Swindon’s biggest indie pop Talk In Code are working alongside Underground, based on Commercial Road in Swindon, our local live music venue to run a “Swindon Rocks for Children In Need” live music charity event on Saturday 4th November.
With four local bands on the bill (Talk In Code, Kotonic, Mirrored Faces and The Dirty Smooth) this promises to be a fantastic celebration of the best original music from Swindon and a fabulous charity fundraiser for Children In Need.
Talk in Code at the Fulltone Festival. Image Gail Foster
Tickets are just £7.00 from https://www.seetickets.com/tour/swindon-rocks-for-children-in-need and everyone will receive a free raffle ticket on entry for our big Children In Need raffle with some amazing prizes from Swindon Town FC, Swindon Wildcats, STEAM Museum Swindon and many local businesses who have pledged their support. Local businesses who wish to donate a raffle prize may contact lindsey@talkincode.co.uk
Save the date! Saturday 4th November and get your tickets now to support Children In Need and Swindon’s local original music scene!
A new rocking power-punch from Malmesbury, Minety and Cirencester based The Dirty Smooth…
As an Eastender who spent most of his adult life in Essex, my dad had exceptional directional sense, once recalling roads in Germany he travelled on a school trip decades later, but put him in Kent and, for some reason, he was lost. Since I’m an Essex boy living in Wiltshire all my adult life, seems I’ve replaced Kent for Gloucestershire. You only need to get me near the border, north of Chippenham, west of Wotton Bassett, and I’ve completely lost my bearings; I’m fuzzy on the Fossway, air-brained by the Air Balloon Roundabout.
I wonder if it’s this, or simply our county’s market town live music circuits appear insular at times, that, other than agricultural hip hopper Corky, and Minety Music Festival, a venerable annual event honouring local music, about exhausts my knowledge on the subject; but one thing I do know about music in that area is, The Dirty Smooth rock, absolutely.
This slick, groove-pop-rock four-piece blew my mind with the single Seed to the Spark, a few years ago. A power-pop punch with rhythmic grooves and robust vocal hooks, the type, with its subtle balance of male to female vocals, makes one think someone slapped Deacon Blue in the chops and threatened, “now give us something that really rocks!”
Tomorrow, March 11th, sees them release a new single, Black Jack City, of which I was expecting something along similar lines, which would be no bad thing. But it has a rockier edge, retrospective of soft metal moments, aching of Guns & Roses, yet sounding as fresh and exciting as the previous tune.
A three-minute explosion of drums and guitar driving blues-rock, with added harmonica, apt for impending spring, windows wound down and hitting the road. If this pounder is Paradise City reborn, it comes up for air just once, for a “Whoa!” break, and then just keeps giving.
It’s Road House in tune, air-kickingly optimistic and titillating. Immediately anthemic, this teaser track from an upcoming album, Running From the Radar, is a tune which drip-dries you to crave more, one reason why The Dirty Smooth are no strangers to the festival circuit, helping set up aforementioned Minety festival, which was shortlisted at the UK Festival Awards for Best New Festival category.
Their debut EP Rise awarded them with sell-out local shows and radio interviews, this truly expands their horizons, and coupled with upcoming North Wiltshire acts, such as Swindon-based Talk in Code, and SexJazz, there’s a real feel-good factored revitalisation for punchy pop-rock, something we must invite further south of the county, judging on the merit of Black Jack City alone.
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That moment after a message from a local band, when you click on their Facebook page to find eleven friends already “like” them, and not one of them told you! Yeah, I’m talking, but I ain’t saying anything new; does everyone know Malmsbury’s The Dirty Smooth, except me?!
If not, you should. Since their debut single five years ago, The Dirty Smooth are no strangers to the festival circuit, gaining a reputation for playing original, anthemic pop songs. On top of numerous live appearances, they helped organise the Minety Music Festival in 2017. Shortlisted at the UK Festival Awards it has become a well-established festival, hosting acts like Toploader, Republica and Chesney Hawkes. Over the past two years, but setback by lockdown, they’ve been working towards a forthcoming album, Running From The Radar, due to be released in February. They’ve a very worthy teaser from it, a single you should check out, Seed To The Spark; it’s certainly convinced me.
With a sonic booming bass intro, it’s as it suggests on the tin; dirty. Yet it’s got that perfect pop blend in melody, which draws in many influences. Central vocal hooks of eighties rock, punky attitude, but beguiling backing female vocals and funky rhythmic grooves of soul-related pop, ah, the smooth part. I’m left thinking if Simple Minds met Deacon Blue, or Roxette. Though I’m contemplating they met today, for nothing is left completely to retrospection with The Dirty Smooth, there’s vibrant freshness to the sound too. Thing is, it’s aching with confidence and undoubtedly brewing with potential. The ingredients are all there and being unified by some musical Michelin star chefs, who clearly love their cuisine.
Few local bands aim for the stadium sound, knowing a pub circuit is more workable. Here, as with Swindon’s Talk in Code, is something which needs some big stage festival airing, it has that range, it has that wide appeal. As with the apt band name, Dirty and Smooth righty word their single, you get the sensation this is far from their opus-magnum, for if it is just a seed to a spark you’ll want to be there when that bomb drops.
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