Suffering Jukebox

This morning's episode features an interview with Grace Stevenson aka Rebel Yell. Grace has just released the second edition of her self-published zine Our Friends Electric, which offers an accessible insight into the world of electronic music through interviews with its creators. More information about Our Friends Electric can be found here https://rebelyellmusic.bigcartel.com/product/our-friends-electric-ii-physical-copy-pre-order and Grace's music can be accessed and purchased here https://rebelyellrebelyell.bandcamp.com/music 

Nick's Pick of the Week is Bleak Squad's Strange Love, which will be released this Friday, August 22nd, in all the usual places, or purchase it here https://bleaksquad.bandcamp.com/album/strange-love and my review can be read below.

Bleak Squad: Strange Love (Poison City)

Release Date: 22nd August 2025

According to the press release, Bleak Squad’s inception lies within a series of poolside phone conversations between Marty Brown —the drummer from Art of Fighting— and several of Melbourne’s musical luminaries. Brown was frustrated that he wasn’t playing drums as regularly as he liked, so he took it upon himself to phone a few friends he thought would mesh well as a band. Enter Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and Mick Turner (Dirty Three and Mess Esque), all of whom saw a method in his madness and agreed to get together to test their sonic chemistry.

Almost immediately, the quartet clicked, bouncing ideas off each other and developing the basic structures of —what would become— Strange Love at Melbourne’s Head Gap Studios. Each member of the group already had a lifelong history of playing in bands and knew how to service a song; crucially, when to step forward and when to hold back. Everybody involved brought something different and unique to the table: Turner’s intricate, spider-like guitar lines, Adalita’s rock ’n’ roll swagger, Harvey’s knack for arranging and Brown’s steady beat. Together, these components equate to an album that is as much a sum of its parts as it is something new altogether.

Initially, Bleak Squad alerted the public to their existence through a gradual drip feed of singles, beginning with the surprise drop of Everything Must Change, a fitting introduction, for it contains all the elements one would expect from this crew of seasoned songwriters. A little post-punk, a little post-rock and everything in between, Everything Must Change, on its arrival, indicated that Bleak Squad weren’t pulling any punches. Lost My Head and Blue Signs soon followed, further proof of Bleak Squad’s expansive palette, with the latter —a mournful, somber ballad—proving particularly interesting.

Single aside, Safe As Houses is another mellow track that is predominantly propelled by Turner’s inimitable playing style, whilst title track Strange Love provides a counterpoint with its 4/4 beat and almost bluesy verse. Final track, Ghost Of The Bad Humour Man, saves the best for last and captures the band at the peak of their strangeness. An unusual song that lacks a definable verse or chorus, it harks back to Harvey’s late 80s and early 90s explorations with The Bad Seeds.

As an album, Strange Love works in the same way that —as a band— Bleak Squad works, because they play to their strengths. They aren’t breaking any new ground, so to speak, but they are fucking with formula enough to keep things interesting. Strange Love will appeal instantly to a certain type of music fan who is aware of the sum of the group’s parts and their respective musical pedigrees, whilst those not so aware will still find plenty to appreciate. Strange Love may not be as odd as its title suggests, but it is an enigmatic and alluring record that reveals more and more with each repeat listen.

NIck Stephan