Marion Todd - See Them Run

Published by Canelo, Marion Todd's debut novel is out on 31st October

Set in the plush and lovely surroundings of the illustrious St. Andrews, DI Clare Mackay is in a new job having relocated from Glasgow following a firearms incident.

Mackay is trying to get back in the saddle and find a reason to work, the relocation to the supposed quiet surroundings of the famous golf resort should hold her in good stead, as she gets over the trauma of the shooting mishap.

The quiet gets disrupted by a hit and run case at a local wedding one Saturday night; a supposed mistake becomes a criminal case and apparently pre-meditated as a card with the number 5 on his body. Once they delve into the deceased's history they find that he simply disappeared every Thursday evening with no reason.

So a hit and run, no surprise. Accidents can happen, but then another attack occurs the next day with a number four on this victim.  With the second victim being a local business mogul who owns the renowned brewery, and a friend of Mackay's superior; the attention turns to finding the murderer quickly. Mackay knows there will be a third victim and suddenly a serial killer is on the loose

Mackay must navigate all manners of boundaries; be they constructs of her gender, her class and the fact that she is coming from the gritty Glaswegian streets to the quaint St Andrews countryside. Throughout the book, a great trick is Mackay learning her way around the town and surrounding locations, she constantly has to ask for directions and how far away places are.

And yet as Mackay tries to keep her head on straight, more bodies start to turn up with the same vehicular modus operandi - knowing that a third would turn up soon enough, it could have been prevented yet her eagerness scuppers the preventative measures.

Todd has written a unique character in Mackay, one who is secure in her position as an authority figure, confident in her decision making and respected for her work.  The camaraderie of her team is one that will build up in more novels in the future, yet it is good to read a book with a leading female protagonist defined by her job and not her being a women coupled with a fish out of water narrative.

For a debut, Todd has written a well crafted thriller with genuine moments of jeopardy faced by our St. Andrews police force as they track down the killers.  The use of the Scottish town is clever in that it translates the worst of human nature into a microcosm of a small town, as if St. Andrews is a petri dish of all that is wrong with the world.  This is something that could be developed in further tomes but it is clear that DI Mackay will be able to handle anything this bad world can throw her way.

See Them Run is released from Canelo on 31st October.
My thanks to Tracy Fenton for running the book blog tour

Night Flowers - 'Fortune Teller'

Night Flowers release their second album FORTUNE TELLER from Dirty Bingo Records on 25th October

Following on from the critical acclaim of their debut release Wild Notion, the transatlantic five piece have returned with another pop-tastic album that does well to overcome the nerves of any second album syndrome.

For this album drummer Zebedee Budworth mixed originally at Tie Dye Studios (Sheffield) with Adam Jaffrey taking final production reins on the album which again finds Sophia Pettit leading the band on vocal duties with support from lead guitarist, Greg Ullyart.

While the first album had a real mix of electro dream pop with little nuggets of pop goodness filled with nostalgia and appreciation for musical heritage such as 'Hey Love' and 'Sandcastles', this album is definitely an alternative feel in that it takes more of a rockier road on the journey to pop magnificence.

From album opener, 'Night Train' the sense of respect to the school of rock is apparent and with a female vocalist the similarity to Fleetwood Mac will not be mistaken, yet throughout the album there are nods to many an American sound of years past be it Tom Petty or the boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

Album track, 'Fortune Teller' tells a tale of travelling with the seven sins on your shoulder and this mix of lyrical mysticism and a rock soundtrack would not look out of place from even a Dave Grohl back catalogue.

The impassioned reverence to these rock gods are worn proudly on their sleeve as seen by 'Lotta Love' a remembered hook from a bygone era, with synths leaving you dreaming of a highway. This is further encapsulated by 'Merry-Go-Round' inspired by Jane Weidlin, which has a real 80s synth hook. This is the beauty of the band, they are a happy band to listen to singing about the joy of life rather than the depressing social climate we find ourselves in - not a mention of Brexit, race relations or snowflakes to be seen here.

Fortune Teller is an album to be embraced and to be loved, an album about new beginnings and celebrating the wonder of life. You need not look further than penultimate track 'I've Loved You (Such a Long Time)' a track that is the big power ballad with big drums and in dire need of an air guitar and hair brush video; a song albeit about a relationship breaking down, nevertheless a relationship where not a minute was wasted.

Yet for the downbeat lyrical nature of many of the songs, there is one message being sung and the overpowering emotion that resonates throughout both albums by this band is one of hope.

Wild Notion was one of my albums of 2018, and after a few listens I do not think there will be many albums to challenge Fortune Teller for a position in my final rankings of 2019.  Does it push envelopes, perhaps not, but it is a reminder that you can still make happy music nowadays.

The band will have an album launch at Redon, London on 31st October before touring in support of LIFE from 2nd-13th November.

My thanks as always to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Somos - Prison on a Hill

The third feature length album from Boston's Somos hails their return to the Tiny Engines label 

For fans of rock music with pop sensibilities there are many a flavour for you to sample in recent years; from present day stars Chvrches, The 1975 and Cigarettes After Sex to the more renowned Jimmy Eat World and Blink 182; the collison of rock and pop is there for all.

Yet rock music has been taking on a political slant of late, away from the personal subject matter there is now a roar of defiance to the current and frustrating political climate, where ambivalence is above ambition, you need only look at the recent work of Ezra Furman and Jim James as evidence of this.

Somos hail from Boston and with Prison on a Hill they have crafted a work that is of cross-over potential; full of driving guitars riffs, gliding electro synth and anthemic sounds.

They have taken a view of the world and are commenting on it strongly, from 'Mediterranean' which comments on the rise of far-right movement in Europe, 'Iron Heel' they examine an authoritarian rule in a post-fascism world.  The best political songs are those that are not overtly political from the outset, when you only know after the fact do those songs gain greater credence in their seriousness.

Stand out single 'Untraceable Past' shows the pop song as rock anthem, both infectious and blissful - you need only look at British contemporary Mystery Jets whose most recent work is also a political statement of Britain in this Brexit age.

Throughout the album the passion comes across in the songs, the lead vocalist Michael Fiorentino gives authority to the songs helped by bandmates, Phil Haggerty (sadly deceased in August at the age of 28) and Justin Hahn on guitar. This trio embodies the spirit of this slow building movement and are standing at the junction of pop and rock making noise and being heard.

The track 'Young Believers' serves as the embodiment of Somos' ethos and following Haggerty's premature passing carries extra weight and resonance; the band will return stronger no doubt but hopefully this album will find a home in people's hearts as such works come along rarely. This combination of three minute art form with classic indie sound.

Prison on a Hill is out now from Tiny Engines
My thanks to Will Miller (Tiny Engines) for the review opportunity.

The WWE just got un-fiendly

Hell in the Cell is one of WWE's marquee pay-per-view's of the calendar year; a novelty gimmick match originally constructed to settle scores once and for all, a larger than life steel cage match than envelopes the ring and is meant to keep people who run away within arm's length of an opponent; outside interference was dismissed though matches regularly end up outside on the side or atop the steel structure.

Yet the Hell in the Cell has now become a reason for a pay-per-view rather than a reason to watch a PPV, with four matches perhaps taking place within the steel structure. Much like TLC has four matches decided by one or all of the consonants.

This year, HIAC was to decide the Universal Championship between Seth Rollins, who overcame Brock Lesnar at Summerslam to claim the title back, against the new enigma of the WWE, Bray Wyatt and his new alter-ego The Fiend, a masked villain who is scary as hell seemingly unstoppable and hell bent on winning the title and destroying Rollins' soul. Imagine the irresistible force of the Undertaker with the sinister malevolence of a movie stalker who will stop at nothing for victory.

The WWE Universe - the fans that the WWE seemingly mocks and trolls in equal measure - have taken to Bray Wyatt or Wyndham Rotunda since his formative years on NXT as Husky Harris.  The son of Mike Rotunda (Irwin R. Schyster) and godson of Barry Wyndham, much like second generation superstars he has wrestling in his blood. Naturally gifted and with enough ability to be married an unassailable in-ring psychology and second to none work ethic like Randy Orton and The Rock.

Wyatt works hard, does not take days off and is rarely injured yet he is seemingly road-blocked time and time again by the creative juices of the WWE writing staff and mainly the bookers once it gets to in-ring action.

The ending of Rollins-Fiend at HIAC this year ended with a disqualification finish in a Hell in a Cell match, that's right a DQ finish in a no holds barred match as the referee called for the bell to end the action when Rollins threw too many weapons on the Fiend. This was after he had been stomped on numerous occasions, pedigreed, kicked to the head and the Fiend promptly kicked out at one.

While the commentary and booking hoped to have Rollins overcome the monster with wrestling moves, the Fiend would not lay down and kept rising to his knees. The Fiend ultimately had the last word planting the champion with Sister Abigail on the outside.

Further, the whole match took place in a red wash of light meaning that most of the action was not able to be seen on coverage so goodness knows how it played out live in the arena. That coupled with the Dusty of Dusty finishes, led to loud boos and heckles of 'AEW', 'Refund' and 'Bullshit' from the capacity crowd.

In a week, when AEW broke onto mainstream cable television with their debut showing on TNT with Dynamite, and winning the first television ratings battle with WWE Nxt on USA Network; it was already a bad week for the WWE.

Then came the debut episode of Smackdown on FOX which was going well until Brock Lesnar defeated Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship in 9 seconds ending Kofi's reign since Wrestlemania; thus ending a feel good story. That angle finished with Lesnar being stared down, not by a wrestler but by an ex-MMA fighter Cain Velazquez; a man of limited wrestling ability yet he and Lesnar will square off at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia later this month.

Now you have a WWE PPV ending in the worst possible way, with everything that is bad about WWE being front and centre and laying claim to not caring about what the fans want at all and caring more about shareholders now they have signed this huge deal with FOX.

Much like when Bray Wyatt was on an unstoppable tear when he first appeared in the WWE, he was going one on one with John Cena at Wrestlemania 30 in New Orleans, it was geared up for the fan favourite to be beaten by a favourite of the marks and the era of Cena-nation be ended as Cena looked towards a post-WWE career.  Yet it did not transpire, Cena won and made the formidable Wyatt look soft in defeat.

Wyatt had to go back to the drawing board, he had battles with Daniel Bryan, before becoming a mockery of himself despite garnering his first world title at Elimination Chamber in 2017, yet losing it to Randy Orton in a god-awful match at that years Wrestlemania in Orlando.  A clash with Deleted Matt Hardy led to a backyard brawl where he was thrown in a river and cleansed of his evil to be reborn as Hardy's tag partner leading to a tag title run which was then itself deleted.

Wyatt has all the tools to be a great world champion but for some reason backstage are reluctant to get behind him fully be it his size or their naivety to have a true villain as the main champion, yet Chris Jericho is a villain now on AEW and it will work wonders for their week to week shows.

The WWE are in the old problem of having a champion who finally gets the title still be relevant, this a problem that has gone on for years with many talents; the chase is so much better that being caught. When Daniel Bryan finally won the World Title at that same WM when Wyatt lost to Cena, he was thrust into a bad battle with Kane - ex-tag team partner who did not deserve any title shot. It is as if once the title is won what more is there to do with a champion, yet in history you had Hulk Hogan overcome many a challenger for close to three years, even CM Punk held the title for over a calendar year. That was a mixture of booking, good opponents and story telling.

Yet because Rollins retained the title what now for the title picture, is the Fiend still the No. 1 contender even though he lost and there is the rule now with no immediate rematches for defeated challengers of title matches. Rollins is team captain of Team Hogan versus Team Flair for a showdown at Crown Jewel, will the Fiend be facing off against Rollins there or is that unlikely to materialise due to the sensitive nature of the Fiend being present in a Middle Eastern country which may not take favourably to a controversial character. Hopefully the Fiend will not be lost to vignettes and he will become a regular factor on television with or without the mask

The WWE need to address their air of invincibility; they may well have a problem with creative writing as the AEW shows a freshness both in terms of talent and in-ring ability, while the matches now are run of the mill warfare, finishers and catchphrases.

If they are not careful they may get stuck in the slipstream and risk being left standing still while others overtake them; that starts with taking threats to superiority with seriousness and not dismissing their now clever fanbase with disdain; wrestling fans are smarter now with more knowledge of backstage antics and histrionics coupled with office politics. Finally, it is sometimes good to give the people what they want, and what they want is to be a friend to the business, not be treated as the enemy.