New music review with singles from Bureau De Change, Johnny Mafia and Madra Salach
- Julia Mason aka The Decibel Decoder
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her new music review with singles from Bureau De Change The Gammon's Lament, Johnny Mafia Colorful and Madra Salach The Man Who Seeks Pleasure (Live from London)
Artist: Bureau de Change
Track: The Gammon's Lament
Bath-based UK post-punk band Bureau De Change are delighted to announce that they have signed to much-loved UK independent bastion Alcopop! Records. To celebrate the news, the band released their new single The Gammon’s Lament, the first new material to be revealed from their forthcoming 2027 debut album. A truly disturbing insight into the bleakness that is the 2020s recorded and produced at Nine Volt Leap in Melksham by Dominic Bailey-Clay (Knives) and mastered by Stephen Kerrison (DITZ, Petbrick, LIFE), The Gammon’s Lament is a rage-fuelled outcry against the bourgeoisie, and their inclination to feast on anyone and everyone deemed “less than”.
“It’s a protest song, a rallying cry to action; to perceive, to look up rather than down,” says vocalist Flora Kimberley of the single. “Lyrically it’s an outpouring of grief, sorrow, and the realisation that you’re nothing but a meal to those in power. In the current political climate, it feels easy to let yourself become a meal, to be consumed by the overwhelming dread of it all. This song is about biting back, for we are many and they are few.”
Fronted by seasoned vocalist Flora Kimberley (ex-Lambrini Girls), together with bandmates Will, Connor and Louis the quartet have spent the past 2 years playing all over the UK and Europe alongside fast-rising hot property names like PINS, Dreamnails, Loose Articles, Mini Skirt, and Knives. With an acerbic sound that truly stands out amongst the burgeoning UK post-punk scene, the band’s 2024 debut EP Are You Flirting With Me? was described by Joyzine as “four atonal anthems that combine blistering musicianship, pulpit polemic, time signature jumping and righteous fury”.
Their trashy, uninhibited post-punk-rock is propelled along by Kimberley’s cuttingly sarcastic sense of humour paired with unapologetically feminist and political messaging, viciously tackling and dismantling toxic masculinity, misogyny, and societal norms. A string of searing standalone singles followed throughout 2025, including Resistance, Dumb Men and Office Chair, with latest release Marriage seeing them tipped by French tastemakers MOWNO Magazine and signing to renowned French indie label A Tant Rêver Du Roi.
Fresh from official showcases at The Great Escape and Alternative Escape, the band are already booked to take their confrontational and increasingly notorious live show to Festival De La Mer, Sniester, Detonation and Burn It Down this summer, with further live dates to be added announced.
Bureau de Change Live Dates
June
7 - Bristol - The Louisiana (supporting CHEST)
26 - London - Signature Brew Haggerston (School Night)
July
18 - Hull - Ulltra Fest
25 - France - Festival De La Mer
September
5 - Torquay - Burn It Down Festival
25 - France - Detonation Festival
* * *
Artist: Johnny Mafia
Track: Colorful
Johnny Mafia is first and foremost a story of friends, which began in 2010 at a high school in Sens (France), and a marathon. Over fifteen years, through albums and endless tours across Europe (and even the world!), Théo, Fabio, William, and Enzo have gradually established themselves as a major force in the French music scene, always at their own pace, in their own way, without being overly concerned by the conventions or expectations of the music business. The band's sound, refined with each release, is now instantly recognisable, a blend of alternative rock with powerful guitars and a slightly mischievous pop-punk, playfully subverting hard rock tropes.
Johnny Mafia returns with Colorful, an explosive new single, kicking off to thunderous applause. Propelled by Eurodance-style keyboards, Colorful humorously skewers the conventions of dark metal in its lyrics, while delivering a terrifically effective pop-punk sound, now the band's trademark. The track is taken from their fifth album, due out in November 2026 on Howlin' Banana Records (France), Luik Music (Belgium), and Pochette Surprise (Germany)
* * *
Artist: Madra Salach
Track: The Man Who Seeks Pleasure (Live from London)
The Irish alternative-folk six-piece Madra Salach have released The Man Who Seeks Pleasure (Live from London), a recorded live version of the fan favourite captured during the band’s sold-out headline performance at The Dome in London on 26 March earlier this year. A staple of the band’s live set since their earliest days, The Man Who Seeks Pleasure quickly became a stand-out after Madra Salach began performing it on the Dublin pub circuit and by the following summer, it had evolved into a festival anthem on the Irish festival scene. When the band arrived at The Dome for only their second-ever London show, a date that sold out within a week of going on sale, the song had already found a devoted following across the UK.
Singer Paul Banks says: “This version of The Man Who Seeks Pleasure is particularly special to us. It’s from the last show on our debut headline tour and carries with it a lot of raw energy. While we love The Man Who Seeks Pleasure which features on our EP, we wanted to release a version with the full band arrangement. We’re really excited to be able to share it with you now.”
The song was a standout at this year’s Great Escape Festival. NME highlighted the “goosebump-inducing vocal” suggesting it “might well be the performance of the weekend” whilst DIY celebrates “the most evocative, impressive live band going.” So Young called it “a champion performance from one of the best groups in the world.”
Madra Salach’s reputation as a live act has built impressively over their 3 years of performing as a group, and this was evidenced following the release of their January 2026 debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age, which reached No. 3 on the Irish Albums Chart and broke into the Top 10 of the UK Official Independent Albums Chart. The EP takes its title from the opening line of Murphy Can Never Go Home, a song that tells the story of an Irish labourer who spends his life working in Britain, gradually losing touch with his roots.
Madra Salach Live Dates
July
4 - Denmark, Roskilde
5 - Belfort, France, Les Eurockéennes
7 - Montreux, Switzerland, Montreux Jazz Festival
24 - Southwold, Latitude Festival
25 - Steventon, Truck Festival
26 - Topcliffe, Deer Shed Festival
August
3 - Lokeren, Belgium, Lokerse Feesten
4 - Antwerp, Belgium, OLT Rivierenhof
5 - Nijmegen, Netherlands, Openluchttheater De Goffert
6 - Haldern, Germany, Haldern Pop Festival
8 - Katowice, Poland, OFF Festival
14 - August, Derry, Ireland, Nerve Centre
21 - Brecon Beacons, Green Man Festival
28 - Vlieland, Netherlands, Into The Great Wide Open
30 - Stradbally, Ireland, Electric Picnic
September
4 - Moseley, Moseley Folk Festival
5 - Larmer Tree Gardens, End of the Road Festival
12 - Dundalk, Ireland, Fuinneamh
13 - Doss Trento, Italy, Poplar Festival
15 - Paris, France, Petit Bain
17 - Hamburg, Germany, Reeperbahn Festival
18 - Berlin, Germany, Mikropol
19 - Utrecht, Netherlands, EKKO
30 - Exeter, Phoenix
October
1 - Cardiff, Tramshed
2 - Liverpool, Arts Club Loft SOLD OUT
3 - Newcastle, The Grove SOLD OUT
5 - Glasgow, St Luke’s SOLD OUT
6 - Manchester, New Century Hall
7 - Sheffield, Foundry
9 - Norwich, Arts Centre SOLD OUT
10 - Nottingham, Rescue Rooms SOLD OUT
11 - Oxford, Bullingdon SOLD OUT
14 - London, Electric Ballroom SOLD OUT
13 - London, Electric Ballroom
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