Our New Music Playlist features new releases from local bands, plus selected tracks from some of the touring bands coming to the Calder Valley this year.
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Jumble Hole Clough – Potpourri Or Popery?
There’s prolific and then there’s Jumble Hole Clough, the alt-rock project of Colin Robinson. The latest offering from this busy Hebden Bridge songwriter is a whopping 19 cuts of chaotic freeform jazz-pop-punk a la Beefheart, Ween, Zappa and Half Man Half Biscuit. It’s a formula he handles with expert care. The deliciously delirious lyrics adorn every groove – song titles such as Krishna On Roller Blades, Sympathy For The Breville and All You Need Is Gloves are testimony enough. It’s a thoroughly pleasurable, head-spinning jaunt that’ll put a smile on your face and breathe new life into your boots.
Dan’s Girlfriend – Skipping Beats
Following the soulful radio-rock of debut Heartbreaker, this is the second single from Dan’s Girlfriend, a sax-fronted bunch of West Yorkshire party-poppers. And it’s an altogether different affair. There’s indie funk swagger to the fore here with neck-craning guitar squeals, joyous festival-esque brass pumps and insanely infectious rhythms. All in under three minutes. It’s an intoxicating, dance-mad power-punch. Look out for debut album Killing Time later in the year.
The Frixion – Back Where We Started
The Frixion stride decadently into 2025 with a succulent hunk of synth-pop. Back Where We Started, on the ever-brilliant Todmorden label AnalogueTrash, cuts a mid-80s new wave vibe. Gene Serene delivers a slick, euro-decked, minimalist art-pop vocal while synth textures and precision beats provide an atmospheric underbelly. The Circuit3 remix is, in particular, worth seeking out here. It sucks in all kinds of renegade elements – shimmering, ghostly keys, steamy explosions, eastern rhythms and big dabs of bass all appearing perfectly at home in the realm of the original track.
Lark – Be Still
Be Still is the seventh album by Lark, aka Karl Bielik, an idiosyncratic songwriter originally from Bradford. Emotions are splayed and tensions are racked across 11 compositions of rugged, lo-fi, alt-rock moodiness. The single Decorate, which features Emma Richardson of Pixies fame on bass, most ably represents the darkly sombre, turbulent range of Karl’s palette. Much of the album fits a similar suit, in truth, though Shimmy, Sixpence and The Ink House equally display a melodious fragile beauty. The latter is, arguably, the stand out track on the album, reeking as it does of gloriously fractured Pogues-ish melancholy.
Be Kind Cadaver – Lights Out On The Reservation
Another gem from the AnalogueTrash stable, Be Kind Cadaver are Brighton-based singer-synthesist, Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully, and drummer-guitarist, Leroy Brown. Formed out of the ashes of an old post-punk band, the duo have since hoovered up all manner of genres in a bid to push their sound into more dramatic and experimental waters. The result here is a gargantuan space-rock epic, a collage of alt-rock and cinematic ambient, that twists and dances into some surprising orbits over the course of its 12 eventful minutes. The initial chord sequence harks back to late-70s Crazy Horse, the vocal theatre is that of Iceage’s Elias B. Rønnenfelt and there are touches of Deerhunter, Ought and Destroyer at various points throughout.
Neo 21 – Not Nice
“This song is about doing more than intended, staying consistent and creating opportunities when doors stay closed… an anthem for the dreamers and hustlers” – Neo 21.
Bradford-based Afro-fusion/rap artist Neo21 is a growing force in the city’s cultural scene, having collaborated with initiatives like Bradford Producing Hub, BCB Radio 106.6 and the City of Culture.
New single Not Nice is drenched in smart, new wave soul. An atmospheric, throbbing single tone echoes through the track, rattling skittish rhythms carrying it along, while pointed, refined sequencers on the vocal provide the polish. There’s a late night-early morning vibe at play; that mystical zone where worlds collide. Too chilled to dance and too buzzed to chill. Accomplished, sophisticated material from a fast-evolving and evidently heartfelt musician and lyricist.
Bridget Hayden & The Apparitions – Cold Blows The Rain
Todmorden-based musician, Bridget Hayden, looks to quietly impress with her latest album, a refined collection of starkly beautiful traditional songs. Fine lines of sonic ambience resonate and pervade like the silent morning sun on frosted fields. The album, recorded over two days at The Todfellows Space, is engraved with various narratives around themes of love, lament and discontent. Album closer The Unquiet Grave (also encountered in traditional lore as Cold Blows The Wind) is gloriously extreme on the matter – the tale of a young man who grieves so much for his deceased true love that she is woken from her eternal sleep. Enchanting, magical stuff. More>
Folklore Tapes – Ceremonial County Series Volumes 11
Bridget Hayden also appears on one of the most recent releases from Folklore Tapes’ Ceremonial County Series. The project explores the folklore, myths and legends of England’s 48 counties across 24 tapes, each tape representing two counties. One tape is released per month over a 24-month period and there is a different artist assigned to each county.
Bridget’s hauntingly splintered composition represents the county of Shropshire and the Welsh Legend of Llynclys Pool, a lake said to contain a sunken palace or city. The track has a suitably eery deep-water horror feel to it, before transforming, with degrees of serenity and sadness, into a stripped-down, rickety piano contemplation.
It is twinned with Daniel Weaver’s Nottinghamshire: Ghosts Of The Meadows, Sneinton and Forest Field, which bundles bass strings and higher pitch scratches to help assemble a creature of mystery and charm, giving way to an ocean of calm translucence.
Coal Mob – Cowgirl
Indie-noise merchants Coal Mob hail from the upper reaches of Leeds and, as such, are not strictly speaking in our usual corridor of consideration, but we got randomly sent this and absolutely loved it. Cowgirl – out Feb 14th – is their third release to date. Previous efforts Bounce and Ceiling put the band in the category of ‘urgent-indie-punk’, along with the likes of Gurriers, Chalk and Courting. But new single Cowgirl is a cut above, adding new dimensions of melody and hooks that are distinctly reminiscent of The Cribs’ and, in particular, the Wakefield band’s 2007 album, Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever. It’s in the vocal rushes, the pummelling bass, the switchblade lead guitar and, most tellingly, in the courageous punk harmonies.
Grow – Your Own Time
The debut single from Halifax groove-jam four-piece Grow – and the first ever release from Grayston Unity Records. Your Own Time opens up with a colourful, dancing piano line, raggish and breezy. Jack Wilson’s vocal, tinged with Gallagher swagger, gives the track an immediate sense of purpose. It’s brimming with indie-pop singalong effervescence on the surface while, below the water line, intricate melodies bob and weave. The song builds to a rousing finale, all manner of funk flourishes and acute studio touches adding gravitas to what is, essentially, an irresistible radio-friendly rock chorus. More>
Dirty Circus – Things Have Got To Change
Recent headliners at The Golden Lion, Wigan electro-beat trio Dirty Circus have a new album in the pipeline. It’s preceded by the release of lead single, Things Have Got To Change. Spacious house synths and steam-funk opulence abound, like a Jamie xx loop from his In Colour era, with micro-traces of Burial bobbing away at street level. There are further modern electro adornments a la Caribou, as well as a swell of retro 90s indie-dance that harks back to the heady Madchester days of Paris Angels or World Of Twist. The B-side is a bug-eyed, space-hopping, clubland stomper – a remix of an old track called Sunshine that has been eloquently re-crafted by Dean Horner of Moonlandingz, I Monster and The All Seeing. More>
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