The other week, my good friend and fellow connoisseur of fine music, Roberto Pinky Pasolli – he of Fnord Tapes and IndieToBe renown, shared the track ‘Little England‘ by the London band Slow Faction.

The rush was immediate and vital, teleporting me back to my former teenage self, listening to the likes of the Angelic Upstarts. Bands who share the gift of rhetoric, anthems soaked in the visceral struggle, for the overthrow of our chinless feudal overlords. Surely not too much to ask for, at this supposed pinnacle of civilisation.

Having been welcomed into The Gluts‘ wider family, since first discovering their innate recipe for “noise and punk” back in 2014, I fully appreciate their penchant for excess.

The latest video release for ‘That’s Me’, from their forthcoming follow-up album, to the debut ‘Warsaw‘, gleefully continues their effusive trajectory – ‘That’s Me’ is no shrinking violet, there are no reticent wallflowers here…

photo by Erica Montgomery

Casa del Mirto was founded in 2005 by Marco Ricci, serving as vehicle of choice, for his varied musical forays.

“I used to write music for clubs and discos, but at the end I got tired of it. I always liked chamber music, intimate and introspective. So I felt the need to create something that one could listen also with a headset, giving shape to songs rather than tunes to dance at. Now CdM is an outfit that I am happier to wear, without It I would feel naked. “Casa del Mirto” means “Home of myrtle”. Myrtle is a plant often used for spirits. It’s actually hard to find where I live, but I really liked the name. Now, after 2 years I think it is a cacophonic name, but it’s the only one I got! So I don’t think about it and I drink the liquor.”

2016 sees the self-release of ‘Recover‘, a further exploration of “the music of friends”, which Goethe described as a “rational conversation”, threading inspirational motifs, to their bejewelled, melodic responses.

Synchronised to the sure and certain isotopic decay of manganese-52, with a half-life of 5.591 days, that timespan will raise the curtain on this year’s Eindhoven Psych Lab.

For those of you unable to attend this year’s Lab, at the mystical venue that is De Effenaar, here is a taster – by way of a video from each of the bands taking part.

Stay tuned for a full roundup, and transmission via ‘chromaticism’s revolutions on the radio‘, of the happening, that single-handedly defines the cream of underground music, held within the confines of an enclosed space..

 It’s 9.3 miles to the Limelight Belfast – it’s a Friday night, The Dandy Warhols are playing, the sun is shining… and we’re wearing sunglasses. (sic)

It’s funny how the first song you hear by a band, tethers you to them forever, eternity’s undeniable, umbilical c(h)ord…

In this particular instance it was 1998, ‘…The Dandy Warhols Come Down‘, and the track was ‘Boys Better’ – a gorgeous, acid-drenched, Neal Young-esque, hook-laden, up-beat, rendering of underground americana. It hit the spot enough for me to buy the album, and go see them that year at one of my regular haunts back then, The Garage in Glasgow.