We’re now halfway through my list of favorite albums from last year. Who’s here? Read on!
#15: Lammping – Never Never
Take a trip-hop duo (Lammping) and combine them with a Canadian rockabilly one-man-band who was described by John Waters as “Roy Orbison with a head injury” (Bloodshot Bill), and you get the neat Never Never EP. It sounds like something you’d find in a dusty record bin among “2000s Music – Misc.”, and is well-worth seeking out. It’s the first of four EPs from Lammping, so they’re off to a good start.
#14: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island
Would it be a “best of” year list without a King Gizz album by now, since they release at least one album a year? Phantom Island combines the Aussie psych-rock / thrash metal / rave music giants with an orchestra because…why not? It’s a lush album with as much mystery as its cover.
#13: pôt-pot – Warsaw 480km
Here’s a post-punk band that emerged from seemingly nowhere to knock me back into my chair. “Damn, that’s good,” was my first thought after hearing it. I’m delighted that so many good post-punk bands are still appearing, and this is one of them.
#12: John Also Bennett – Ston Elaióna
This is a lovely ambient record mostly made of synths and field recordings John Also Bennett made around Greece. One song is inspired by the oldest known written song found on a stone pillar.
#11: Paddang – Lost in Lizardland
It’s a French psych-rock concept album about a future world dominated by evil lizard people and a lone heroine in the wasteland trying to defeat them. What more do you need to know?
The debut album from Irish / Portuguese quintet pôt-pot, Warsaw 480km, is an album about feeling adrift during dark hours but also knowing that light eventually will come.
Lead singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Mark Waldron-Hyden wrote most of the album while bouncing around different landscapes and residences…all the while dealing with grief over the death of his father. What emerged was a pretty damn cool post-punk / krautrock / Ennio Morricone (and, believe it or not, James Brown)-inspired album.
“22° Halo” opens the record with a fierce bass lick from Joe Armitage and guitars that you think are going to overwhelm you for a moment but then fade into the shadows. “Sextape” started out as a jam session and became your next favorite song to put on a psych-rock mixtape. The blend of male and female harmonies between Waldron-Hyden and Elaine Malone and Sara Lelsie and near-surf rock guitars from Waldron-Hyden and Mykle Oliver Smith are instantly hypnotizing, and Malone’s harmonium is like incense in your meditation chamber.
“WRSW” was inspired by the road sign mentioned in the album’s title as Waldron-Hyden was riding in a car with his father’s ashes. As the story goes, he saw the sign emerge along the road on a dark night and it gave him the sense that he’d get through both the night and his grief (even in the latter would remain to some degree for a lifetime). The upbeat krautrock rhythm gives you (and Waldron-Hyden) the power to keep moving forward. “Fake Eyes” is a haunting track that seems to just…hover.
The press release I received for Warsaw 480km mentions how “I AM!” is indebted to Lou Reed. That’s correct, as it sounds like a groovy Velvet Underground track you forgot existed. Waldron-Hyden’s swaggering beat on “Can’t Handle It” reminds me of Cramps records – as do the repeated lyrics of “Tell me, baby, do you feel all right? Tell me, baby, would you take my life? Because I just can’t handle it.”
The guitar work on “The Lights Are On” is a great mix of psych-garage and dark country twang. “Hot Scene” continues that Morricone influence and adds a bit of Delta 5 post-punk flair as it builds to a loud buzz in your head. The album ends with “Change Your Life,” which could be a suggestion made by Waldron-Hyden to us, a friend, a lover, or himself. I’m not sure…or if it matters.
What does matter is that you give this album a spin. It’s a great debut and portends more good things to come from them.
oday Lisbon-based Irish quintet pôt-pot share a second look at their forthcoming debut album ‘Warsaw 480km’, set for release on September 19th via Felte.
The band infuse the propulsive grooves of krautrock with a phosphorescent psych-rock radiance, all underscored by harmonium drones, hypnotic vocal harmonies, and deep layers of rough-hewn texture.
Following first single “WRSW”, today they share a second glimpse at the record with an understated track about trust, entitled “Sextape“. The track highlights several of pôt-pot’s many strengths: melodious bass and laid-back drums create the framework for controlled feedback and honeyed vocals that are massive in their presence, yet still buoyant as a cloud above the steady pulse and swirls of vibrant, harmonic grace.
Commenting on the track, lead vocalist Mark Waldron-Hyden comments: “This song came from a spontaneous jam between all of us, not written by myself like the other tracks. Elaine named it half as a joke when we first saved the phone recording and despite efforts to rename, nothing else stuck.
What was lovely about this track was that the lads wrote their parts but gave me full control to orchestrate the song as I wished, and trusted me with the bits they wrote to make a full track, which really meant a lot to me. I guess the song title stayed as it’s essentially a song that came from an intimate trust between us, which lines up with what should be involved in making a sextape I suppose — intimate trust between parties that whatever each person brings to the scenario will be treated with respect, but that’s me taking a retrospective look on things.
The lyrics also stem from themes of trust between people — a quiet, unspoken understanding of each other’s idiosyncrasies “You don’t have to say what you are, I already know” repeated over and over.”
Evolved primarily from demos by multi-instrumentalist and lead vocalist Mark Waldron-Hyden during a period of grief and personal upheaval, the album came to life through a series of live, full-band studio sessions that document an exceptional array of talents, unified in an embrace of raw catharsis with a sweetly sinister edge.
A defining element of ‘Warsaw 480km’ is its impressive range of influences and atmospheric topographies. As Waldron-Hyden describes, “I wrote the first batch of songs while not really living in one place, so I think they have a kind of transient feel to them – developing them with the band helped me process an era in which I was emotionally freewheeling, so they remind me equally of the beautiful experience we shared as a creative unit and the difficult times that inspired them.” Lead single, “WRSW”, exemplifies this complexity, as its rugged rhythmic backbone carries tremolo guitars, woozy harmonium, and a half-spoken, Lou Reed-indebted vocal line in which the verse and chorus beautifully blur together.
Above all, Warsaw 480km is an album that achieves its richness and aura from deliberate economy, as Waldron-Hyden explains, “Ollie [Oliver Smith] and Sara [Sara Leslie] are experts at getting the most out of one pedal, a shitty amp, and a guitar they borrowed, a result of innate talent and years of experience; they use some modulation for dronier passages, but it’s their playing styles and understanding of ‘the vibe’ that are the secret ingredients.” This kind of intuitive connection and collaboration is incredibly rare, and with these ten pieces, pôt-pot accomplish something truly rapturous as they alchemize deep pain into a luminous reverie.
pôt-pot are Elaine Malone (she/her), Sara Leslie (she/her), Mykle “Ollie” Oliver Smith (he/him), Joe Armitage (he/him) and Mark Waldron-Hyden (he/him).
