Keith Goldhanger throws together another impressive list of new names and new tunes that drifted this way during June 2025.
June 2025 seems to be the month when at least one of us begins questioning whether enough attention is being made at gigs. South Wales band Morn‘s debut release caught the attention recently when the twists, turns, multi vocal, thrill a second release, Modern Man caused one or two of us to sit up and make a note of to give this a few more listens until it became one of our favourite tunes of the month.
Just as plans were being made to catch a live show by Morn that it was discovered that footage of this band playing this song last April was discovered on that little device that we all can’t always keep in our pockets. The train of thought that evening would have been to record a snippet of this to revert back to sometime…or on this occasion, completely forget about. This is a fabulous tune that went to the top of the pile this month. Morn were great when seen live a couple of months ago but we forgot to tell you.
Going back twelve months, Cosmorat were mentioned during the annual Ceremony Festival held in Bedford last year. Catching them again this month was a delightful experience that made one of us agree with themselves. Yes, ‘Cosmorat, a new name to us … impress hugely with one of the strongest vocal performances heard today’ wasn’t exactly an in depth review but when one does promise themselves that a repeat performance will be experienced again one day it’s nice when it happens. These are the pros and cons of seeing fifteen bands in just one event and this bands music was received a lot more enthusiastically by one of us the second time. Something in the Rain would have been a new tune when first seen and was the certain standout song recently, however the bands more recent tune Stealing!!! seems to be being played a lot at the moment.
Cabbage front man Lee Broadbent brought his new outfit Gaol Bird to London for their second ever show this month. Despite the frontman mentioning his former band whilst telling those in attendance that we won’t be hearing any Cabbage tunes (we didn’t really expect any or ask for any Cabbage songs) proceeded to air Uber Capitalist Death Trade and Necroflat in the Palace alongside I Know Who Banksy Is and new tune Terrible that had caused one of us to drag us to the show in the first place.
Remember the art and novelty of the Mash up ? Mixing more than one tune on top of each other may not have caught on with the masses as much as some of us expected however when one pops it’s head over the parapet that grabs our attention it’s always worth encouraging.
Dazzle Monroe, bloke from Suffolk, played drums in pop combo Extreme Noise Terror and more recently Featherz threw this Sleaford Mods/Lena Lovich mash up ‘…for a laugh’ and as happens with any piece of music that stands out has been quickly distributed amongst friends of friends of friends until it landed here.
Splinter came to the attention of one of us thanks to a recent early evening show that the band played in June. One of us missed the bus due to spending too much time listening to this wonderful release by the band that had probably already played it by the time we got there. Another visit to catch a complete show will be made for sure. The London trio have a new album that came out this month. Get A Job went straight to the top of this months tunes before the song was over. It’s that good so make sure you give this one a spin before paying the band a visit yourselves if you haven’t already had the pleasure and in the meantime the new album will be added to the ever expanding list of music to trawl through.
This month has also provided us with three pieces of music by artists some of us have had an eye on for some time now….
Emily Breeze is an artist everyone needs to catch up with if the name is currently unfamiliar. Recent release Dating a Model is as good place to start before delving into past releases (Ordinary Life and Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl will convince you) and there’s a new album due out in July. Gigs are happening to coincide with the new album and at least one of us will certainly be there.
The same can be said of Essex superstar Scott Lavene whose recent release Cars became available this month as a teaser for forthcoming album Cars, Buses, Bedsits and Shops (due out in August). A huge UK tour starting at Glastonbury means there’s a good chance he could be appearing in a venue near you very soon.
One final thing about stuff that was enjoyed before being brushed to one to one side…’looking forward to hearing their stuff again sometime…’ was said about Ugly Ozo recently and our wishes came true this month thanks to the release from this Isle of Wight based artist titled Onto A Winner. a superb release from a band also added to the list of bands to visit again one day.
In fact, one or two of us will be seeing all these bands again sometime and will promise to take more notice in the future.
All these artists can be found as follows;
Morn – https://www.instagram.com/morn.band/
Cosmorat – https://www.instagram.com/thecosmorat/
Gaol Bird – https://www.instagram.com/thegaolbirds/
Dazzle Monroe – https://www.instagram.com/dazzlemonroefeatherz/
Splinter – https://www.instagram.com/splinter_gram/
Emily Breeze – https://www.instagram.com/emilybreeze66/
Scott Lavene – https://www.instagram.com/scottlavene/
Ugly Ozo – https://www.instagram.com/uglyozo
Words by Keith Goldhanger. More writing by Keith on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive. You can also find Keith on Facebook Instagram and Bluesky
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