The Nite Songs Singles Bar - March 2021 (part 1)

Welcome back to the Singles Bar for our March instalment. As seems to be becoming a regular occurrence at the moment, this is another two-parter with this bit being all singles and the second part a mix of singles and EP's. Let's get that first order in and see what's on the radar this month then shall we?...

The Dowling Poole have been a regular fixture in this column over the last 6 months or so and their latest release Slow Genocide (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a paranoid Sleaford Mods-style ode to the lockdown and the government's clueless handling of it featuring gruff vocals from Terrorvision's Tony Wright. Sinister and creepy, it's a good slice of political paranoia 2021 style. With the group's long time lyrical target Donald Trump now gone from the White House, it looks like the band are now squarely training their sights on the cabinet of leeches running the UK and there's plenty of anger here to stoke the fires of discontent. Bandcamp link here

Saint Agnes are gearing up for a new mini-album as we write this and Vampire (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) follows Repent and The World Ain't Big Enough as another taster from it and if the whole thing's up to the standard of these three then it should be well worth waiting for. This track is a pulsating slice of almost techno-metal with the pounding drums and guitars pummelling you into submission. It's been good to see this band finally starting to get the credit they deserve in the likes of Kerrang! of late - long time coming and well deserved. Bandcamp link here


Hand on heart, I was a little bit unsure about Grand Theft Audio's comeback single Ruin Your Youth from last year but new single Another Life (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a definite step up with a creepy almost Nine Inch Nails style sense of claustrophobia about it. Looking at the darkness in the human soul, it's a much more sinister Grand Theft Audio than the ones we all knew and loved a couple of decades ago but it's certainly no worse for it. That comeback album might well be worth a listen on this evidence.

Ryan Hamilton's current quest to release a single a year for his 1221 project means he's been a regular presence in the Singles Bar this year and new effort Caught Up In A Moment (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) shows another string to his bow with an almost '80s indie-pop feel to it. A soulful piano-led ballad (Hamilton's much-vaunted love of John Lennon is definitely in evidence here), it packs in exactly the sort of sky-scraping chorus that Hamilton's made his name with and on this evidence he's in no danger of running out of ideas any time soon. Good stuff.

I think this might be three months out of four that we've featured something Rich Ragany has been involved with in the Singles Bar but no complaints as You Never Know How The Day Will End (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗), which features two of Rags' Digressions (Andy Brook and Ricky McGuire), is a lovely lilting acoustic tribute to Cush from veteran folk-punks The Men They Couldn't Hang who passed away last month. Rags looks likely to be a busy man this year with new albums incoming from both the Digressions and the Role Models and I for one can't wait to hear 'em.

Released on Valentine's Day, Palmyra Delran and the Doppel Gang just missed the cut for last month's Singles Bar with Lucky In Love (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑). Similar to London's own Lucy & The Rats, these New Yorkers take the classic Shangri-La's girl band template and put a Chrissie Hynde style switchblade stamp on it to great effect. B-side Who's Been Sleeping Here? is another great slice of sky-surfing cool-as-ice power-pop and marks this lot down as a band I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for future releases from. Bandcamp link here

Finally for this instalment, it's good to see Swedish garage punks The Chuck Norris Experiment back - apparently they've been releasing a few singles through 2020 but we clearly missed 'em - due apologies. Anyway, Dirtshot (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) is a cracking effort from the band, sounding like AC/DC going back to basics and kicking out a garage punk jam. Screeching vocals, crunching riff, good guitar solo...what more could you possibly want. Give it a spin pronto. Bandcamp link here

Part 2 of the Singles Bar to follow later this morning. Stay tuned...



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