Croftwork (Peatbog Records) 2005
It must be pretty cramped in the Peatbog’s little croft on the Isle Of Skye, what with bagpipes, fiddles, keyboards, mandolin, a shed full of guitars, samplers and a twanger (what ever that is) in the cupboard. All the more remarkable then that for this album they invite a brass section in for a warm away from the North Sea winds. They make their selves at home though and as they all huddle around the log fire they must have been sitting there reminiscing about their various trips around the globe and thinking ‘what style shall we have a go at next’. Here we get funk, jazz, dub and a bit of rock and a lot of dance beats thrown into the ceilidh. The whole thing melts together quite nicely and should appeal to a wider audience than the usual Celtic-fusion crowd.

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Transmission 1 (DEMO) 2007
The blurb on the back sums it up “15 minute CD of sound collage and music concrete with the occasional exclusive snippet of Peyote Mothership music woven in” What exactly does that mean? Well, it aint exactly music, more.. sounds and noise. It’s a bit like a spaceship orbiting the earth and scanning the airwaves to see what is being broadcast from terra firma but never staying on one channel for more than a few seconds. The only thing we can compare it to is the more wigged out early Orb/KLF stuff.. or the Alex Patterson ‘Space’ album.

If this is your cup of tea, you can get it for free by simply asking the band for a copy and letting them know what your earth address is. Once you have it in your hands, light up a joss stick, turn the lights out, lie down, switch off and absorb… this aint ya dance around the house sing along type stuff.. and it will certainly do your head in sat in a rush hour traffic jam in ya motor (we know, we tried it!).

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First Landing (Peyote) 2007.
How do you follow up an EP of wigged out psychedelic soundscapes from outer space? With an EP of space rock from planet earth of course. In their own words “The band borrow from the music of the past, using the technology of the present to take psychedelic music into the future”, which is pretty accurate, although we are not talking Ozrics/Eat Static here, it is far more organic than that, which is what you would expect from a band featuring members of the mighty Magic Mushroom Band . The opening track ‘I Can’t and I Won’t’ sounds quite Hawkwindy, and gets the old dandruff flying cos you can’t listen to it without nodding the head and tapping the feet, even when driving (which is a bit dangerous!). Track two, ‘Circles’, slows down a bit and gets bluesy with the vocals playing a bigger role, telling tales of standing stones. Then we get ‘Mary Jane’, which refers to stealing your mind. Not sure what they can possibly be singing about there. Mary Jane takes us up to a bit of a psychedelic peak before we can sit down and relax to the last track. ‘Reply’ is one of those tracks that starts out slow and gradually builds up till before you know it you are travelling at the speed of light without any gear change and you think to yourself “hold on, I don’t remember that changing pace”, then sneakily slows down again at the end just to keep you confused. They dip their toes into various styles through out this EP, which is so different from the first EP you would think it is a different band. Watch this space, who knows where they will land next? For lovers of organic highs, rather than man made cyber trips.

NB: Strictly limited. Go here to buy it for a mere 3 squid

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Sleaze Campaign (Complete Control Music) 2006.
This is like a joy ride in an old Mini Cooper, no luxury seats, no air conditioning, no sat nav, no cruise control, no frills whatsoever, not even brakes, just lots of thrills provided by a supped up sonic engine that transports you with as much speed as possible. There is no end destination in mind; the only mission is to burn up the miles. Passengers have to hold tight to avoid being thrown out as they overtake everything else on the road and even drive the wrong way down one-way streets. Rock and roll has not been this raw since the Stooges; these girls (and guy) have sat down, listened to everything that has gone on in the last 30 years, sat back and said, “OK, cool, but lets get back to basics”. The opening track ‘Sleaze Campaign’ gets the wheels spinning for their getaway, brutal, chunky and angry, as they burn rubber out of the car park; ‘Dresden Disco’ slows down slightly while they get used to the gear box, but they soon have the revs up loud enough to be heard over the din of an allied bombing mission; then ‘The I love Brad Song’ sees them head full pelt down the motorway and you cannot help but think “If they love Brad, we better stay clear cos we don’t want to be on the wrong side of these!” Then before you know what has hit you the car is tucked away in the garage, cos that is what this is, garage punk stolen from the days before people started bolting on unnecessary accessories.

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Traumatized: Social Bomb Records (2007)
Like a demonic Black Bloc storming the stock exchange with baseball bats, this album belts out of the speakers and storms around the room taking no prisoners. With a name like Police Bastard you wouldn’t expect anything else though would you. This is a reissue of sorts, featuring the ten tracks from the Traumatized split CD with Defiance and four tracks from the split LP with A38, both originally released in 1995 and now appearing for the first time on CD.

Title track ‘Traumatized’ sets the scene early on, sounding like Ministry playing Black Sabbath, and the sonic assault continues to the end relentlessly, mixing death metal and thrash punk with lyrics that can only come from very angry minds.

And what exactly are they angry about? Well we get the usual anti authoritarian stuff but we also get wake up calls to ourselves to not put up with what we have got. ‘Traumatized’ is about having enough of war; ‘Race Hate’ is about, you guessed, racial hatred, but not only does it have a go at Nazis but black racists as well; ‘Major Label Control’ is about the fight to maintain the independence of the underground in the face of major labels looking to commodify our scene; ‘No Justice’ brings back memories of when the idea of the Criminal Justice Bill and its intention to restrict the right to gather were still fears, rather than an accepted reality; ‘Mind Siege’ is about opening up your mind and breaking away from what ‘they’ want you to think, “don’t be afraid to open your mind, change the face of human kind”. There’s more, much more. Our favourite is probably ‘Dance, be Happy’, which reminds us that while we are having our raves and being outlaws, we aint really doing anything to bring down the system, “Keep dancing and getting high, while they keep screwing you till you die. Meanwhile, the people in control of the planet rape natural life, destroy forests, force us to live in shit.”

Reading that last paragraph back it certainly sounds depressing and it has to be said this is not a ‘feel good on a summers afternoon’ CD, but if you like your music loud and angry, you wont go wrong here. With this sort of stuff there is a fine line between intense music and down right noise. The Bastards manage to keep just the right side of that line at all times, with the guitar riffs, despite being fast and heavy as f’ck, still riffs rather than feedback. We doubt if this was recorded in an expensive studio but surprisingly, especially when you consider what gear was available back in 1995, the sound quality cannot be faulted.

We were aware of them all those years ago but never managed to catch up with them. This release is a welcome taste of what was, perhaps more importantly though they are doing the odd gig again, although the line up aint quite the same. If the new line up can come close to capturing this sound they should make for a good gig, cos 12 years on, it still sounds fresh.

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Deadwing (Lava Records) 2005.
When people mention classic rock guitarists, Stephen Wilson is rarely mentioned, which is a shame. His porcupine tree outfit have managed to take a tired old format, shake the dust off it, and breathe new life into it without it looking like a, well, a tired old format. They smoothly knock out contemporary prog rock with reckless abandon and with only a nod to the past, more concerned with the future of rock than what has gone. Early comparisons with Pink Floyd are on the whole to be confined to the past and this work has more in common with Queens of the Stone Age than the actual stone age of rock. Apparently, this album takes its inspiration from a film script (and hopefully later a film) written by Steven with his filmmaker friend Mike Bennion. Can’t wait to see it.

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Eargasm (Finger Lickin’) 2003
Plump is the right word, cos this is one phat collection. The beats are so warm and round and .. erm.. plump, you feel like you can hug them; electro funk break beats of the highest order, when they are chilled you feel like lying down, when they pump it up you just wanna rock. Should Groove Armada ever fall from grace, these guys would fill their shoes nicely

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Soundsystem Style (Demo) 2006.
You can’t keep a good fish down. Despite moving on from Zion Train a little while ago, Colin aint been idle. Resurrecting the old Powersteppers project he has been twiddling them knobs and getting wall-shaking bass out of them to create dubs that are just that one step ahead of the digital dub pack. Zion train comparisons are unavoidable, given that Colin wrote much of their material, but this aint quite the early dub sound of the train and it aint quite the bouncy stuff of the more recent Train years. It aint quite the Powersteppers of old either, this is something in between, something fresh and human, something vibrant and heart warming. If that aint enough throw in the vocals of partner in dub, Molara, and we have something very special. Watch out for a new album in the not too distant future.

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Londis Calling (Hogbitch) 2006
Eighth release from Dorset’s kings of dogshit sees them in the usual irreverent mood taking the piss out of the Clash for the cover and reworking Nirvana’s finest moment with ‘Smells Like White Spirit’; “I went shopping, in my camper, I took my bird, up the Asda, on a Friday, with some cider, it’s the best way”. They even dabble it a bit of Two Tone Ska for ‘Big G’s Mum, Don’t Argue’. Yes, its ya usual unusual, playing tunes that will get the most trad folkie bouncing about, even when they are taking the piss, “Swanky tankard fairisle jumper, don’t rate your missus she’s a bit of a munter!” Fortunately they broke the mould after they made this lot (or maybe before!) and while they now have imitators all over the world, including Hayseed Dixie, none have quite managed to do it with the style of these original cow punks. (for interview thing click here)

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