MIKE DAVIES COLUMN JULY 2021

Burntwood’s Gorstey Lea Street Choir return with new Gavin Monaghan-produced album Prince’s Park to Farsley - Volume I (500 Broadcast), comprising four new tracks and four from Extended Play One ‘re-imagined’  by Choque Hosein from Black Star Liner whose then band, The Hollow Men,  Michael  Clapham had supported when he was part of The Great Divide and whose current Leeds residence provides the journey link in the title (for the record, Burntwood’s Prince’s Park is the smallest park in the UK). Obviously, it also nods to Prince and Prefab Sprout.

Of the latter, first up is  FireboySlowBurn, a pulsing, spooked  rework of  ...from a boy with the vocals back in the mix, followed by Cinquante Cinq Six Huit, a glorious marching drums and brass driven  transformation of   Saint Marie into something majestically anthemic. In contrast Lowborn & Stargazing is stripped of its vocals and re-emerges as heady dance track    Lowbyrne while the indie rock Broken Down Radio is recast as the cosmic floating instrumental Mr Blue Sky Boat.

Of the new material, the album opens with the shimmering slow sway alt folk of Up With The Larks featuring George Shilling and piano by The Great Divide member Paul Cooper, followed by the bass, guitars,  crashing drums and tumbling chords of Bluebird, Hollywood… Domino with its Eastern psychedelia feel. One Way Ticket opens with a spoken sample behind the piano and plodding drums for another retro psychedelic groove that, like its predecessor (“One summer long ago before this all began/We left school for fame and fortune”) features reflections of days passed and the grey nature of change (“Round here were fields, corner-shops and public houses/Pastures of green… now not so super, supermarkets”). The last is a more upbeat nuggets, the loping brass-burnished 12 string guitar bounce of That Chitty Bang Majik inspired by watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that speaks of an escape from dead-end mundanity (“I'm leaving this burnt town/Tomorrow night on a runaway train/I need to seize this time”).  They’re quietly becoming one of the most interesting bands in not just the West Midlands, but the country as a whole.

Rising stars and schooldays friends from Stourbridge, now based in Birmingham, THE NOVUS, Connor Hill (vocals), Thomas Rhodes (guitar), Tyla Challenger (bass) and Euan Woodman (drums) unveil their debut EP Thaleia Standing (also produced by Monaghan), named after the Greek muse of comedy. Opening with the industrial bass grinding heavinesss of previous single I Serve Not, it cranks up the pass for, bass throbbing away the driving post-punk, spoken-styled vocals of the paranoia-themed Hate Is The Cancer with its PiL echoes. Overdriven nods to Sabbath-smelted heavy rock with a deliberate pummelling groove, cast in echo and reverb, before floor toms intro and underpin the 70s psychedelic swagger of Castaway, culminating in the doomy Journey (With No End), its a capella opening blossoming into sitar-coloured hints of the darker prowling shadows of Bowie or perhaps even The Chameleons alongside the EP’s recurring nods to Nick Cave.  Stoked by the anger of youth and fuelled by Hill’s powerful vocals and the immensity of the guitars and rhythm section, they are poised to take their national place as Birmingham’s next big thing.

Frontman with Odmansbox, WILLIAM WILLIAM ROGERS  trails his forthcoming solo album, William William Rodgers Sings the Yellow Pages, with Gone Shrimping, a catchy, upbeat alt-folk ditty about, well, what it says, featuring Pete Churchill on  accordion, double bassist Ben Muirhead and Eddy Hewitt on percussion.  Bringing further sunshine to these overcast times, ALEX OHM releases the scampering indie pop of Joy. Spread it around.