Slacker Shack – The Best New Music – Volume 5

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture“. Elvis Costello was right. This blog should’ve been written about three weeks ago but I’ve been body-popping to a new Redrow development in Stockport and I lost track of time. Sorry.

Volume 5 in our series of new music playlists is another ‘pack a spare pair of socks and undies’ belter that pulls in everything from giddying slacker rock and hypnotic psych pop, to hazy acid folk and stonking garage rock. If you’re looking to dip your ears into some wondrous, under the commercial radar brilliance and discover some new bands and artists to love, read on…

The playlist starts with Window Shopper from one of my favourite new discoveries of 2021, Blood Wizard. Landing in a sweet intersection between OCS, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and Tim Burgess, they’re jaw droppingly good. Portsmouth’s Hallan are up next with DFA infused Mark E Smith-esque stomper, Reruns – a tune so immediate and moreish it should come with a slurred/blurred health warning.

Liverpool duo, Stores follow with their indie disco monster in the making, bones. Whispering ‘Scouse White Stripes’ could be seen as cheap but I promise there’s nothing but reverence in those hushed three words.

When I close my eyes and listen to Our Scene by Toronto based musical chameleon, Breeze, my mind conjures up a brightly coloured, cartoon skateboarding video animated by a wizard. I’ve no idea why but I do feel it fits.

Fifth track, Beverage of Choice by DC four piece, BRNDA, distils everything I love about slacker rock and no wave into two and a bit utterly vibrant minutes. And it made me think about the B52’s and the Violent Femmes jamming together in a basement too.

Volume 5 sees the return of a handful of previous Slacker Shack playlist artists, and sixth track by blog favourite, Joe Adhemar struts in the pulsing lights of a lost new wave nightclub circa 1984. Off And On summons subtle echoes of REM, Peter Gabriel and XTC and hooked me in from the first few bars. Helmeted psych-pop troubadour and playlist mainstay, Blokeacola’s up next with his dreamy Bullets and Condoms. I’ve almost run out of superlatives for his kaleidoscopically stunning music but the truth is I’m not going to shut up until he’s being frotted over by at least half a dozen Pitchfork hipster reviewers and grinning underneath his shiny orange helmet on the front of GQ.

Debut single, Here Comes Trouble by Canadian artist Joyeria is our eighth track, and its glorious melange of motorik drums, cool bassy vocals, psychedelic swells and trippy bleeps and gurgles, left me jittering for more. Final Weapon from LA’s Dummy has a similar motorik urgency and late sixties headiness which throbs and shimmies with a cool air of Stereolab meets Ege Bamyasi-era Can. The heady hypnosis continues with dwi and the title track from his debut solo album, Mild Fantasy Violence. Its transition from late 90’s, dreamy, indie head-nodder to groovy Gallic-infused electro odyssey is quite the late night treat.

The psychedelic wonderment persists with Sun Atoms’ The Cat’s Eye. As it builds and quivers echoes of early Pink Floyd, Kevin Ayers and Donovan flicker before it ascends to its Lewis Carroll meets shamanic mantra crescendo and the neck hairs salute. Nottingham’s Jiminil is next on the list with a goosebump inducing track called Family Tree. Drawing on classic British and Irish folk music but painting everything in luscious, widescreen curiosity, it winds and rises until its under your skin encouraging your finger to press repeat as it reaches its haunting close.

Canadian singer songwriter, Evan Cheadle is another musician finding gold in the vast psychedelic depths of late sixties and early 70’s folk rock. Joker, from his new album Fault Line Serenade, dreams up a sunny, pastoral land of singing bluebirds and hazy ramblings, and cracked a summery light through Autumn’s rainy skies as I listened to it once more this evening.

Carrying on the psychedelic vibes but throwing some magnetic garage rock and Merseybeat magic into the mix are Atlanta’s Gringo Starr with I’d Find You Again; a track that sounds like a play it on repeat highlight from a newly discovered Nuggets compilation, but is in fact another brand spanking new find.

Half noughties indie-folk troubadour anthem, half foot stomping slacker rock party starter, Portland singer-songwriter, MAITA’s new(ish) single, Pastel Concrete, lives in a lively imaginary intersection between Big Thief and early Breeders; and Manchester’s The Maitlands bring the beer soaked mid 80’s psych-rock mosh pit alive with Diving In At The Shallow End, slapping the ghosts of The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen into a huge dystopian now. It’s Volume 5’s sixteenth track and it’s big and sweaty in the best possible way.

Next up, Birmingham’s Table Scraps’ latest album Coffin Face is a mighty belt of psych smacked, dooming, booming, garage rock excellence and my favourite track, Heat Beat, is a frenetic three minutes of grimy surf rock, future Tarantino mixtape joy. If you’re into Thee Oh Sees and older bands like Jefferson Airplane and 13^th Floor Elevators give their album a listen.

Track 18 comes courtesy of the mysterious, Izambard. Conqrète is a rumbling, growling face slap of a tune that grinds up trip-hop, post punk and grime into a huge futuristic cement mixer and presses go.

Penultimate track Hotmail Viagra from Mild Horses shakes things up with a chaotic blend of slacker rock fuzz and frenzied post-punk squelches and bleeps. There’s a whiff of The Fall and early Grandaddy about it, two bands I love. And finishing of Volume 5 in a fine and manic style are Toronto psych-punks Wine Lips with their rollicking garage face-melter, Eyes, taken from their colossal new album, Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party (don’t type that into Google).

If you’ve heard something you think we’d love or have just released something the World needs to hear, drop us a message below (or on Twitter @Slacker_Shack). Until next time… keep frolicking and rollicking.