Craigs Watkins - Earth

(Words by Burra)

Here we have the Earth EP by South Wales based acoustic singer/song writer Craig Watkins; a well put together collection of soulful acoustic material, with lots of raw energy and passion coming through, with a very real sense coming off of it all as an artist (real in the sense of you can tell he's passionate about what he's playing and what he's singing about, which is always great to hear). 

Production wise the EP also has a very DIY, rough and ready, what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of sound, and that's not me criticising; it's again more a sense of "very real", with no fancy or shiny production values or effects taking that edge away. My favourite track off the EP is probably the song "Brother", which Craig has also used as the lead track and single to promote the record. It is a song that starts off slow and gradually climbs into a big, powerful, heartfelt chorus. Another highlight is the EP opener "Corporate Love", again with a nice big chorus. Also there's "Missing Piece", for that lovely acoustic sound with some nice vocal harmonies thrown in the mix.

The EP as a whole has a very acoustic/alternative rock sound to it, with easily accessible little ballads that wouldn't be out of place on the radio next to similar type acts. For fans of: Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind.

Anal Floss Is Boss - You Gott'a Grin To Get It In

Anal Floss Is Boss is an hilariously-titled goregrind project from Carmarthen of all places (although currently based in the crapital city of Wales, Cardiff), which has been sporadically active for over 9 years, originally starting as a side project. Despite this unusual life-span for a drum machine goregrind project, You Gott'a Grin... is the debut EP under the moniker, self-released by the band's mastermind Des (or is that mastergrind? I'll show myself out...) on a run of 100 copies. 

The sleeve art of Bonnie Rotten looking like she is embalmed in nuru gel should give you some idea of what to expect here. The whole thing opens with a porno sample before launching into "Analphilia", which I guess counts as the "lead single" here (see the video below). Thick, groovy guitars are held together by realistically programmed drums (got a really sludgy Hymen Holocaust kinda sound going on here). My favourite song though has to be the closing number, "Hacked, Spewed, Used For Food", and not only because it contains samples from Peep Show, but because it holds the perfect balance between riffing and chuggy, slower parts.

Production by Fan (Octohead / ex-Necrocest) gives the EP a meaty punch that a lot of DIY projects lack, and really is the icing on the shit / vomit / semen smeared cake. Bon apetite!

Montreux Fires - Trying For The Sake Of Trying

(Words by Burra; The 6th Beatle)

This is the debut EP from fresh on the scene South Wales-based female-fronted four piece, Montreaux Fires. The EP starts with a quick spoken word intro taken from the recording process (it's worth noting that this was self-recorded by the band's bassist in his living room) before launching into the track "Our Little Life" - a cracking opener and one I can imagine would go down really well live, with a nice big riff to kick this one off before slowing down into some dreamy, haunting verse vocals and unleashing that perfect chorus hook! Great track to kick off the release with is this one!

"Disclosure", which the band has made a video for - I feel this track shows off all elements of the band, both musically and vocally, again with another awesome chorus (there's a pattern emerging here). The track is somewhere in-between the slower and faster side to the band, so I think it was perfect choice to choose to showcase themselves with. Loving the group harmony sounds too, on this one.

"Trying" is a lovely slow number, with a what I would describe as very Brand New-esque sound to it, which works so well, leading into a nice big faded out ending and with some spot on guitar sounds throughout. A big sounding track overall and a definite EP highlight. However it's "Walls" that really is the perfect choice of track to see out the EP with. I love how the song builds up to that massive sounding ending! Again, with some big sounding group harmonies thrown in here too, which accompanies vocalist Lydia's powerful vocals very nicely indeed. Well crafted and well chosen.

Overall this is a fantastic debut release; one that the band can be confident in too. I'd also like to say top job on the production here; keeping things DIY yet still managing to set the bar at a very high standard, and despite being a such a new band it's very promising to see and hear material so strong already.

For fans of: Brand New, Paramore, Jimmy Eat World

Calling Apollo - The Great Depression Act 1

(words by Porth's man-in-thon-know, Gareth Burra)

Here we have the new 6 track release - The Great Depression Act 1 - from South Wales 5 piece Calling Apollo. What a huge sounding record this is; production wise, instrumental and vocal wise - it's great! A very wisely chosen opening track comes in the form of "Light The Way"; I love the guitar tone in this, it's very reminiscent of a lot of the 2000's era rock that was about, topped off with some really powerful vocals, solid bass playing and hard hitting drumming.

Personal favourites for me include the popular single "Clone City", "Obelisk" (massive sounding track!) and the ballad-like "The Wars", but this release just flows so well as a whole. There is a really carefully chosen and selected bunch of tracks here, all skillfully crafted. Also, the perfectly chosen ending to the release - "...And The High Plateau"; another ballad style number just closes the record off perfectly. Such a nice sound to this one and a great closing track. As I say, the whole thing just flows so perfectly.

Plain and simply this mini-album is just brilliant. It oozes strength and power; a really confident-sounding record from a band that know exactly what sound they are going for and are confident in doing such so early on in their career. There's nothing shakey about this one. Calling Apollo are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale Welsh music scene, so stick with these guys as I can only see good things for them. This is a release they can really be proud of, and I see no reason why these guys won't be pretty huge a few years down the line.

P.S Fans of Saosin, Billy Talent, Circa Survive, Thursday etc may enjoy this one!

Bloodlung - Roach

Bloodlung were a sludge band from South Wales who called it a day a year or so ago. As a result, free copies of their Roach album filtered out and I got given one at band practice when Judas Cradle used to rehearse at One Louder studios in Newport. I don’t usually listen to metal stuff in the car on the way home because a.) I’m usually sick of hearing guitars by that point and b.) I’m deaf as fuck too, half the time. I’m glad I threw this on the car stereo though, although it did make me feel a bit awful that I’d been so ignorant to this band existing in the first place.

Doom is literally everywhere now but there’s no-one really repping sludge in South Wales except Hogslayer (not to my knowledge – but then again, I am an idiot) so Bloodlung are a welcome change. It's gutting that these guys broke up as this album is pretty fucking ace and it's a shame to see talent disappear but what can you do? At least they dropped this before they fucked off ;)

Give it a whirl, it's class as fuck.