Northwest Music News — 25 Mar: Groves Video Premiere, new music from Capac and more

Video Premiere from Groves

It's often been said that there's something immensely satisfying about the balance of a three-piece, with no one member ever allowed to drift into the background, and the spit and thunder of noise rockers Groves bears that out. Frack The Shit Out Of It is the first take from their forthcoming self-released cassette, due out on 18 April, and perfects a tense balance between its chief elements, the group playing with dynamics around the relentless chug of their post-hardcore repetition that in turns recalls Slint, Fugazi and Shellac. Pretty great, in other words.

Capac to release new album on This Is It Forever

Founded in Liverpool but now dispersed all over the country, Capac were a much underrated force back in 2010 when they released their debut EP Pastels. Back then their structures were more linear, based around techno repetition but opening up in such a way as to recall more expansive compositional rock troupes such as Explosions In The Sky. Their long awaited return in 2014 with mini-album Nested saw divergence towards more de-constructed electronic pop however, and new LP Sea Freeze looks set to take that progression further. Out on 4 May through This Is It Forever Records, the group have revealed Spirit Level, a fidgety, soulful slice of brooding minimalism that opens up into a great wash of sound; it's a spine-tingling comeback from a group well overdue some recognition.

New Manchester label Cong Burn Waves

Cong Burn Waves is a brand new label started up by Melodic Records man Howes alongside a couple of pals, after an old friend sent them a selection of demos they thought were too good not to share. Originally burning them on CD-Rs for their friendship group, the three have formalised the process and have announed both the creation of the label and their first full release, Auricular Palimpsest by Leeds-based bedroom producer Haddon. Ahead of its full release on 6 April, Haddon has dropped Polyhistor, five minutes of restless techno and claustrophobia that gives way to more languid textures, allowing them to drape around its rigid centre. 

Latest release from Tombed Visions

Tombed Visions have been carrying on their 2015 in much the same way they left off 2014, by releasing a consistently brilliant trail of limited cassette and digital releases. The latest to emerge on the David McLean-founded label is Bletchley-based songwriter Bad Body, whose Do You Know I Live? consists of two sprawling, hissing pieces of lo-fi sound collage and experimentation, fitted together discordantly round a snarling, spat out vocal. What starts off as melancholic folk soon expands into modular drones, menacing synth lines and jutting found sounds. 

Digital Crate Digging

Sex Swing — Night-Time Worker

There've been mutterings about this unholy union between members of Liverpool psych stalwarts Mugstar with Part Chimp's Tim Cedar and Dethscalator's Dan Chandler for some time, with early shows in London gaining a fevered response. The group have now finally uploaded a couple of studio versions of their sonic maleovalence to the internet, and they don't disappoint, possessing all the fuzzed up weirdness, mind-bending repetition and textural fire that you'd expect from such a collaboration. Sex Swing are in the Northwest this weekend as it happens, playing Drop The Dumbells in Liverpool on Mar 27 and The Roadhouse in Manchester the following day. 

Elsewhere on The Skinny

• Chris Ogden ran the rule over Jane Weaver's sold-out Deaf Institute show. See what he thought here.
• worriedaboutsatan returned home to launch their new LP Even Temper after a jaunt with Vessels. Click here for Ed Bottomley's thoughts on it all.
• Carlisle's The Lucid Dream have a new record out — what did Chris McCall think of it?
• Like a cardigan-wearing Michael Myers, ATP Festival just doesn't know when it's dead. The festival has announced its return to the holiday camps, and will be launching in North Wales in November. More here.