TRACKS

REVIEWS OF SINGLES AND EPS BY NORTH EAST ARTISTS. WANT YOUR MUSIC FEATURED? EMAIL NARCMEDIA@GMAIL.COM

(PLEASE TRY TO GET IN TOUCH 8-6 WEEKS AHEAD OF THE MONTH OF RELEASE)

Docksuns

DOCKSUNS - BLEW UP A KISS

Words: Paul Ray

Sunderland’s Docksuns return with a very big, very melodramatic spaghetti western banger, replete with tremolo guitar picking and thick, creamy fuzz bass. Blew Up A Kiss crackles with energy and momentum, all verses pointing to the chorus with the confident inevitability of any well-constructed pop song. Despite their insistence that Docksuns’ music is “unpolished and intense, visceral and real”, this is a pop song wearing hard rock drag – the production is sparklingly clean, the vocals harmonised and anthemic. It’s a lot of fun (the misguided Martin Luther King sample in the middle-eight notwithstanding), and it made me miss gigs even more than I already do, because this song would absolutely rip live.

Released: 29.01.21 www.facebook.com/docksuns

Wild Spelks

WILD SPELKS - DREAMER (CAFÉ IN BERLIN)

Words: Kate Murphy

Instantly likeable, with its shuffly-shoed, droopy-shouldered, dangly-armed bounce, this is the kind of song that makes you long for Polaroid cameras and college dorm days listening to Smashing Pumpkins. With lyrics like “I know this feeling / I know this song” and “Though I’ve never been / My favourite place is a café in Berlin”, Wild Spelks sing on behalf of a world fantasising about being somewhere else. The song embodies the high-pitched sigh of someone staring out of their window, half-here and half-not, half given-up and half-not. The lovely post-chorus guitar glistens with hope and resolve, providing the perfect soundtrack to anyone who’s currently dreaming of their own Berlin, or, at this point, anyone who’d be happy enough to just make it to a café.

Released: 26.02.21 www.soundcloud.com/spelksmusic

Komparrison

KOMPARRISON DANCING WITH DEMONS

Words: Kate Murphy

The gorgeous misty chords in this track grab your attention straight away, and set it apart from your average indie pop song. The storytelling is engaging, the vocals rich, smoky and jaded, and the context of its ‘dance away your troubles’ message gives it an edge: “Our favourite past-time is corrupting our lungs”, they exclaim, and a year ago a line like this would have been no more than a passing metaphor; it now juts out of the song with increasing poignancy, and the lines before it become deeply moving: “We’re the troubled youth that the adults frown upon / Just misunderstood and trying to have some fun”. The song’s tingly beginning promises a lot, although I found myself clawing for a bigger, angrier chorus.

Released: 29.01.21 www.facebook.com/komparrison

Pink Poison

PINK POISON - SPRUNG FROM HELL

Words: Paul Jeffrey

Sprung From Hell, the latest release from Geordie garage punks Pink Poison, is a 62 second burst of rough and ready 21st Century DIY blues that slaps you around the face as it is kneeing you in the groin. Harsher than a broken Stihl saw, it snaps and snarls like a rabid dog hopped up on gasoline and raw meat, building up an imposing cacophony of slashed speaker cones, dissonant drums and whiskey-soaked vocals that sets the world on fire, burning wildly out of control before swiftly hitting a wall marked ‘the end’. Sometimes, as demonstrated here, music doesn’t need to be complicated; sometimes, a large blast of raw intensity is all you really need.

Released: 05.02.21 www.soundcloud.com/pink-poison-band

DON COYOTE - SOMEBODY

Words: Jay Moussa-Mann

There’s something really joyful about Don Coyote’s sound and their latest single is no exception. Somebody is upbeat indie soft-rock, full of gleeful guitar rhythms and infused with jazz vibes. I think it’s the first line that draws me in, as lead vocalist’s Sam Wildsmith’s calm, mellow voice drops the phrase: “When everything you do is such a waste of time...” Highly relatable, especially at the moment, but gloom is quickly banished. The track has a happy, live quality to it, with backing vocals dipping in and out sporadically and little flourishes as the band counts in. It’s a delight! And at the heart of it all, is our basic need for connection. “Just think of someone...that makes you happy / And it takes the weight off.”

Released: 14.02.21 www.d0ncoyote.bandcamp.com

JEN DIXON - WHY DID WE CRASH?

Words: Paul Ray

Teessider Jen Dixon’s new song is a wintry ballad, centring around suitably doleful piano and an exposed, vulnerable vocal performance. Dixon’s voice is melodious and resonant, perfectly pitched at all times, which is why I wish she had a better song to sing. The song is often let down by fairly clunky, unnatural-sounding rhymes, and the underlying music doesn’t do much to make up for it. To be fair, the interplay between the piano and acoustic guitar is pleasant, providing some much-needed extra colour to the song’s pretty generic chordal structure, but by the time the wash of strings comes in near the end I don’t think many people would think they’re especially merited. A valiant attempt at emotionality.

Released: 29.01.21 www.facebook.com/jendixonmusic

ELEPHANT MEMOIRS - FAIRYTALES

Words: Kate Murphy

There’s a dreamy stoicism to this track, calling up images of a stormy sea voyage, and a teary-eyed captain journeying fiercely to reclaim his destroyed homeland. It charges forth in an interesting, linear way: we’re not on the ship ourselves, it’s more like we’re watching the events play out from a safe distance, from left to right, and the heartbroken male cries that ride along with it give it the soothing feel of a story being re-told. Some might not be fans of the bounce-back effect on the vocals, preferring instead a more rugged and much less contained sound, but there is plenty of feeling still there, and the track’s heartfelt chaos is a nice hat-tip to Biffy Clyro.

Released: 01.02.21 www.soundcloud.com/elephantmemoirs

THE FALSE POETS - GLISSANDO

Words: Paul Ray

Due to a certain viral pandemic, The False Poets had to record their new single separately, and you can sort of tell. Drums, gritty guitar chords and bass all chug along without ever sounding particularly together, on top of which an entertaining slide guitar performs the titular glissandi with gusto. Chris Riley’s vocal performance is infused with garage-country twang, constantly emphasising flat sevenths, but the song sounds disjointed, messy and demo-like. I’m not talking about the production quality, which is never a guarantor of quality anyway – the songwriting itself lacks confidence, circling around the same meat and potatoes chords without ever obtaining much conviction. Harsh, I know…it doesn’t take itself too seriously, at least, and the slide guitar bits sound pretty cool.

Released: 05.02.21 www.facebook.com/thefalsepoets

JAMIE AINSLIE - READY FOR THIS

Words: Kate Murphy

Pure 60s jangle and irresistible bluster, this barges in with a mac on and a fag lit, makes a lot of noise, and is over and done with in two minutes and thirty-nine seconds. I have all the time in the world for it. It’s London when it was swinging, it’s a for-the-hell-of-it hurricane made to be chanted and moved to, it’s London when it was riding high again thirty years later, complete with cocky nasal swagger and the easily imagined, always-nearby muffled cries of “Who does he think he is?!” somewhere in the background. It’s the simplest kind of feel-good, knows exactly what it is and what it’s doing, and champions a style that’s going to outlive us all.

Released: 18.02.21 www.soundcloud.com/jamieainsliemusic

MARQ ELECTRONICA - CRAZY FOOL

Words: Paul Jeffrey

Shimmering with a lurex-fine pop sheen, this little gem of a track hooks the listener in, beckoning them to dance like no one’s watching – go on, we’re locked down…you’re allowed – the insistent heavy groove providing a great counterpoint to the classic house piano that punctuates the track throughout. Stylistically similar to Erasure, producer Simon Ellis (Brit and Ivor Novello award winner) keeps things on the right side of saccharine, winding the track to a proper hands-in-the-air climax; it’s also a real ear-worm, one play and you’ll be humming it all day. The Sapien Trace frontman may have just dropped a future Balearic classic in the dead of a freezing Northern winter.

Released: 05.02.21 www.facebook.com/marqelectronica