MUSIC

Pure rock fury from the Broken Castles

Fifteen years have passed since Graveltrap played its last gig, but now frontman Dan Gibling is back in the musical saddle.

This time it’s not punk rock that he is pushing, but rather ‘a riff-led style of stonerblues-grunge-sludge-psych-punk-rock,’ and he’s doing it with a couple of pals, and fellow scene stalwarts.

Graham Hulbert (Our Man in the Bronze Age) and Ben Suttey (Exploding Ear Ensemble) make up the trio of noise-bringers who call themselves Broken Castles, and their angsty, distorted, rhythmic rock can be heard on their debut EP, Follow.

“It’s great playing music again... it’s been so simple writing, recording and gigging with Ben and Graham – we’ve all been mates for 20 years now, and for them this is their side project band, so there was no pressure for it to become anything,” Dan told Pulse Music’s Sammy Jones, “I think that freedom and lack of intensity that other bands can have really permeated the jams, and songs just flowed out of us having fun and playing riffs – it’s all been very organic.”

There are some obvious reference points here, and no apologies for them.

“We’ve had such a laugh layering up this huge grungy sound, pulling in all our favourite textures and rhythms from a lifetime spent digesting 90’s rock music,” Dan said, “There was one rule with the writing – just have fun. Someone wants to do a Nirvana-style build up, just do it. Wanna slip in an upbeat Terrorvision pop riff – do it. Fancy a QOTSA stomper, or a slice of Silverchair sludge – crack on. No judgement, no over complexity, just pure rock fury!”

The aforementioned EP was never part of the plan (“We just recorded for fun”) but they were so enamoured with the results that they thought sharing it with the rest of us was the decent thing to do.

“Graham worked hard on the mixes and has really produced a record that is far greater than what we set out to initially achieve,” Dan said, and gigs are now being booked, so the trio will transfer their creations to the live stage. Perhaps Broken Castles is destined to become a little more than a side project after all.

Broken Castles

> Follow is out now through Fr33zehead Records. Keep in touch with Broken Castles on Instagram: broken_castles

Rory’s illuminating sounds

Singer-songwriter Rory O’Kane has just released the fruits of his recent labours – the eight track elpee Standing By The Lights.

From Northern Ireland, but firmly settled in the new city where he has spent most of his years, Rory says the album is ‘a mixture of acoustic-y folky sounds with an indie electric feel to it with some sing-a-long classic vocals as well as some old songs you may have heard in pubs and clubs in the area, and a couple of songs new to the ears.’

The release is available on all major streaming platforms right now, so pop over and make the connection that way, then keep ‘em peeled for live shows which will follow – check out FB @yordieokane88 for details.

Rory O’Kane

How to make friends and influence people

Last month we brought you the first in-depth interview with MK’s fast-rising young pop players The Stencil Pencils, and they’ve since stage-stepped at the Shropshire arm of Camp Bestival Festival where they went down a storm.

The pencils spent their time backstage hanging with some big players too; Fatboy Slim, Rag’n’Bone Man and M People’s Heather Small all got acquainted with the siblings.

Check the Craufurd’s colossal line-up

There’s a load of Bull on the way at The Craufurd Arms this month, quite literally; the band plays on October 2, with the quintet sure to deliver tracks from their new EP, Stuck Between The Virtual and Physical World. More than a decade has passed since they started making the music that they wanted to listen to, inspired by cool cats including Pavement and The Pixies.

It’s a Sunday night show, which makes it all the more essential that you attend – make the weekend last longer and stay in denial that work is looming!

Stalwart New York ska exponents The Toasters (Oct 4) are a decidedly welloiled machine – as one of the original second wave of ska bands, they’ve been bringing the sounds since 1981.

Mind you, if there was an award for ‘most former band members’ this lot would have no opposition, there have been dozens of faces in the ranks during that time, and founder Robert ‘Bucket’ Hingley is the only constant face about the musical place.

Enjoy a taste of Italy when prog metalcore monsters Destrage arrive (Oct 5) as part of their European tour in support of the new longplayer, SO MUCH. too much, which hit racks last week and features the single Everything Sucks And I Think I’m A Big Part Of It. A date to blow away any cobwebs in the vicinity.

“It’s a child of the pandemic,” explains guitarist Matteo Di Gioia, “You’re coming from a very boring time. It’s the feeling of

Beatcheck brings back the ever-popular Dub Pistols (Oct 7) who are eating up the motorway miles as part of their Frontline tour to plug their new elpee by the same name. The Craufurd Arms is going all out with stage activity this month, with other dates hugely popular tribute types The Smyths (Oct 8), London-based blues rock guitarist Jack J Hutchinson (Oct 9), swashbuckling renegade flamenco rock rumba punk ‘n’ roll pioneers Gypsy Pistolero’s (Oct 14), Foo Fighters GB (Oct 15), and beatdown hardcore leaders, Terror (Oct 25) who visit from L.A as they plug their 2022 album, Pain Into Power. It might be cold outside, but the sweat will be running from the walls for this show by the Destrange Scott Vogel fronted mob, which is a hot ticket. Remember British Sea Power? The English alt-rockers now save time and syllables by going out as Sea Power and they’ll play for you (Oct 26) before The VirginMary’s (Oct 26) and last up, Pulled Apart by Horses (Oct 27). Current single Sleep In Your Grave is a gritty belter.

Byker Grove Fan Club

Bull start the month at The Craufurd Arms disappointment, being left alone, and being let down. It’s very introspective, yet it’s also narcissistic.” Speaking of the release as a whole, he added: “There’s a lot of dense information on this album to the point where it’s almost overwhelming. We really put it all out there.” And they’ll be doing more of that when they visit the Wolverton haunt. Post macho noise pop players Byker Grove Fan Club – who were seen at the venues’ Multitude Festival recently – are back as headliners (Oct 6), playing the first date of a mini tour in the Keynes. Later in the month they’ll depart our shores for their first European dates, hitting up Paris, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Brussels. Bet none of those venues have their own sterling > For more information and ticket bookings tap Fries Above van serving up belly busting taste to thecraufurdarms.com extravaganzas though, do they?!

Now TesseracT bring the caffeine bomb!

You can now get your full fill of TesseracT direct to your coffee cup.

The prog metal specialists who formed in Milton Keynes have collaborated with Birmingham-based Quarter Horse Coffee on TesseracT Lunar Phase. It’s a light to medium roast delivering notes of milk chocolate, caramel and orange zest. Sounds tasty, right?

TesseracT bassist Amos is barmy about coffee beans and a passionate caffeine drinker.

On their website, Quarter Horse said: ‘The coffee-house is based in a city that created heavy music, which felt like a perfect fit of quality and sentiment.’

> Get your mitts on the filter blend by visiting quarterhorsecoffee.com

TesseracT’s Lunar Phase and band mascot, Loki the kitty