For just over a year, Dermabrasion have peddled their fleshy post-punk in and around their home town of Toronto, with a deceptively ferocious live show that has landed them supporting slots for the likes of Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, Special Interest, Pixel Grip, Nox Novacula and Front 242’s Patrick Codenys. The duo 2021 demo EP Lunate marked a return to form for members Adam Bernhardt and Kat McGouran, who started writing and performing together in 2015 with defunct Toronto punk band WLMRT. The five tracks on Lunate with a low-fi production that smacks of early Sisters of Mercy recordings offered only a haunting, shadowy outline of what the pair now bring forward with their full-length debut, Pain Behaviour. Released on Toronto-based Hand Drawn Dracula, Pain Behaviour pieces together a collection of influences reflecting the years both musicians have spent skulking around their city’s nightlife. Produced by Josh Korody (Fucked Up, Nailbiter, Breeze, Beliefs, Vallens) and mastered by Noah Mintz, Pain Behaviour completes the baleful statement Dermabrasion first uttered with Lunate. Korody’s experience with electronic music helped hone the band’s sound to a menacing edge they call “death rock and roll,” swinging equally in the directions of first wave and contemporary post-punk, industrial, NWOBHM and meathead rock.

Mac/Corlevich is an Italian duo born from the encounter between Davide Corlevich and Cristiano Mecchi, two musicians from Verona with different musical backgrounds converging into a new project. Corlevich has one foot in the world of classical guitar and constant artistic activity in this field but has always explored very different genres with bands like Anteo and Galaverna, accumulating extensive live and studio experience. Mecchi, an expressive singer and versatile drummer, has been part of many bands associated with the rock and underground scene, such asneXus,3tons,Poseydon,Supergonzo, and Oui The North, with numerous recordings and hundreds of concerts throughout Italy. A successful fusion of experiences and complementary talents. Drawing from folk, Americana, country, and grunge, Mac/Corlevich distil these sounds and blends them, embracing a sensibility free from nostalgia but infused with intensity. Rain Or Shine, their debut album out for XO La Factory on May 10th, combines those two sonic worlds in an intense and authentic journey that smells of America.

Multi-instrumentalist Eric Loveland Heath, better known as E.L. Heath, is a songwriter from the borderlands of Shropshire and Powys. Founder of Plenty Wenlock Records, member of Wayside and Woodland Recordings and occasionally affiliated with epic45, he has six album and many singles and EPs under his belt, mostly linked to the nature surrounding him, the Shropshire countryside and its quiet villages. Back in 2013 his Welsh language psychedelic pop album Tŷ was named album of the week on both BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Foyle. His return to Wayside and Woodland is called Cambrian, a collection of songs inspired by the scenic Cambrian Coast Railway line (Llinell y Cambrian). The route has been a constant though much of Heath’s life, often ferrying him to and from the seaside or hearing the sound of its trains crossing the other side of the valley from his home. Through the years Heath observed how its route leaves the narrow valleys of mid-wales and sweeps out onto the seemingly endless curve of Cardigan Bay, or watched the paling lights of its trains melt into the horizon from the platforms of rural stations. Heath had planned initially to write about the experiences of journeying on it, the lives of the people who live along its reach. The trains which operate on this route, the soon to be retired Class 158 DMUs, have been a steady and unchanging presence throughout his adult life. A sound and sight so familiar to him and many others will soon be just a memory.