This is the start of a busy six months for fans of John Maus. The release of Screen Memories, his fourth full-length work, is the lead up to the six LP boxed-set (including his next album Addendum) in the spring of 2018. Screen Memories is part of the set but, apparently, you won't end up with two copies of it, though that may depend when and where you buy it (which seems overly complicated). Either way here it is on its own now, six years after Maus's excellent We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves.

Fans have nothing to fear as Maus has in no way deviated from his tried and tested ghostly electronica sound. Right from the start of opening track 'The Combine' you're pitched into the moody vocals & lightly anthemic synths & strings.

The press release for the album doesn't detail whether this is in fact a collection of songs dedicated to Maus's favourite TV experiences over the years but 'Teenage Witch' may well be about Sabrina & recent single 'Touchdown' possibly celebrates the Superbowl or the general televising of American Football. The remaining song titles are rather more ambiguous but no doubt you'll be able to relate them to shows if you try.

With that sameness of sound in mind it's safe to say that this as good an access point to Maus's work as any of the older works that will feature in the (seemingly so far unnamed) boxed-set when that arrives next year. Those of you previously unfamiliar with the man's output can safely dip your toe in the water here.

'Find Out' is a particular highlight for me as Maus punks things up a bit and gets the adrenalin flowing nicely in this call to pogo. It's a testament to his enduring skill that the change of pace doesn't then disrupt the flow of the far more relaxed tunes either side of it.

Screen Memories is available from Ribbon Music here.

Austrian garage punks Wild Evel And The Trashbones have thankfully made it back into the studio five years after their debut LP Tales From The Cave, coming up with Digging My Grave to stun the world a second time. The star performers at the very first Hipsville haven't been completely silent in the intervening years but to finally have 13 (pretty much) new tracks from the boys is very welcome indeed.

Okay, so track one ('Der Bucklige') is a tiny instrumental. That still leaves a round dozen to wig out to. Indeed after that ode to hunchbacks everywhere the title track pushes all the right garage punk buttons.

Track four, 'The Mess I'm In', first came out on 7" five years ago, a couple of songs later the band do a so-so cover of 'Ain't It Hard' & straight after that song number seven is a re-recorded version of their 2011 homage to garage maestros The Satelliters, 'Why Can't We Be'. The original in this case is in many ways better but for whatever reason they've felt the need to do it over.

None of which really detracts from the album overall or the actual quality of the songwriting. Their cover of Willie Dixon's '300 Pounds' is suitably cartoonish to make up for any minor failings elsewhere. Live all quibbles will easily be swept aside too.

The rawness which Wild Evel And The Trashbones bring to the airwaves with Digging My Grave is the sort welcomed by those of us appreciative of a far less polished & smoothed over approach to music making. A basic sound for the primitive in you.    

The quartet played a couple of UK dates in the run up to the album's release but here's hoping they make it over again & further North in the coming months (Franklin Fest Four in the summer maybe?). 

Digging My Grave is available from bandcamp here.