Into Music: New Music November 2025
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One For The Ditch is a real highlight, it feels like MacGowan was an influence here and I can’t say more than it would slide in easily with Red Roses For Me era Pogues, this is a real live favourite and no surprise. The album was recorded in the most remote studio in the U.K. on the Isle of Lewis and there is a definite sense of the surroundings leaking into the music plus a togetherness, a club even, and not just a Tuesday one. Recent single Go Home To Yer Bed has brought me to tears, a song wrought with emotion that you’d expect a wizened and weary songwriter to come up with, so fair play. The guest vocal in gaelic by Josie Duncan is beautifully haunting.
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The Morning Early first got together in the mid nineties before splitting but thankfully they are now back together and the fruits of their labour are here in the shape of their self-titled debut album. With only two songs in, I Might Be Back Again and then Notice Me, it’s abundantly clear that these guys can play. Strong guitar licks and a rhythm section that is joined at the hip suggest recording sessions where they’ve absolutely nailed it. Not even mentioned the vocal yet, track three sorts that out on In Your Mind, a sixties infused belter with a pulsing guitar solo that had me seconds in.
There’s a range of influences in here, not least (for me anyway) The Rolling Stones and The Byrds and a look across to Liverpudlians Shack and Bellshill’s Teenage Fanclub. Tinges of west-coast America but with some heavy lifting that bring with it a sold sound and a band that seem clear in their vision to bring guitar-pop jangle to the masses.
I defy anyone to listen to Nothing’s Easy and not tap their foot, nod their head or wander off into a psychedelic dream, it’s a gorgeous slab of pop, while All This Time is a louche slacker, blurry yet glistening in the hazy sun. The Glasgow four-piece of Drew Sturgeon (guitar/vocals), Joe Smith (drums/vocals), Andrew Rennie (guitar/vocals) and Stephen Peebles (bass/vocals) have provided us with eleven songs filled with harmonies, sonic guitars and contagious sounds.
The one issue I have is the small point of continually changing my mind on the best track, not a bad issue I suppose. At the time of writing, I’ve settled on Truth In Your Heart which seems to sum up the whole album, an infectious hook, deep drums and ooh aah backing vocals vibing a little Neil Young/Americana. But then again, the organ and guitar onslaught on Human Machines is pretty cool too.
Last point and a sometimes overlooked one. Album art work is an important part of the overall package and sometimes can lead to that impulse purchase. The cover includes a cracking photo taken by Colin McCreadie of a stop in the Glasogw Subway.
To order The Morning Early album, head to the LNFG website here.
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Musicians Jo Bartlett and Neil Haydock go back a long way, the former being the latter’s Press Officer at Ultimate Records in the nineties, Haydock was a member of the band, Submarine. That connection has led to four new songs being released on The River or The Road EP, written and recorded during the summer of this year and now seeing the light of the day.
Frozen in Time is the lead track, subtle guitar meanderings provide the backbone to Bartlett’s vocal which exudes an ethereal feel, while the pitter patter of rainfall in the background adds to the atmosphere perfectly. The four tracks simply flow, dreamlike folk-indie pop, light vocals, cultured strumming and “la la la” in all the right places.
The closing Innocence is perhaps the highlight, it shimmers in the twilight, like the sun is disappearing over the horizon, a bewitching beauty of a track. Four songs, twelve minutes and the immediate thought is “more please“. If this is a toe in the water to test the creative juices for Bartlett and Haydock then it’s an unqualified success, here’s hoping there is more to come.
To buy the EP, head over to Jo’s Bandcamp page here.
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For many (including myself), the firs time exposed to The Primevals was via the infamous Stomping at the Klubfoot albums, the band appearing on volume two with fellow Scots, The Styng Rites as well as Demented Are Go and Frenzy, the latter both staples of the psychobilly and neo-rockabilly scene that spawned the series. However, the Glasgow band were unlikely bedfellows with the ‘billy bands, their influences more attuned to the likes of The Stooges, MC5 and The Seeds, psychedelic garage with more than a hint of menace was and still is the order of the day.
On this release we see a total of twelve tracks culled from five separate BBC sessions played for John Peel, Janice Long and Andy Kershaw over a mere thirteen month period in 1985-1986. Singer Michael Rooney is on form throughout and even with an ever changing line up (there are nine musicians involved here), the music showcases a band at perhaps their pinnacle. It has to be said too, the production is as crisp and clear as you’d want which helps elevate the songs to the level they deserve.
Saint Jack is a proto-punk cracker, Rhod Burnett’s drums pummeled within a second of their life, cutting guitars weave their heavy magic while Rooney’s vocal is majestic. Side one also plays host to Elixir of Life, the slashing guitar cutting through the air like napalm, intense, incendiary and fuckin’ sensational. If you haven’t seen it, check The Primevals playing the song on FSD and thank me later.
The band were signed at the time to New Rose, the cool French label and they also supported The Cramps on their European tour of 1986, but not in the U.K. Making great music but playing abroad with records mainly available via import maybe wasn’t the best way to solidify a fan base back then so the fact this release is out should be cherished all the more. As Rooney explains in the sleeve notes “We didn’t have white socks and loafers like lot of the Scottish bands being signed up at the time”.
The harmonica led Fire And Clay is layered with different sections, five minutes of peak garage-y blues, riffing the Stones while Sister does have a slight rockabilly element to it before melting into a fuzz of guitar feedback. Pleasingly, the band are still together, play live regularly and continue to write and record new material. If you are new to the band, this is an excellent introduction and of course if you are a fan, it really is a much needed purchase.
For more, head to the band website here and/or the Precious Recordings of London Bandcamp page here.
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