Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus – Beauty Will Save The World

Cult Liverpool musicians' new album searches for truth, beauty and meaning in a messed up world!

Musicians reforming for the coin may garner more column inches but when they do so for the music, and because they have something to say, the results are infinitely more interesting and worthy of our attention. Such is the case with Beauty Will Save The World. After an 18 year hiatus RAIJ feel the time is right for for the world to hear their latest work. A low-key release it may be, but one that deserves and needs to be heard.

With such a loaded album title (a Dostoevsky quote), the music has a lot to live up to. It doesn't disappoint. Comprised of ambient, soft cinematic soundscapes with poetical spoken word passages drifting in from the ether in a variety of languages. Over several listens a central thrust emerges, one concerned with religion, beauty, truth and transcendence. The music is gentle and tinged with sadness yet manages to be both elegiac and hopeful. Although there are several languages throughout the album (every continent represented), the album is about connections rather than differences. Truly music for the healing of nations. It may get overlooked in the end-of-year/Christmas scramble but you're unlikely to find a more affecting and unique album. Recommended.

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Click here for Occultation Recordings.

The Fallen Leaves - Out In A Forest b/w The Inside Of A Chair (Ltd. 7”)

South Londoners' latest 7”, very limited and very very good!

There's a lot of fuss currently about 1966, due in no small part to Jon Savage's book, 1966 The Year The Decade Exploded. Those of us in the garage world have always known that the year represented some sort of high water mark for guitar bands before fragmenting into either drug addled psych, overblown proto-metal, or back-to-the-country navel-gazing.

Which brings me to The Fallen Leaves, whose latest single on Market Square Records harks back to that classic and timeless '66 Beat Explosion, all taut riffs, snappy beats and guitar jangle. Neither overproduced or overblown, just great taut songwriting and playing which evokes every era of back-to-basic bands, from the '60s garage scene, through punk and onto the DIY ethos of '80s indie.

B-side 'The Inside Of A Chair' is a more aggressive affair, all instrumental apart from the spoken “Hello” and “Goodbye” that bookend its short sharp blast. All in all this 7” is a cracking double header, managing to bring together all the threads and strands of what a great four piece band is all about. Get it while it's hot!

Limited to 300 copies complete with a hand-numbered postcard.

Click here for The Fallen Leaves' website.

Click here for The Fallen Leaves on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.