Real Numbers - Frank Infatuation b/w Leave It Behind(Ltd. 7")

FFO C86, Television Personalities, Shop Assistants, Wedding Present! 300 copies only!

Another July release from Market Square Records that deserves to not slip through the net is this absolute belter from Real Numbers. The A-side reminds of those jaunty but sad songs from my own personal year zero when the likes of The Pastels, The Wedding Present and the like were constants on my turntable. Though it also sounds like, well you know, now!

The flip is a slower though no less satisfying track, a dreamy floaty melody over a two chord backing. Lo-fi and heartfelt. Apparently the band have been around making records in their hometown of Minneapolis for quite some years but I'd not been hipped to this groove until now. Another notch of credibility for Market Square. If the vinyl is sold out don't forget today is a digital world too. So suppost the label and have the music on your mobile, mp3 player or ipod docking station. Hell, you couldn't do that in 1986!

300 copies only, housed in Risograph fold-over sleeves.

Click here for Real Numbers on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Shifters - A Believer b/w Contrast Of Form (Ltd. 7")

Australian lo-fi punks' latest 7” on Market Square Records! 300 copies only!

2017 may still be a terrible year for politics but it's been an amazing year for new under-the-radar music. So much so that it's sometimes a struggle to keep up and write about it as much as I'd like. One of my favourite small labels keep coming up with the goods, outta Billinghurst of all places. This 'lil platter actually came out at the tail end of July and according to the label's website is sold out. But with a bit of luck and the aid of Discogs notifications you may be able to track down a copy. Or try the band direct via their Facebook page.

The Shifters are a a lo-fi punk band from Melbourne, Australia who make music that sounds somewhere between The Fall's lesser heard melodic moments and the Dunedin sound that came out of New Zealand back in the '80s. It's pretty cool. I like it and I think you will too. They also remind me of an American band called Phantom Buffalo who I think are from Portland Oregon. They put out a couple of albums that I really dug. I miss them. But hey this 7” is helping me get over it. Shame Melbourne is so far away as they sound like the kind of band who would be very enjoyable and accessible at a gig. Do check them out!

Click here for The Shifters on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Higher State – Your Casting Doubt (Ltd. 7”)

Latest single from Kent garage-heads! 300 copies only!

The Higher State's LP from last year, the misleadingly titled Volume 27 was a winner for those of us who like their music with a distincly '60s hue. The three man line-up that made the album are back with a new 7”, limited to only 300 copies.

A-side 'Your Casting Doubt' has the same musical DNA as Volume 27 – plenty of fuzz guitar, authentic trebly production, and that Yanks-copying-Brits-copying-Yanks vibe that was all the rage back in '66. Wait a minute, these are Brits-copying-Yanks-copying-Brits-copying-Yanks! Get your hear round that folks!!

Anyway let's not get bogged down in the ethnology, suffice to say that it sounds great. Flipside 'X-Ray Day' tells a worrying tale of a hospital visit/nuclear dread delivered with charmingly lazy, nasal vocals. Neat!

If you want a copy, 100 come in a folded over sleeve (available via the band's own Bandcamppage), with the other 200 regular copies available from Market SquareRecords. Get ordering doods!

Click here for The Higher State.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Creation Factory - Let Me Go / You Got It (Ltd. 7")

Limited edition 7” from LA's hottest underground psych band!

In a week where, on both sides of the Atlantic, the political shit heads towards its proverbial fan, it's reassuring to know that America still makes great music. And it's similarly reassuring that a small record label on our side of the pond is willing and able to press this music onto black vinyl. The Creation Factory are the latest Los Angeles band to have the kudos of a 7” release on Market Square Records, the small but perfectly formed bespoke label based in West Sussex.

The band's sound harks back to an earlier period in the city's musical history, a time when fuzzy guitars, reedy organ, three chords and a whole lotta snotty attitude was the order of the day. The A-side is pure riot on Sunset Strip, the sound of US teens' take on Them & The Rolling Stones. (Who were themselves imitating US blues musicians! Hell what's the point in nativism and shoring up borders when internationalism sounds this good!) Shot through with that garage-punk vibe we all dig, the track culminates in a band freak-out complete with wailing police sirens. Get diggin' it!

The flip-side is an altogether different beast. A dancefloor instrumental containing funky drummer beats, organ and guitar solos. A surefire smash down your local garage club-night. Don't leave it too late to bag a copy of this 7”, it's limited to 300 copies only and I'm not having you coming round here a-cryin' on my shoulder if you miss out!

Click here for The Creation Factory's website.

Click here for The Creation Factory on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

Jessica & The Fletchers – Marble Fountain b/w Crystal Tears (Ltd. 7”)

Barcelona Indie-Pop outfit return with limited edition 7”!

Listening to Jessica & The Fletchers' latest 7” re-awakened something of my fading youth. Too young for punk or post-punk, and jaded by the time Brit-pop took over the charts, my own year zero was back in 1986. Or C86 if you prefer. A time when the likes of Talulah Gosh, The Shop Assistants and The Bodines were putting out great records, doing grass roots gigs and getting recognition in the weeklies. It was an all-too brief flowering but regained important ground from '80s perfectionists and pony-tailed professionals. More importantly it gave females an equal footing in making music, something which hadn't really happened since the very early days of punk (a move sadly hi-jacked by punk's second wave and the onset of Oi).

Jessica & The Fletchers describe themselves as a noise-pop quartet and that's pretty much on the mark; bittersweet lyrics are sweetly sung and backed up by fuzzy guitars. One part flowers, one part razorblades. With a sound that's deliberately amateurish, in the purest and best sense of the word, the lyrics are winsome with themes of young and innocent love, somehow apart from the modern world but also very much needed. The songs are short, with no needless solos, and all about the melody. Perfect fayre to be pressed onto their natural home of 7” plastic.

For fans of Sarah Records, Talulah Gosh, Jesus & Mary Chain and fans of spirited and catchy pure-pop in general. Limited to 300 copies, this 7” comes housed in a Risograph fold-over sleeve with a hand-numbered postcard fetauring the lyrics to both songs.

Click here for Jessica & The Fletchers on Twitter.

Click here for Jessica & The Fletchers on Facebook.

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.

Paul Messis - The Blind Leading The Blind b/w As Time Rolls By

Sixth solo single from Sussex-based garage outsider.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with the recorded output of Paul Messis should listen up. For my money he makes some of the most authentic garage psych out there at the moment. And not only that his songs actually say something. That's right kids, music that actually speaks to you!

On his latest solo single he takes a stand against the hypocrisy of the modern world. For all its vocal dissatisfaction with the mores of today, the backing sounds just like an unearthed folk-rock nugget from the mid '60s. Two minutes of garage-psych spleen venting that brings to mind Arthur Lee's Love or early Byrds.

The flipside is an altogether more reflective affair with a tears-of-a-clown theme. Its C86 vibe provides a sweet counterpoint to the A-side's fuzzy snarl and bite.

Out now and limited to 300 copies on trad black vinyl housed in 'Market Square' company sleeve, all copies come with a hand-numbered Poster.

First 100 buyers of the 45, will get the record in a DIY photocopied fold-over sleeve made by Paul Messis.