T.A.T. (There’s Always Time)’s debut EP Breathe prowls into life with the track of the same name; darkly moody and Bauhaus-esque in tone it stalks like a cold shadow carrying a jagged-edged knife. Sharon Watts—who vocally touches on Polystyrene-levels of pitch and passion—sings of escaping a coercive relationship with a conviction leaving no doubt the lyrics come from experience; a feeling of personality erosion and suffocation captured perfectly in the focus and obsessive mantra of Breathe that’s sung in the name of believing in the self to ride out the storm of anxiety the manipulative obsessive can force to run rampant in the innocent. Continue reading
There’s Always Time
Down with Split Dogs at Dean Lane
When first heading to punk gigs in Bristol and following the relevant social media, I fast became aware of a buzz around local band Split Dogs.
Such was that buzz my first attempt to see them live ended in failure when arriving at The Plough only to find a long line-up outside of people waiting for others to leave—which was unlikely—so they could get in.
It wasn’t until some time later that I managed to catch them at the Chelsea Inn. There they delivered a set of slick frenetic punk exploding with an energy knowing no bounds, producing so much joyous sweat the flood warning for Bristol seen earlier in the day online and making no sense at the time—the weather was fine—suddenly did in bounds. Continue reading
N. P. Ryan 