Ivory Wave

Something is afoot in the in the Midlands. Gazelle, The Assist, The Pagans SOH, The Cosmics and now, Ivory Wave. The Brummie four piece are gathering momentum rapidly with their blend of Madchester, 00s indie-punk and the finer points of Foals.

In 1988, Factory Records and the Happy Mondays put out 'Rave On' EP. Calling on Paul Oakenfold and Steve Lilywhite for remixes, they changed popular music forever. Ivory Wave's tracks are begging for the next big DJ/producer to come along and unite guitars and dance music once more. In fact, on 'Separate Beat' and 'Club', its hard not to hear Oakenfold doing something special.

Like the Mondays, no one sounds like Ivory Wave currently. Latest single 'Gold' has production values akin to Primal Scream on their 'Chaosmosis' album. 'Cool Kids' merges Black Grape and The Twang, but frankly, is so fresh, the sound is theirs. The minimalist drums, psyche wobble, sax, and venomous vocals are going to blow a hole through dance floors in the UK.

*Image courtesy of Luke Jones

485c

485c are signed to the legendary Fierce Panda label and its not hard to see why:

Kapow

If 'Kapow' were to create a guitar sound venn diagram, it would have The Strokes one side, Dutch Uncles the other. The immediacy and power of the New Yorkers is channeled through the Stockport art rocker pioneers. As so many peers are cutting loose, 485c have taken a really interested side route to glory here.

Better The Man

An infectious indie guitar gem which illuminates the darkest of moods. Move over Belle & Sebastien, infectious indie rock has a new king.

Strange Medicine

When all the great mid 00s bands went off to record new material or on to side projects, the mainstream vultures swooned in Scouting for Girls and The Hooisers and killed the scene stone dead.

Strange Medicine is the perfect tonic to that injustice. It resets the clock to The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’ and has lovable rawness to it like The Cribs classic ‘Martell’. Guitars are pop, pop are guitars!

Image Source: Domante Kaminskaite  http://www.dkaminskaite.com/