Bad Guys are “a midlander, a southerner, a Canadian and a Hungarian. Double necks, double kicks and no mic stand. Long hair, grey hair, bald-heads and beards. A shitload of rock. The works. Sounds like a plan. As well as playing with the likes of Circle and Oxes, these guys have earned a reputation for crashing all sorts of parties. They’ve played three ATPs, played on the plinth in Trafalgar Square, played Field Day, pissed off a lot of security, got a bunch of fines, and helped a lot of people have a lot of fun. Formed through a mutual desire to play some rock music that’s not had the life squeezed out of it by some kind of po-faced academic mangler, they make the heavy stuff and they play it loud, the way it should be.”

Spökraket is a neo-psychedelic band from Århus, Denmark formed in 2010.

The core band members are Bjørn Vind Abildtrup: 12- and 6-string guitars, organ/synth; occasional glockenspiel, percussion and backing vocals, double bass, Jonathan Højgaard: 12- and 6-string guitars, vocals; occasional keyboards/synth and Sinas Robin Svendsen: drums and percussion; occasional guitar and backing vocals. Guest artists on ‘In A Witch Forest’ are Freja Schaumburg-Müller Pallesen: vocals on ‘Lord Drug My Mind’ and ‘Distant Light’ and Thomas “Dr. Scyde” Mee: bass on ‘Tahrir Square’.

Photo credit © Markus Werner

François Sky first came to my attention some time last summer courtesy of those fine Helicon chappies. JP “Helicunt” had mentioned he was joining ‘François Sky & Guests‘ at the Reverence Festival Valada – that had warranted further investigation, which brought ever more sweet music to my ears.

“I’m making my music in a very normal life.” So says the humble description on François’ bandcamp page which to date boasts 18 hypnotically addictive digital tracks, all available as free downloads.

The more I listened and the farther down the rabbit-hole I found myself, I realised that a lot of the why I liked this so much, was due to being able to relate to, age-wise specifically, then there was having been on a fairly similar musical listening journey, all rounded off nicely with that holy grail of having a no-nonsense approach to not suffering fools too gladly!

It became pretty clear to me early on that here was a true musicians’ musician, someone who was all about the creative process and perhaps most importantly, who was about doing it his way, with his integrity intact.

The Mushroom Club first emerged in the summer of 2012, sprouting from the germinating spores of Sonic Shroom’s personal vision of psychedelic rock and roll. Quickly joined by Blair Miller, the ensuing debut 4 track ‘EP1‘ was released in November 2012.

Having opened the magical portal, The Mushroom Club then featured on the hypnotic collaborative release ‘Itilyna‘ by François Sky in September 2013.

The Mushroom Club are not to be confused with the 2005 Steven Okazaki documentary of the same name, though their combustive aural assault could legitimately lay claim to Jules Winnfield’s immortal line, “Well, I’m a mushroom-cloud-layin’ motherfucker” from Pulp Fiction…

“My Invisible Friend is an Italian trio based in Parma. Livid colours, penetrating, with a Roland TR-505 as filter. Somewhere a dreaming voice. Guitars’ bites, that mouth turns into a speaker and finally shouts louder, louder!” I love it when a band know themselves well enough to be this succinct.

Welcome to the world of Ann:::bass,vocals, Cristian:::guitar,vocals, Joe S:::guitar, vocals, and not forgetting the indefatigable, Roland:::drums.

My Invisible Friend describe their sound as “Noise Pop / Shoegaze” and cite as their musical references Spiritualized, My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins – all of which happily press my buttons.