It’s the smaller, lower-key nights that hold the most appeal in Cardiff this month, as – with the exception of the long-since sold-out JONATHAN RICHMAN shindig in Clwb (28th) the medium-scale and up shows favour duller, worthier fare. The always-excellent ERRORS return once more, their splendidly crunchy, danceable post-rock/electro ever a treat. Top bill for their Clwb show (13th) where top-drawer Rock Action labelmate REMEMBER REMEMBER and Three Trapped Tigers man TOM ROGERSON support. Errors move on to the Fleece (14th) but y’know, Clwb will be way better. GENTLE FRIENDLY will hopefully make it this time, having pulled their Swn show; the dayglo No Age/Japanther thump is scrappy, life-afffirming fun (Undertone, 5th), as are awesome brother-sister noise outfit THE HYSTERICAL INJURY (10 Feet Tall, 16th). Denver-based pair GAUNTLET HAIR mine a similar seam to Gentle Friendly, albeit a less euphoric, grubbier one, and should be checked out at Buffalo (18th). Speaking of euphoric, there’s primary-coloured cheeky house fun from Raf Daddy out of THE 2 BEARS at Clwb (16th), where entry is free if you bring a radiator or something; get there early for the witchy Knife-style electronica of FACE + HEEL.

The laudable recent trend for booking return visits for friends of Swn weekends past and present continues, with THOMAS TRUAX (10 Feet Tall, 8th) and his mechanical menagerie back for his 768th Cardiff date, the battering ram two-man hardcore fun of RUN, WALK returning at Buffalo (3rd, or Louisiana, 2nd), promising Barely Regal signees HOLLAND (Undertone, 24th) and folkies both indie-fied (ROSIE TAYLOR PROJECT, 10 Feet Tall, 19th) and Jefferson Airplane fuzzy (HAIGHT-ASHBURY, Gwdihw, 23rd). Indiepop good and less good is back amongst us too, care of the winningly punchy ALLO DARLIN’ (Buffalo, 29th and Fleece, 28th) and the tiresome Shrag (Undertone, 25th) who are at least supported by clattering noise-pop kids TUNABUNNY.

Bristol, meanwhile, gets the plaudits for breadth of genre, gig size and eye-catching names this month. There’s an implausibly great-looking rash of shows at the o2 Academy, whose cavernous non-charms welcome LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY (4th), as focused and on-point as you could reasonably expect at last May’s ATP and with an excellent band to boot; JUSTICE (9th), whose terribly overcooked second album will be bolstered live by their classic material and a shit-hot live show; the fantastically goofy ur-stadium rock of MASTODON (5th), fast becoming the Metallica it’s ok to not push off a cliff; and GZA (18th), possibly the third best living Wu-Tang member and most likely ambling through the best bits of ‘Liquid Swords’ on a bill with brit-hop lifers SKITZ & RODNEY P. The Academy (20th) and Cardiff Uni (19th) also host the NME Awards Tour, which is worth a punt for METRONOMY’s arch electropop gems and, in particular, the deliciously filthy electro-boosted hip-hop of AZEALIA BANKS. Both will make the rank indie rock losers on the bill look like eternal dullards.

Elsewhere, Bristol has some tidy-looking gems, not least at the Cube. There, MARY HAMPTON’s disquieting subject matter and crystalline vocals make for superbly warped alt-folk which will be a highlight of the month’s listings (11th). The same venue also hosts an ace triple-bill of experimental duos (17th) headlined by Brooklyn’s HIGH PLACES, whose bleached-out psychedelic pop is ably supported by THE HYSTERICAL INJURY and Zun Zun Egui / SJ Esau side-project HESOMAGARI. I know, right? Hyper-literate pop polymath MOMUS is at the Cube too (10th), while around the grounds Bristol rounds up varied treats care of beloved agit-folk-punk duo VIALKA (Café Kino, 17th), the mighty post-hardcore screamalong fun of Leeds nutbars PULLED APART BY HORSES (Fleece, 18th), ex-Cul de Sac man and 12-string picker par excellence GLENN JONES (Arnolfini, 23rd, with SHARRON KRAUS), RM HUBBERT, formerly of unsung Glaswegian post-rock outfit El Hombre Trajeado (seriously, look them up) and now solo (Cube, 2nd with Cardiff’s THINGS MAKE ELECTRIC), STILL CORNERS’ poised detachment and brittle Broadcast melodies (Louisiana, 9th), glorious Fence Records drone-folk from KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS and the fine WITHERED HAND (Fleece, 5th) and the perennially underrated and beautifully crafted pop of FIELD MUSIC (Fleece, 23rd)..

Qu Junktions are back, bringing intriguing and playful experiments in techno from ITAL (formerly of solid Dischord kids Black Eyes, still half of no-wave freaksters Mi Ami) to Bristol’s Take 5 Café (10th). Diogenes have a couple of excellent shows, with exploratory psych lifers ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS (Croft, 9th) and slow-crawling doom from PUS and others (Croft, 2nd). Blinding scenes at the Cube (25th); “experimental tuba trio” ORE offer a wall of numbing low-end and, well, shitloads of whacked-out brass. Come on, that sounds amazing. ANTA, FAIRHORNS and SKJOLBROT make up a corking bill. This month’s obligatory SATURDAY’S KIDS mention: they’re at the Croft on the 16th before a launch gig for the new ‘Grey On White’ 7″ which takes place in the basement of Newport’s Barnabas Arts Centre (23rd).

What have I missed? Not a lot, although I heard DJANGO DJANGO’s assured late-period Beta Band single on the radio this morning and it was pretty good (Cooler, 25th). THE DEATH OF HER MONEY appear with AXIS OF at Buffalo (26th), always good. THE AFTERNOONS, presumably cryogenically frozen since 2001, are back and playing Buffalo (25th); sweet South Walian Sarah Records pop, as I recall. LONEY, DEAR does sad-eyed Swedish melancholia (Louisiana, 19th) and CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH, who must be gutted to be in the round-up, tour their sadly flat recent material at the Thekla (4th). Nice surf one-two at the Cube (4th) with MUSTARD ALLEGRO and HANGMEN, who I should get around to seeing. Gathered In Song have OX playing Le Pub (8th) and FANFARLO do brass-assisted junior Arcade Fire-isms (Thekla, 27th). Think that’s about it. Time for my cocoa.

Buffalo, Undertone and 10 Feet Tall lead the way in the January sales, as usual, giving curatorial duties to bands, labels and promoters wanting to put on a cheap night. New kids on the block, the Moon Club (space above the Full Moon, formerly Y Fuwch Goch/Kaz Bar etc) go one better with a full month of completely free shows. Highlights, you say? Well, the Joy Collective Hot Boyz DJ Team fully endorse MARIA & THE MIRRORS’ rescheduled Buffalo show (4th), with an excellent support bill of GINDRINKER, TOTEM TERRORS (formerly Joy of Sex) and WRONGS (formerly James James, now about 3% more easily searched online). Y NIWL and H. HAWKLINE are the party-starting dream team the kids all crave, and they team up with Harvest (Buffalo, 28th) while Y Niwl also play Bristol’s Café Kino on the 7th. Lesson No. 1 bring the return of Liverpudlian sludge monsters CONAN (Buffalo, 22nd, with co-hosts PUS), while long-missing hardcore types THE KEEP return alongside supergroup of sorts (members of Night & The City Of Broken Promises, Ironclad etc) NATURAL ORDER (Clwb, 20th). It would be remiss of us not to insist you keep your diary free on the 31st, too; FLOWER OF PHONG, a new CD-R record label brought to you by some local miscreants including our own Vivers, hold a launch gig at Undertone. Details here shortly. Meanwhile, Moon Club freebies, still very much subject to additions, include STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR (28th, with HIS NAKED TORSO), THE DEATH OF HER MONEY (13th), BEDFORD FALLS (26th, with Swansea surf dudes HANGMEN), A THOUSAND ARROWS (22nd) and WITCHES DRUM and THORUN (27th).

As you might expect, there aren’t a great deal of tours calling this way so early in the new year, although a few bigger names do pop up. The city’s club nights score big, with JOY ORBISON and JACKMASTER returning for another B2B set following last year’s blinder (Clwb, 27th) and Signature bagging totally ace Dutch dubstep/techno chap Dave Huismans, aka 2562 (Buffalo, 12th). Don’t miss that one. Swn hit the ground running with three shows varied in nature, if (personally) not so thrilling; dig if you will this year’s “new Strokes” HOWLER (Clwb, 27th with KUTOSIS or Louisiana, 23rd, without), EVERYTHING EVERYTHING (Globe, 17th) and 1996’s favourite misanthrope BABYBIRD (Globe, 26th). Hmm. Better, Barely Regal team their promising recent signings OLYMPIANS with the excellent SAMOANS and perma-touring grunge kids TUBELORD (Undertone, 8th), while JOANNA GRUESOME head up a neat-looking bill at Gwdihw (25th) with LITTLE ARROW and RATATOSK. Nice. Finally, there’s highly promising moody electro atmospherics from FACE + HEEL, whose third attempt at a debut gig will hopefully happen at Buffalo (24th), hook-filled Welsh pop classicism from JEN JENIRO (Clwb, 21st) and a US folky double bill of THE TOY HEARTS and REBECCA PRONSKY care of Gathered In Song (10 Feet Tall, 22nd).

Fewer things jumping out of the Bristol listings for the month ahead, and it’s particularly galling that three blinders occur on the same ruddy night. Top recommendation anywhere this month is WILD FLAG, whose debut album of playful, aware and hopelessly cool indie-rock was one of 2011’s best. Their first full UK tour calls at the Thekla (27th), while across town FRANCOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS launch their first album since springing from Bristolian cult status to fully-fledged indiepop contenders at the Motorcycle Showroom in Stokes Croft (27th again, with THE LIFTMEN). Meanwhile, same night, there’s a corker of a free gig at the Cube featuring total babes THE JELAS alongside MATT LOVERIDGE and LINE. It’s just not fair, Bristol. Elsewhere in Bristol, VIC GODARD & SUBWAY SECT return early doors (Thunderbolt, 7th), the increasingly proggy, increasingly feted and increasingly dull M83 play the pretty sizey Trinity (17th), THE HORRORS do the same venue (20th, sold out – they’ll play Cardiff in May) and smiling hardcore raconteur HENRY ROLLINS’ latest spoken word show The Long March visits St Georges Hall (17th). Also worth seeing are SCHNAUSER (Grain Barge, 13th), ANTA (Croft, 14th), the CAVES/BEDFORD FALLS bill at the Croft (29th) and the tireless and always fun MR SCRUFF (o2 Academy, 28th). Those are the headlines, god I wish they weren’t.

Is it really five years since Sammo Hung packed it in? Christ, maybe it’s more. Frightening how quickly time goes by. Heck have come and gone, too; they set the bar unsustainably high by supporting the Fall within minutes of forming, or something, and their sporadic and excellent gigs are all that’s left of them. ‘Emits Rays’, Jemma Roper’s debut solo release, is thus the first record of her inimitable talents in half a decade. Fortunately, it’s well worth the wait.

I say inimitable, and in many ways it’s directly recognisable as her. There’s few more imposing voices to be found, and here it coils around the songs much as it did in her old bands. Strident and broodingly romantic against the martial drumming and swooping bass of ‘We Crawled To The City’, luminous and yearning on the gorgeous, pulsing PJ Harvey-does-the-Knife rush of ‘Russian Owls’, it’s essential to the album’s appeal.

On some occasions the continuation is pronounced. ‘Our Powers Are Matched’ survives from the Heck days, but it was never this fun; here it’s reborn as fantastic retro-futurist glam, a stride through John Carpenter’s neon New York streets with a giddy rush of chattering beats and galloping rhythms. If Austra weren’t such portentious goths they might enjoy themselves like this. Elsewhere, Emits Rays feels like a sleek, confident take on common musical threads of recent times, be it the throng of Kate Bush acolytes or the gothic synthwave of Zola Jesus. Yet whereas much of this delivers mood over melody or meaning, shrillness over subtlety, Roper’s poised vignettes get the balance between obliqueness and accessibility spot on, with a sense of pop fun, adventure and thrilling possibility.

Producer Luke Taylor (Love Parry III / Face + Heel) is a perfect foil for the album; it sounds fantastic, crisp and dynamic. The fuzz guitar winding through ‘The Great Depression’, guiding the vocal as it rails and struggles against the whip-crack rhythm, the gloriously liquid new wave guitar line on ‘Our Powers Are Matched’ and the rumbling bass underpinning ‘Russian Owls’ and ‘The Rolling Pin’ are examples of the broad, modernist palette used to flesh out the skeletal, exploratory songs sketched out at Jemma’s solo gigs. The closing ‘Thanks’ most closely resembles these more intimate versions, with stark, plangent guitar and echoey, minimal percussion. It’s an intimate and spooky closer to an album that promises great things. The studio allows her to manipulate the ‘J.R.’ templates into something rich, haunting and supremely effective.

Emits Rays is available from http://jemmaroper.bandcamp.com/.

Some choice one-offs in the capital too, chiefly of an unpleasantly noisy fashion; yer punk and hardcore kids are the ones to turn to for pre-Christmas party fun, no mistake. SATURDAY’S KIDS stop touring for no man, of course, and their co-headline tour with ace W. Yorks / S.Wales punkers FACEL VEGA calls at Undertone (15th), with HARBOUR and HUNGER ARTIST in support. The latter band also prop up GOODTIME BOYS’ co-headline with Berlin’s AT DAGGERS DRAWN (Undertone, 1st) on a fine bill with THE DEATH OF HER MONEY and CROSSBREAKER. Woof. Be sure to catch TWO WOUNDED BIRDS’ glowering blend of Wall Of Sound pop, Ramones’ gawky attitude and Gene Vincent tremolo-heavy guitar twang, a highlight of Swn for me and supported by Swansea surf dudes HANGMEN (10 Feet Tall, 8th). Stirring Hereford post-rockers TALONS’ classical violin-driven sound does familiar things very well indeed; they play Undertone’s Christmas party on the 21st. In fact, it’s SOUTH WEST REPRESENT! month, notably the traditional musical backwater of Cornwall. Derivative but fun, not least in appropriating their name, Falmouth lo-fi noiseniks BLACK TAMBOURINES team up with JOANNA GRUESOME (Buffalo, 12th) for some shabby pop fun, while rowdy hardcore types KASA (Undertone, 20th) hail all the way from rock city Penzance. Finally, if you really can’t stand your co-workers and in-laws, spend the Friday before Christmas in the company of SPIDER KITTEN, THORUN and others (Bogiez, 23rd). Across the bridge the excellent people at Burial Chamber present a mammoth line-up including ALTAR OF PLAGUES, Thorun and the very fine BEAR-MAN (Croft, 3rd) and your pals and mine ISLET may or may not be playing the Croft (9th – the venue says yes, deafening silence elsewhere.  Check press, etc).

There’s a handful of fine evenings of more relaxed seasonal cheer scattered about. ALASDAIR ROBERTS hosts “an evening of folk culture, ritual and song” entitled Here’s A Health To The Barley Mow (Cube, 11th), where he’ll perform alongside FINGLEBONE and show a series of BFI films on the arcane and ritual. The man is a total chap. Espers frontwoman MEG BAIRD appears at the same venue (Cube, 8th) on a fantastic-looking psych-folk triple bill with FURSAXA and SHARRON KRAUS, as does recent Swn guest and experimental folkie DAUGHTER (Cube, 6th). Wonky, prolific and weirdly brilliant troubadour MEN DIAMLER, once magnificently described by our own Vivers as “Brian Blessed singing murder ballads”, signs off before calling time on his musical efforts (Cube, 1st), and no less eccentric ex-Hold Steady man FRANZ NICOLAY serenades the Croft (15th). Back in Cardiff ANTHONY REYNOLDS, still best remembered by me and some other old losers as songwriter with splendidly seedy 90s band Jack but now a regular collaborator on his home town’s art scene, performs new material at Chapter (10th); promising new Fence Records signing SEAMUS FOGARTY debuts at the Full Moon (formerly Y Fuwch Goch, 11th) and 10 Feet Tall pay tribute to the late Bert Jansch with songs from THE GENTLE GOOD, RHODRI VINEY and IVAN MOULT alongside DJs and films (11th).

Going to sign off with a few more recommended titbits. Electronic picks of the month are three; LONE, whose ‘Emerald Fantasy Tracks’ melded woozy Boards Of Canada synths and beatific R&S techno to splendid effect (Thekla, 9th), fierce futurist 303 belters from his labelmate BLAWAN (Buffalo, 1st) and a typically fascinating-looking line-up of out-there experimental pop, drone and electronica at the Arnolfini (8th) under the title Active Crossover. EKOPLEKZ, SJ ESAU and SKJOLBROT foremost on that bill. DEATH IN VEGAS’ halcyon days may be behind them but they still crank out some decent krautrock-heavy jams; move fast for their Thekla gig (13th) as it’s possibly already sold out. ACTION BEAT, who are bloody fantastic live and welcome back here anytime, join SJ ESAU (again), ANTA and BIG JOAN in support of MADNOMAD for a tenth anniversary celebration of Bristol’s Club Choke (Croft, 22nd). Finally, indestructible Mackem punk legends LEATHERFACE show the young’uns a trick at the Croft (7th). Somewhere, Steve Lamacq is sipping weak cider and sighing wistfully. Merry Christmas, Steve. Merry Christmas everyone.

OK, so hands up all those who thought this fine thing would ever see the light of day? Pah, ye of little faith. Five years or so down the line from their tantalisingly brief early sets, and two years since it was recorded, Power Grab arrives. That it does so as a budget-priced download-only release, rather than the deluxe double-vinyl, gatefold sleeve with Rhodri and Bernie in Kiss make-up edition it deserves, is a brazen indictment of the times we find ourselves in. Small beer, ultimately, though, as it manages to do the near-impossible; neatly capturing the precision-tooled playfulness of the most memorable RHLH gigs (Swn 2008, Clwb with Islet in 2009, Green Man 2009, Norwegian Church with Rangda in 2010… choose your own), cherry-picking their best moments to date and leaving you unreasonably eager for a swift follow-up.

The template for the album’s carefully-positioned peaks is a carefully constructed bed of simple yet crushingly effective riffs, bass and rhythm parts overlaid with insidious lead guitar and powerhouse drumming. The joy of those sporadic, brilliant live shows, captured so well here, is in the thrill found in subtle variation and the playful creativity with which they tease and stretch the core ideas into supple new shapes. You know them, even if you don’t think you know them. ‘The Capgras Delusion’ is a monolithic, magnificent opening shot, its enormous, serpentine riff and its jerky, Battles-y sibling writhing in and out of a squalling morass of guitar noise. Shuddering, propulsive kick-drums marshal it to a conclusion that’s both a thrill and a disappointment; like the inimitable ‘Stanislav Petrov’ and its triumphant, lumbering core riff, it could go on for twenty minutes and never outstay its welcome.

The trick is repeated on ‘Coincident XY’, another crushingly simple riff that builds and expands in all directions for a full four minutes. ‘Bugatti’, meanwhile, is its gloriously gonzoid peak; if a song could ride horseback through a burning village, this would be it. Relentless, irresistably catchy, with a gorgeously plangent, proggy middle eight, the album’s first true vocal is so perfectly timed it’s unreal. Muscular, lofty and thrillingly effective, this is RHLH in excelsis – visualise them swapping instruments, piling loop upon loop with dextrous glee, and you’re grinning uncontrollably.

What you do get from their Breaking The Magician’s Code-style deconstruction of the songs live, though, is an understanding of the breadth of inspirations and styles they call on. Always eschewing the by-numbers orthodoxy of a lot of post-rock, the mathy pounding of Trans Am or Maserati looms large but there’s far more besides. ‘Nub City’ is muscular and punchy, recalling Shellac’s mastery of dynamics and space. Multiple loops fold in and out, nut-tight and aggressive, before they’re blasted to the four winds as the band ‘play’ the muted riffs on circuit-bent home technology. ‘The Teignmouth Electron’ is all parched, bluesy riffing and insistent pummelling, evoking Kyuss or even Led Zeppelin. Hoary rock classicism in less capable hands, here the dextrous touch and muffled, foreboding vocals are a joy. It’s that magpie creativity that effortlessly lifts them above their peers; the manipulation and distortion they subject the loops to, the instrument-swapping, the confluence of styles with Ratatosk’s anguished vocals and slow-build orchestral scree and Vito’s delicate, expansive post-rock. Some of Power Grab‘s finest moments are in these departures, be it the snaking guitar solo and swirling noise of ‘Ferdinandea’ or the closing ‘Darvaz’, subtle, stately and evocative like ’90s lost greats Billy Mahonie or Rothko. There’s a second album on the way early next year, they reckon; grab this, and everything else they do, with both hands.  Hopfully, with the next one, you’ll actually be able to do that.

Massive thanks to Right Hand Left Hand for providing us with a track-by-track guide to the album.  Part studio diary, part history lesson, always entertaining.  They’re not all about cycling, you know…

1. The Capgras Delusion

This is a name for a mental disorder, in which the afflicted is convinced that a friend or loved one as been replaced by an identical imposter. Closely related to the Cotard delusion, in which the patient believes they’re already dead. This song is quite chaotic to play – the drummer’s riff alongside his mental drumming, the guitarist building up other riffs one note at a time, soloing, muting and finally screaming into the pickups.

2. The Teignmouth Electron

The name of Donald Crowhurst’s boat – he, along with 8 others, took part in the first non-stop round-the-world boat race in the 60s – only one finished. The race has informed a number of songs for RHLH and Ratatosk, and the story is expertly told in the documentary film Deep Water. A bit more of a rock swagger to this song, the guitarist attempts a Josh Homme impression on guitar and vocals, while the drummer manipulates time itself. The lyrics are taken from and inspired by Crowhurst’s journals, written after he’d lost his mind.

3. Stanislav Petrov

Stanislav Petrov – a man who refused to panic when his Russian computer systems showed that nuclear warheads were on their way to the USSR. He recognised it as a computer glitch, and so the soviet missiles remained unlaunched, instead of heading westward. This is the first RHLH song – it’s almost our theme song. One riff and a whole world of possibilities.

4. Jerry Fuchs

RIP Jerry Fuchs, drummer of Maserati (among others) – one of the only instrumental bands I have any time for these days. We were both big fans, and Inventions of the New Season is one of the great instrumental rock records.

5. Bugatti

We love Maserati so much we ripped them off and called it Bugatti. An unyielding, swaggering, pillaging beast of a riff, that gets more unpleasant as the song goes on. The drumming is so good here, the guitarist doesn’t have to do that much.

6. Ferdinandea

A slower, more contemplative song, which is basically one long solo. Ferdinandea is an occasional island in the Mediterranean. A volcano erupts – Ferdinandea forms – Ferdinandea quickly erodes to leave a submerged volcano again. After erupting in 1831, it was the subject of a conflict between the British, French and Italians before it disappeared a few months later without a resolution being reached. In 1986, American bombers mistook it for a Libyan submarine and bombed it.

7. Coincident XY

Is a way microphones are set up. Our second ever song – we spent so long in rehearsals playing this and Stanislav, we realised out first gig was coming up and we didn’t have any other songs. It even has some lyrics, decrying hipster twatheads who maintain that Tweez is better than Spiderland, when that’s clearly fucking nonsense. People who maintain that On Avery Island is better than In the Aeroplane Over the Sea have a stronger argument, but are still wrong.

8. Nub City

Along with ‘Capgras’, it was among our first songs written with multiple loops that built up through the song. The muting section at the end was made possible thanks to a chap called Bien, who made the pedals for us out of used records.

The town of Vernon, Florida (subject of a film by Errol Morris) was notorious for having a huge national percentage of insurance claims on lost limbs, many of them believed to be deliberate – as a result, it became known as nub city. We became obsessed by this story. If I may, an article sums it up better than I can:

L.W. Burdeshaw, an insurance agent in Chipley, told the St. Petersburg Times in 1982 that his list of policyholders included the following: a man who sawed off his left hand at work, a man who shot off his foot while protecting chickens, a man who lost his hand while trying to shoot a hawk, a man who somehow lost two limbs in an accident involving a rifle and a tractor, and a man who bought a policy and then, less than 12 hours later, shot off his foot while aiming at a squirrel.

“There was another man who took out insurance with 28 or 38 companies,” said Murray Armstrong, an insurance official for Liberty National. “He was a farmer and ordinarily drove around the farm in his stick shift pickup. This day – the day of the accident – he drove his wife’s automatic transmission car and he lost his left foot. If he’d been driving his pickup, he’d have had to use that foot for the clutch. He also had a tourniquet in his pocket. We asked why he had it and he said, ‘Snakes. In case of snake bite.’ He’d taken out so much insurance he was paying premiums that cost more than his income. He wasn’t poor, either. Middle class. He collected more than $1-million from all the companies. It was hard to make a jury believe a man would shoot off his foot.”

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/02/Life/Dismembered_again.shtml

9. Darvaz

Woah, the drummer is on guitar, and the guitarist is on drums! Our first experiment with proper instrument swapping (the drummer has always been nifty enough on the guitar to coin and perform several RHLH riffs, this is the first time the guitarist took his place) produced this tune. To me, it sounds like late 90s post rock, which is when the genre still meant something and was genuinely original. So yeah, we like it.

Darvaz is a region of Turkmenistan that experienced a mining accident in 1971. A drilling rig collapsed into a cavern, leaving a large. To avoid the discharge of poisonous gas they set fire to it, hoping it would burn up in a few days. 40 years later it’s still burning, and it’s known as “the door to hell” – which is where we leave you.

What do you want from a debut album? It’s often said that a first album, like a first novel, acts as a record of everything the author has done up to that point, the culmination of years of slow and steady evolution. Which is fine up to a point, but presumes the inclusion of styles and features a band has shaken off, left behind in the process. It’s already dated if it dwells too long on its gestation period, and Fanatical Love succeeds so well because Kutosis focus so sharply on the band they are now, and the band they might yet be.

It doesn’t hurt that the album positively roars off the blocks. Poised for the 60-second duration of the sleight-of-hand opening sound collage, they come out swinging with the killer one-two combination of ‘Salton Sea’ and recent single ‘Shadows’. The former briefly, blissfully, renders Exit_International wholly unnecessary, its shuddering, elastic bass and furious yelping reminiscent of early Mclusky. ‘Shadows’ is the clearest sign yet of their full-blooded pop skills, whipsmart Les Savy Fav art-punk that doesn’t waste a single second. Followed swiftly by the taut, efficient noise of its flipside ‘Skin’, another killer chorus sharpened to bleeding point by Rory Attwell’s crisp production job, the opening salvo serves as an expert repurposing of what we already know Kutosis do well; fat-free garage punk shorn of swagger and machismo and peppered with insistent hooks.

For all the thrills in the relentless first act, it’s the variations that reward most on repeat. ‘Battle Lake’ arrives on a monolithic bass-heavy groove, and the tempo shift and use of space and dynamics are utterly striking. Attwell’s hand is sensed on the tiller here; the metallic, see-sawing guitar stabs and falsetto bridge vocals recall another of his clients, recent Joy Collective guests Cold Pumas. Here, and on the closing ‘Breeders’, Kutosis are exactly the kind of muscular, effective noise-punks his old band Test-Icicles might have been if they didn’t act like such dicks.

Whatever you expected of them, a two-part dubbed out instrumental probably wasn’t it. The shoegazey guitar shimmer, bone-rattling bass and echo-heavy drums recall Ride, of all bands, circa ‘Leave Them All Behind’, no bad thing indeed and typical of a promising breadth of intent across the album’s last section. The results – the moody, brittle anthemicism of ‘Lights To Lead Us’ and the harsh sheet-metal guitars and clanging tension of ‘Miniatures’ – are icily foreboding, the lyrics darker in tone and speaking of emptiness and exhaustion. It’s carried by a production job that might have failed a lesser band but complements their ambition superbly; nothing feels tokenistic or a lead-booted attempt at gravitas. It’s still the simple things that make Fanatical Love work best, though; the beefed-up up low-end for maximum Death From Above danceability, the flawless sequencing and pacing, the indelible hooks. They’re not taking the straightest, simplest route, that of the one-dimensional punk band with a few fag packet social commentary lyrics. The simple things nailed, the next stage marked out; they’re far more than that.

Ian, Jim and Ben from Kutosis kindly put together a track-by-track commentary for the album for us.  Synch your eyes with the CD, DVD or both and enjoy it in real time!  Like a director’s commentary, except without all the dull bits where they talk about lenses and that.

1. #asongtostartarecordwith

We wanted to start the album with a short burst of strange sounds rather than a normal song. It’s like a gateway to the rest of the album. One minute of processed sounds played on the bass, along with cymbals, toms, white noise and feedback. The video for this song was made by Ellen Campesinos and features a brief cameo from Adam Chard, who’s designed the artwork for the album, playing a dead body.

2. Salton Sea

Salton Sea is a place in California that was a holiday destination for the rich and famous in the 1950s. It’s since become largely abandoned and desolate. A big thank you should go to Dan Barnett of Samoans who as well as transporting us to and from London for the album sessions provided some understated backing vocals to balance all the yelping in the chorus. Our friend Lt Meat made an excellent video for this song, pieced together from hundreds of long exposure photographs.

3. Shadows

As soon as we wrote this song we realised it was going to be the single. It’s got lots of different sections but still adds up to three and a half minutes. Normally songs that sound like single material are written really quickly but we took a bit more time with this one, starting with the chorus and working ‘outwards’.

4. Skin

This is a song about finding your sense of place in an unfamiliar city. It’s got a spoken word part at the start of the song which is a combination of different phrases and sentences we took from a magazine and put together. We shot the video for this song with Tom Betts who runs the Movie Maker nights at Chapter Arts in Cardiff. He had us running around Cardiff dressed as spies which was enormous fun.

5. Battle Lake

It feels wrong picking a favourite song on your own album – it’s like a parent saying they have a favourite child – but this one really stands out for us. It starts off very structured with a lot of space between the instruments and ends up being satisfyingly messy and noisy.

6. House Sounds

House Sounds is a song about getting desensitised to things you once found exciting. ‘The party never ends!’ refrain is more jaded than joyous. The title is taken from an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which we’re big fans of. The video was made by a San Francisco based collective called Dreams For Dead Cats. We’re extremely grateful to them as they volunteered to step in and make this video at very short notice.

7. Devo

This song is our personal homage to Devo. Channel 5 used it in their trailer for the new season of NCIS. It’s never a bad thing to have a song associated with a naval criminal drama.

8. Islands vs Oceans I

Islands vs Oceans is an instrumental we wrote which we broke into two parts for the album. It ushers in the darker final third of the album. The video was directed by Bafta award winner Matt Brown and a bunch of his very talented friends.

9. Lights To Lead Us

This was the biggest departure we took compared to the other songs we had written for the album. It’s our first five minute song, and we were aiming for a shift in mood from the start of the album. The video, directed by Jason Marsh, is very disturbing but in the best possible way.

10. Miniatures

We demo’d this song before we’d written most of the album. We didn’t think it quite fitted in with what we were doing at the time but some of our friends who heard it made us see it in a different light. We re-worked it a bit and now can’t imagine we ever considered not including it.

11. Islands vs Oceans II

Err, Islands vs Oceans round two! The bass gets dirty, the guitar goes weird and the drums get massive. If you play Lights To Lead Us and Miniatures really loud, you can actually hear Islands vs Oceans in the background. Try it!

12. Breeders

Unlike Devo, Breeders isn’t intended as a homage to Kim Deal’s band of the same name. We became Twin Peaks obsessives around the time we wrote this song. It starts with some evil sounding keys and gets more disconcerting from there. Dave Roberts and Nic Britz of Dangerous Doug Films made a great video for this that really complements the music.

Nothing weird about ultra-prolific Japanese psych-rock behemoth ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE playing in a bar in Bridgend.  On a Monday night (Hobos, 14^th).  Nope, hang on, that’s highly weird, yet fantastic.  It’s cheap (£8 maximum) and has excellent support from longform psych improvisers BEAR-MAN.  Oh, and Hawkwind’s Nik Turner might turn up and play because he lives down the road.  Splendid.  If Bridgend’s too much of a stretch, AMT play the Thekla on the 15^th too.  Further exploratory truffles can be uncovered in the no less unusual surrounds of Cathays’ Gower pub (28^th), where the Rusty Trombone of God dudes follow up their fine Sŵn bill with prepared guitar and drum workouts from BIRCHALL/CHEETHAM DUO, manipulated feedback jams from DEAS & DENTON and R. SEILIOG.  Trippy.  Elsewhere, seek out multimedia polymath PEOPLE LIKE US, who turns her unrivalled skills in A/V plunderphonics to the horror genre in ‘Magical Misery Tour’ (Cube, 17^th) and former PLU collaborator ERGO PHIZMIZ, who presents “electronic neur-opera” The Third Policeman, a feast of animation, music and interactive storytelling, over two nights at the Cube (9^th, 10^th).

More horizon-broadening stuff, again courtesy of Qu Junktions, at the same venue (16^th), where Balkan themes are interpreted by The Ex’s ANDY MOOR and Cypriot electronic composer YANNIS KYRIAKIDES.  Their take on Greek rembetika comes with Kyriakides’ film Varocha and support from Nalle and Scatter man Chris Hladowski’s psych trio THE FAMILY ELAN.  Ace.  Over at the Croft, more heavy psych treats; transcendental West African jam band GROUP INERANE, undeterred by their ATP performance going on ice, pair up with killer free noise pair FLOWER-CORSANO DUO for an unmissable night (29^th).  ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER returns swiftly to Bristol (Cube, 22^nd) with an A/V collaboration with filmmaker Nate Boyce, an apparently career-best new set of meditative, lo-fi sampledelia and support from Planet Mu alumnus HYETAL.  Finally, for now, there’s coal-black mutant jazz from Norway’s very awesome SHINING (Fleece, 6^th).

There’s lots of excellent new releases about from Cardiff’s best and brightest, and on the back of some triumphant Swn shows a few of them take the metaphorical champagne bottle across the bow this month.  TRUCKERS OF HUSK celebrate the release of ‘Accelerated Learning’ on Shape at Clwb (26^th), and if it’s half as rumbustuous as O’Neills was last week it’ll be a treat.  Not least because RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND, who slayed Swn themselves and whose ‘Power Grab’ should be bought, now, by everyone, support.  As do yer Bear-Man.  KUTOSIS, meanwhile, have ‘Fanatical Love’ birthed on the 14^th by Barely Regal, and launch it not once but twice with a gig at Clwb (11^th, EFFORT among the supports) and a playback of the videos created for each song at Chapter Moviemaker (7^th).  Their joint tour with SAMOANS, meanwhile, takes in the Croft (13^th).  Also on the 11^th, SCIENCE BASTARD unveil ‘Pull Tiger Death Cord’ with a freebie show at Le Pub; they also support returning heroes FUTURE OF THE LEFT who bring forth new material at Clwb (20^th).  SATURDAY’S KIDS are on that bill too, one of the month’s best.  Another sees LOS CAMPESINOS! touring with Ukraine-wasting nutbar geniuses STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR; the ensuing chaos serves to promote LC!’s ‘Hello Sadness’ album, and calls at the Globe (9^th).  ISLET aren’t, sadly, trailing a new album – yet – but play Buffalo (23^rd) with pictish scruffs DOLFINZ and the lopsided clatter of HIS NAKED TORSO.

Away from the local heroes, it’s a bit of a cracking month for quality live tackle in the capital.  THROWING MUSES are a bit of a coup for Swn, and should make the air fair crackle with intensity in the intimate setting of the Gate (8^th).  Watch out for the GIGCLASH though, as the same dudes bring you tender, wounded love songs and sleepy/druggy West Coast pop classicism care of San Francisco’s GIRLS (Globe, 8^th) on the same night.  Bummer, I believe, is the expression, a sentiment perhaps shared by Cardiff-based fans of DANANANANAYKROYD; no sooner had I plugged the Bristol date of their farewell tour than the lovable math-pop scamps had added a bonus date (Undertone, 5^th) with DRAINS in tow.  Top sweaty fun in prospect there, as there surely will be when MARIACHI EL BRONX swing by Clwb (27^th), even if their day-job incarnation aren’t appearing this time.  JOSH T. PEARSON is another whose show moves to Clwb from the Globe (24^th); on sparkling, hilarious between-song form at End Of The Road, that should be a treat.  Less predictable, but potentially great, is GHOSTFACE KILLAH (Solus, 6^th).  Such a shame that’s not in Clwb, too, but on his day he should rip it up anyway.  WISE BLOOD, rescheduled from summer, brings his dextrous cut ‘n’ paste pop to Undertone (18^th).

Plenty of big stuff happening over the bridge.  DOOM returns to Bristol with another showcase of his multifarious pseudonyms; the best rapper of his generation appears at Motion (15^th), while over at Start The Bus there’s a chance to see SHABAZZ PALACES, capping a remarkable rebirth from Daisy Age obscurity with Digable Planets with his first UK tour (22^nd).  EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY take their textbook quiet-loud post-rock to the big stages (o2 Academy, 20^th), a big step up considering that WILD BEASTS are only playing the Anson Rooms (19^th).  Both ought to be good, of course.  OKKERVIL RIVER have slowly become rabble-rousing main stage gold in a way Bright Eyes never really managed; they’re at the Trinity (21^st), while BESNARD LAKES’ slow-burn rootsy indie-rock should sell well at the Thekla (21^st) the same night and BON IVER will have the 4×4 crowd going wild in the aisles at the Colston Hall (11^th).  Rather than the latter, spend the 11^th in the company of ST VINCENT, whose US jaunt with our own CATE LE BON in support crosses the pond; they’re at the Fleece (11^th) for the nearest thing to a triumphant homecoming.  Also recommended: redoubtable gentle giant of folk-blues WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE (St Bonventures, 15^th), wrought, emotional indie-rockers THE ANTLERS (Thekla, 9^th), Belle & Sebastian guitarist and total chap STEVIE JACKSON’s solo debut (Thekla, 11^th) and Constellation’s SISKIYOU (Cube, 12^th, with SILVER PYRE).

More Cardiff stuff!  Gathered In Song have landed a bit of a coup with American Music Club’s MARK EITZEL’s return to Cardiff alongside alt-country troubadour RICHARD BUCKNER (Buffalo, 9^th) and they also have ex-Grand Drive man DANNY & THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD (Globe, 14^th).  Italian garage/shoegaze dudes THEE PIATCIONS have their postponed show rescheduled at Buffalo (21^st) with Laura Bryon of King Alexander’s new band TENDER PREY opening.  Ace Fence Records folkster ROZI PLAIN returns (10 Feet Tall, 28^th) as do decidedly un-folky Leicester sociopaths DIET PILLS (Gower, 18^th, with SPIDER KITTEN and more).  Satisfy your noise jonesing further in the company of sludgy Londoners PALEHORSE, skronky mathrock types NITKOWSKI and those STRANGE NEWS fellows (Clwb, 3^rd) or TALL SHIPS (Undertone, 10^th), or for something a little danceable check Kitsune’s CITIZENS playing 10 Feet Tall with the ace HEMME FATALE (16^th) or indiepoppers WAKE THE PRESIDENT (Undertone, 19^th).

What else? Lots. Sleek electro-pop goodness from NEON INDIAN (Cooler, 19^th), or maybe thumpingly direct polyrhythmic Animal Collective fun from FIXERS (Start The Bus, 19^th). PURE X offer a pretty intriguing amalgam of gluey shoegaze guitars and airy 60s pop structures which could either be great or an indulgent mess live, decide for yourselves (Thekla, 7^th). There’s supercute gossamer indiepop from CULTS (Thekla, 17^th), shuddering mathy hardcore from ICE, SEA, DEAD PEOPLE (Croft, 19^th), neon Fairlight disco classicism from AZARI & III (Blue Mountain, 3^rd), woozy falsetto lo-fi from GARDENS & VILLA (Thekla, 5^th) and hearty stop-start indie-rock care of PORTUGAL. THE MAN (Louisiana, 19^th). There’s also some preposterously strong bills over at Motion, with EROL ALKAN, HUDSON MOHAWKE, JON HOPKINS, WASHED OUT and more (12^th) and JOKER, MARTYN, NATHAN FAKE and JAMES HOLDEN all on one bill (25^th). That’s before we even mention a slew of perma-touring types making swift returns to Bristol, namely MELVINS (Thekla, 4^th), DJ SHADOW (Academy, 28^th), BILLY BRAGG (Anson Rooms, 28^th), JESSE MALIN (Fleece, 29^th), WIRE (Thekla, 29^th) and JAMES BLAKE (Anson Rooms, 29^th). Ridiculous. Frankly, there’s loads more – see the listings section for ample proof – but that should be enough to keep you going. Word to the wise: December’s dead, so make the most of it.

Under starters’ orders, and they’re off:  Swn is 5.  Time once again to abandon such fripperies as sleep and regular meal times in favour of thirstily seeking out as much brilliant new music as Cardiff’s live venues can belch at you.  Away we go…

This year’s twist is a packed-out and boozy schedule across all venues on the Sunday, replacing the more laid-back Gwdi Hw events of recent years; instead, Thursday night is less frenetic than usual, allowing for a gentler introduction to the weekend, but there’s still plenty to investigate and enjoy. For a sure-footed start Clwb for Elephant Stone‘s bubblegum psych-pop. Stay around for a bit of Algiers‘ tuneful post-punk clatter but be sure to hop to Dempseys and crane your neck towards Elephant (no relation) who offer sweet boy/girl harmonies and delicate, dark 60s-tinged pop. Back to Clwb for the ever-splendid shambling antifolk joy of Herman Dune, after which you can either stake out a spot in a heaving 10 Feet Tall to see Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat croon and murmer post-watershed sweet nothings over Bill Wells‘ jazzy arrangements or chance your arm on getting in and catch North Walians Jen Jeniro‘s heart-tugging pop in between. If you’re off work on Friday, or made of strong stuff, there’s Yr Ods in O’Neills or Fixers‘ dayglo Animal Collective-inspired pop at Dempseys; Buffalo then take day one long into the night with crackling, moody techno-infused dubstep from Martyn and Disclosure‘s languid, haunting beats. It’s 4am. Shouldn’t you be in bed?

It being the weekend proper, Friday packs the good stuff in like Swn of old. Fill your satchel with Ginsters and Lucozade, it’s going to be an endurance test. Start in fine style with a little Swn-themed bingo in CAI but don’t miss Two Wounded Birds, skinny wolves forced out of the shadows early doors to glower and coo for your enjoyment. They’re upstairs in Clwb, from where you should be able to hear Run, WALK! screaming blue bloody murder downstairs. Suitably tenderised and exhilarated, hop to Buffalo where Lesson No. 1 host a night-long glowering contest featuring the reshuffled and always excellent Brandyman, the meat-grinder unpleasantness and slithering noise of The Good Wife and Sweden’s Skull Defekts. Three hours can be very well spent just darting between there and Undertone; there, the Rusty Trombone Of God offer up a plethora of improvised, psychedelic esoterica. Team Sports‘ cello/samplers/drums set-up is the skyscraping highlight, but check out the moog-heavy prog/drone fuzz of Ultrahumanitarian and psych wayfarers Ashtray Navigations too. There’s more though, and an equally fine time can be had checking Gross Magic‘s goofy lo-fi fun and moody post-hardcore instrumentalists Brontide (both Clwb) followed by the brilliant c86-meets-Lush dual harmonies and snappy new wave pop of Veronica Falls and Gallops!‘ propulsive electro/post-rock attack (both Dempseys). Following on from the latter, Clwb go electronic for the rest of the night. Ifan Dafydd does intriguing things with James Blake-esque vocal manipulation and eyebrow-raising samples, and with Stay+ bringing booming bass thud and Seams’ glitchy beats and quicksilver dexterity you’re all set. Modern Life Is Rubbish have your back in Undertone if your needs are more indie-flavoured. Buy them a drink and you’ll get your request played. Deal.

Day three. Alldayer time, and the men and boys are separated. Heroes of the weekend are surf-rock titans Y Niwl, casually doubling last year’s tally by playing four sets in a day. Perm any two from four and you’re sorted; miss them all and you’re an utter chump. You’ve been warned. Start your day with them in CAI if you choose, followed by a one-two of Kiwi noise-punk duo DZ Deathrays and fuzz-punk scruffs Mowbird in Buffalo. For an alternative take there’s more cerebral fare afoot in Chapter, where dots.filmband unfold intricate compositions for short film in front of the big screen. Following that relaxed start, Barefoot Dance Of The Sea‘s gorgeous three-part harmonies and lovelorn shanties and either Summer Camp‘s cute, knowing keyboard-driven indiepop or the flinty-voiced atmospheric balladry of Sam Airey will do nicely. Whichever route you take, don’t miss Eagulls‘ excellent shambling racket in Undertone or LA2019‘s pristine, pulsing Vangelis-via-Boards Of Canada neon dreamscapes in Clwb. After that, it’s a cross-town dash to the Uni to join several hundred lumpy fortysomethings waiting to see The Fall. The main attraction shouldn’t be missed, naturally, city hobgoblin MES’ gnomic mumblings and stentorian gaze overseeing his charges’ roiling, savage stew of post-punk rhythm and krautock rifferama. Head over early for Ted Chippington‘s blank-faced verse and the new-for-2011 reanimation of the Nightingales, Robert Lloyd’s vituperative Midlands counterpoint to the Fall lent similar new vigour. Should all that not appeal, beat a path to Chapter instead; there, Bleeding Heart Narrative‘s delicately crafted music-box post-rock soundscapes and the warm, flickering melancholy of Daughter will soothe tired limbs and hearts. Further solace can be sought with Melodica, Melody and Me (Undertone), whose twinkling percussion and dextrous assimilation of styles make up for an awful name, while Beaty Heart‘s joyful Afrobeat and sticky pop hooks offer a gleefully danceable variant on the theme at Dempseys. Perhaps thankfully, there’s a lull late in the evening; plenty on, but few thrills. Grab some food, or something. Then queue up at Dempseys for Y Niwl‘s triumphant final set of the day, before dosing up on The Keys‘ mercurial psych-pop in a sweaty O’Neills. By then you’ll be either dead or dancing; if the latter, join perennial party-starters Ugly Duckling for hands-in-the-air hip-hop classicism at CAI. Then fall over.

Great! It’s Sunday. Nice big lunch, maybe a relaxing few hours in one place watching a few bands… oh bollocks. Yes, it’s another full programme, rich with noise and giddy enthusiasm. Wash down your Sunday roast at Quiz Quest, Cardiff’s premier cake-awarding Powerpoint quiz about East 17. They’re in the Owain Glyndwr this year, handy for checking out Barry-based artist and renaissance dude Carl Chapple‘s portrait exhibition Musicians in the High Street Arcade during half-time. Early musical recommendations? Try FAMY at Buffalo for slanted pop charm like an over-stimulated Grizzly Bear (the band, sadly), or Olympians‘ hyper-melodic math-pop in Undertone. First must-see, though, is Right Hand Left Hand‘s annual “where the bloody hell have you been” set in Dempseys. Insist on an album release from these men. It must happen. Haste ye then to O’Neills, where Them Squirrels‘ twisty, proggy tempo-switches and jubilant clatter opens a killer Shape Records stage. Stretch your legs with a dash to catch a curiously early set from Danish electro-pop gems Battlekat in CAI – surely better suited to a celebratory late-night slot – before returning for Gentle Friendly, pummelling through two-minute nuggets of catchy blastbeats and see-sawing buzzpop choruses. More of that sort of thing! To whit, Kutosis, trailing their soon-come new album at Dempseys, as do Truckers of Husk back in O’Neills. If you’re flagging or in need of less familiar thrills by that point, however, detour either to Undertone for Hail! The Planes‘ stately, stirring post-rock or over to CAI where a triple-team of yearning indie-pop/c86 revivalism kicks off with stripped-back duo Big Deal‘s lyrical intimacy and fat-free grunge-pop guitars and The History Of Apple Pie‘s borrowed nostalgia for an unremembered, er, 90s. From that point there are a handful of equally fine routes to take. Dam Mantle get a bum deal with an 8pm headline set in Buffalo, but their glorious melding of superbly funky electronica and unsettling horror fx will rule regardless; follow that with the Swn return of mental Bristolian world/funk/psych hydra Zun Zun Egui in Gwdi Hw. That, or the awesomely kinetic one-man guitar and drum looping wunderkind Theo in Undertone followed by Saturday’s Kids in Dempseys. Or H. Hawkline followed by Sweet Baboo in O’Neills, perfectly positioned to allow you to take in David Dondero‘s warm, engaging and witty alt-country folk songs at 10 Feet Tall in between sets. Phew. Come the end of the night, and the weekend, there’s always one band that unites everyone who’s peeled off on different, equally rewarding paths. It’s how Swn is; Future of the Left have been that band, so have Islet. This year, saints preserve us, it’s Strange News From Another Star. In Undertone, not noted for its capacity, temperate climate or working toilets. You’ll be relieved when it’s all over, but you’ll miss it by Monday.

What strikes you with a lot of spoken word, or poetry, in music is that rarely do the words and the music act as more than counterpoints to each other; each exists on its own terms, often to great effect, but one tends to drive the other, to dictate the direction of the whole.  Not so with Enablers.  Pete Simonelli’s prose positively sings, see-sawing back and forth and in and out of his bandmates’ astoundingly tight, complex music.  Veterans of a host of intense, cathartic and bloody-toothed hardcore, post-rock and alt-rock bands, they rein in the volume as Simonelli slows to a whisper and swerve into bruising post-hardcore as his protagonists’ tales become evermore terrible, desperate and hopeless.  Shellac or Fugazi would be lazy reference points, if you need them, but the tales Simonelli essays are more personal, poetic and vivid than an Albini or a Mackaye.  They’re the American dream gone sour, and the men left cut adrift and contemplating their fate.  If listening to Enablers is like being in the eye of the storm, seeing them close up in a setting as intimate as the Cube should be incredible.

Support comes from Salisbury’s Adam Varney, aka Finglebone, whose 23 takes the intricate, dusty melancholia of his earlier ambient guitar manipulations and knots it with harsher electronic textures, drone and field recordings.  Highly recommended for download at the bandcamp address below.

ENABLERS / FINGLEBONE

Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol BS2 8JD | 20:00 15/10/2011

(Sat 15th / 8pm / £7 door, £6 advance)

Enablers return to the West Country after incredible gigs at The Croft and down the road at ATP a while back. We’re very excited to be putting these fellows on again,probably one of the best live bands out there full stop!

‘The sound has evolved since the last full LP release ‘Tundra’, still with the intense dynamic guitar play between Joe Goldring and Kevin Thomson and the weaving in of Pete Simonelli’s words, but now featuring Doug Scharin (Codeine, Rex, Him, June of 44 …) on drums! This is a confident record still with the distinct elements of musicianship and imagination that made the previous releases so engaging but one that is moving forward into new sounds, new realms. Not to be missed – go listen!!!’ (http://www.theliminal.co.uk)

Finglebone
23″ is a collection of experimental layering of field recordings and ambient sounds is interwoven with light and sparkling acoustic guitar melodies. All in all, this results in a very organic sound structure. This is a great one for headphone listening, as many of Pan, EQ and other effects details are buried deep in the mix. Contemplative, meditative, sunny and peaceful – like a walk in the woods”. – Klangverhaltnisse Ambient blog.

http://enablers.bandcamp.com
http://myspace.com/enablers
http://www.lancashireandsomerset.​co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21008098333
http://finglebone.bandcamp.com/