New music review with singles from The 113 and Holly Head
- Julia Mason aka The Decibel Decoder
- 3 days ago
- 3 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 The 113 Leach and Holly Head No Country Is An Island
Artist: The 113
Track: Leach
Leeds post-punk quartet The 113 have announced their signing to EMI North partner Launchpad+ with the release of new single Leach, the band’s most urgent and confrontational single to date. It's an abrasive dystopian statement on surveillance, data harvesting and the quiet unease of modern digital life. Described by the band as a “new sound; desperate and panicked”, the track blisteringly hurtles forward with a compelling urgency, propelled by discordant guitars and thunderous offbeat rhythms.
At times an almost uncomfortably prescient and claustrophobic listen, Leach finds frontman Jack Grant unleashing both a rallying cry against the advancement and negative impacts of big tech, and an honest admission of powerlessness and inevitability in the face of it all: “Me, you or half the planet, what’s the fucking difference? I’ll be stamped within the spreadsheet with little to no resistance”.
The track was mixed by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, whose instinctive, no-nonsense style left a defining mark on the final version. “Without giving him much prompt…” Jack elaborates, “he encapsulated what we collectively thinking and just fucking did it – the combination of gritty, fucked-up and polished in a way the tracks hit you in the stomach. He brought it to life.”
The good news is that The 113 will announce extensive tour dates for 2026 soon.
* * *
Artist: Holly Head
Track: No Country Is An Island
Holly Head’s credentials as purveyors of visceral, politico-punk founded on incessant grooves are underlined with the release of their first new music of 2026, No Country Is An Island, before picking up a run of eight, UK-wide dates with hotly tipped indie-folk four-piece, Westside Cowboy.
Conscience and unity, the will of the good and the strength of the willing unites the band and their switched-on counterparts as the four-piece’s latest release holds a flickering flame to anti-immigrant rhetoric. No Country Is An Island also features Westside Cowboy’s Paddy Murphy as co-writer and guitarist. The two alternative future-facing guitar bands head out on a January-February tour, opening at London’s Scala Wednesday 28 January.
Building danceable agit-funk from the ground up, fomenting a patchwork of percussive patterns and indefatigable bass before razorwire guitars and frontman, guitarist and lyricist, Joe’s clarion call vocals, Holly Head’s roll call of high-impact influences include Wu-Lu, Happy Mondays, Kokoroko, Fugazi, Fela Kuti and DJ Shadow.
On No Country Is An Island's observational messaging, Joe explains: “The song is a reaction to the rise of anti-migrant and refugee views in England where news and debate are framed to divide and conquer. We seem to have come to this point through the underfunding of public services and higher living costs leaving people hanging on for their lives. We’re experiencing an acute ‘every person for themselves’ culture through media and political messaging that’s been present longer than all of us.
“The working title for the song was Afrobeat. Drawing from a lot of the Latin, Afro Cuban and Trip Hop music, which forms the basis of a lot of our writing, kicking off ideas from Liam’s basslines and Oscar’s drumming.”
With the departure of Murphy to take up drumming duties with Westside Cowboy full-time, Joe is joined in Holly Head by the band’s rhythm section, Liam (bass), Oscar (drums) and new guitarist, Josh. They head out on dates in the company of their good friends from 28 January, and return to Manchester for their own headline show in mid-February.
Holly Head Live Dates
January
28 - London, Scala*
29 -Manchester, Gorilla*
31 - Leeds, Regtown
February
2 - Glasgow, King Tuts*
3 - Leeds, Brudenell*
4 - Nottingham, Bodega*
6 - Bristol, The Exchange*
7 - Brighton, Hope & Ruin*
8 - Oxford, The Bullingdon*
19 - Manchester, Whip Round at Deaf Institute
*with Westside Cowboy
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