After seeing a recent superb live performance by Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man, I was looking forward to hearing 'Party In The Van' their new 6 track CD. These guys have been around a few years and have made steady progress but if this CD is anything to go on they have arrived. These guys from Manchester have matured into one of the best young bands on the punk circuit and they have the enthusiasm that is getting them better gig slots as well as headlining a few shows. As for the CD It was quality from start to finish and i've not heard much better this year. They have a slight slant towards the USA which results in a hybrid Brit/USA sound which definitely works. I thought the best track of the 6 was the superb 'Fuckers England' and hopefully a full length album will follow soon.

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'Partners In Crime' is the new split CD by MDM and Impact. There are 6 tracks by MDM and 5 by Impact, a band i'd never heard anything by. The 6 tracks by MDM are very good and in some songs especially 'Don't Trust You' the guitar has a sound reminicent of the Sex Pistols. As female punk singers go Mandy does a pretty good job but excels herself in my favourite track by them 'It's Your Life'. After over 20 years on the circuit are MDM finally realising their potential? Only time will tell. As for the 5 tracks by Impact they are hard, raw and aggressive which definitely went down well with me. 'No Future UK' and 'Here To Stay' were great but even they were bettered by the superb 'Seed Of Hate'. Impact are definitely a band who i'll be on the lookout to see live in the near future. Excellent CD.

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I don't get many psychobilly CDs but 'Hymns For The Hellbound' the new album by The Meteors, the band widely acknowledged as inventing the psychobilly genre is released on May 28th.
The album itself is everything anybody as a Meteors fan will be expecting, more of the same. The one failing I can see with the psychobilly genre is it's lack of variety. It has that same swing beat on every song, just as it's forerunner rockabilly did in the 1950s. I asked myself what is "psychobilly" and the nearest I can come is rockabilly with an edge. I am not saying it's a bad album because it ain't, in fact psychobilly fans will love it but after listening to all 12 songs several times it all began to sound like one long song that was all too similar.

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This is the first material i've heard by Twickenham based The Fades.This self titled album is the bands' first full length attempt and I must say it's a pretty good effort. In this age of reality TV where young people want to be famous without even playing a gig, these guys are doing everything themselves. They don't hang around waiting for a record deal, they release their own CDs, which always goes down well with me. These guys music which is touted as "pop-punk with a backbone" (I'd call them Grunge-punk) will definitely appeal to the mainstream and I expect it won't be long before a record label snaps them up and they saddly have to ditch their DIY ethics. There was a wide diversity in the 10 tracks and 'Caca' and 'Fruit Machine' went down well but best of the lot was 'Blade'.

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