Glasto Ferret

Preston's Mad Ferret is hosting its regular antidote to cramming in a bus down south with another "Glasto Ferret", this year packed with more emerging talent than a fire-drill at the studios for Britain's Next Top Model. From whom, I have picked some tasty names for delight, but this weekend there's the promise of ice-cream from a real-life frozen pudding truck in addition to the bands, beats, and beer. Anymore could you ask in all honesty...?

Mindshock are the definition of intriguing, the unique vocal twang (think Brandon Flowers with hiccups) setting a serious slant to leftfield songs. Their new EP "Dream Story" is on offer a iTunes and should be a vital purchase.

Raucous riff-crazed The Adventures of Loki are all the fun of British Bulldogs in the playground, with more playful boy/girl on-stage action than would be permitted overseas. When they suggest listeners "Dance Like A Maniac" only space disallows doing just that - the punching melodies are just half the story. For a full spec, they must be watched live - nay, witnessed - with anticipation turned higher than the speakers.

No festival, anywhere, can occur without madcap beardy loving, so ensuring all daughters are zipped securely away, The Loungs are one combine harvester away from perfection. With the full brass and cheery harmonies any sane person could ask for, this is the kind of sound you don't know you'll regret missing unless you do.

Underdogs have the sincerity and presence to convince you that they're running through your favourite songs, such is the strength of their infections, intelligent set. Dragging indie through strip-clubs and backstreet bars to toughen it up a little, avoidance of this highly impressive band is probably going to be harder the way things are going.

Swooning and sweeping melodies, the very sound of Kate Bush playing hopscotch in the rain, Sophie's Pigeons are alluring and magnetic, quite the curtain-twitchingly curious. In most cases they are not even trying to be impressive, the piano-led abundance of fun pours out sounding perfectly natural and feeling positively renewing.

Throughout the weekend from 26-28th June, there are over a dozen more outstanding groups from nearabouts, enough to tempt you from Wimbledon, clearing out the cupboards, or spending time with any significant other (they'll understand....)

Bikini Black Special - The Grim Mathematics Of Intercourse

Sounding like MGMT fronted by a Bond Girl, electronica group Bikini Black Special are menacing and intense, broken glass sharp throughout their debut album "The Grim Mathematics of Intercourse".

In place of abandonment and summer beach anthems, tight rock beats and layered samples roll and crash, the album veritably stuffed with the equivalent of speeding freight-trains of styles and additions following each other. Throbbing bass, trip-hop beats, vocals crunched and wrapped in white noise: this is a paradox of an album, hyperactive but paranoid, serious while celebratory.

While the crafting of each track is clear and potentially restrictive, "Grim Mathematics" will not fail to hook in any listener - be it the evangelical fervour of "Black Hat" or the techno revivalism in "Repo Men". The phrase "Bikini Black Special" refers to one of the highest levels of alert state used by the Ministry of Defense, with no defined target; the tracks here should put the exciting band on the highest state of alert, undoubted better things should follow.

The album "The Grim Mathematics of Intercourse" can be found http://bikiniblackspecial.bandcamp.com/album/the-grim-mathematics-of-intercourse

The band can be found at http://www.bikiniblackspecial.com/

"The Grim Mathematics of Intercourse" is launched at The Mad Ferret in Preston on 20 June

The Cities / The Northwestern

Appearing live at Mad Ferret
in Preston on Saturday 6th, two bands to keep up the heat of the summer with intense live reputations stacking up behind them

Local lads The Cities cram a novel of heartfelt lyrics into each song, a veritable thick-fruit smoothie of rolling melodies sweet with the bitter aftertaste of life's lessons learned. Stand out tracks "Cold, and "Scar".

The big draw for the night is surely The Northwestern, the uplifting and optimistic band formed from Sam Herilhy and Simon Jones from highly regarded former Sony post-rock outfit Hope of the States. Together with Franseco Menegat, Ian McCullagh, and Jonny Winter, formerly with The Open, the new group maintain the sweeping guitars and orchestration but switch the introspection for sheer celebration. If you didn't pick up the upturn from final Hope of the States album "Left", it may take you by surprise to hear "All The Ones". Beaming and bright, the expression you can see on Herilhy's face is a smile. You should get used to it, he's clearly enjoying himself.

The gig is at Mad Ferret, Fylde Road, Preston, on Saturday 6th June.


Picture of The Cities from Michael Holdsworth
Also appearing on the night are Underdogs and The Fifty 50's

The Nightjars

"I'm sorry I don't really feel that way..."

With this melancholic tough to single 'Valentine', Manchester's current names-to-drop might suggest the usual indie reflection. Repeated listens to their new eponymous album shows how far they are from anything "usual"; indeed appropriately named track "Logic Has No Part In It" takes their respectful love for REM and Velvet Underground into playful time-switching areas not too far removed from YouthMovies or The Northwestern.



"Machines Gone Down" should be marked now as a future festival fave, sounding quite brilliantly like the Editors fused with the Kinks, sounds which emerge from the folk of "Valentine" or the acoustic musings of "Crash This Car" ("I can't speak for myself", a silly claim in an album full of wistful, wondrous songwriting).

Unlike the 2008 mini-album "Towards Light", this is not instant or immediate, the beautifully realised collection of songs proving there is still life yet in the age-old practice of allowing an album the freedom of tell its own stories. There are few albums suited to the days when the summer heat is as close at night as at high-noon; the Nightjars is a perfectly placed candidate.


(For those who like scoring systems "■■■■□")

"The Nightjars" CD is released 29 June
The Nightjars can be found at www.myspace.com/thenightjars
and also www.thenightjars.com
Online Press alistairbeech@hotmail.com