Life

Makin' Bacon

MORE new local music for you this week, starting with contrasting releases by two very different bands. The new single from Newry indiepop act Elspeth

offers budget beats, emotional synths and pretty, fragile melodies.

Mob Journals is a decent enough tune but the slinkier sound of its b-side, Beast, is the real earworm here - one that's ripe for an extended and skuzzifying remix that should unlock its dancefloor-filling potential.

Both tunes are available to buy now via your iTunes - but you can listen to them in full through local label No Dancing's online audio archive at Soundcloud.com/nodancing.

Stay tuned to Nodancing.co.uk for details of Elspeth's imminent debut album, Coax.

If the only time you venture onto the dancefloor is for a spot of floor-punching or circle pit engagement, the post-hardcore crunch of PigsAsPeople will be right up your dirty alley.

The Belfast-based trio's new EP Idles & Us kicks off with a bracing riff-diven punk rocker Vicious Speaker that puts me in mind of like-minded US types Pissed Jeans before shifting into sludgier, heavier territory for Postcards From Waco. Vaults Are Violent taps into Guy Piciotto's side of the Fugazi songbook for its slow-burning rumble, though when the riffs kick in on this it sounds more like something by London doom gods Orange Goblin than DC's finest, while the moody atmospherics of Caprice find the band operating at the post-rockier end of their post-hardcore blueprint to fine effect - though it does get all loud and screamy again towards the end just in case you were thinking of taking a wee nap or something.

PigsAsPeople round off their latest release with stand-out moment The Art of Leaving Your House, a cunning combination of rap-rock chugging and mid-tempo anthemics. "You scream, you scream, we all scream: democracy," they bellow, making this the ideal soundtrack for a party political broadcast by the Post-hardcore Party.

Idles & Us is available now at Pigsaspeople.bandcamp.com on a pay what you want basis. Remember: buy early, buy often.

If you liked that, you're gonna love this (maybe) - Belfast supergroup Tusks (Comply or Die, Howlin' Widow/Bad Boat) have a brand new tune online for your enjoyment.

Ain't No Solitude (I Can Celebrate) finds these fun-lovin' doomsters weighing in with a slow-grooving slice of early-Sabbath aping riffola, though singer Tom Clarke's tuneful, whiskey-ravaged croon is much more tuneful and expressive than whatever Ozzy might have come up with for this kind of rolling rumbler.

The quartet twist out their sludgy head-nodding fuzz for almost six mesmerising minutes, turning the clock right back to the stoned age in the process.

Check it out now at Tuskstheband.bandcamp.com where you can make a purchase for whatever sum you deem worthy.

Be generous, as Tusks will need every penny they can get for diesel and crisps at the moment - they hit the road for a world tour of Ireland next week with fellow travellers Harvester and Wild Rocket.

Catch their buzz at Emmett's in Ballina (November 21), The Warehouse in Galway (November 22), Mr Bradley's in Cork (November 23) and The Thomas House in Dublin (November 24).

That's your lot for now - until next time, don't go changing.