“Why am I offended by the way that you breathe/I hate people and people hate me… that’s just how it is,” runs a typical lyric.
Bracingly aggressive, rude and misanthropic, Shelf Lives’ debut mini-album is laced with nihilism but also spiked with desert-dry humour, as Sabrina ruminates mostly about how boring life is and how she dislikes most things. The music matches patches of spartan electronic beats’n’effects with bursts of grunge guitar raging. This is invigorating stuff, and also a fine, bitchin’ counterpoint to contemporary culture’s endless emotional fragility. Comes on vinyl that looks like celeste blue laundry conditioner swirling down a watery drain. Ibeyi’s third album steps – to some degree - away from the elegiac and occasionally gloomy tone of their previous output. This isn’t to say they’ve suddenly turned into The Cheeky Girls. The Cuban twins, working with XL Records’ Richard Russell, still come over as serious and thoughtful, especially on self-reflective torch songs such as “Creature (Perfect)” in which they appear to find peace with the deaths that have haunted their life and work (they lost their dad and older sister far, far too young). But songs such as the Afro-trap “Made of Gold” (featuring Brit-Gambian MC Pa Salieu) and the socio-politically aware goth-pulse of “Rise Above” (featuring Brit-Trinidadian MC Berwyn) have a different kind of heft. The album is loosely conceived around a chapter from The Egyptian Book of the Dead, after which it’s named, and Ibeyi’s usual Yoruba musical roots underpin everything too, but it crosses into avant-R&B and Afro-tonica, the latter especially on “Lavender & Red Roses”, featuring Jorja Smith. While often solemn, there’s a lightening of spirit here and a variety of sound that’s more-ish. It’s originally packaged too, with the front cover opening like saloon doors to give access to a photo collage. within which resides the album and a 12” x 12” photo/lyric/info insert.
Hanterhir There Is No One to Trust (Easy Action/Hanterhir)īack in 2018 Cornish band Hanterhir’s epic The Saving of Cadan was our Vinyl of the Month. Two albums later they return with a fearsome fifth album. Why aren’t Hanterhir one of the biggest rock bands in the world? They are damn sight better than many of the bands that are. They combine their own unique version of rock, indie and punk-ishness with Mogwai-style sonics and interjections of roots music, but also boast a sound it’s easy to imagine whipping up huge fields at festivals. The cover art on the new album is not helping them as it’s completely forgettable, as you can see, but the music within is worth anyone’s time. Bm A G Fm sunny came home to her favorite room Bm A D A sunny sat down in the kitchen E/G A G Fm she. They are like a psychedelic grunge Waterboys for some of the time, on songs such as the swirling violin vs guitar whirlpool of “Disghoryon”, but as capable of straightforward massive, contagious rock, as on opener “Always On”.
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