(Indie Rock/ Post Punk) The Naturals - Hive - 2015, MP3, 320 kbps

After a decade of honing their sound in and around the Bristol music scene and putting out various limited edition releases through Howling Owl records, The Naturals have finally arrived on to an unsuspecting wider audience with their debut album 'Hive'.
Listening to 'Hive' is, to coin a phrase from Mark Kermode, not without it's challenges. This music is generally quite intense/moody/overwhelming, but dig a little deeper, turn up the volume and it can be very rewarding indeed. Most of the album sounds quite mechanical, comprising shovel-loads of industrial, goth and early electro, all underscored by constant brilliantly threatening bass-lines and sweeping 80's guitars.
Their label have previously described this band as like "transformers fucking to dub", which, as well as being a mildly amusing bit of PR blurb, is actually quite accurate. Their music, and more importantly, the production on this record (by Dominic Mitchison and Sebastian Gainsborough) does have a sort of echoey, sludgy, muggy quality which is not a million miles away from the classic dub sound. It's just that where dub found importance in the blanks and the gaps, The Naturals have coloured them all in with a big fat paint brush. It creates a canvas which is bordering on claustrophobic.
That's not to say that this LP is all doom and gloom, the band have a playful side which comes out in their uplifting guitar parts and on tracks like "Cauldron" with its swirly doors-esque middle section. Still, 'Hive' is an uncompromising debut, and I'm sure they wouldn't have it any other way.

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19. Matt Maher - Saints and Sinners (Christian rock/ Pop - Rock)
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31. New Navy - Lakeside (Indie Pop, New Wave)
32. Hero Fisher - Delivery (Indie-Pop/Rock)
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35. Repair To Ruin - Repair To Ruin (Alternative Rock / Modern Hard Rock / Post-Grunge)
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