Once again, I find myself in the happy position of writing for the first time in ‘Hot Music Live' about artists not previously mentioned.

Today it's the turn of Leamington-based las vedas (yes the lower-case culture continues to stand tall amongst the artists coming through).

The occasion is the release today of their new , and in fact debut EP ‘lamp'.

Why that title? Well it's probably beyond coincidence that the fact it was recorded at LAMP in Leamington may have played a part in naming it.

LAMP is  "a specialist education provision dedicated to supporting young people with autism and high anxiety" which alone merits our respect and support but on top of that, the organisation has empowered & supported many students in creating their own individual art: especially music. We have reviewed the first of their compilations (and looking forwards to the second) and featured several LAMP based students on our ‘Hot Music Live Presents' compilations.

As it happens, the band we're talking about today come to their LAMP collaboration from their own unique angle: they credit Tim Ellis (whom you may also know from Jackdaw with Crowbar)  "for his encouragement and use of LAMP's recording facilities" and the naming of the record after it is more than a cursory tip of their hat.

In fact the band have quite substantial back stories: Morton D Ballard (guitarist)  with London based The History of Apple Pie, bassist Alex Vale with Wallace and Vomit whom we've featured in the magazine and drummer Ewan Durrant, has a "long history of activity in local music scene".

Produced by Louis B Scheuer (also of course of Wallace and Vomit and many other groovy projects) with engineer Joe Durrant of Nuke the Whales (both of whom are credited with "nudging" the group into the recording environment, ‘lamp' consists of a quartet of songs: "spelling bee", "taylor" (with backing vocals courtesy of Matt Cameron), "song for sleep" and "vivian".

Those are their names but describing what they sound like is another matter entirely. Yes, it's another band who don't fit into any particular single category as defined by the official media: precisely what I like but trickier to deal with if you're a reviewer. To be fair, the band in their postings have tried to help potential new audience members by having a go themselves, but ultimately as with all good original bands, what is generated tends to be a list of attributes they can discern in their own music, augmented by mine. And in due course presumably yours.

Let's just remind ourselves that this is not a complaint: if anything it's part of my recommendation & I really do urge you to listen. I imagine that they are pretty special live too (hopefully I'll be reviewing them in that capacity some time) and I gather that the four tunes selected for recording reflect crowd responses.

Their over-arching general self-identification is "a potent cocktail of noise-pop, shoegaze, surf-punk, garage and indie" which covers a fair amount of ground and gets us started. To this they add that this is further characterised "by shimmering guitars wrapped in atmospheric haze, driving rhythms, and infectious hooks that blur the lines between chaos and melody."

"spelling bee" kicks the EP off (fairly literally): they suggest it's a "garage blitz": I detect echoes of the remorseless rockabilly of The Fall too: which makes it fine to my ears.

"taylor"  they feel may be "surf-inflected shoegaze" which makes sense once you hear it, though the anxious clatter tends to evoke people who may have drunk a lot of coffee or taken something else stimulating rather more than the laid back variety of surfer.

The other two songs they characterise as both being "noise-pop" which may be a euphemism for the difficulty of narrowing any description down further, but if you already have enjoyed the first half of the EP, I don't suppose you are too bothered by any more verbal commentaries: you are just into the music, and that's the main thing. That both would have slotted in on C86 is intended as high praise.

When you've enjoyed ‘lamp' you can go and see them live as they're playing at Priory Visitor Centre (LTB Showrooms) on January 30^th alongside Mesch, Nuke the Whales and Huffing.

You probably could tell by the enthusiasm on display in my live reviews how I was eager to write about the next Banoffee release and with  "Ripening" coming out this morning, I get to do that.

Many reviewers will be using the word "sublime" about Banoffee and it's so clearly accurate that I must join them and get it into the article from the start: I truly can't write about the song without using it.

It's been a while arriving  & therefore restraining myself has been necessary. I'm sure the timing relates to practical issues (the band members are also studying currently) but with music this good, building a sense of anticipation can add to impact on release: this is a rare quality of single & worth waiting for.

The song itself is a highlight of their remarkable live shows so no Banoffee fan can be unaware of it & like me presumably yearning to have a copy to keep. They too are probably aware of another already recorded song of theirs with a similar level of sublimity just waiting its turn for the limelight. As noted in my last review of a live show (Izzie Derry's Christmas Show) at which they played, a key indicator for me has been the number of local musicians (especially those we rate ourselves) who are admirers: like everyone else, captivated in an instant.

The joys of Banoffee include their understanding, the emotional frisson and they embrace too a series of dualities. The most glaring one, which admittedly has cropped up in previous articles but it's simply too true and too central to their musical identity not to reiterate, is how the songs seduce you into a comfortable familiarity which suggests they you've known the melody all your life and that its simple: then you watch the fingers and realise the complexity and realise that this is all their own imagination at work . Making this work so apparently effortlessly is some art isn't it?

The studio version is absolutely true to the live renditions: they've worked hard to capture the feeling as well as the essence of the song, which can't be easy with material this intimate. It really does draw you into itself just as well in your own space as in the live venue.

The other aspect of the simple/not-so-simple dynamic is the songs' meaning. In this respect "Ripening" might be their zenith to date. "Maturity" is a relative term insofar as it relates to insights and with this song one might question whether Ella & Cia possess sensitivities more mature than other individuals who may have walked this earth for longer. It's a remarkable reflection on growth & finding one's milestones: novels have tried to cover this amount of ground in thousands more words. A poetic musing pivoting round the concept of seasonal growth.

I'm most pleased to report that you can enjoy Banoffee live on March 20th at The Tin, headlining  our ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraiser for that venue alongside The Illusion and DANE-O plus one more act whom we'll be revealing soon.

https://www.universe.com/events/hot-music-live-rosetta-fire-banoffee-the-illusion-dane-o-tickets-GMTBLH

In advance of their album ‘Images of Survival'  (due out in exactly one month on Valentine's Day), dogmarket today has released "Stray Animal".

It has an interesting history which I think will not only aptly illustrate their artistic development but will chime with many other DIY creatives.

Demoed around three years ago as an acoustic track, it's waited patiently until now when its creator "finally had the production knowledge to make it sound how I wanted." A good lesson I think in patience and having the courage to park a song rather than put it out in a compromised state.

Now clothed in electronica, "Stray Animal" possesses its original lyrics which now have the setting dogmarket judges displays them to their best advantage & which accentuate their force.

This was a very good call  in my opinion: the song itself carries a heavy emotional burden which speak directly to personal experience at the original time of writing and the words gain by the haunting (I'd go so far as harrowing) arrangement. An acoustic guitar might have offered the counterpoint option but I am sure this arrangement was the right one to fully bring out the considerable quantities of anguish, frustration & of feeling unappreciated and even unloved.

It's a powerful song now: it will unsettle you and hopefully will inspire others out there who know they have something valuable and are caught agonisingly between awaiting perfection & the temptation to go with what they've got.

Euan Blackman hits 2026 running today with the release of his latest EP ‘wildcard'.

Comprising five tracks, "jane"& "mine" plus three you'll already know as they've been released as singles in their own right, "better", "forgive" and "girl"  , this EP sees him consolidate modes of working which obviously suit him: following previous EPs such as ‘Thunderstorms' and ‘Rent Free on My Brain' the pattern is to bring out several singles followed by the parent collection featuring a couple of newbies. Other characteristics evolve as his music does: the wispy vocals & blurred artworks are now succeeded by an aversion to upper case & a favouring of single word titles. It certainly helps him build strong & identifiable artistic branding.

That's all fine of course but it's peripheral to the main point which is the music. As I've made clear in addressing the three singles, this is a definite new phase for Euan & there is equally clearly a coherence within the five songs.

When someone comes to write his musical biography, there is already a compelling argument for stating that after that initial career phase marked by those elusive sleeve images of him and a parallel sound where his voice was partially hidden behind veils of process amid mists & drizzles of arrangements, at this point he's emerging into clearer view. I have no idea as to how much confidence plays in this development and it would be impertinent to load him with my speculations, but you'd be a bit lacking in observational skills not to have noted a paradigm shift.

That the closing track "mine" (which is qualified as "cassette version") should attract the description "raw" shows how far he's come. One might categorise the general change in terms of stripping back, but I prefer to consider the production approach: there is much less of the previous processing & blending and a shift into more identifiable and rootsy instrumentation which at the same time evidence his own considerable skills in the playing of guitar, banjo, harmonica etc. This fits snugly with name checks for Gram Parsons and Lucinda Williams which simply would have seemed bizarre a couple of years ago with the tracks he produced then.

Lyrically, Euan is moving into the concrete of emotional experiences ("jane" is a post break-up song) and leaving behind the abstractions he used to deal with. To me, this evolution makes total sense when coupled with the sonic developments.

Not that I'm expressing any sort of preference here: the older songs worked just fine in their way as do these. Both sorts rang true and you can't ask for anything better. However being a single dimensional artist isn't a great plan and continuing further in the same original vein would devalue what went before & deteriorate into a spiral of diminishing returns. I salute the changes he's made & hope they open up new audiences for Euan.

Talking of which, he's off on a national tour: you can catch him at the Lexington in London on January 28^th, both B:eats in Birmingham and Gullivers in Manchester on 3^rd February and the Philharmonic Music Room (with the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra)  in Liverpool on March 29^th.

Much as I tend to repeat myself that one of the motivating factors in my reviewing, compiling & promoting local music has been the significant boom  in startlingly original & engaging creativity in recent years, it is possibly essential to note that the pace, rather than slowing down (my great fear), has over the last eighteen months or so actually sped up with several bands emerging & and making immediate and profound impacts: you know whom I mean as I have mentioned them all in the months we've lately gone through.

Without doubt one of the most potent & searing of these has been HomeBread and few, if any, readers of this will be unaware of the reputation as a live band they already hold.

The next traditional rite of passage is to release recordings & while adherence to tradition can't be high on their agenda, it does tend to help spread the word quickly.

HomeBread, as I've previously written, have many outstanding qualities and one of them has been not to jump the gun on studio work but to wait until all the elements were aligned: not least finding a producer in complete empathy with their philosophies.

You also need to factor in other aspects of band experience which would usually put a group into at least temporary stasis: studying, transitioning into employment, relocation of their base and above all going through an extended period of lineup fluctuations. Again, in "normal" circumstances I'd probably be talking about incompatibilities, fallings out & unforeseen circumstances but HomeBread are not run of the mill and probably wouldn't like to be called normal. What seems to have happened is that they are fortunate enough to possess friends not only with the musical skill & panache to fit into the HomeBread family on a temporary basis until long term solutions were found (or available) but also share the rare values. So much so that whatever gig by the band astounded you (and me), almost certainly hasn't featured the lineup which they regard as definitive let alone the one to take into that studio.

Fortunately for us, pending that glorious day, the songs from their 'Live in Room 2' session which took place last summer have now been released on Bandcamp, mixed and mastered by Harry Houlton of Room 2.

These are "Smoke Rings", "Cowboys" and "Michael Ceratonin".

As you'll have inferred from the above, the lineup involved was one of those transitional ones: not in fact the one you'll have caught at the Priory Visitor Centre for Underbelly in October nor the one you'll catch at their next outing. Not that it matters greatly because as I say, even temporary band members demonstrate the same commitment to the cause. (It's worth pointing out too that another strand of the HomeBread DNA is one of enigma: they don't publicise their names and in fact I totally unknowingly corresponded with one member on a different subject without realising they were in the band. It was quite funny when the connection was made).

What was significant for me was my wondering how such a dynamic & puissant group could perform adequately within the confines of a small room (the essential format of Room 2). They are after all both loud and visually powerful live with a great deal of movement as their music inhabits & possesses them.

Well, I covered this to some extent last year, but coming now to the audio, I'm inclined to suggest that not only were they not fazed by the constraints but arguably the compression of environment has concentrated their songs into even stronger formats.

"Smoke Rings" is possibly their most effective song live: they use it as culmination of the steady increase of intensity as a set closer. I can well see it as a debut single somewhere down the line. Equally "Cowboys" is a very popular live stand out. The final track however not only possesses a pun I'd not picked up on in concert (I am not sure I had heard the title until "Room 2") but has a pleasingly strange vibe and lyrics which fill in yet more aspects of HomeBread's  Weltanschauung for those of us intrigued by it.

In fact, the recordings do tend to illuminate details which my ears at least miss live: in such exciting circumstances, one tends to both focus on overall effects of songs and the standout solos and moments of glory. Plus of course there is much visual distraction. Here you get to hear each part and realise just how good the individuals are musically.

You can of course recreate the HomeBread live experience by cranking it up & jumping around: the production does an excellent job of communicating what we've all been drawn to the band through.

These  "angsty little weirdos making emo-adjacent mess" (their words) have now got an excellent calling card with which to broadcast their strange & compelling music. If I'm being honest, I wonder if this is not also a really useful template for when they do go for more formal recording? Their appeal is definitely in what they do live & it's built 100% of their ever growing audience to date. I fear over-production can only neuter their inherent strengths & the closer they can get to a live take, the truer it will be. And this is a damned authentic record.

In the meantime, I'm delighted to report that they are playing on January 22nd at one of our nation's most legendary and prestigious venues, London's Hope and Anchor

Hot on the heels of Grail Guard winning the "last ‘Hot Music Live' review of 2025"  race, Drunk Bat Rescue Team have swooped in & seized "first one of 2026". Well done.

Now many of the tracks featured on ‘Hot Music Live Presents' compilations are reasonable bets to be the sort of music on which there could be a broad consensus of not just its quality & honesty but its appeal. Others, which are regularly included not least because more mainstream platforms are less likely to, are more esoteric and it's understandable may connect on a different scale: and download/streaming figures tend to reflect this.

Including the Team's debut "Loaded Weapon 1: Part 2" on ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume Fifteen' definitely fell into the latter category yet I was delighted on the response & especially the comments: it was in some ways the break out track from that album.

I think the scale of the success rather took the Team members by surprise. Intended as an experimental project alongside the higher profile Stegosaurus Sex Party (although it is worth noting that they are evolving the sound of that band currently), they were essentially happy to have made the track & any outside interest was something of a bonus.

Now Mik Mac and Muzziness (aka Sick Dick Warlock & Clean Cut Butch) have the follow up out & perhaps it won't surprise us that it's not exploiting the success of "Loaded Weapon 1: Part 2": in fact "That's The Hook" is significantly different.

This time out we get much more traditional instrumentation (it opens with an acoustic guitar!) though in fairness it shares its predecessor's insane catchiness, bouncing along on a bassline which picks you up at its entry & carries you along. The clue may well be in the title here.

If last time out they were paying homage to action movies & the memorable lines of two of the stars of the genre, this time the focus has shifted elsewhere. Precisely where is something you probably want to have a stab at identifying yourselves as it remains, even after multiple plays, as elusive & enigmatic as the band. There is a certain amount of urban angst going on (the song itself could be used in a soundtrack to an edgy movie) and there appear to be food references. Many of them not very nice to contemplate. It could be a satire on conventional bourgeois norms and gullibility. Among other things.

It seems to be sample free this time (which I confess is probably a euphemism for me not spotting any) and played, as I said, on identifiable instruments rather than the electro approach of their debut: in fact the quality of the playing and the power of the hook might in different circumstances increase the probability of radio play. The sinister vibe wouldn't necessarily count against this but the lyrics probably mean that we'd be talking about the most open minded of alternative stations. We live in hope.

To sum up, it's precisely the sort of left field release which gets the ‘Hot Music Live' year off to a grand start and one which appeals to me & I think will to those tasteful enough to have switched into their earlier song.

We're still (just) in 2025  and my reviewing duties are not yet over. I managed to tell you about a brace of new YNES singles after I thought  the release year was done & now  Grail Guard have launched their own bid for the final single with "People Just Like You" (recorded at Abatis Studios and mastered by The Old Cider Press). It's not a bad way to say goodbye to the year with a trio of releases by such candid & uncompromising artists.

A taster for their forthcoming debut album 'Still No Future'(due out on March 6^th  via TNS Records) if we were at our ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraiser for The Tin earlier this month then you could hardly have missed their live performance which was a highlight of their set.

Anthemic yes, powerful yes but the true quality of the song and why it appealed to everyone that night is its integrity and message.

Grail Guard are a truly polemic band and what they believe in defines who they are. Fiercely opposed to prejudice & bigotry, "People Just Like You" however is not a broad attack on these evils but a stiletto aimed specifically at the hypocrisy & lack of ethics of those espousing division who should, from their own backgrounds & experiences, be most opposed to them.

The delivery style might be mistaken for ranting but make no mistake, this is an articulate group. Their own words, not just in the lyrics of the song are so clear & well chosen that it would be lacking in respect not to quote them directly: " Seems strange how many politicians are happy to blame immigrants for the problems in society, without recognising the they are children of immigrants who have fled war, famine and disease. Easy to dream up harsh policies when you've continually dehumanised the very people who look like and sound like your own parents.

Feels like politicians should be there to serve the people, to have our interests front and centre rather than their own self-serving priorities of wealth and status.

When the likes of Suella Braverman urge us to look elsewhere, to see "them" as the enemy and the cause of our misery, it's a deliberate distraction.

It's not people like them who are the problem Suella, it's 'People Just Like You'"

 Many people feel that rather making progress in terms of embracing diversity and fostering inclusion, many societies are frantically dismantling those gains of recent decades. Now more than ever we need artists to front out the philosophies of community & tolerance, to put into words the feelings which the rest of us are not quite as good as. Glib slogans aimed at the already converted don't affect change, but well considered & forensic arguments like "People Just Like You" have the dialectic persuasive potential to change minds. Delivered in the no hold barred style (they self identify as "brutal") just amplifies their commitment and passion of their beliefs.

Looking back again to December 12^th, the Tin was awash with a frenzied mix of genders, ages, ethnicities and every other identity signifier: interacting with as much fervour as Grail Guard: they got it & they endorsed in with vigour.

In the wise words of Sick Dick Warlock of Stegosaurus Sex Party: "If you gonna get excited about anything in 2026 this is probably a good start!" Let's hope he's right & that a catalyst for effective action has been activated.

Look out too for the music video which can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJof-6kjxu0

I really walked into it with my review of yesterday. When you applaud someone like YNES for her capacity to surprise, you can't complain if she then deploys it again: pretty much immediately with her second single in two days: "'TIS THE SEASON" in this case. And kudos to her for flipping my comment on how she scorned the upper case with "drink about it (merry Christmas baby)"  by using nothing but that form in her latest title. Oh well.. it's a learning experience for me.

Apparently the experience of putting yesterday's single out drove her to complete and polish & release another song she had ready so by the sounds of it, she is on something of a roll psychologically as well as musically.

If the first single was intensely personal in inspiration, then this one is pure classic YNES: as she says herself, it "….feels a lot less introspective and a lot more me…" .

It's actually as replete with the sort of top notch YNES wit & observation as the belly of an affluent Christmas celebrant after the traditional lunch. Line after line sparkles with trenchant and accurate debunking of the myths & assumptions which go hand in hand with the complacency of the normative.

At this point I intended to quote a few examples but it was hard to pick one or two out and giving you the entire lyric is something I've never done: quite apart from the length, that would spoil the surprises & pleasures you'll get from your own unwrapping experience.

I'll give you the opening therefore and after that it's over to you:

"Maybe the meaning of Christmas

is posting a picture on Facebook

with a wife that you hate

and a dinner you ate

and didn't help prepare or clean up"

After this the quality of barbs doesn't slacken but taking aim at subjects like credit card debt does link in with the concerns so often raised in her songs and those she's working on in "Fair Play", the ‘zine I mentioned yesterday.

The music is to some extent the perky synth-led sort of arrangement of its predecessor but this time there seems also to be a crunchy guitar part in their too, chewing away on the matter in hand.

Well she's back and on top form: if there is more of this quality and relevance to come then we're in for something special. I wonder if there'll be another one tomorrow. YNES isn't saying.

Well I had assumed (a dangerous trick) that Sunday's gig (the 2025 Izzie Derry Christmas Show at the Priory Visitor Centre with added Banoffee) would be my final one of 2025 on which to report and I hadn't any awareness of upcoming releases in what's left of the year either.

Then up pops YNES with "drink about it (merry christmas baby)" (yes she's embracing the culture war assault on the upper case which I've noted repeatedly in 2025).

Should I have been surprised: well that's a vital strand in her DNA isn't it? Equally part of the YNES genome is her penchant for diving into the sort of subject matter which the mainstream swerves & which makes mainstream media & listeners downright uncomfortable. So it's good she is on the case I feel.

There may be an YNES song in her catalogue which can't be filed under "intensely personal" but I can't off hand think of one. This certainly can be regarded that way.

Of course the actual & creative lives of YNES cannot be untangled nor do I see why they should: it makes for emotionally true material & it's why she is so respected. It can't be easy living the life which inspires her work & as someone who wears her heart so boldly on her sleeve & is frank about her struggles, I hope catharsis applies.

If you're a fan (why would you not be?) you've presumably followed both her external geographical (transatlantic) odyssey and her corresponding internal one over the past few years.

Apart from a live & acoustic version of her ‘Born Loser' EP from the year before last, this is her first release in the three years since the studio format came out.

The intervening years have (in part at least) been spent addressing her drinking (which seems a sustained success) and unsurprisingly, "drink about it" concerns this achievement. Self identifying now as "alt-punk, ex-drunk", YNES  "wrote this one for my younger self and all my homies who find the holidays to be a time of tension and sometimes trauma?"

At her most confessional & raw, YNES tends to go for incredibly bleak & skeletal songs based around her guitar playing. Surprisingly, perhaps, she goes against this here with, what for her is a comparatively lush arrangement based around layers of synth & vocals which are rather soothing in tone though supporting lyrics which address the negative part alcohol plays in Christmases: so a good tension there.

Four years ago she put out a Christmas single: "It's Christmas (I Miss Ya)" which to be fair also deployed a relatively jolly backing too. However this definitely dated from her drinking years and it's interesting to note the journey she's been on between the two songs: "drink about it" certainly addresses bigger picture issues.

After a creative hiatus, YNES seems to be back writing & recording again ("drink about it" is wholly her writing, performing & producing) which is very much something I've been hoping for. So I look forwards to many more surprises in the months ahead, though to balance that, YNES is also in a crusading mode: targeting the music industry & streaming and championing working class creatives: check out her own "Fair Play" magazine (available like this single via Bandcamp). Consequently, since I'm sure this takes up a fair amount of her time, I imagine finding moments for music needs a sense of balance.

Christmas time probably deserves extra special live musical experiences and as the last gig of 2025 in my diary after a year of, as I review it in my head, many many superb shows, the 2025 Izzie Derry Christmas Show provided a completely appropriate way to mark this moment.

Having migrated with the host of her 2024 Christmas Show, the LTB Showrooms team to their new home in the Priory Visitor Centre, the venue was perfect: both visually as a setting & acoustically.

With support from the equally exquisite Banoffee, the quality of music performed & the performances themselves were at the zenith of what you could have seen anywhere in the area this magazine covers at anytime in 2025.

My regard for both acts is pretty obvious from my many articles & this was in fact my sixth Izzie gig of the year & my third Banoffee one.

With lesser artists, this might mean seeing essentially the same set multiple times which at the very least would limit what I could write about. But neither fits this category: I expected surprises & duly received them.

It was an evening of soaring singing & top notch playing with no whiff of cliché nor derivation  in words nor music created by two acts committed to wholly original & personally authentic songs. No-one writes songs like Izzie Derry nor Banoffee & no one sounds like them either.

Banoffee (who shot off to a second gig after this one: shows the level of demand for them) have been one of the bands people have been talking about all year. Nevertheless they were a revelation to those attending primarily to see Izzie & who hadn't caught them until yesterday. Consequently I found myself involved in multiple conversations afterwards on  the subject of how amazed people found them & passed on their contact to a member of one of Coventry's most renowned bands who decided on the spot that she wanted to work with them.

To return to my original theme however, though I really enjoyed the previous gigs I'd seen (as my articles reflect) and they'd been blessed with excellent sound engineering, the nature of this venue nurtured the Banoffee sound even better: you need to hear them in intimate spaces to maximise their impact and if you have a front row seat as I was fortunate enough to, the whole experience is immersive.

In addition, they performed a song I'd not yet heard (only its second time in their set) called "Salt the Earth": the latest in their seemingly unstoppable sequence  of stunningly original material: it alone will stop you in your tracks and this is a band with "Mirror to Mirror" and "Bonfires" already released, "The Ripening" scheduled for January 16^th and then "The Halfway Point" ready to go after that: each of which any artist could consider a creative high & yet are merely the first few of what will hopefully be very many songs. Just what heights they'll reach with them is tantalising: and that is one of the factors in the response they drew yesterday. The one format I've not caught Ella & Cia playing in yet is their trio with a drummer but they charmed the audience yesterday with their powerful dynamic of apparent simplicity which reveals profound complexities.

Of my previous Izzie gigs this year, most were actually outside (except for her Crypt Session for Coventry Food Union) so a similar point can be made about the enhanced impact her performance made in the space: though credit also to the sound engineer for the evening which was Izzie herself.

The Izzie Derry Band lineup for this occasion (all the other times I've seen her in 2025 were purely solo apart from Ross joining her on cajon for some numbers on the HMV Empire balcony) comprised Ian Todd on guitar & Ross Edward on cajon. A unique configuration & one which really worked nicely with percussion underpinning all bar two numbers & Ian adding an astonishing range of embellishments from the rock style totally suited to "Shake" to delicate slide to interpolations of such originality that you could see Izzie grin at some: exactly what you'd expect from him I guess.

These songs in their way were revelations: unveiling further aspects beyond those revealed in solo form or in the original band arrangements with different musicians playing different instruments.

The jaw droppers as far as I was concerned however were her as yet unrecorded material: performed here solo. I'd seen Izzie experimenting with a looper earlier this year and now having mastered some of the possibilities, she gave us "Down in the Dirt" with just her guitar and "Oh Mama" which eschewed even that: a sort of a cappella chorus of various Izzies.

The former might be her best song to date: yes: I witnessed another upward gear change from this so talented artist and I do hope that this one gets recorded soon as it will be a landmark single.

I had the revelation when hearing her solo rendition of "When Will It End" at her "Song & Soil" performance at Sherbourne Valley Allotments for the Food Union again, that at heart it was actually a blues. Well if that's a blues, then "Oh Mama" is even further out on the same spectrum: a raw & passionate and frankly startling song which really utilises aspects of her voice which hitherto have been deployed sparingly in as peaks in her more emotive songs. For those of you who've followed her since her days of being considered a folk singer, while this is of roots nature too, it's a paradigm shift.

I accosted her afterwards about these (sorry Izzie) and begged her to record them as stripped back as she'd just delivered them: which would, as it happens, appear to be her intention anyway.

I'm delighted to note that however marvellous the end of 2025 may have proved for live local original music, momentum into 2026 is desirable and that both these ultra talented artists will be gracing ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraisers for and at The Tin in the New Year.

You can catch Izzie with Sophie Hadlum, Croissant & Brass Hip Flask on February 20^th

(tickets via: https://www.universe.com/events/hot-music-live-presents-izzy-derry-sophie-hadlum-croissant-brass-hip-tickets-67FKZM)

Banoffee will be joining Rosetta Fire, The Illusion & DANE-O on March 20^th: tickets at: https://www.universe.com/events/hot-music-live-rosetta-fire-banoffee-the-illusion-dane-o-tickets-GMTBLH

As noted last time, dogmarket's release schedule remains at a high level of activity and indeed we now have a new single  "Give Up the Ghost" to enjoy. (Look out for "Images of Survival" and then an album in the New Year too).

The first comment (let's get the obvious out of the way) that every listener will spot is the inherent ghostliness of the vocals, enhanced by the arrangement.

Once again, there is an element of reasonable density in the production which exacerbates the overall limited accessibility of the lyrics.. however as I explore Thom's music through what they share, I fully recognise this as an important characteristic. I don't know their preferences in art, but it might be towards Impressionism given the musical approach.

With tracks like these where the overall effect is the intended point of impact, it's a bit disrespectful to try & break what's going on into component pieces: the layering and juxtaposition are obviously major creative decisions and deconstruction would be to try to undo their work.

It's a haunting piece of "SADGAYELECTRONICA": don't expect anything dissonant: if anything it's a bit classical with a sort of harpsichord sound in there from time to time amid various other keyboard sounds (and I think an acoustic guitar?) and above all multiple voices.

The tone is compassionate to my ears and if mournful, also regretful: certainly nothing to do with fear or any conventional supernatural tropes.  For a moment I pondered too any possible connection to Howard Devoto's classic 1976 line "I'll give up that ghost before it gives up me" but I suspect that there isn't one.

I don't know how dogmarket fans interact with their music.. you probably can't dance to it (though it maybe that you can & I lack both the necessary skills & imagination). It's all rather evocative, each in its own way, but those ways are so different that immersing yourself in dogmarket music by playing the tracks in sequence is likely to provide you with some abrupt shifts in tone every few minutes: not terribly conducive to mindfulness. On the other hand, it seems rather lacking in due respect to play them as soundtrack to any other activity you may be engaged in…. I look forward to solving this conundrum.

The release campaign of dogmarket is picking up momentum as they've just stepped up to a dual simultaneous single release with "Interlude 1" and "Turner Michael's Hunting Rifle" appearing side by side, though given that Thom also describes them as "Un-alike in Dignity", probably not necessarily hand-in-hand.

It's been about a month since "baby blue" so hopefully you've managed to process that one to the fullest extent possible and they obviously feel confident that their fan base can double their engagement resources.

I haven't yet mentioned that dogmarket self describe as "SADGAYELECTRONICA" which might help finding an entry point to the music, though in fairness "Interlude 1" is characterised by a (processed) guitar sound as much as by chips and wires: at haunting atmospheric piece which indeed lives up to its title: it feels like it has a home in some wider context: a film soundtrack would probably be grateful to welcome it aboard.

"Turner Michael's Hunting Rifle" fits the mission statement more closely: it's a denser and more obviously generated but ironically, it's also got quite a jaunty pop feel with a friendly keyboard hook prominent amidst the layers of sound. Since "Interlude 1" has a stately dignity to it, I suppose it's possible that defining the obvious contrast between the pair in terms of "dignity" may refer to this catchiness, but I'd certainly not class it as lacking in the quality. In fact (after I'd played it a few times), Thom revealed that the sound inspiration was They Might Be Giants: which neatly accounts for why I was attracted to it.

As for the subject matter (or perhaps target?) I found (it's not part of social media I'd normally wander through) a Michael Turner who posts stuff encouraging youngsters to become snipers. Lovely. I hope it's about him rather than a distant relative of mine who didn't fetish firearms.

Discussing the duo with Thom after writing most of the above, their insights clarified that the distinction was more about personal perspective: one tending towards personal vulnerability and opening up emotionally, the other "more upbeat and less prima facie depressing": perhaps offering contrast to some of their other work? At any rate, if one chooses to pair releases, then a juxtaposition of sensitivities of such contrast is an effective one: were dogmarket a more commercially orientated project than I suspect is the case, it's a good shop window for creative range also.