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An online and print alternative music and culture magazine based in the North of England working with local and international artists. Find out more at soundspheremag.com

[soundspheremag]

FALSE ADVERTISING release new single 'Personal Space'

Manchester 3 piece FALSE ADVERTISING today release a brilliant, brand new single 'Personal Space' through Alcopop Records, their first new music in two years following their 'Ice Cream Sundae' covers EP earlier this year (sold through Bandcamp to raise funds for the Music Venues Trust charity).

Listen to 'Personal Space' - HERE

From Jen Hingley, singer and guitarist from FALSE ADVERTISING - "It's funny that 'Personal Space', a song originally been written about wanting to build self confidence, has now taken on a double meaning in light of the pandemic. I'm sure everyone has felt walked over, overlooked and like you're forever being told to take up less space and make less fuss, I'm really tired of those feelings and hoped that by sarcastically shouting about them it might go some way towards empowering myself and others to stand up for ourselves. Or, people might simply interpret the song as being about a trip to the supermarket during the pandemic and trying to maintain social distance, it works for that too!"

The band had released their much acclaimed last album 'Brainfreeze' at the end of 2019 and decided to jump straight back in the studio in early 2020. Before the pandemic happened they were in the process of finishing new music, were poised to tour and do many of the things bands would dream of doing across the year. But when the pandemic hit, everything got cancelled, "Whilst it felt like a lot of bands immediately adapted to their new online surroundings and carried on, we really did find it hard to find a sense of our own purpose in it all, so we went quiet on the surface."

However, they lost none of their energy for being a band. "After a bit of time passed, behind the scenes we regrouped and started to write, record, and collaborate on new material remotely. This was a much slower process compared to having everyone together in a studio, but an approach that has yielded some surprising results that we’re reasonably excited about; especially now we’re finally back playing together and I’m struggling to re-master the art of playing a guitar standing up. 'Personal Space' is the first taste of this sort of thing and we’re thrilled to be getting back out there and sharing it with the world."

Live wise, the band head out on tour with the magnificent Alpha Male Tea Party this week, all dates for that tour are as follows:

22/10/21 - Satans Hollow, Manchester 23/10/21 - Tiny Rebel, Cardiff 24/10/21 - Duffy’s, Leicester 25/10/21 - Hope and Ruin, Brighton 26/10/21 - 229, London 28/10/21 - The Crown, Bristol 29/10/21 - The Flapper, Birmingham 30/10/21 - Broadcast, Glasgow

Link to buy tickets: https://falseadvertising.co/live

[soundspheremag]

Boy Harsher announce new single, and film 'The Runner'

Boy Harsher, the Northampton, US-based duo of vocalist/lyricist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller, announce their new album 'The Runner (Original Soundtrack)', out January 21st, 2022 on Nude Club/City Slang.

Boy Harsher’s fifth release is not a traditional album ⁠— it’s the musical counterpart to a short film written, produced, and directed by the duo, entitled The Runner, which will be released alongside the album in January 2022. The Runner is a horror film intercut with a meta-style “documentary” about Boy Harsher’s recording process. The soundtrack balances cinematic instrumentals with pop songs that push the boundaries of Boy Harsher’s sound. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they unveil the album’s lead single, “Tower,” and share new tour dates, including a screening of the movie at London's Rio Cinema, followed by a show at Earth on February 20th - full tour dates below.

Both the film and soundtrack open with the heavy presence of “Tower.” The song is an incantation; with its pulsing synths, it’s a spell about desire and impending destruction. By the song’s climax, Matthews' pleas transform into desperate screams. "We wrote ‘Tower’ several years ago and although it's evolved over the years, its initial intent remains the same - that feeling of being enveloped, suffocated, entrapped in a relationship, which in turn manifests into reckless attack,” explains Matthews. “What you love the most can make you into a monster. And that's what this song is about, being a paralyzed fiend."  

The visualiser for “Tower” comes from within the world of The Runner —presented as an exclusive session from the NUDETV program “Flesh First,” the duo performs the song in a dim warehouse with a masked drummer recorded on analog video.

Listen to Boy Harsher’s “Tower”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13zBeWHNXDU Other pre-order & streaming links: https://boyharsher.lnk.to/TheRunnerOST Watch The Runner movie trailer: https://youtu.be/ze-avj_hPjE

Since 2014, Boy Harsher have steadily released what some might call the gold standard of darkwave and new industrial. Matthews and Muller met in Savannah, GA while both studying film and their initial interest in music began with cinema. Matthews would write screenplays and Muller would compose scores for the non-existent films. Their first EP, Lesser Man, was originally released on a small run of cassettes, but rapidly gained online traction and became an underground hit. 2016’s Yr Body is Nothing LP and 2017’s Country Girl EP, propelled the duo into extensive tours and sold out shows across the US and Europe where they became known for their reckless and enveloping live performances. Boy Harsher rode this momentum into 2019’s LP Careful, which was praised by NPR Music, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, VICE and beyond.

Last year, in the midst of the obvious chaos, but additionally with Matthews’ MS diagnosis, Muller started working on moody, cinematic sketches. It was uncertain what these pieces would become other than catharsis — the duo were unable to tour and making “club music” did not feel right. In Matthews’ period of convalescence, she kept thinking about a sinister character: a woman running through the woods. Together, the duo developed this idea further into a film that explores lust, compulsion, and the horrific tendencies of seduction.

Featuring the dark pop that Boy Harsher is known for, the album also embraces the soundtrack ethos by including eerie instrumentals with tracks featuring guest vocalists that feel like they are from different musical groups — “Machina” is a HI-NRG homage performed by Mariana Saldaña of BOAN, sung in both Spanish and English. “Autonomy'' is a bright and heartfelt new wave anthem featuring  Cooper B. Handy aka Lucy. Boy Harsher’s latest project is a reconciliation of uncertain times made into sound and moving image. The Runner and its soundtrack are both a return to form and an evolution for the duo.

This month, Boy Harsher will play their first live shows since 2019, including performances at III Points Festival in Miami and Levitation in Austin. A 2022 tour of North America and Europe in support of 'The Runner (Original Soundtrack)' will follow. More information on the release and screenings for The Runner is to come.

'The Runner (Original Soundtrack)' track list: 1. Tower 2. Give Me a Reason 3. Autonomy (Ft. Lucy - Cooper B. Handy) 4. The Ride Home 5. Escape 6. Machina (Ft. Ms. BOAN - Mariana Saldaña) 7. Untitled (Piano) 8. I Understand

[soundspheremag]

Who are the best industrial bands of 2020?

[soundspheremag]

Who are the best grunge bands of 2020?

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Who would win in a fight between these two?

[soundspheremag]

Listen to Fever 333′s explosive new banger, ‘Vandals’

FEVER 333 have shared “Vandals,” a powerful new standalone single. Available now on all streaming platforms, “Vandals” was originally recorded during sessions for FEVER 333’s acclaimed debut LP, STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS.

FEVER 333 recently wrapped up a run of UK / European D333MONSTRATIONS, which extended a truly epic year of touring for the group. A vast majority of the headline events sold out, without any opening acts. FEVER 333 have dominated stages all over the world, with festival performances at Lollapalooza South America, AfroPunk, Reading, Download UK, Download AU, Park Live Moscow and Japan's Fuji Rock Festival. 

[soundspheremag]

Sports Team share video for new single 'The Races' following their biggest ever headline tour

Following its premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World on her Radio 1 show, Sports Team today share the official video for their anthemic new single ‘The Races’. The video stars Alex Arnold (Poldark, Skins) and sees Sports Team take a back seat as wedding band while drama unfolds around them. It was shot over a day at Charlton House in south London and directed by Lily Rose Thomas.

Frontman Alex Rice says. "Label shills employed specifically to be yes-men couldn’t muster a compliment for this one. Only managed 'that really is unlike anything I’ve seen any other band doing, you should be commended for that'. Had a nice day introducing our parents to a former Skins actors though.”

Recorded at Livingston Studios in London and produced by longtime collaborator Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever), ‘The Races’ is built on a driving bassline, with their trademark swagger in full focus. Lyrically it continues to play with middle english characters recognisable from the band’s back catalogue, this time delving into dodgy politics and misguided patriotism. The band also recently stopped by BBC Radio 6 to play a live session for Steve Lamacq - listen back HERE.

Of the track’s beginnings, Rice offers: “Oli came in one morning with the opening bass idea and we’d finished the song in a morning. It was unusually easy. It’s a lot of fun to play.”

[soundspheremag]

Jamie Lenman - Adamantium Rage

Written by Jason Page and Rob Lord, originally from the Acclaim video game Wolverine: Adamantium Rage Taken from the new album Shuffle, available now from ww...

This is soooooo good!

[soundspheremag]

Victim Unit are one of the most interesting bands that we've discovered in recent months. The Reading two-piece are a mix of harsh industrial, black metal and noise. Danny Page (guitars, vocals) is also in powerviolence three-piece Negative Thought Process, while Lotta Ridgley (vocals, programming) features in the noise collective known as The Trembling Hellish Infernal Nightmare Generator (The Thing). 

[soundspheremag]

WAINGRO is not just a crazy, terrible human for hire trying to make his life in L.A. as portrayed in the 1995 film Heat. It’s also the name of a crazy rock n' roll band who are making their way through the Canadian music scene and beyond with the release of their upcoming third album"III" set to be released in the UK on vinyl and digitally worldwide via Sludgelord Records on August 15th along with its Canadian vinyl release on September 13th via No List Records.

Using the character from Mann's movie as a jumping off point, the Vancouver band imagines further scenarios of pre-Heat, WAINGRO situations, such as their first single 'Red Death' off their upcoming album "III". For those unfamiliar with the movie, the band explains the premise behind the lyrics for the track and the musical influence:

"The second track always needs to be a heavy hitter. It was fun to play into Converge influences on this one at the end. The lyrics talk of WAINGRO’s recipe for Red Death, which is a form of meth that's swept the streets. It's a shameful thing to brag about but that falls in line with what a shitty dude like him would do. And it’s a recipe that he will take to his grave - what an asshole...”

[soundspheremag]

Watch: Former Wrestlers - ‘Weekend Hobbies’

Former Wrestlers is the brainchild of producer and now one-man-rock-shop, Derya ‘Dez’ Nagle. Having spent the best part of 10 years playing guitar in bands like The Safety Fire and Good Tiger, and producing the likes of Protest The Hero and Mongol Horde, Nagle has taken a step into the limelight, only to wear a mask while doing so.

The debut EP is called ‘Champion of the World’, set for release on March 15th it is an eclectic mix of songs, fusing rock, electronics and stripped back, soundtrack style sonic landscapes.

"The songs were written over a year in between touring and producing commitments, all while I was moving countries. Finding the time and headspace to work on these songs was an important outlet, and helped keep me grounded during this period of time."

[soundspheremag]

Film Review: ‘The Favourite’ [City Screen, York]

Acerbic, witty and deliciously cynical, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite is a period film with a welcome, brilliantly executed twist.

Lanthimos has always had a playful irreverent streak as a film maker, and The Favourite revels in his desire to push genre boundaries and subvert expectations. Ostensibly, it tells the story of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and her confidantes, first Olivia Wilde’s Sarah Churchill, and then the young pretender, Emma Stone’s Emily Masham amidst the backdrop of England’s war with France in 1708. Sarah, or Lady Marlborough to refer to her by her official title, is Queen Anne’s ‘favourite’; her confidante, her closest friend and even her secret lover. Such is her influence on the Queen that she effectively rules the country, managing to influence Anne’s decisions and affect the will of parliament, despite the constant objections of the Leader of the Opposition, Harley (an excellent, extravagant turn by Nicholas Hoult).

The closeness of their relationship is gradually eroded by the arrival of Sarah’s once noble, now impoverished cousin Emily, who arrives at Court looking for employment and a chance to escape poverty. Soon, Sarah and Emily are clashing and competing for the Queen’s affections, attempting to use everything they can to discredit and disgrace the other in the eyes of the Queen.

Playing loosely on historical events, Lanthimos creates a world filled with extravagant excess and crafts characters that are savagely witty and slyly conniving, offering a kind of humour that is definitely not associated with period costume dramas of this kind. Indeed, the offsetting of the script, excellently written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, with extravagant palace halls and amazing costumes serves to add to the absurdity of it, almost as if a different, more straight-laced, film should have happened before chaos took over.

That sense of chaos is fun throughout the film, but it wouldn’t be anything like as effective without the script, or indeed the performances of the main trio who serve to elevate it to new heights. Olivia Colman is fantastic as Anne. On the surface, she appears just as absurd as the film’s concept. Anne, who is burdened with severe gout, is almost always adorned in extravagant dresses, is prone to taciturn childish mood swings and outbursts of sullen rage, but Colman is excellent at blending these moments of absurdity with Anne’s more intelligent but anxious and sad inner layer.

Her interactions with Sarah in particular bring out a lot in Colman’s Anne as their conversations switch between being scabrous and dry to loving and tender. There’s a lot to love both comedically and dramatically in them. Weisz’s performance as Sarah is just as vital, and she brings an air of witty self-confidence that acts as an amazing counterweight to the ridiculousness that surrounds her, grounding everything with her observations and withering put-downs. Her tough love approach with Anne has mixed results but their chemistry is undeniable and their relationship is genuinely believable, such is the bond between the two.

Emma Stone’s Emily has a different brand of affection for Anne. Stone does a great job of portraying someone that may once have had a moral code, but who swaps that for a conniving and false nature that she realises she is incredibly good at using to her advantage. She woos the Queen with kind words and platitudes, as well as an adeptness for medicine that helps soothe her gout. As she starts to subsume the role of the ‘favourite’, her war with Sarah escalates dramatically, and it’s great fun watching both of them try to outdo each other.

The Favourite is Lanthimos at his best, telling a story that satisfies dramatically, but benefits endlessly from its darkly comic underpinning and its satirical bite. Its three leads dominate the screen and own every interaction, nailing every line and every look as they take us on a relationship rollercoaster where everyone is in some way culpable, and no one is innocent. Period dramas have never been so fun.

To see when the film is showing click here

[soundspheremag]

Check out this powerful bit synthwave from Walker Landing. This one builds to a marvelous crescendo, with some incredible vocal work, and slow, chilled out beats. A solid effort to take you into the weekend. 

Just gorgeous. 

Words: Dom Smith

[soundspheremag]

Cancer Bats unveil new song ‘Inside Out’ ahead of UK and European Tour

Cancer Bats are charging into the new year with a brand-new track titled ‘Inside Out’. 

Recorded during the same sessions that made their critically-acclaimed sixth studio album The Spark That Moves, the band opted to hold this song back, knowing its strength and unique presence could hold its own as a standalone release. Frontman Liam Cormier had this to say about the B-side, ‘Inside Out’ is such a gnarly beast of a song, that we all knew it would make for a rad track to release later and keep the vibe of The Spark That Moves going!” Listen to ‘Inside Out’ on your preferred streaming service or pre-order the 7" HERE

Cancer Bats have also continued their all-encompassing campaign strategy by releasing a 12th music video for the new single. 

Filmed by close friend and videographer Sid Tang, the video for “Inside Out” is made up of footage taken from shows played throughout the world. Capturing the exciting, chaotic and energized Cancer Bats live show, from sweaty packed clubs to festival stages in China, to their triumphant return to Canada playing some of their largest crowds to date, this visual document offers new and old fans a taste of what’s to come when witnessing a Bats show as they continue to blast across stages around the globe.

[soundspheremag]

Mansun to reissue 'Six' on 22nd March (Kscope)

One of the most audaciously brilliant albums of the ’90s remastered for its 21st anniversary. Includes the hit singles "Six", "Being A Girl", "Legacy" and “Negative” - released on Kscope 22nd March 2019 on 180 gram coloured vinyl, standard vinyl, CD and deluxe 4 disc book edition.

Released little over a year after their No. 1 debut album, Mansun’s SIX was nothing less than a revelation. Arriving at the tail end of the Britpop era, SIX was a hugely ambitious spiralling, sprawling record that charted in the Top 10 on release and spawned four Top 40 singles.

Concept driven and spanning myriad genres, SIX was a record out of time made by a band at the peak of their creative powers - a collection of songs that fizzed with ideas and inspirations and fused elements of pop, electronica and progressive rock to Tchaikovsky sample, electronic drums and spooky synth lines. Lyrically, the songs referenced religious scepticism, gender dysphoria, Winnie the Pooh, L. Ron Hubbard, Stanley Kubrick, Orwell, Marxism and that most iconic TV show, the Prisoner. On top of all of that, the record featured a spoken word section from the legendary fourth Doctor Who - Tom Baker. The end result is a 70 minute, twelve-track brain warp, a record that would set Mansun apart from their peers forever.

SIX has been fully remastered from the original master tapes by Jon Astley (Van Morrison, The Who, George Harrison, Norah Jones, Rolling Stones). The standard CD comes with a bonus track of outtakes from the Tom Baker recording sessions. The deluxe version of SIX comes with a treasure trove of bonus material including one disc of outtakes, demos and rarities and a disc featuring The Dead Flowers Reject - a fan-generated bootleg album featuring favourite B sides from the SIX era.

Mansun were Paul Draper (vocals, guitars, studio), Dominic Chad (guitars, piano, harpsichord), Stove King (bass) and Andie Rathbone (drums). One of the most iconic and innovative British bands of the late 90s, they signed to the legendary record label Parlophone (home to The Beatles, Radiohead and Sigur Ros) in 1996. They released three albums – Attack of the Grey Lantern (1997), SIX (1998) and Little Kix (2000) and one posthumous compilation, Kleptomania. Kscope acquired the band’s catalogue in 2017 and are running a thorough reissue series that delves into a treasure trove of previously unreleased audio and visual material. Kscope released Mansun frontman Paul Draper’s acclaimed solo debut Spooky Action in 2017; Draper is currently working on the follow up, due for release later this year.

SIX formats and tracklisting:

CD - 21st-anniversary CD edition with a 12-page booklet with extra track: Tom Baker isolated vocal session

Vinyl - limited 2x12” 180g heavyweight coloured vinyl edition in a gatefold sleeve.

Deluxe 4-Disc book - three CDs featuring the remastered album in full, a disc of demos, rarities & outtakes, and the b-side album The Dead Flowers Reject. Also contains a DVD featuring SIX mixed in 5.1 surround sound mix (DTS 96/24 5.1 and Dolby Digital AC3 5.1) by long-time collaborator P-Dub; a hi-resolution stereo audio (24bit/48kHz Linear PCM) and all of the album’s original promotional videos. It also comes with a 48-page hardback book featuring  sleeve notes by journalist and long-time fan Paul Lester alongside notes on the album from the band’s Paul Draper (including foreword, analysis of the cover art, track-by-track descriptions for the CD extras and an album overview of The Dead Flowers Reject).

Disc 1 - SIX (remastered album)

SIX

Negative

Shotgun

Inverse Midas

Anti Everything

Fall Out

Serotonin

Cancer

Witness to a Murder Part 2

Television

Special/Blown It

Legacy

Being A Girl

Disc 2 - Outtakes, rarities and demos

Disc 3 - The Dead Flowers Reject

What It’s Like To Be Hated

GSOH

Been Here Before

When The Wind Blows

Can’t Afford To Die

Church Of The Drive Thru Elvis

I Care

King Of Beauty

But The Trains Run On Time

Check Under The Bed

I Deserve What I Get

Railings

[soundspheremag]

(New Anonymous Records.)

[soundspheremag]

Aesthetic Perfection release N*SYNC cover, 'Bye Bye Bye'

Industrial pop act Aesthetic Perfection has taken the N*SYNC hit single "Bye Bye Bye" from bubblegum pop to sensually tense, dark electronic ballad.

'Bye Bye Bye' is the first single off of Aesthetic Perfection's upcoming EP, Ebb and Flow, due out February 2, 2018.