Hello and welcome to Big Mountain County. If you aint been here before, if you’ve not heard of its attractions, if you’ve not sampled all the regional and indigenous delights and taken in the county’s flora and its fauna, then let me offer up my services as tour guide.

To the left we have the jagged sounds of electroclash and post-punk, and to the right we see the ruins of 60’s garage. Just up ahead we have the hot springs made of simmering psychedelia, famed for rejuvenating broken souls and broken speakers. And on the edge of town I recommend the sweatbox spit and sawdust bars that spit out nothing but the noise of sweet depravity. This is a great time to be visiting, oh yes it is, as we prep for Big Mountain County’s newest album.

Proceeded as it has been four singles, by four showcases of the moods and grinds on way, all inhabitants and tourists have been warned. On November 29th of our year 2024, there’s a stomp to end all stomps and you can either stay indoors or get involved one communal purge of gluttony.

‘Follow Me’ came first, with sultry rhythmic repetitions that bubble up and hypnotise and heat. Inside its metronomic cool and kiss of grunge based howl and holler, there’s a basement disco grindhouse and a synth lysergic boogaloo that paints our late night memories better left forgotten.

‘Going Down’ came next and doubled up on whatever that song swallowed to make a heady mess of ecstasy of anger. That’s not to say that there’s thrash or violence, well not entirely, but it excels in its creation of pre-fight static and feel of danger as it reaches leaching tendrils back to The Rapture and the Evil Heat of Primal Scream, and somehow splices LCD with the new(ish) wave of Viagra Boys and Warmduscher‘s garage attitude. The song’s brevity only serves to feed its punch. Chewing as it chooses to through its references and leaning wisely into muscle over melody.

‘No Time to Loose’ and ‘Bright Black Hole’, these are the bridges, between the krautrock inspired groves and adult only versions of adolescent angst that keeps us music lovers and gig-seers true and faithful, and their DNA injections of 60s fuzzed hallucinations. While the former takes the decade’s scuzz and grit, the latter, dare I say it, steals the funk; or their stylised and owned facsimile at least. But these are just the songs that you can go and find yourselves, these are the tasters of the album that’s to come.

In its entire length of 25 minutes give or take, more variations of these agro sounds prevail. And I would argue, in some cases, claim them better. ‘Don’t Know Why’ is the fight that ‘Going Down’s pre-fight led up to. ‘No Solution’ is their zero sum art-eclectropunk smirk at purest. And if you can’t tell, it’s an album worth consuming.

If there’s a choice between spending hundreds on a Mancunion reunion tour or time on a post-prime no-scream faux funk fained revival, I’d advise neither and prescribe this instead. So once again, just as we said at the beginning; Hello and welcome to Big Mountain County.