Fightmilk - Contender

 

New album from indie pretenders out via Reckless Yes on Friday 14th May

The second album from the South London four-piece is breaking out in May, following on from the 2018 debut Not With That Attitude.

Formed in a beer garden in 2015, Lily and Alex used the energy of post-break-ups into an indie pop soundtrack indebted more to the Britpop era culminating in the 2018 release on the Fierce Panda label after two EPs. The DNA of the band is alt-rock with power pop riffs about the embrace of failing relationships but with a sunny disposition.

In response to the pandemic which put everybody on hold, vocalist/guitarist Lily speaks about her writing process; 'I was inspired to write ‘...Space’ by watching someone who keeps loudly proclaiming they’re going to save humanity and change the world constantly make excuses for why they haven’t got round to it. It’s largely about emotional labour and rockets and I’m dead proud of it.”

Heavier material abounds from 'Cool Cool Girl' and 'Banger #4' to the more vulnerable 'If You Had A Sister'; a trend this reviewer is noticing in recent releases is that many bands are putting on tracks that may well run less than 90 seconds. 

In the past such tracks would be deemed surplus or merely unnecessary filler but now following the pandemic - it is more evidence of a band or performer making up for lost time by issuing an idea or riff as a matter of pride on the sequencing of an album as more of a bridge to the next track rather than an afterthought.

From the handclap feel good of 'Hey Annabelle' to the 'The Absolute State of Me' with its personal subject matter there is a lot of accessibility and engagement within this album.

Full of synths, guitars and group vocals, Fightmilk have created an infectious album of pop and indie vibes incorporating the surfer vibe of California and goes hand in hand with this newest of new wave of indie bands along with Pillow Queens and Sonder Bombs; bands led by female vocalists who infuse their music with an energy and power that is refreshing.

Contender is out from Reckless Yes and is available here

Thanks to Wall of Sound for the review opportunity.

For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her - McKinley Dixon

 

Debut album from Virginia rapper, McKinley Dixon on Spacebomb

As a white Anglo-Saxon music lover, you are always tentative to review black rap music. I was born a stones throw from the breeding ground of Chas and Dave and the old architectural haunts of Flanagan and Allen, that is my musical heritage. Yet to listen to black music is always an eye opening occasion, it brings you into new grounds of language, composition and social exploration.

Unlike the gangsta rap so prevalent in my formative university years such as 50 Cent, my ears have always been more keen to listen to the socially conscious rappers - those who use their platform as a means to get a message across of what it means to be a young black person in the United States of America.

The first artist who piqued my interest was Lupe Fiasco - his double hit of The Cool - was seminal and is somewhat overshadowed by the monster that was the early career of Kanye West and then you have the works of Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean.

This new album by Richmond based artist, McKinley Dixon is more in the part of socially aware rap but also uses the music as a way of exploring his own social form but showcases the power of communication and connection

Tracks such as brown shoulders is so soulful yet has the message underlying of processing grief, yet you still have those chart hits such as Never Will Know a collaboration with Micah James and Gold Midas a feelgood jam which goes hand in hand with the soulful protective styles (feat Abby T).

Dixon is a well read artist indebted to the recently departed Toni Morrision on his track 'B.B.N.E' using her words to time travel to a different time.

'Bless the Child' has three beat switches but shows Dixon tracing patterns through time, it is as if Dixon is challenging black people to revisit more than one timeline and question everything about their place in society.

The huge array of influences across the musical spectrum running from jazz, rap, soul and blues means this will be a ripe live show once we get to that sense of normality. Dixon thinks of himself as a time traveller and in his words, 'Storytelling is time travel, it's taking the listener to that place. Quick time travel. Magic. These raps I’m making are no different than stories told around the campfire. They elongate the culture'.

This album marks Dixon out as a force to be reckoned with as a solo artist and collaborator across the music diaspora, a genuine talent of intellect and artistic integrity.

Follow McKinley Dixon on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her is out from Spacebomb or bandcamp

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review op

Buffet Lunch - The Power of Rocks

 

Eclectic debut album from Scottish four piece out 7th May via Upset the Rhythm

Buffet Lunch are a four man band from Scotland, who are on a mission to serve up imperfect pop songs with humour and energy, this has been formed into the kaleidoscopic debut album that is The Power of Rocks out on 7th May from Upset the Rhythm.

The parts of the band consist of Perry O'Bray (vocals/keys/guitars), Neil Robinson (bass), John Muir (lead guitar) and Luke Moran (drums), who came together through a love of all things pop and indie and everything in between the two cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Together the foursome of constructed a wonky DIY feel to their cacophony of sound which runs the gamut of emotions from loneliness and downbeat to the upper echelons of breezy melody.

Recorded on the banks of Upper Loch Fyne in Argyll over four nights and five days at the beginning of March 2020 before the world pandemic took hold, there is a sense of living in the moment when listening back to the album's eleven track sequence.

A blend of production and musicianship take hold as the run times of songs differ throughout from the sub two minute shouts of 'Pebbledash' and 'Bladderwrack' combine against the longer more traditional 'Looking at Liz Talent's Chair' and 'Ashley's New Haircut'.

This encompasses everything with a seemingly brief 38 minutes total run time yet the melodies and compositions stay with you throughout and after the fact - from the bop and riffiness of 'He Wore Two Hats' to the anthemic title track which embraces the feeling of climate and location of recording that took place.

An album of time and place at once, this is a work that may be difficult to access for many but you are certain people said this of Black Country, New Road at the beginning - when the ear worm worthiness of songs take hold it cannot be denied.

For fans of such obscure artists as Sweet Baboo (do check out Wild Imagination from 2017) and those other eclectic bands of the last few years such as BCNR and Pet Shimmers; this is an album that is both mesmerising and engaging.

The Power of Rocks is released on 7th May via Upset the Rhythm

Follow the band on Twitter and Instagram

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity

The End of Men - Christina Sweeney-Bird

Debut novel from Christina Sweeney-Bird out from Harper Collins in April 2021.

This debut novel by Ms. Sweeney-Bird is due for release in April of 2021, a full year since lockdown took a hold of the UK following the gradual rising and growth of Covid-19 across the globe having started in Wuhan, China in January 2020 moving westward around the globe landing fully in Italy mostly in mainland Europe before hitting our shores in the United Kingdom in late February and early March culminating in the life-changing decision to go into lockdown and all the societal changes that came with it.

Now, S-B (a freelance writer from London who has appeared in the Independent/Huffington Post who started writing her book in March 2018) has done a neat twist on the virus thriller and while the Covid-19 pandemic has had no discrimination against who it kills, S-B takes the premise of a plague that only attacks the male, this means losing half the population in the world - and what are the effects of this upon the world in due course.

Author of The End of Men - Christina Sweeney-Bird

S-B goes to lengths to consider what will happen, 90% of the world's male population vanishes (much like The Leftovers or Thanos' snap) and it is left to the women of the world from not only finding a vaccine to save the planet, but how to shepherd the world back to normality - women have to take up all the labour jobs left by no men (rubbish collection, lorry driving, electricians) as well as taking up high positions in government and legislation.

The breakneck pace of the book (and I devoured this book in 4 days) starts in Glasgow, as a young and fit man comes into Glasgow with supposed flu symptoms - yet no matter how much A&E doctor Amanda Maclean does to stem his temperature, inject him with steroids he dies within a matter of hours. The fear grips the ward and Maclean attempts to reach out to her medical community to raise the alarm of a possible pandemic, she is shunned due to past indiscretions and ignored. Ultimately, S-B makes the case that it would not be avoided and the plague would have happened.

As a piece of science fiction, which as a genre always makes us more aware of our own world than we realise, it shows how the human race must adapt to make the world viable and liveable again; the writer also cleverly shows females of all ages, races and classes to show the extent of the pressure of all that happens - from losing loved ones and the grief that is overcoming to all yet the need to carry on is paramount yet each women gets her moment to shine. 

What is most pleasing about this book is that following some recent reading of books to review which were nothing but underwhelming this was a book that made this reader glad to be reading for pleasure, getting great joy from the experience and as a male reader a unique insight into the female psyche when it comes to fight or flee and strive to survive.

I first wrote this review in January of this year, early into the second lockdown of our nation. The most surprising and pleasant thing of re-reading my review ahead of the release this Thursday 29th April, is that this remains the best book I read during that lockdown period - ironically, looking into the possible threats of a true global killer where nearly half the population is gone. 

This is a book about the endurance of the human spirit and the resilience of the human heart in adapting to a major change in the social structure of our everyday life - it is a book that resonates with this reader still and it surely will be one of the book's of the years. It was a privilege to review this title and to share the word of mouth of this topic work.

The End of Men is published by HarperCollins/Borough Press on Thursday 29th April,

Exclusive Interview with Christina Sweeney-Bird, author of THE END OF MEN

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Christina Sweeney-Bird, author of the brilliant new novel THE END OF MEN published by Borough Press

What was the genesis of The End of Men and when did you start writing the first draft? 

I read WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks when I was 21 or 22 and found it hugely engaging. I completely believed that the zombie war it described was real and found the breadth of stories around the world in that book very compelling. Then I read THE POWER by Naomi Alderman in early 2018 and found myself thinking, what would the world look like if women weren’t more physically powerful than men but completely outnumbered them? I felt that telling that story through many viewpoints would be the most engaging way to do it. I started writing it on 1 September 2018

When the pandemic took hold in early 2020, what were your instant reactions? 

I remember first hearing about it and not quite knowing how to feel. It felt so bizarre that the kind of news that normally belongs in fiction was now on BBC News and being emailed around by friends and colleagues going, ‘Have you seen this?’ Then, as I read more about it,  I felt total horror. Having done a lot of research into pandemics in the course of researching THE END OF MEN, as soon as I saw that the virus was spreading I thought, ‘Oh God it’s going to go global’. 

What research did you incorporate into your novel to gain knowledge of the different countries your novel visits? 

I grew up in Glasgow and live in London so those two settings came very naturally to me. Other than that, I find films, TV and plenty of online research tend to help with getting a sense of a place.

When did you decide to go away from the Amanda Maclean narrative as a lone central protagonist story and instead a tale of all women in this story?  

Right from the beginning I knew I would have lots of narrators, it was just a question of how many. The first draft had over 40 points of view which I then reduced down in the course of a heavy rewrite with my agent. Amanda and Lisa are the two most consistent POVs - they didn’t change much in the rewrite, I just expanded their stories. 

You start the story in Scotland, Glasgow specifically with such affection is this where you are from originally? 

Yes, I grew up in Glasgow and my parents are both from Glasgow. It’s such a wonderful city and has such a no-nonsense, determined sensibility. It made perfect sense that Amanda would be in Glasgow as the pandemic began.

What is your background as this is your debut novel? 

I studied Law at Cambridge University and work as a corporate litigation lawyer in the City. I always wanted to write and would start writing a novel every summer from the age of 15 (and inevitably fail to get past 10,000 words). As time went on, I read more and got better until when I was 25 I managed to finish my first novel which had taken two years. That novel was in a different genre and didn’t land me an agent but I had some encouraging responses from the agents I sent it to. I started writing THE END OF MEN as soon as I finished that novel, knowing it was an idea I wanted to explore, and here we are!

What is your personal Covid-19 history, how have you adapted much like your female characters?

 

I caught COVID in March 2020 which was challenging but also I’m very lucky to have only been ill for two weeks and now fully recovered. I think I have adapted pretty well to the changed world but I’m very aware that circumstances differ enormously and your circumstances have a huge influence on how affected you are. I read somewhere that we’re all in the same storm but we’re not in the same boat. That really resonated. I’m able to work from home (both as a lawyer and an author) and spent a lot of Spring with my family in Glasgow but not everyone is able to do that.

How do you feel the world will adjust/adapt (a central theme of the novel) post-pandemic? 

I have a fundamental belief in human resilience and optimism. I truly believe that people can adapt to almost anything. I think - no matter how the pandemic itself plays out - we will manage to adjust and hopefully keep our healthcare systems, the arts, workplaces and other industries going.

What are your hopes for the novel come April? And can you mention your relationship with Borough Press? 

I hope the book reaches as wide an audience as possible and I would love to be able to in person book events if it’s safe to do. Borough have been really brilliant. My editor, Carla, has been such a champion right from the first days after my agent sent the book out on submission and the publicity, marketing and other teams are so clever and innovative. I feel very lucky to be working with them.

What have you been reading lately as your twitter feed attests to, what can you recommend? 

I’ve been in an Ann Patchett phase; I read THE DUTCH HOUSE and COMMONWEALTH both of which I absolutely adored. I read a lot of romance and YA fantasy (my comfort genres) so I’ve read five Julia Quinn novels over the last few months. Her most popular series, the BRIDGERTONS, is now a Netflix show being aired in December and if you like the sound of witty, feminist, engaging historical romance you’ll love her. I’ve also become a huge Sarah J Maas fan over lockdown. Oh, and THE LAST ACT OF LOVE by Cathy Retzenbrink was gorgeously written and made me cry.

Any advice for freelancers or young writers out there? 

Keep going! So many authors take multiple books to get an agent and/or publishing deal so don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t happen straight away. Finish the manuscript; you can’t do anything with an unfinished book. And read, read, read. Both broadly across different genres and deeply in the genre you’re writing in. I think it’s Caitlin Moran who says that no one else will ever have read the exact mix of books you’ve read so make sure you’re reading lots of different things to make your voice as unique and interesting as possible. I find romance helps with writing compelling characters, thrillers make my writing more gripping, women’s fiction teaches how to pace well and literary fiction/memoir teaches you beautiful, illustrative turns of phrase. Different types of books help in different ways.

THE END OF MEN is published by Borough Press/Harper Collins on Thursday 29th April 

Blood Ties - Brian McGilloway

 

New book in Ben Devlin series by Brian McGilloway

Brian McGilloway won huge acclaim last year with the brilliant novel THE LAST CROSSING, before that he wrote a series of books featuring Ben Devlin a maverick of sorts in the police force near the borderlands of Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland with all the political ramifications that go with the character's proximity.

The Last Crossing was a standalone novel and a mediation on the coping of grief when one event can haunt you but also set you on a path in your life with no looking back.

On more familiar ground with a returning lead protagonist, Devlin is investigating a case that also looks back at the past and how it can have such a grip on people. 

'How can a dead woman avenge herself on her killer twenty years after her murder?'

That is the question posed to Devlin as he investigates a murdered body in a bedsit, a chill washes over him when the identity of the victim is Brooklyn Harris. Devlin knew of the case when Harris was convicted of murdering one Hannah Row on a night out which included sexual assault of the young victim on that occasion. As a minor, Harris was granted a new name when released from prison and yet his passing throws light on the question of how to grief for any victim, irrespective of the nefarious nature of the person involved.

As Devlin attempts to investigate he finds obstacles by people and colleagues who feel that particular victim - Harris - should be buried as quickly as possible in essence good riddance to bad criminals. 

McGilloway crafts a novel full of intrigue and compulsion, touching on religion, the pressure on the youth from peers, vigilant justice against sexual assaulters in the social media age and Devlin having to cope with the impending Covid-19 pandemic upon his loved ones especially his ailing father who he removes from a care home and takes in to be near him.

The swiftness with which McGilloway can go from one narrative thread to another so neatly and succinctly is a skill that familiar readers will be aware of but new readers will greatly appreciate.

A writer of real intelligence has again created a work of fiction that is both real and emotive basing it within a very familiar world as the fear of a pandemic takes over, but a gripping and entertaining crime read of real nous and skill

Blood Ties is available now on all formats.

My thanks to DHH Literary Agency for the review opportunity.

Condemned - RC Bridgestock

 

New book in the DI Charley Mann series by respected Yorkshire based duo Bob and Carol Bridgestock

RC Bridgestock is the pseudonym or pen name for the combination of married couple Robert and Carol Bridgestock who together have nearly 50 years of experience working in the West Yorkshire Police service.

They first made their name as consultants on the popular television series Happy Valley which was broadcast on the BBC and starred Sarah Lancashire. From there they have written several standalone books such as the thrilling Reprobates and yet in 2020 they gained creditable traction with the publication of Payback, the first to feature feisty female DI Charley Mann - a woman whose ferocious appetitie for justice is a match for any person in the police force.

Payback was a thrilling read which featured Mann returning to her home near Huddersfield, this reverse fish out of water narrative with Charley returning home after a long stint in the Metropolitan force was both refreshing and gripped the ready from the first page.

In Condemned we find Charley again having to cope with a very cold case as it is January and a body has been found on a building site set for demolition. The forensics find two bodies, apart from each other one fresher than the other but the case throws in questions of legacy and land ownership in these still remote parts of our green and pleasant land.

Charley must contend against many hard-nosed egotistical males from the land developer where the bodies are found, to a young police officer who has a gambling problem affecting his work. These are expected in the still male dominated industry, yet it is the relationship with an elderly women that holds the key to the proceedings of the case and the spectre of ancestral family trees.

The air of suffocating oppression in the Yorkshire dales along with the incoming threat of Covid-19 that underlies the narrative is well done by the writing partnership. Personally though it does not reach the heights of the first novel - a common problem in new series as contemporaries Marion Todd and MJ Lee can attest to - yet those writers grew with each book in the series.

The wealth of experience at the disposal of Bridgestock is unparalleled yet in this instance the narrative did not hold the attention of this writer, yet it remains a solid piece of work in the crime genre. This reader looks forward to the next in the series.

CONDEMNED is out now from Canelo Press