WITH ears still ringing from last week's aural assault in EP format by the Derry-based Droids, today we begin with yet another new EP guaranteed to annoy the neighbours, this time from Belfast drums 'n' bass duo Bosco Ramos AKA Phil Brown (vocals/bass) and Calum McGeown (drums/vocals).
Their new Signs of Life EP is a three-track release which the band are launching tonight with a live show at McHugh's in Belfast featuring support from deceptively slouchy indie rockers Junk Drawer, Vulpynes' two-headed Dublin grunge machine and noisy Belfast indie kids Gnarkats.
Lead track Rolling Sea is a tuneful heavy pop groove powered by thick fuzz riffs and a swinging beat. It lopes and lurches along as Phil and Calum shout about sexual frustration like a couple of navvies in desperate need of some shore leave.
Don't they know that you can't hurry love?
Still, unafraid as Bosco Ramos are to embrace the odd bit of tactically deployed falsetto vocalising (see also the similarly crafty Junk Drawer) on this number and their sludgy lament Hurry Home, surely it can't be too long before the object of their affection/affliction welcomes them home to port with open arms/legs.
The band's new release concludes with My Friends Are All Growing Old's grungy gulderment, a lumbering mosh pit friendly wreck-the-house number laden with wail-along 'woah-woah' bits and enough false endings to catch out even the most alert DJs.
Hear these and more done live, tonight, hopefully not yet sold-out: doors are at 8pm, admission is a fiver and every band on the bill is worthy of your time and attention.
And now for something completely different – namely Randalstown-based troubadour Simon Murphy.
Back in 2015, I praised his debut LP Let It Be for its abundance of well crafted, easy-on-the-ears Americana-tinged listening, which made the album well worthy of sharing its title with The Beatles and The Replacements.
Anyway, Simon recently sent me a new tune for consideration: Empty Room is a collaboration with Nashville-based songwriter/producer Sean Trainor, and happily it lives up to the high standards set by his previous work.
This is a gentle, nostalgic pop ballad powered by finger-picked acoustic guitar with mood-setting piano and string accompaniment, showcasing Simon's smoothly melodic vocals as he ruminates on the cycle of life and the memory-provoking power of empty rooms.
Have a listen at Soundcloud.com/simon-murphy-32, where you can also catch up on his previous releases. You can also find him online at SimonMurphyMusic.co.uk.
Shifting sonic gears for the final time this week, be advised that the soundtrack album for Ben Wheatley's excellent new don't-believe-any-lukewarm-reviews-you-read shoot-out thriller Free Fire is now available.
Featuring songs – Creedence standard Run Through The Jungle, lyrically suspect proto-punk number Do The Boob by Boston's The Real Kids and Annie's Song and This Old Guitar by John Denver (that will make sense when you see the film) – amusing snippets of sweary movie dialogue and an abundance of score selections composed by Wheatley's regular collaborators Ben Salisbury and Geoff 'Portishead' Barrow, the Free Fire soundtrack album is an uneasy listening classic best appreciated by those who have already lapped up the 1970s-set flick and are in the mood to revisit it in their minds.
Salisbury and Barrow's evocative score covers an abundance of era-appropriate musical ground, from pretty classical guitar pieces and pub rock boogie to skronking free jazz-informed freak outs and prog psychedelia, plus plenty of sparse, percussion-based tension-building interludes on which they crib greedily and gleefully from 1970s-era crime TV and cinema.
A fine musical memento of one of the year's best films, you can own it today via the digital music outlet of your choice with vinyl and CD to follow via Invada Records on June 9 – though it's also surely deserving of a special box set release on 8-Track tape as well.
