“Rock N Roll Void” by Swansea Sound

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Dystopia is not the exclusive domain of the cold-wave electronic music and dark post-punk scenes. Even the indie-pop nation that gave us “C86” has come to realise the state of Dystopia that is the modern world. Swansea Sound – representing the ghosts of indie-pop past, present, and future, reflect on the state of the nation in 2021 on their upcoming album. The opening track is the nostalgic scene-setter “Rock N Roll Void”:

“Rock N Roll Void” opens Swansea Sound’s album “Live at the Rum Puncheon” which is neither live, nor recorded at the Rum Puncheon (a notorious pub in Swansea, closed down decades ago).

It is a kind of concept album of sorts, with‘Rock N Roll Void’ setting up the story with a reflection on the naïve optimism of the songwriter’s entry into the world of pop “to make sure you haven’t forgotten The Kinks, The Ramones and the brief explosion of noise pollution that was C86 pop.”

Swansea Sound – described as “the funny, angry, gleeful and savage past, present and future of indie” – are vocalists Hue Williams (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia Fletcher (Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, The Pooh Sticks, The Catenary Wires), guitars, and bassist Rob Pursey (Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, The Catenary Wires), and drummer Ian Button (Thrashing Doves, Death in Vegas).

Anyone who recalls the heyday of The Pooh Sticks will remember their cheerful and melodic buzz-saw power-pop cartoon indiepunk, with lyrics that poked fun at the scene the band was part of. Swansea Sound update that recipe, taking a savagely/ depressingly funny and acidic look at the state of indie pop today, including the unsustainable reality of streaming where musicians earn thousands of “likes” or “followers” but not enough money to pay the rent.

“Live at the Rum Puncheon” is released on a variety of formats on 19 November on the following Indie Labels of the World
LP, CD: Skep Wax Records (UK, Europe); HHBTM Records (North America).
CASSETTE: Lavender Sweep Records (UK, Europe); Austin Town Hall Records (North America); Shiny Happy Records (Indonesia). 

“The Overview Effect” by The Catenary Wires

PopLib featured The Catenary Wires‘ “Mirrorball” from a 7″ single recently. Here’s another new song, this time from their forthcoming album “Birling Gap” due in June. The Catenary Wires feature Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey, once of Heavenly and Talulah Gosh. They are still crafting melodic pop songs with complex messages, as “The Overview Effect” shows:

They explain: “The overview effect is the feeling astronauts describe when they see the Earth from a huge distance.” With that effect comes the realisation how small and fragile the planet is.

The song is quietly gorgeous, Amelia Fletcher’s vocals floating on top of an repeating acoustic guitar melody and, behind that a gentle smudge of shoegaze ambience from the infinite space reverb wash of fuzzy electric guitar.  

They describe it as one of the album’s “anxious love songs, set in a fragile world.”  The fast-eroding white chalk cliffs at Birling Gap near Eastbourne on the southern coast of Britain, which give the album its name, represent impermanence, erosion and environmental change, reflected in the song’s anxious refrain “can’t things stay the same?“

Birling Gap is released in the UK on Skep Wax Records on Friday 18^th June 2021. It is available for pre-order via good record stores and The Catenary Wires Bandcamp. It is also available in the US on Shelflife Records. If you are in NZ/ Australia and keen to get the LP, postage from the UK is much more reasonable than from the US.