an intro very similar to Do It Clean by Echo & The Bunnymen) is perhaps the stand out track, a tale of forlorn love coupled with infectious hooks and a great guitar outro.

To order In Search Of The Family Gredunza by The Dupont Circles, go to The Beautiful Music website here.