TRACK: Jim Clements – Not a Lot of Blood
Hugely under-heralded Canadian songwriter Jim Clements issues the fourth of his highly occasional albums -A Failure – next month. Not A Lot of Blood is the first track released to the world. Typically, the wan prettiness of the tune drapes a light veil over a smart and ruefully humorous lyric. It’s a fine song but, …
Album Review: Battery Operated Orchestra – Snare
Battery Operated Orchestra might hail from Brighton but, in a previous incarnation as Katsen, they emerged on Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation. Which seemed very appropriate even then given the quality of their Kraftwerk-inspired synthpop, which would never have been out of place in the Steel City at any time over the last 30-odd years. Now …
Album Review: Modern Studies – Welcome Strangers
Modern Studies’ first album was a lovely pastoral piece of folk-pop, built up around the sound of an old harmonium. Since then seemingly every hipster-Adam-Boyle-type has got themsleves a harmonium, and so it’s good to hear Modern Studies filling out their sound more. The vibe is still relatively downbeat, but trombones and strings are more …
Track: Celestial North – Illuminate Yourself
One song at a time, Celestial North is slowly quietly building a lovely collection of heart-liftingly elegiac and pastoral indie-rock tunes. Illuminate Yourself is the third of them and well worth a listen. Find it and its equally ace predecessors (Winter Circle and Hey Völva) at Bandcamp
Album Review: christian fitness – Nuance-the Musical
Andy Falkous seems to be immune to the law of diminishing returns. Nuance -The Musical is the fifth of his christian fitness outpourings. Interleaved with Future of the Left albums, that’s a lot of music in the last few years. Practice seems to be making perfect though -both of his guises have been going from …
Album Review: Adam Stafford – Fire Behind The Curtain
Oh bollocks. I lack the vocabulary to do justice to this record. Any knowledge of minimalism I have is, well, minimal. That BBC4 documentary a few weeks back was enough to whet the appetite and draw out the musical and historical threads between things instinctively liked over the years. From the more direct lines running …
Live Review: Handsome Family – Plug Sheffield 19.03.2018
Poor Rennie Sparks. Snowed in the previous day at a carvery somewhere outside Barnsley, only to find that the rearranged gig was in Britain’s coldest venue. She shuffled onstage a good 15 minutes ahead of Brett and the others, to plug in an electric heater and stand folornly defrosting in her emergency purchase Asda coat …
Track: Ryley Walker – Telluride Speed
Telluride Speed is a track from Ryley Walker’s second album Deafman Glance which is out on 18th May and edges his anti-folk strumming to a jazzier place. You can order it here
Track: Josh Rouse – Salton Sea
Salton Sea is the third track to be trailed off Josh Rouse’s forthcoming album Love In The Modern Age due out on 13th April [order here]. Billed as 80s influenced, it uses smooth synths to evoke the more well-ironed, crisp-shirted troubadours of that decade. UK & Ireland tour dates Apr 24 The Lantern Bristol Apr …
Track: Stephen James Adams and the French Drops – Bad Apples, plus album and tour news
The rather ace Stephen James Adams has recruited a new band to back his wearily tuneful songwriting. His first collaboration with the French Drops will see the light of day with an album Virtue Signals and tour at the beginning of May. The first song emerging from the album – Bad Apples – can be …