The Jar Family - a band of fast-rising “industrial folk” musicians - have released an action and energy packed EP of live recordings in their EP release Live & To The Letter.

These are five musicians, who thought they would have more success as a collective, than as individuals. After forming in Hartlepool, and building a rehearsal room in Cambridgeshire, they painstakingly bought their sound and style together.

Fusing elements of the punk aesthetic with folk influences, to form their own “industrial folk” sound, the quintet have slowly been building a name for themselves on the live circuit. Support slots for acts such as Jake Bugg, Alabama 3, Babyshambles and The Charlatans cemented the quality of both their sound and live performances. Their debut album The Jar Family Album was released in 2012 to immediate critical acclaim, whilst the follow up Jarmalade helped to further their reputation as performers, musicians and songwriters of the first order.

Combining rough vocals, with a lo-fi sound, that brings to mind the sounds of early Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Pogues, and more recent names such as Jake Bugg, and many other punk fuelled bands. The four tracks on this release pack passion and song craft between the grooves. We have wah-wah drenched guitar solos, and acoustic guitar that sounds both direct and enigmatic, whilst pin sharp bass and drums stop these songs becoming leaden and predictable.

Opener ‘Moya Moya’ is a punk backed shout-along, whilst ‘Getting Better’ finds time for a melodic, twisting guitar refrain that sounds similar to Television at their best, whilst ‘She Was Crying’ starts with the breathy harmonica style so redolent of Dylan and Springsteen, before becoming something of a lost song from The Smiths, and the EP closer ‘Tell Me Baby’ is another working out for wah-wah and harmonica, and is an upbeat ending to a release that may find itself filed under folk, but is so much more than that.

But then, why only take my word for it. The EP is available on one of those pesky CDs for the quite reasonable price of nothing, and available from HERE.

Smiling Politely is the album and 'Swear Jar' the anthem. Milk Teeth are still pretty new but already have a respectable following in the West, playing bigger and bigger crowds as the year snowballs on – they’ll be at 2000trees festival this year and I cannot bloody wait.

The female lead singer has a sweet and crisp voice that cuts through the grease that is grunge so well. They hark back to the Eighties and Nineties grunge greats like Nirvana and The Breeders. The respected pop formulas and simple catchy chords are not forgotten but instead are used as good frameworks over which to go a little apeshit.

Then it’s the stuff to tap your creepers and bob your bleached fringe at (we don’t say bangs, that’s just silly). At other times they have that pure slowness so you can stand around and sway a bit, check out that person you’ve been eyeing up, to keep cool to. Grunge perfecto.

But this is a review of two halves. While I like MT, they didn’t have my attention nearly so well as Floorboards. I’d feel I was doing them a disservice if I didn’t mention them, because they were an unexpected surprise way better than anything you’d get from a Kinder egg. It being an underage night gave the feel of a Christian Rock concert somewhat before these guys came on. I have to bear in mind that I’d been drinking mulled cider and other things and I was warm and buzzy inside, but still we all felt it, that thing when something is just really good and you forget who you are and where you are, even that you have a body – you’re just a pair of ears and eyes, feeling.

'Stoned' really creates that easy mood, that sort of cushioning, that happiness. Listening again on Facebook I realise it sounds great live and big. 'Feel' sounds great from small, ineffective laptop speakers or if you’re actually there. The guitar had that sort of looping quality that makes you feel like you’re not in the room, tranquil yet blazing. Overall, I’m reminded of Creed, Chilli Peppers, The Pixies, even Feeder ('Turn') and The Charlatans ('Weirdo') – a pick ‘n’ mix of these and other great influences that I cannot name because like they clearly do, I like a good mixture of music.

Back to my ears, I know they’re actually a decade (deary me) older than a good number of the bodies I was sharing the room with that night and so the things they made me think of won’t all be the same – but the feelings I’m sure will be, pretty much, and that’s the beauty of music, right?

Here Smiling Politely here and Floorboards' debut EP here.

A family music business that is based in Brooklyn is embarking on creating modern reggae? Maybe not the most obvious surroundings, but New Kingston are not your typical reggae band.

Firstly, the band is a family, as it’s made up of brothers Stephen Suckarie, Courtney Panton Jnr and Tahir Panton. Secondly, they are mentored by their father Courtney Panton Snr, who also doubles up as the bass player on the album. Thirdly, as the father is a veteran of the reggae scene, he has used his Jamaican connections from back in the day to sign up a host of collaborators to join his sons on their new album Kingston City.

So armed with a new album and with their father’s watchful gaze, New Kingston announce their arrival. The brothers waste no time in demonstrating their ability to construct laid back yet powerful reggae. The family stay true to the traditions of Jamaican music as they combine the old school 1970s roots reggae vocals alongside the new breed of conscious roots dancehall which is currently powering the whole reggae scene forward. The record also has plenty of wonderful soulful vocal melodies and is everything you’d expect from a modern reggae album, regardless of where the artists hail from or where it's been recorded.

Tracks such as ‘Mystery Babylon’ featuring Madd T-Ray are positive downtempo numbers, and feature the signature of all great reggae tunes, that of a pulsing bassline. The collaborations continue throughout the album, with Hawaiian singer Kimie Miner stepping into the family circle on ‘You Are Mine’; she brings wonderful sweet melodies to accompany the brothers’ harmonies. 

However, the stand out appearance and best track of the album has to be the ‘Protect Me’, on which the Grammy-nominated reggae vocal group The Wailing Souls join to create an authentic roots vibe. The vocals are complimented superbly by piercing horn licks and shimmering percussion. The laid back nature of the track allows you to slip into a wonderfully relaxing world; you can almost hear the Caribbean waves lapping at your feet.

As if there were not enough collaborations… the late, great reggae legend Sugar Minott layers vocals on ‘Certain Girls’, it’s evident that Dad must have pulled a few strings to get him to appear on the album. The fact that he did speaks volumes of New Kingston’s place in the international reggae scene.

The album closes with ‘Conquer Dem’, featuring another legendary artist in Sister Carol, renowned for her signature vocal style. Carol also moved to New York when she was a teenager, and her presence in the thriving New York reggae scene has now been echoed by New Kingston.  

The album is as diverse as reggae can be; it brings together rocksteady, dancehall and reggae. It is easy to see why the band is already creating a big noise in The Big Apple. With a strong foundation and regular airplay on UK and Jamaican radio shows, alongside a big touring schedule, this year promises to be a hugely important year for the Brooklyn boys.

Kingston City is available from amazon.

Dean Engles, front-man of the ironically named Quarterbacks wears his heart proudly on his sleeve, then, it seems lends his T-shirt to every girl in his neighbourhood, never to be seen again, such is his propensity for romance. “As I get older, I realise love is mostly situational,” he reflects on 'Center', which explains why their debut offers 19 tracks in under 22 minutes; Engles finding love in almost every situation in turn resulting in every situation yielding some form of lyrical inspiration.

It's clear the irony of the band's name isn't lost on them either, and much like American Football or Modern Baseball, there's little in the way of the overt masculinity that their name suggests, instead opting to create a kind of self-styled twee-punk that rattles along with the speed and energy of hardcore whilst upholding the syrupy sugaryness of twee.

The album itself collects every song the band have written thus far, loses the drum-machine of earlier releases in favour of a live drummer and significantly amps up the production, allowing for Quarterbacks to feel well-rounded and uniform, despite it being a collection of sorts. And such is the nature of the short and sharp tracks on offer, that the record is really best taken in its entirety with several tracks often finishing before you've even realised.

That isn't to say each track blends in to another (though critics will probably say otherwise) as each feels like a vignette, a flashback, containing its very own places, emotions and personalities. 'The Dog's is a 28-second long track about a man with two puppies, (though Engles still wishes “you” were there to see it), whilst 'Knicks' is about a baseball game on in the background and a friend's recent break-up. And though the record rips and rattles towards its conclusion with wilful abandon, it has far more in common with Beat Happening than Black Flag, the wistful and sometimes jaded memories more akin to The Mountain Goats than Minor Threat.

And that's what's so great about it. There's no drawn out metaphors, no tired clichés (ironic or otherwise), just honest song-writing, and though the narratives might well be suffering from a case of nostalgic ADHD, there's no denying the occasional flashes of genuine pain that cut through the emotional syrup like a hot knife. “One time I showed you a song/You only thought that it was kind of good/ I never played it again/ It wasn’t even about you.” Engles aches in the closing moments of 'Pool', he might not be winning any literary prizes, but he's got twenty-something angst down to a tee.

You can buy Quarterbacks on amazon and iTunes or from the band here.