Top 10 EPs of 2022

What another great year for new music 2022 has been. Here are our favourite 10 EP’s of the year:

10. The Lunar Towers - Hurry Up and Wait (Full review here)

There’s a ramshackle beauty to Sewell’s vocals which evokes Pastels’ Creation Records era. The abrasive yet beautiful delivery gives them a joyous us versus the world sonic!

9. The Skinner Brothers - Lonedom (Full review here)

Frontman Zac Skinner’s vocals should be iconic by now. On this latest offing, he has the gruffness of beans on Toast, the insolence of Jamie T but, crucially it’s his soul-boy persona that shines brightest.

8. Andrew Cushin - You Don’t Belong (Full review here)

Although it leaves you hollow and despairing, the heart will remain full for this is a young man reminding us all that a working-class hero is still something to be!

7. The Chase - Not The F**king Game Show (Full review here)

Raucous garage punk sitting between The Stranglers and The Velvet Hands. James’ great keys light up this explosive affair alongside the scintillating guitars.

6. JW Paris - Stuck In A Video

Powerful and unhinged punk rock!

5. The Reds, Pinks, & Purples - Everything Holy (BBC Radio Session)

Their windswept beauty and melancholy is perfectly encapsulated in this incredible BBC session.

4. The Clockworks - The Clockworks (Full review here)

It’s felt like an age since social commentary and great characterisation were a part of our lives. There has been great polemic in recent times but, ‘Money’ goes further. It unites the town crier with the poet and is destined to reel in fans from all strands of the alternative world!

3. Andy Bell - Untitled Film Stills

The Ride guitarist has had a phenomenal run in 2022 with Ride, his solo album but, this EP is the pièce de résistance. An atmospheric masterclass.

2. Pastel - Isaiah (Full review here)

Their time with John Squire at Knebworth was clearly well spent. On ‘S.O.H.O.’ the ‘Second Coming’ and ‘Do It Yourself’ strut comes out to play. Great and immediate hooks combine with Yate’s Chris Helme vocals to bug everything out.

1. Priestgate - Eyes Closed For The Winter (Full review here)

If The DMA’s made a Cure record, this would be it. Dream pop-psyche flirting with the lighter gothic moments of Robert Smith’s eyeliner magic. Frontman Rob Schofield switches from a popper Farris Badwan in the verses to the broken gruff soul of James Geard (Sissy & The Blisters) or Alexander "Chilli" Jesson (Palma Violets) in the pain-ridden end.

Sean Grant and the Wolfgang

Sean Grant and the Wolfgang hail from Milton Keynes and have previously released on Fierce Panda Records. Having attracted high praise from Lammo and John Kennedy already, it’s surely only a matter of time before they catch their big break.

The DIY collective of Blaggers Records, blender, Transmission Indie & Vandalism Begins At Home has pulled together the Leave The Capital tour with Luna Rosa, JW Paris, Sean Grant & The Wolfgang, and The Seven Sentinels.

The four acts were part of a huge grassroots competition and were selected by the impeccable panel of Gareth Barber (Bedford Esquires), Suzanne Fletcher (Musicians Against Homelessness) Danny Watson (CDP Radio PR), and Hana Staddon (BBC 6Music).

As the tour embarks on its final dates, we take a look each day at the four acts and some selected tracks. Today, we look at Sean Grant and the Wolfgang’s tracks ‘To Drink is to Die’ and ‘Murder Scene’:

To Drink is to Die

Ride’s shoegaze eloquence has been given the Blake-esque self-reflection lyrics of Richard Hawley on this ethereal gem.

Grant’s vocals draw from the infectious Jonathan Pierce (The Drums) as well as the aforementioned Gardener and Bell. He hovers above the clouds, pirouetting away from anything that attempts to tie him down.

Further setting him free are guitar parts wrapped up in the mysticism of Fleeting Joys and Pia Fraus. Their power is given a real sense of momentum as they shimmer across sun-kissed horizons.

Murder Scene

The Mary Chain and Glasvegas girl group stomp are met with Grant’s sublime ability to operate in vast landscapes. Soaring and tumbling, the guitars build a world of stark fog releasing moments of psychedelic hope sporadically to keep the human spirit alive.

Leave The Capital: The Seven Sentinels

The DIY collective of Blaggers Records, blender, Transmission Indie & Vandalism Begins At Home has pulled together the Leave The Capital tour with Luna Rosa, JW Paris, Sean Grant & The Wolfgang, and The Seven Sentinels.

The four acts were part of a huge grassroots competition and were selected by the impeccable panel of Gareth Barber (Bedford Esquires), Suzanne Fletcher (Musicians Against Homelessness) Danny Watson (CDP Radio PR), and Hana Staddon (BBC 6Music).

As the tour embarks on its final dates, we take a look each day at the four acts and some selected tracks. Today, we look at The Seven Sentiels. Originally from Milton Keynes, frontwoman, lyricist, beatmaker, and showrunner IllathaDead (aka MC Bombshell) is the creative mind behind The Seven Sentinels. Self-described as a “soloorration”, she conjures almost all you see on stage in this guise, pulling in friends and peers to complete the lineup and deliver her vision.

We take a look at two past singles:

I Am the City

Former John Kennedy X-Posure Hot One sees IllathaDead draws from cut and paste wizardry of The Go! Team and puts it through the avant-garde prism and the odd but effortless rhythms of Digital Underground.

Sugarskull Bride

What feels like cut-and-paste lyrics are actually exquisite dystopian prose. Imagine The Pharcyde were fronted by Desperate Journalist’s Jo Bevan and your soundtrack through this articulate comic book style story is formed.

Click the image for tickets to the London date or here for Milton Keynes

Leave The Capital: JW Paris

The DIY collective of Blaggers Records, blender, Transmission Indie & Vandalism Begins At Home has pulled together the Leave The Capital tour with Luna Rosa, JW Paris, Sean Grant & The Wolfgang, and The Seven Sentinels.

The four acts were part of a huge grassroots competition and were selected by the impeccable panel of Gareth Barber (Bedford Esquires), Suzanne Fletcher (Musicians Against Homelessness) Danny Watson (CDP Radio PR), and Hana Staddon (BBC 6Music).

As the tour embarks on its final dates, we take a look each day at the four acts and some selected tracks. Today, we look at JW Paris, a three-piece consisting of brothers Aaron (Vocals/Bass) and Danny (Vocals/Guitar), and ex-Babyshambles drummer Gemma Clarke.  We focus on former singles ‘Sober’ and ‘Royalty’:

Sober

The isolated guitar intro brings Nirvana’s ‘Rape Me’ and ‘About A Girl’ to the fore whilst the melodic but steely post-punk vocals nod towards Manchester’s Cabbage.

Dark but playful verses are met with dystopian blasts of guitars and infectiously dank synths. Its soul may lurk in the shadows but, a warmth permeates their waywardness at all turns. It’s the lunatic fringe of an indie club that helps you up off the floor and gives you great fashion and film tips at the bar afterward.

Royalty

Royalty was recorded at Buffalo Studios with mixing help from JB Pilon (Kula Shaka and mastered by John Davis (U2/Noel Gallagher/Royal Blood) at Metropolis Studios.

Debauched and swaggering arm in arm like Tribes, this is rock ‘n’ roll from the sewers that are longing to be happy, free but never rich. With this purity coursing through its veins, it’s inevitable that people will fall in love with it. 

Click the image for tickets to the London date or here for Milton Keynes