Blood Sport

On listen to Sheffield's Blood Sport, it's difficult to decide whether I really like them or really don't. Whilst their recordings are a bit scrappy (expect instruments to not always be in-time with each other), their sound is inventive, experimental and daring. The band are probably fully aware that a large proportion of the general public will never be interested in listening to their somewhat obnoxious-sounding songs, yet they go ahead and continue making the music that they want to make regardless.

Their sound is a difficult one to pin down, with the three-piece not easily fitting into any specific conceived genres, nor do they have many obvious musical comparisons (though there are definite hints of the care-free attitude of The Fall, whilst also having a 'math'-ish techy Battles-like sound, and reminding me too of Volcano!) - which is always a good thing. What's for sure is that it's noisy, ambitious and anti-social - yet works (perhaps surprisingly) well, for the most part at least. Download a digital copy of the cassette from bandcamp, or order a physical copy from The Audacious Art Experiment.

H.S.F.M. by Blood Sport


Blood Sport - Mayan Dance

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Saint Yorda

Saint Yorda are an interesting prospect. With songs that range from the dark and atmospheric (some might even stick the tag 'goth' on it, in the Zola Jesus kind of sense of the word, at least) noises of 'Death Ray', to the pensive, almost Richard Hawley-with-a-synth sound of 'Yr Bones', to the guitar-meets-electro slow-pop of Sakawa Bones, to the surf-influenced sound of (ahem...) Surf Song', the three-piece from Cork are taking on a lot - and pulling it off. So they might go a bit overboard with the cow-bell at times, and not all tracks are without their flaws, but these lot are pretty impressive. I'd definitely be interested to take a peek into their record collection.

Saint Yorda - Death Ray

Saint Yorda - Yr Bones

Saint Yorda - Sakawa Boys

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YRRS

Sitting alongside Dolfinz, Joanna Gruesome, and Bos Angeles both in their scrappy lo-fi sound (and that they are one of my favourite new UK bands at the moment) are YRRS from New Milton and Christchurch (near Southampton and Bournemouth on the south coast of England). Following on from early excellent SoundCloud tracks, the two-piece have stuck a three-track EP onto bandcamp available for free download. If there was ever a time to use the word 'rad' it'd be now.

YRRS - DON'T YOU

YRRS - STAIN

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Shells

Something perhaps neglected on BF - an area of my tastes not so well represented here - is electronic music, and an artist that has certainly been impressing for a good while now is Khalid Rafique under the moniker Shells. Putting together that kind of woozy, subtle, and delicately structured electronica that we hear a lot of but that few do quite so well, Arctic and Spiders are two new tracks that the London producer has dropped today.

Shells - Arctic

Shells - Spiders

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New: Crushed Beaks

Despite the fact it was only 6 weeks ago that we last posted about Crushed Beaks, the duo from London have already come a long way since then. What started out as some scrappily bedroom-recorded (but still thoroughly excellent) demos have turned into a single release proper - with tracks Close-Ups and Sun Dogs to go out through Too Pure Records, November 21. The latter - distant yet punchy, melodic and catchy lo-fi beauty - is streamable below. London people can also see them at the Old Blue last on October 5, or at the same place on November 11 for the official single launch.

Crushed Beaks - Sun Dogs

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