The Mads - Time By Time

Formed in Milano in 1979 and playing an energetic blend of beat and rhythm 'n' blues, The Mads were the first and best Italian Mod band. In four solid years of gigging, their reputation grew, becoming legendary on the modernist underground scene.
Re-formed with the original line-up in 2012 by the band's main song writer Marco Pertusati, with Luis Bergamaschi, Toni Graziani and Mauro Fossati, the band released a series of singles and E.P's, a critically acclaimed debut album The Orange Plane plus tracks on the Well Suspect Records' compilation Generation Mod and four recordings on the Deluxe Edition of the seminal mod revival comp The Beat Generation And The Angry Young Men.

Well Suspect Records are proud to release their second album Time By Time. Ten irresistibly powerful pop-rock bangers; each brimming with the bands signature melodic hooks, riffs and 'madernist' lyrical imagery. 

Release date 18th Oct 2024, on Vinyl, CD and digital. Pre-orders available at time of writiing.

A single Rabbit On The Run preceding the LP. 

The song, written by Marco Pertusati with escapist lyrics by Flavio Candiani, is a mid-tempo, catchy, power-pop earworm, with a dynamic horn section and the band's signature melodic riffs riffs.

The video (below) that accompanies the digital release captures the actual recording sessions of the song.

Available digitally on Oct the 4th on all online stores and streaming services.

Skill!

Dave's Doors Of Perception - Major Door Arcana

It is commonly accepted that one member of Dave's Doors Of Perception has returned from the future. Widely believed to be Dave Door himself, the band's drummer, who first started the rumour, one thing is for certain - few of their garage band contemporaries have any reason to doubt the alleged time travelling credentials; their far-out, far-sighted, visionary soundscape is hard to explain otherwise. The new LP, their second, Major Door Arcana, gives extra grounds to gossip.

Side 1: Twenty-two minutes of garage punk-rock perfection; fuzz guitar, snarling vocals and a tinnitus inducing rhythm section. With two 'mellower' tunes programmed by way of respite; the nine songs play like a whole album in itself.

Side 2: Twenty-two minutes of wigged-out psychedelic excess. A sonic exorcism of such hallucinogenic innuendo that psychosis may be induced in all but the most mushroom-hardened listener - a cautionary note to anyone intent on finishing all six tracks.

See video below.

Well Suspect Records have released this great record on limited edition vinyl.

Recommended.

Men Of North Country - '3'

'3' is the third album by Men Of North Country and the first on Well Suspect Records.

Moving away from the pure soul sounds of their previous two acclaimed albums on Acid Jazz Records, delving fearlessly into more eclectic territory, mapping their musical influences into a stirring collection of irresistibly melodic songs.

Featuring wistful jangle-pop 'Out on the Hills', rollicking and celebratory 'Happy Birthday, Child', sweeping anthemic bravado 'There is Light', a romantic indie love ballad 'They Don't Know' (the Kirsty MacColl's classic) plus sexy rock'n'roll 'Since I found my Love'.

Oh, and they haven't abandoned their Northern Soul roots – just sprinkle some talcum powder on the floor and soar away to the sound of 'Ravens', plus a brilliant down-and-dirty rendition of Sam Dees's dance-floor filler 'Lonely for You Baby' (video below).

Opening with the soulful soundscape of 'Titanic' and closing with their dark version of Californian 60s garage-rock gem 'Rari' by The Standells – this album is a ride through diverse musical territories, all the while retaining the melodic heart and soul of the band.

Men Of North Country - '3' is available digitally, Bandcamp and vinyl from Well Suspect Records.

Check these videos for tracks featured on the album.

Dave's Doors Of Perception - Shake It!

From possibly the 'greatest garage rock band ever', the mighty Dave's Doors Of Perception, comes, probably, the 'finest seven-inch record ever released'; the garage-rock, mod-stomping, dance-floor anthem to be....Shake It!

The responsibility in capturing this earth-quaking, live favourite to two-inch eight -track tape fell upon the shoulders of Liam Watson at Toerag Studios; tape-heads especially re-aligned to do so; the resulting recording proving to be the monster that the band and song demanded. 

The flip side cut features an earworm riff so great that once heard will never leave your mind or turntable …. Wasp Honey.

An instantly collectable, highly limited edition pressing of just one hundred seven inch vinyl copies by Well Suspect Records guarantees that this is a must have addition to the luckiest DJ boxes.

Check out their debut album - Apophenia.

Here's the fantastic video for Shake It!

Men Of North Country - Titanic.

Men Of North Country release another single from their new and long awaited album since jumping ship from Acid Jazz Records to Well Suspect Records - Titanic. 

The follow up to their jangle-tastic version of the Kirsty MacColl track They Don't Know, this horn led dancer perfectly captures MONC's trade mark soulful indie pop/rock sound.

The press release blurb is fun ..

I's Titanic a cruise ship or a shipwreck? Is there a difference? Or is it a metaphor for the western world? Is Titanic the highest grossing blockbuster made up to its time, or a beautiful stop-motion animated short? Is the band in the song Robbie Robertson's The Band or a band of walruses? Do selkies really exist?

Titanic was written at a time of confusion and insecurity, when questions arose, and it all seemed to go down the drain. This called for a big vessel. We need a bigger boat.

Rari is an all-time live favourite, an epic of almost ten minutes, it's has been a show stopper and set closer for quite some time. A desperate tale of lust and longing by the great Californian 60s garage-rock band the Standells, written by the brilliant Ed Cobb of Tainted Love fame.' 

Men Of North Country - Titanic is out now on all digital platforms with links on their artist page on Well Suspect Records or Bandcamp if you prefer

The video is something else, a mini masterpiece directed and animated by Nadine Ann Abraham; check it out below.

Hopefully the album with follow .... soon.

The Well Suspect Radio Show. TWR

It necessarily follows, that when Richard Searle (bass player from Corduroy)  was asked to present his own show on TWR – it would be chaotic.  

       

The Well Suspect Radio Show (named after Well Suspect Records, the label re-launched by Richard - in the same year that he launched a skateboard company and got his band back together) manages to cram more into a two hour slot than other shows manage in months.

  

Co-presented by Erika Ts, expect classic Northern, beat instrumentals, garage greats, wigged-out psych and soulful easy listening, peppered with nonsensical features and 'profound' banter.

Regular contributors include Brian Blessed, who drops his favourite New Wave tunes and Joanna Lumley who prefers sixties fuzz.

Richard has asked us not to mention that he was the bassist in Doctor and The Medics throughout their early Top Of The Pops period (he wrote a book about it, The Memoirs of Damage and Vom, so that he wouldn't have to talk about it) so we won't, but  regular 'fans' of the show  taunt him throughout in the TWR chatroom – listen in and join the mayhem.

 

The Well Suspect Radio Show is weekly, Tuesday afternoons 2-4pm (UK time) on TWR totallywiredradio.com, with a mixcloud catch-up archive.

You are invited.    

*Update. The Well Suspect Radio Show has moved time, day and frequency. The new monthly slot is 6-8pm on the third Thursday of the month. Same chaos.

CORDUROY - Winky Wagon 2. (The Rest Of The Psy-Fi Years)

A great outcry; a follow-up desired; the first insufficient to needs; a second volume of the funky outfit’s acclaimed psy-fi experiments required; another collection of filmic grooviness; of cartoonish, wigged-out beats, of yacht-rockish psychedelic pep; Corduroy fans insisted on more

Winky Wagon 2. (the follow-up to Winky Wagon) the final in the acclaimed series; the best of Corduroy’s ‘Major label’ recordings, plus previously unreleased radio edits and bonus Japanese album tracks - never before pressed to limited edition red vinyl

 

Released on Acid Jazz Record's sister label Well Suspect Records; this fun and funky compilation is a collection of Corduroy's 'Brit-pop' album The New You and the beat heavy late 90s album Clik! but crucially including previously unreleased radio edits of singles that never saw the light of day, plus two bonus tracks previously unreleased (other than on Japanese CD versions of the albums) and never before on vinyl; see the great animated cartoon video below for 'You Got Me', one of the Japanese tracks.

 

 

 

This is another great release from Well Suspect Records and a must for Corduroy fans.

 

Skill!

Men Of North Country - They Don't Know. Kirsty MacColl tribute

Having worked closely with Men Of North Country throughout their two brilliant albums on Acid Jazz Records; Well Suspect Records are proud to claim them as the label's latest signing.

MONC have always worn musical influences on their sleeve, both in their original songs and choice of covers. Always pointing at the giants on whose shoulders they stand as if trying to zoom out of the shot, to capture the bigger picture, not just a selfie.

Kirsty MacColl's 'They Don't Know ' - is no exception. Kirsty was and always will be the queen of songwriters, ruling many a genre. No one sang like her, no one was sassier and no one softer; and sadly no one had a more tragic ending. Twenty years after her untimely death, MONC had to cover one of her tunes; her crown jewel, one of those 'best songs ever'. A tune that refines that feeling of 'us against the world', and of course, somehow manages to transcend it.

The perfect pop song and a taster of things to come –
a new MONC album due for release in 2021 on Well Suspect Records.

Available on Bandcamp.

And all other digital platforms.

CORDUROY - Winky Wagon (Best Of The Psy-Fi Years)

Corduroy legend holds that having recorded the three 'classic' albums for Acid Jazz Records, our illustrious heroes parted with said company and released a further two albums on a 'major' record label, investigating themes, techniques and technologies previously unexplored; this period of the band’s brave journey became known as the 'psy-fi -years'.

Exhausted, Corduroy disbanded shortly after.

      Prophecy foretold that, two decades later, the group would reform and reunite with Acid Jazz; and furthermore that the fabled 'psy-fi' recordings would be compiled by the sister label, WellSuspect Records, into a twelve track, sky-blue-vinyl collection, featuring choice tracks from the major albums, singles and B-sides. This limited edition selection is entitled Winky Wagon.

Experimenting with exotic eastern flavours, easy-soul, yacht-pop, Brit-beats and amped-up funk, the compilation captures Corduroy expanding their signature thematic instrumental palette with melodic, irresistible and beautifully crafted songs.

Out now on at www.wellsuspect.com on limited edition sky blue vinyl and CD.

Skill!

Fay Hallam - Propeller

Propeller is Fay Hallam's masterwork; a perfection of dynamic pop-soul; melodic, driven and precise...clearing a path through a fug of retro pretenders; re-setting the stylist bar, re-starting the modernist machine.

Having spent 2018 co-writing and performing with Swedish artist Magnus Carlson, Fay Hallam and her band have re-claimed 2019 as their own with this powerful collection of Hammond grooves, soul-full vocals, funky rhythms and powerful horn arrangements.

It will blow you away! 

The follow-up to the critically acclaimed House Of Now, produced by erstwhile Paul Weller bassist Andy Lewis, and including the dance-floor monster Starting To Feel Good, Propeller is available now on CD and vinyl on Well Suspect Records.

 Here's a video for one my favorite tracks, Lie Detector.
 

   

 A must have album.

Corduroy - Rare Stock

Acid Jazz Records have just released a Corduroy rarities album to coincide with an extensive U.K tour which the band are undertaking (the first in twenty years) to promote the groups most recent studio album, Return Of The Fabric Four.

Rare Stock is the compilation title and it is very interesting indeed, featuring previously unreleased material, 'lost' album tracks, shelved singles, demos, remixes and, incredibly, a recording of the band's very first rehearsal. ModSpeed got it's hands on a copy for review.

First off is Clockwork Man (Louder Faster Version), a heavy riffing, funk-pop radio-friendly number; part of a fourth album recording session for Acid Jazz that never saw the light of day at the time.

Man Alive is a protest song, catchy and smouldering with hints of trip-hop and virtuoso vocals.

Goober Grape, a mod jazz instrumental recorded to a reel to reel tape recorder in the bands living room during a band practise session, the groups first ever practise session, which sets the groovy template for the bands debut album DadManCat.

Summer In My Eye (Eddie Piller Remix) is a percussion heavy Latin re-tweak featuring Snowboy on all things with skins, by the Acid Jazz Record label boss; the original song features on the High Havoc album.

Finally Atlanta is another catchy and brooding song that spins a disturbing yarn about celebrity stalkers and fanatical fans. 

Mini (Ashley Beedle Remix), possibly Corduroy's most famous song, from the Out Of Here album, remixed for dance-floors.

The Mandelbrot Set is a psychedelic, nursery rhyme-esque, ditty about fractals, mathematics and creation; far out man.

Hikky Burr is a irresistibly funky version of the Quincy Jones number, again from the antiquated rehearsal tape that was played to Acid Jazz which secured the band their record deal; lo-fi and brilliant.

The Impossible Smile (Demo); a demo of a song for the bands fifth studio album Clik!, with slightly different lyrics and a lighter feel than the finished version.

Get Ron Carter is a short cool jazz influenced workout that didn't make it to an album release.

Very Yeah (Sing-Song Version); a version of the famous instrumental from High Havoc, with added vocals and scheduled to be a single; the single was subsequently shelved in favour of Motorhead.

E-Type (Demo), only on the CD version of the compilation, not on the vinyl, is the audio from the video E-Type that can be found on youtube.

All in all a very strong body of work.
Check them out live if you get the chance.

 

Fay Hallam - Starting To Feel Good

Euphoric, infectious and addictive, Fay Hallam's latest single, Starting To Feel Good, is a pop master-class of funk groove, soul-full vocal and a horn section that's so catchy it should be quarantined.
‘A feel-great song for hearts and feet, with lyrics, melodies and rhythms that warm the soul.’

From the forthcoming album, Propeller (the follow-up to House Of Now), Starting To Feel Good is available from Well Suspect Records on all digital platforms from 29th March.

Watch this space for a the album release.

Here's the video.

Skill!

Dave's Doors Of Perception - Apophenia

'Apophenia (noun) ap·o·phe·nia \ˌa-pə-ˈfē-nē-ə\is the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena… and the debut album by Dave’s Doors Of Perception…the greatest psychedelic, garage–mod, album ever recorded'.

'The greatest psychedelic garage-mod album ever...' is quite some claim - unless you happen to be the greatest garage-rock band ever and Dave's Door's Of Perception are just that ... and more some. 

Some background on the band and a review of the uber-catchy ear-worm single Shake Your Bones (with video here), a delicious taster from the debut album....
'the greatest psychedelic, garage–mod, album ever recorded'. Apophenia; it's out now and you will not be disappointed.

The twelve tracks on the, as yet CD only, album are an ear-drum shattering, sixties garage punk pop masterclass ... infectious song writing, creative production, growling Vox bass, screaming single-manual organ and the nastiest guitars set to tape - the solid foundations that under-pin the venom spitting lead vocal ...forged from the nine levels of Dante's hell. 

Each track harks back to the best of the Nuggets and Pebbles series, but acknowledging influential bands that have shaped the psychedelic scene ever since; too many to list here, and this blogger doesn't want to spoil the journey for listeners, but the first track on the album, Tear Down The Sky, sets the tone, the hilarious New Rock n' Roll gives the gravitas ... and the quality never stops - both videos below.

Out now from Well Suspect Records. 

Best album ever? Yep!
 





Skill!

Corduroy - BLaCkMaiL

Corduroy have released another track from their very excellent new album Return Of The Fabric Four ... Blackmail. 

On seven inch vinyl, available now from Acid Jazz Records, with remixes by Italian producers Calibro 35 and Northern B-Boy Smoove. 

The video below is the Corduroy version from the album. Watch carefully ... to the end; it is self-explanatory. 

Take careful note of the instructions, failure to comply may lead to terrible consequences. 

Dave's Doors Of Perception - Shake Your Bones

Shake Your Bones is irresistibly catchy; conjuring a potent brew between The Doors, Nick Cave and The B52s; brooding, funny and atmospheric, it is a pop single of quality and a mission statement (Video below).

Who are Dave's Doors Of Perception?

Dave Door lives in South East London; his hair is lustrous and long; it is his antennas to receive cosmic energy from distant stars; his perception of the universe is profound, psychedelic and potent; an alternate realm of freakishness and fuzz. Dave believes that he is the drummer in a rock group; the loudest, baddest, gland-expanding, underground band that ever existed …

Dave's Doors Of Perception.

Fronted by Blair Dean, a snarling Gibson welding song-smith whose calm Ivy League exterior is in conflict with his relentless three chord aggression and vocal vitriol.

Rob Doherty is a mod, you can tell because he wears desert boots; he plays the bass, the nastiest, pounding, gnarly, growling bass that it is possible for the human body to survive.

Sitting behind a Vox Continental, it is not, as often claimed, the messiah, but Charli Doherty; Charli is too young to be the messiah, but he does possess unworldly skills in record production, can play any instrument yet to be created.

The band have previously released three tracks on Well Suspect Records compilations, Falling on Generation Mod, Sex, Drugs And Armed Revolution on Dirty Mod, and an audacious version of Sound Of The Underground (the song that made Girls Aloud famous) on Sweet & Sour Psych. And now, DDP present their debut album, Apophenia (produced and recorded by Charli), of all new material, release date 2^nd Nov. 

 

Corduroy - Return Of The Fabric Four

So, the first studio album by Corduroy in eighteen years is finally out, and as promised, here's a track by track report on this much anticipated record. 

The overall approach harks back to the early, classic, largely instrumental, Acid Jazz releases, (think DadManCat and High Havoc); beautifully recorded in Deptford's 2-Bit Studios, the sound is undeniably retro, with throw-back influences and vintage recording techniques, yet refreshingly forward looking thanks to the extravagant yet economic four-piece, drum/bass/guitar & keys, arrangements. Citing punk, easy-listening, TV and movie themes, jazz, funk, mod and British R&B, it's been a long wait and it's been well worth it.

Side 1.

Magic Mountain. The album opener, the best cheeky-kids-television-show-theme-tune that never was, named after a seventies skate-park and already reviewed, with video, here.

The Cleaner. Jazz influenced and super-spy cool, Steve McQueen in Bullitt meets the Pink Panther theme, driven by a sixties bass riff, swinging cymbals and Farfisa melody.

Return Of The Fabric Four. The album title track, Quincy Jones meets Johnny Pate, funky on the feet and cunningly syncopated; a mission statement.

Sambarella. Latin grooves like Sergio Mendez in Basil 66', sweet vocal Ba Ba Ba's in a sweeter plate-reverb Jus. Effortlessly groovy.

Blackmail. Relentless and claustrophobic, punky bass with vibrato guitar line, electric piano designed to cause insomnia and make the guilty pay up. Video here.

Snake Appeal. Beatnick lounge-room beats, Osca Peterson grand piano and Electric Prunes fuzz-tone guitar. Easy like dry Martinis in the sun ... two olives.

Side 2.

Saturday Club. The Who meets The Kinks meets Small Faces; reviewed with video here. 

Waltz For Christoph. Named after the baddie in Spectre, a jazz waltz for Christoph Waltz;  for head-nodders, chinstrokers and stylish actors when they enter the room whistling.

Sign Of The Cat. A small tune with big ideas, twelve-string melodies, inscrutably funky bass with a supple psychedelic keyboard backbone. 

The Slingbacks Solution. Tribal drumming that kick-starts a funny foot-stomping, hand-bag kitsch, twelve-bar number with a twist... crazy!

Jumping Spider. More bounce than a super-ball; Devo meets Jean-Jacques Burnel, itchy guitar runs and a thousand keyboard trajectories....and then it's gone.

Botany Five-O. Seaside funk for the dapper-clad soul boys, Bill Withers meets Ronnie Laws with fast clavi-chords and jazz groove guitar solo finish.

'Corduroy are: Ben Addison, Scott Addison, Richard Searle, Simon Nelson-Smith.
Produced by Corduroy and Andrew Jones, all songs written by Corduroy, sleeve illustration by Ben Addison, released on Acid Jazz Records. Richard plays Danelectro Bass guitars.'

Oh...and it's on white vinyl.