"Anti! Anti! Anti!" by dogmarket

Back when I started reviewing for this magazine & later when I began compiling excellent local original music for "Hot Music Live Presents", it was because I was aware of how the diversity & range of true individual voices had increased dramatically around that time. Therefore artists to write about & share were abundant.

I had no idea how long it would last: the first compilation was seen by me as a one off & I'm now putting the sixteenth together.

The dynamic I didn't really grasp was how many artists I'd discover via the agency of others: the percentage of those I review & compile whom I'd not to come across that quickly (if at all) by those means is very significant. So thanks to all of you who have helped by tipping me off. (And that's another sign of the health of the current scene: previously I'm not sure that boosting of others was terribly prevalent).

The latest example comes from hosting HomeBread at our latest HMLP fundraiser for The Tin on Friday. This exciting band are very much on the rise & greatly esteemed by audiences & other musicians. Yet they are so early in their career that I have no releases of theirs to review nor compile. However I did not know of the solo project of their bassist Thom Lea. This is called dogmarket and he has a brand new single called "Anti! Anti! Anti!" out right now.

In fact, as was perhaps inevitable, he's been quite a prolific releaser of music with two EPs already out & a campaign of putting out fortnightly singles over the past couple of moths.

Late as I may be to the dogmarket party, for which I apologise, at least I seem to have arrived at an interesting moment as Thom feels it is "a slight change from the more Alt-Rock adjacent sound for something that structurally is poppier".

If this sounds like some sort of compromise in order to launch dogmarket into Radio FabFM commercial territory then don't fear as he characterises it further as "still a little unnerving, over the top, and kinda creepy". Which sounds good to me.

In fact the song itself sounds good to me: the DIY aesthetic employed certainly gives it that sense of honesty I always look for in music and his relative lack of experience (he seems to relish the learning side he's gone through) in production & budget mean that there is no danger of any over arrangement or over production to insert a layer between the music & its listener in terms of emotions nor to guide it into areas of banality of slickness to sit indistinguishable from other music. It has character & it has truth.

Made from synths & found percussion processed via a laptop and borrowed kit, it is indeed one of those songs where the border between beauty & creepiness is pretty porous. It is a complex track which ebbs & flows from quiet passages to much more harsh ones while contemplating ideas around religion, intimacy and voyeurism with vocals which migrate from the spoken to pretty anguished emoting (he says "shouting" but that's not a word I'd have used). Apparently something of a collage of childhood memories & images, I guess the source material must necessarily be fragmented in nature and this makes for a better song: frankly I've heard plenty of linear narratives & a bit of variety is always welcome.

dogmarket is for real & another appreciated addition to the tapestry of Coventry & Warwickshire music. I think HomeBread have massive potential which I really hope will be realised but this rather more niche project has value because of its inherent values & qualities but also because Thom describes it as "very much a passion project". I like those.