Never Exhale’ is the sound of a band that hasn’t stopped for a breath. DITZ have toured relentlessly since the release of their first album ‘The Great Regression’ and even before that, travelling at least 100 days a year since COVID. The songs that form their newest offering were written across Europe, often on off days and in borrowed rehearsal rooms just to break up the long drives. It could be said that the band treat recording and release of music as an afterthought. Often playing songs live years before their release, tweaking them as they go. The songs on the final record may change before they are ever heard as part of the album. ‘Never Exhale’ was largely recorded at Holy Mountain studios in London during a freezing cold January. The process was fraught with obstacles. The original plan, to go and record in Rhode Island, was abandoned when DITZ were offered a support tour with IDLES, although the album was still mixed by the originally intended engineer, Seth Manchester (Model/Actriz, Lingua Ignota, Big Brave). The result is an album hardened by the pressure of its own making. Laboured but not loved. The album themes reveal themselves more on further listens. The opening gambit ‘Taxi Man’ is an exploration into what it would be like to weigh up your impact of the world. The eponymous taxi man could be seen as a St Peter type figure, or like Charon, ferrying the dead into the underworld. Further on the album explores themes of unnecessary hatred and division, ‘Space/Smile’ and ‘It smells like something died in here’, aging, ‘Senor Siniestro’ and the separation of the physical from reality, ‘The Body As A Structure’. It’s political, but ultimately personal. More Genet or Kafka than Orwell or Huxley. Sonically the album has its roots in the usual DITZ influences, classic noise rock such as The Jesus Lizard or Shellac, or the obtuse post punk of the Fall, but also brings in fresh influences. The closing track ‘Britney’ could be compared to Radiohead or Mogwai. Overall, the album is a clear development from their first effort. A sign of things to come.

San Francisco post-punk band Strange Cities recently released their full length album, Moments Stolen. Strange Cities’ sound reflects the foggy, jagged, dystopian landscape that inspired their name. Whether stitching up pieces of a broken past or reflecting on an unknown future, their music skirts the fringe of noise and nihilism, melodic and melancholic, tragedies and trajectories. A post-post-punk if you will. Known for their powerful and energetic live performances, the band has been able to make some headway locally as well as nationally and even internationally by their inclusion on the roster of Rocky Road Touring, an independent booking agency. They opened for Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel in several US cities and more recently for the legendary Sisters of Mercy, playing sold out shows with them at the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas and the Hollywood Palladium. They were able to catch the ear of drummer Steve “Smiley” Bernard, formerly of Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros and currently with Archive and The Alarm, who invited them to England to record most of an album at his Sunshine Corner Studio. The album is streaming now everywhere.