<p><span><span><span>- Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall-of-Famers Pearl Jam have released their first album in seven years. In a legendary career entering its fourth decade, Pearl Jam’s <em>Gigaton</em> marks the eleventh album in the band’s existence. A -previously- famously prolific outfit, Pearl Jam had a quiet decade in the 2010’s, releasing only one album, 2013’s <em>Lightning Bolt</em>. However, if any band can be excused for inactivity it’s Pearl Jam.

<p><span>- "<em>The past isn't dead</em>", once wrote <strong>William Faulkner</strong>; "<em>in fact it's not even past</em>". This is the reason we put in effort to remember the stories from times gone by - because understanding the world we live in partly means understanding the past events that got us here.</span></p>

<p><span><span><span>- Es is a London-based quartet whose dystopian synth-punk paints gloomy day-in-the-life scenes with a palette of propulsive bass, plodding synth melodies, crashing drums and reverb soaked yells. Their debut album <em>Less Of Everything </em>is released this week on London DIY-stable <em><strong>Upset! The Rhythm</strong></em>.</span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span>- Bolt Gun are an unusual entity, even amongst the terrifying, iconoclastic, sonic landmarks of drone, black metal and doom. I only came to them through their recent collaboration with extreme sound talent and extremely diverse artist </span><strong>Uboa</strong><span>. It gave me an inaccurate picture of a band that are, on their own, committed to the slow, unnerving and uncompromising genres that they work in and a worldview that is nothing short of flattening.

<p><span><span><em>- </em>Possibly, when the music history of the 2020s is written, there should be a central chapter on how, finally, the dominant cisgender, heteronormative, white European descent musical paradigm was irreparably shaken apart by various artists who came from almost none of those standard musical backgrounds.