New releases dropped into Venue’s intray this week include Hitchin’s The Senates and Shifting Buffalo.

Mark Holt and X-Certs bandmate Ian Kinsley have collaborated to create debut Senates album, Still Waiting For A Crisis? – a gallivant from The Ramonesy pop rocking of Simple Truth to the sweet simplicity of I Didn’t Catch Your Name and the Roger Walter’s inspired Out Of Nothing.

And it’s been a long time in the coming – the friends reformed their 80s band of the same name to mark their 50th birthdays.

“My best mate and I are have always been into writing, recording and performing and for our birthdays we decided to record and release a CD. After three years of writing and recording we have done it.”

Check out their video to Simple Truth on YouTube and other tracks on www.facebook.com/thesenate.uk

Shifting Buffalo aka Ben Fuller releases his new single Step By Step this month.

The multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter has been writing and recording from over 25 years, with an intense way of coming up with songs.

“The Shifting Buffalo came into existence in 2005, but it was in 2007 that things really began to take off when I joined an immersion composition society group known as Burning Lodge – the object of which is to regularly write music solidly for a 12-hour session, with the aim of producing up to 20 new songs at a time.”

A selection of the hundreds of songs he’s come up formed EP Wrong! (2008) and debut album Carpe Diem, Baby (2011) – and now Step By Step, in a hard to pin down style Ben calls post-prog-indie-folk-pop-rock.

The single is available from iTunes and Amazon from July 23, and look out for him live at GoatFest in Codicote in August.