Vice has in the past collaborated with many of the most talented people comprising the alternative music scene today including BARR, Gravy Train!!!!, members of Mika Miko, Stereo Total, Erase Errata and Allison Wolfe from Bratmobile/Partyline. Hawnay Troof has recently played with the likes of The Gossip, Kid 606, Peaches, Mates Of State, Gold Chains, Lightning Bolt, Thurston Moore, Wolf Eyes, Deerhoof and Numbers.

ARTIST SITES - www.hawnaytroof.com / www.myspace.com/hawnaytroof
LABEL SITES - www.retarddisco.com / www.southern.net / www.deletedart.org
 

DEMO OF THE WEEK
THE PROCESS VOID – Arcane Matter  - whole album’s worth of rather impressive creatively rewarding, rather cleaver, industrial dark wave clank and gloom. Proper industrial mind you, no added metal, just authentic, subtle (well by intense clanking stomping dark wave industrial standards anyway) abrasive and smooth both at the same time  - impressive. We get a lot of bad bad bad same old same old third rate industrial junk here, The process Void are well worth your time - dark, moody, creative and ready to push the subtle industrial envelope just a little more. Nice thirteen-minute piece called Book Tittles at the end of it all as well. The Process Void are members of the Crash Frequency collective – a collective of Australian dark wave, goth, electronic and industrial artists that includes Ikon, Tankt, Angelspit and Lux Voltaire. More info from www.theprocessvoid.com
 

ALSO CHECK OUT
CULT WITH NO NAME - mellow, warm two piece balladeers with warm, subtle electric piano/keyboards and a Scott Walker flavour or two to add to their Pet Shop feel. They’re from London, they have a certain restrained dramatic style that’s worth a moment or two  - www.cultwithnoname.com
 
 

EL TOPO –  More of that filthy sounding treacle-bound super-fuzzed slow moving heavy stoner rock played on inch thick bass strings. People on the run from Dirty Switches and Entronaut with a bowel worrying tremor causing old school non-more stoner three piece – this is goooooooooooood, they come from London – www.myspace.com/eltopoband

THE GHOSTS – From Manchester so don’t mix them up with the Ghosts from Glasgow, or the ones from London or Chicago or all the other places that aren’t as fine as Manchester. That kind of whispery horny I’m all out of breath girl voiced thing that Katie Jane Garside does, clever accomplished music - music to wrap around it all and you won’t be wanting to cross her path either, she swears she will annihilate you and your stupid friends – sweet love song. Sinister hoodoo voodoo and all kinds of swallowed pins – yes, one for Queen Adrena/Pornorphans fans – www.theghosts.co.uk
 

Last week's demo of the week - all the past has been deleted (for now)

Previous demo's of the week - all the past has been deleted (for now)

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
THE DRESDEN DOLLS – Yes, Virginia (Roadrunner) - I’m counting back my steps, you know it’s our rules and our choice of anaesthetic and today is a very special day (and we have to go to print in a minute or two) it maybe a nice organ to look at now but don’t forget you’ll be stuck with it tomorrow and the next day and the next day (the confirmation of the operation and the change came though today, that’s what the dolls said anyway...).  Today be still your beating heart away, of course we love you, it’s what inside that counts, here’s some more, stiff upper lip and all that sorry, here’s some more, hurry up and stick it in. The new DRESDEN DOLLS album of course  I know you want to jump around and get excited, optimism abounding. Now you see, we love those Dolls and it landed here yesterday and we tore it open and we listened all night while we decided which one to play on the radio tomorrow (and we only sleep with those who say they like our taste in music...). We were a little disappointed. You know how we like it hard-boiled and we expected them to be gloriously awkward again only this time they’re just not quite so hard boiled and far from awkward and well, we were so so waiting, hope abound in every corner of our optimist club.... Second day of listening now and now we love it love it love. Let me tell you of the magnificence and how everything is suddenly making sense (like the first orgasm of the morning – that’s track seven, this is after all The Dresden Dolls). So the Dolls made (what is by their standards) a pop album, they still sound like on off hinge Victorian Kate Bush with extra deep-red glasses of rich rich port and and strippy stockings and cut puppet strings and be warned, strip off your ideas and expectations and let Yes Virginia breath and they will underpin your soul (again). Dresden Dolls got all polished up and pop - still with bits of Brecht and Weill and peeling wallpaper and ready to crossover and share their beautiful hope with everyone. They are a pop band for the extra oceanworld of sea nymphs and lift your hats off to the checkout girls, it’s a dirty business, a beautifully dirty business and the forgotten handbill of the play at the first season of the gaiety theatre (1908) and the walls have fallen down and the weather-beaten paintings on the crumbling wall and home of splendid faded glory  -and the booklet, we love the art, it’s worth having JUST for the art.... Dresden Dolls made a pop album that’s so so easy on the ear, far easier than we expected and far more that we thought we wanted. It’s just how we wanted it and Dresden Dolls got their twisted gothic end of the pier theatre just right.  www.dresdendolls.co.uk

ALBUM OF THE WEEK 2
PROUDFLESH – Proudflesh (Weird Gnome) - Now take this the right way because it is meant as a big big compliment: this is what Motorhead would have sounded like back in the classic Fast Eddie days of 79 if they’d been from Oakland California rather than the filthy streets of West London. This is goooooooooooood. Yes indeed, Proudflesh have that righteous Overkill period sound flowing naturally through their dirty punk rock veins - that hard-edged blues mixed right in there with that take no shit, we don’t care what you think, streetwise suss. This is very much an American album/sound though and Proudflesh are no mere Motorclone wannabes re-hashing refried moments of past motorglory. Indeed Proudflesh have a rich history of their own - “From Reagan’s near apocalyptic vision to Bush’s war on terrorism...” A three piece who feature one time Crucifix man Sothira on bass/vocals, Erik Lannon on drums (Mordred amongst others) and last but by no means least, Jimmy Crucifix himself on mean low slung Guitar (he’s as good as anyone out there and yes there are hints of Y&T alongside those classic Fast Eddie licks).  They sing of epic battles against colonialism, of the arrogance and stupidity (and not the glorification) of war, ambitious street songs with big things to say. Hey look, what more do you need to know? Oakland made and Motorhead flavoured - righteous punk rock ‘n roll for scumbags, filth hounds and mohawks everywhere – a highly recommended ten track beast (and on their own D.I.Y label, doing things the right was as well). This is the good shit, one of the best albums of the year so far (right up there with So I Had To Shoot Him) and nailed down in terms of wholesome raw production as well. Go grab a slice, go warn your next door neighbour (if this album moves in then their lawn is going to die). You all need some Proudflesh - this review has now almost come to an end.   www.myspace.com/proudflesh is where you get to hear some for yourselves, percussive violence and a sky full of bombs, only way to feel the noise is when it’s good and loud – Rockers, punks hellraisers, call them Proudflesh rock n’ roll. 

ALSO CHECK OUT

TRACTOR SEX FATALITY – Black Magic, White Pussy (Big Neck) – Ferocious Seattle grit and chaotic noise...  Hang on, I need coffee.... It’s ferocious, did we say that already? Chaotic? Hang on, more coffee – black, with fuzz and feedback and urgent noise and blazingly ferociously chaotic and old school (do we say old school too much?) AmRep style ferocious blazing black coffee slurping chaos. It’s intense (and ferocious) and fast and raw and chaotic, hang on, more coffee and feedback and fuzz and chaotic ferocious hardcore art-noise garage rock for Flipper fans and a megaphone and a David Yow complex (I’m cheating now) and several healthy doses of aural terrorism and a lead bass and it’s all very chaotically ferocious – more coffee please, that was good.  www.bigneckrecords.com – more details in the UK from wwwcargorecords.co.uk

INTENTION – Afraid At The Edges (Black) – Urgent hardcore splatter splatter scatter gun punk from the Midlands of England. They have an edge of their own (be afraid of that edge now) – they got bite, wit, speed and healthy hints of Sick Of It All, Dead Kens, Broken Bones, a little Cheese Cake Truck and a lot of RealTV (are we having fun yet?). Raging against pretty much anything you have for them to rage against – lots of words to mutate the herds. This we like lots, yes indeed, march in column inches at a uniform big interest rate, you need to tune in anf grab a big lump of this right now. www.intension.co.uk

ALEX WARD - Hapless Days (Copepod) - This chap has to have appeared in every avant rock, experimental or freeform improv band in the Home Counties at some time or other, playing pretty much every instrument going. Off the top of my head: Camp Blackfoot, Nought, A Suitable Case For Treatment, working with Derek Bailey, numerous stints at Klinker Club soirees and ResonanceFM fundraisers, and probably the odd orchestra or marching band.  Alex Ward gets around because he's a splendid musician and a nice guy, but all these demands have been depriving us of his own work, until now.  Somehow, Alex has avoided the demands of his friends long enough to create this really rather good and unique album.  These are dark, lyric-driven songs with a little of the angularity of Camp Blackfoot, without the extremes of heavyness; all instruments and vocals, aside from a little flute and violins, performed by Ward.  If it can be compared to anything at all, it's an energetic, contemporary Van Der Graaf or Peter Hammill - Alex's voice also reminiscent of Marc Almond - with cynical, angry, smart lyrics, and injections in places of the crisp harshness of Wire.   The tunes are as twisted and sardonic as the words, excluding the cheery and brilliant Sounds Like Someone We Knows, a slightly Dylan-ish anthem to having a really bad time.  'Hapless Days' really is exhilaratingly pessimistic and bleak: You've got so much to live down to/ All the meaningless opinions and misguided acts... When the game you play is imitating imitators/ You're bound to win... Some of the best moments of Camp Blackfoot are echoed in the descent into madness of Persona Non Grata.  Delivered with depth, clarity and variety, the multi-layered instrumentation never overwhelming the impact of the words, these songs are involving and cathartic.  Worth the wait, and we'd like more. www.alexward.org  /  www.copepod.co.uk

BURNT – Rephrase The Lie (Psychotic) – Brutal hard new metal (not nu. We never said nu, put down that lawsuit) from Stoke-On-Trent. Incendiary throwing crunching riff machine. Brutal vocal delivery, brutal, blistering and all those other metal-stomping words needed on these occasions when we encounter good quality (although maybe a little too unoriginal?) metal. www.burnt1.com

CRETIN – Freakery (Relapse) - Relentless grindcore, all pretty much conducted in the same one fast push it as far as it will go gear – foot to the floor, engine clanking and grinding and sounding like it’s thrown a rod here and there’s a piston out of shape there - sparks and acrid smoke and bits flying off. Kind of like kind of like going full out down the motorway in your old Albion convoy bus with the SPG in pursuit, engine almost dead so you may as well drive it to hell and see how far you get before it all explodes – faster than fairies, faster than witches, bridges and houses and hedges and ditches - smoke piling out, smelling like it’s going to burst in a final rage of death and take everyone with it at any moment. And in all the thrashing thrailling noise and the godawfully good mayhem and infernal hell there’s clearly some good musicians shredding and grinding and combusting away. Front line first class never-ending grindcore cretinic grind ambush hell. www.cretanic.com
 
 
 

Last week's album of the week - all the past has been deleted (for now) Previous album's of the week - all the past has been deleted (for now)

7 Questions for Next Life:
1. Why do you love heavy Metal so much?
Heavy metal and its variations has the quality of being both fast and slow and opens for many different solutions in order to keep up the level of intensity. It is a great way to keep the listener focused on the music and not forget important details, not too unlike old computer game music and some classical music like early J. S. Bach. We have been into intense, hard-hitting rock music for quite a long time, mostly hardcore punk. However this genre has, over the years, been influenced a lot by prog rock, indie rock, metal etc., which we think is important for developing an interesting and intense
expression.

2. And this gaming thing? Did you always play games? How did you decide to incorporate it in your music?

He, he, yes. I, the composer of Next Life, got my first Commodore 64 at the age of four and have been playing games since then. I have also for a long time been listening to the game soundtracks, which I find to be at an equal to other music. When Next Life was founded, it was much because of the lack of musicians (drummers to be exact) in my homecity Tønsberg, Norway. It was then natural to be influenced by what was closest to my heart: Prog rock, metal, punk and computer game music, as the possibility was there.

3. You've been making music for years, but this is your first release, why?

Actually, Next Life released a 7-inch on a small label called Lobster Attack in 2000. Since then we have been more focused on enhancing stage concepts and the musical expression rather than releasing records. Also, I have been going to art school where I have worked mostly with video and other forms such as sculpture and light. 

4. Have you burned down any churches lately?

Not lately.

5. You once said that Next Life is a "flexible project", what does that mean exactly?

Next Life is not a typical band with fixed members or a given form, although the project will most likely be based on music, whether it is presented in a gallery or on stage and on record. Right now the project consists of me (Hai Nguyen Dinh) and a choreographer/dancer/vocalist called Katrine Bølstad. As I see it, the project will be available for stage for a long time. Synth player Tormod Christensen has taken a break to do other things, but will be a part of the "family" as long as it exists.
 

6. Can you describe your live show for everyone? How did it develop to what it is today?

I guess it has been developing during all the years of our existence, but with a constant consciousness on making the live act an extension of the music. It is important for Next Life to use the stage as a tool to express our emotions when listening to/playing the music. Right now I think the best way to do this is by synchronized movements and lights in order to underline the breaks and variations of melody and tempo in the music.

7. Ok, what are your 3 most favourite metal bands and your favourite video game?
Oh yes. Here they are:

Metal - 1. Zeni Geva, 2. Death, 3. Neurosis, game - Last Ninja 

www.electricdungeon.org / www.cockrockdisco.com

Club Shhhh at GINGLIK, Shepherds Bush, London.
London toilet gigs, don’t you just love’em? No, really, this really really was in a toilet! Don’t be doing like us and go wandering around the edges of Shepherds Bush Green, delving into rancid glue-sniffer infested shopping malls and those Australian pubs, wondering where the hell the venue is - it’s over there in the middle of the green, in the one-time public toilet, it’s almost mocking you as it watches you search - you have to go around the side and ring the door bell to be let in by the suspicious man who only opens the door a slight crack while he eyes you up and down. Asking the policewoman for assistance when she asks what you’re doing and then replying by informing her that we were looking for what she heard as a drug dealer was not good: “A drug dealer and a cheerleader, are you taking the piss, do you want to come to the station?”.  If only she had detained us like she threatened to, we’d have missed the dreadful experience that was the middle band. A good kicking in the Police cell couldn’t have been any worse than the never ending half hour experience that was that ensemble - and do we really think Plod should be allowed to ask us if “we’re taking the piss”? . Where are the music police when you need them anyway? There was once a (blindin’) North London gig promoter who eventually got so worn down into a pit of frothing cynicism that he would ‘confiscate’ the instruments of bands who didn’t impress him. He eventually had to leave town in a fog of outraged violent bands - his ‘interesting’ line in instrument re-distribution and creative stage-rage (even better than his white van rage, yeah, you know who I mean - mad and blindin’ mate) would have been appreciated tonight. The middle band on, name long forgotten (they don’t deserve a name check!), are really the kind of band that get small London gigs and promoters such a bad reputation. The kind that just stops people turning up for anything else besides the band they already know (arrive one minute before, leave one minute after safe in the knowledge that the other bands will be crap or at least offer no crossover potential what-so-ever  - come on promoters, quality control and thought-out cross pollination purleeeeeze). Dreadful insipid band with  the onstage vibe of bank clerks who hadn’t had time to go home and get changed out of their cheap suits or their daytime attitudes. Dreadful, bland and there’s no excuse for it, that bass player did not deserve that nice new Rickenbacker, they should not have been here cluttering up time and space and the promoter needs his/her ears fixing. Thankfully the band that must not be named were sandwiched between two bands who are worth your time and so (in line with our new arrangement with the tooth fairy) there will be no more negative talk.    What a nice toilet, a rather decent sized Tardis of a toilet converted into a venue/night club, a not bad venue and nothing like a lavatory (the toilets weren’t that impressive though!). LAST PARTY were on when we finally found the place: West London infectious melodic indie guitar punk(ish) pop is what they dish out, good enough to send me off surfing to find out a little bit more (and find myself blinded by their dayglo green hand grenade website). 
DRUGDEALER CHEERLEADER time then: it’s simple really, they’re a glam metal rock ‘n roll band - no messing, street wise, Jack Daniels slinging, love em or hate ‘em, glam rock n’ roll car crash of a band in the finest/dumbest good/bad tradition. Another band in a long line of Crue Cult Dolls bands you all know and probably love/hate (and blackout in red rooms with). Siren blazing window shaking bad language using microphone swinging glam rock and roll - cornball riffs, cornball lyrics, extra cornball sauce on top of the cornball. Hey, they rock! It’s happening for them now  - they’ve got the London glamster scenesters behind them, the self-styled streetdealers and cheerleaders (and an impressive travelling fan following as well, all the way from places like Leeds for a London toilet gig). There’s some kind of line up mutation going on right now, up to a five piece for the first time, stand-in bass player (old one bitching away, it’s always a soap opera with London glam rock, no one ever leaves quietly if they leave alive). Melody and energy, maximum power - New York Dolls, The Crue, The Cult, Social Distortion, Wolfsbane, LA Guns, Poison, Ramones, Sonic Boom Boys - yeah they’re like all the others and just that bit different enough to register in their own bad hair and Converse-wearing way. On the run from various bands you may have encountered around town - Waterbratz, Glitterbug.... They have a very confident man called Hilda up front, they’ve got these addictive 80’s pop-metal hooks, It’s Happening Now is their stand-out song. Some of the others may be just a little bit too dumb for their own good - but hey, when did anyone ever say you were actually meant to think about this stuff (this is not chinstroking music). Drugdealer Cheerleader rawk, they’re the antidote to whatever problem you’ve got today, they’re totally real and defiantly honest and you either get it and want it and know what to do about it or else it isn’t for you and no one gives a flying drum stick what you want or think. It’s happening now, I had a great time, so did everyone else packed in here. You got a problem with that? (Sean O)  www.drugdealercheerleader.co.uk
 

ALSO WORTH CHECKING OUT
SYMMETRY – This Is Not The End. It Is The Beginning. You Cannot Falter Now (Symmetry) – Well I guess it may be the end of the beginning, debut EP from the UK band who formed back in 2000. A moody emotional metal thing with hints of Mahumodo, Tool, Mogwai, Earthtone Nine. The adventure is there, the moves are a little obvious though, Smouldering tracks that stretch out in a long unobtrusive meandering minimal way and now that the end of the faltering start is here their crafted potential maelstrom of a sound may well develop in to something tasty – good start, if they’re brave enough then it may well develop in to something   www.laptusrecordings.co.uk
 
 

Last week's single of the week - all the past has been deleted (for now) 

Previously - all the past has been deleted (for now) 
 

PAST ISSUES - all the past has been deleted (for now)