Album number two from The Wytches finds the band in fine form, two years on from debut release Annabel Dream Reader. Still existing on the darker side of modern psychedelia, the ten songs here (there's an intro but you can hardly count that in) come at you with no quarter given.

'Can't Face It', for example, has some fearfully angry vocals at its heart. This is a band who've had their horizons widened & their eyes opened with the coming of the greater exposure occasioned by that first album. They've not exactly been mellowed by the experience.

That's not to say there aren't gentler parts within the album. 'A Feeling We Get' is certainly a bit more laidback in terms of pace but its vocals are as heartfelt as anywhere else on the work and there is still room for some strident guitar parts.

All Your Happy Life therefore is clearly as much of a tongue in cheek title as you'd probably have guessed from the record's artwork. The band remain the musical equivalent of Ben Wheatley's A Field In England.

By this point in a career many bands will be spoken of as having matured in some way. All Your Happy Life shows that The Wytches were mature to begin with, the core elements of their sound are such that they weren't so much ripe for development as much as being capable of stretching and expansion over the wider framework the band were always capable of fitting them to. They just required the investment of time, energy and life experience that the past 24 months have afforded them. 

All Your Happy Life is a delight from start to finish and should be a joy to behold when the band head out on the road around the UK in November.

Here's the video for 'C-Side' for you to look at too:-

All Your Happy Life is available from amazon & iTunes.

Fuzz Evil are a trio comprised of members of Powered Wig Machine - brothers Wayne & Joseph Rudell handle bass and guitar & vocals respectively and Daniel Graves drums. The Austin-based group have been around for a couple of years and prior to this release have two 7"s to their credit.

On the evidence presented across the six tracks that make up Fuzz Evil they're not pushing the stoner/power trio dynamic in any new directions. The inclusion of Unida's Arthur Seay on opening track 'Good Medicine' fails to elevate the song to any great height but, at least until it's messy ending, second number 'My Fuzz' rocks along well. Perhaps it's just the production to blame.

Thereafter the group make a good fist of things despite kind of weak vocals on 'Killing The Sun'. Pace-wise the songs are more often than not under-driven for my taste but generally they have a good guitar sound and when they have a good riff between their teeth they don't easily give it up. The fact that the songs are arranged largely so each is longer than the one before gives you an idea of the level of thought put into the overall construction of the release.

Full-on fans of desert stoner rock will though no doubt find a lot more to love here than I did & maybe getting baked before playing it would be an idea for the future. Final track 'Black Dread', clocking in at just under seven minutes and with the inclusion of keyboards, seals things off well and shows there's more in the band's arsenal than a cursory listen would have you believe. Nothing new then but neither is it the same old story either.

Fuzz Evil is available from Battleground Records.