Jono Coote

Bob Mould will not have been stuck for grist for his thematic mill whilst preparing Here We Go Crazy, his 15th solo album. In a moment which feels like a worryingly large step towards Orwell’s prophesied “boot stamping on a human face – forever”, when facts become subjective and once-trustworthy points of reference are being uprooted faster than Amazonian old growth, that which we glibly term ‘protest music’ is more important than ever.

Sweden’s mystery-shrouded purveyors of a unique psychedelic soup embrace the funk with their new single ‘Goatbrain’. Swedish enigma Goat are a band wreathed in a level of opacity that could almost be described as occult, obscured by layers of mystery and misdirection which has seen them attain a cult-like following in the years since ‘World Music’ was released in 2012.

New Jersey punks Gel come through with a rager of a new EP, ‘Persona’. New Jersey; Bruce Springsteen, The Sopranos and an overwhelming sense - gleaned undoubtedly from subliminal film and TV moments - of industrial wastelands.