Chris Sawle, Author at Backseat Mafia

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NEWS: experimental composer and Cocteaus collaborator Harold Budd reported to have passed, aged 84

SAD NEWS this evening as reports began to circulate across social media that the poet, avant-garde composer and pianist Harold Budd, a progenitor of the modern ambient piano style, has…

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SEE: Jimi Tenor – ‘Small Things’: bright, brassy Afrofunk-pop is a winter tonic

JIMI TENOR, the Finnish producer with roots in the darker, industrial side of dance music way, waay back, has been on a hell of a pilgrim’s progress to where he…

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TRACK: Death By Unga Bunga – ‘Egocentric’: your new Nordic garage-punk idols

NORWEGIAN quintet Death By Unga Bunga have recently announced the release of new album, Heavy Male Insecurity, which will be out on Jansen Records on February 12th; and they’ve trained their sights on…

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TRACK: Maps – ‘Sleep Today’ (Go! Team remix): a grinsome tune to banish the winter blues

JAMES CHAPMAN, the South Midlands producer better known to lovers of a stonking good tune as Maps, has followed up his single from a month or so back, “Sleep Today”,…

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Music
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NEWS: Nick Cave pulls 2021 European tour

MORE sad news for all gig lovers – that’s pretty much all of us, right? – as Nick Cave has announced this afternoon that he’s cancelled his upcoming European and…

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ALBUM REVIEW: M. Ward – ‘Think Of You’: Portland guitar wonder seduces with Billie Holiday set

M. Ward's pulled off quite a neat trick here. Think Of You has many of the appurtenances of a seasonal album without quite being one. It could be M. Ward's best album in a good while, proving that all he really needs is some retro recording equipment and a guitar to be at his very best

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ALBUM REVIEW: Louis Philippe & The Night Mail – ‘Thunderclouds’: the blessed return of a baroque pop genius

FOOTBALL writer, baroque pop legend, in-house producer, literary collaborator: truly Philippe Auclair – known worldwide to an adoring fanbase as Louis Philippe (for it is, indeed, him) is the sort…

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ALBUM REVIEW: Heavenly – ‘A Bout De Heavenly’: seminal sevens compiled in time for Santa

Rolling down through Heavenly's career through the prism of the single, you can see what a great band they were at that seemingly most humble, but powerful and demotic of formats, all packed full of the goodness of proper indiepop

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ALBUM REVIEW: Late Night Final – ‘A Wonderful Hope’: Public Service man takes an ambient diversion

Public Service Broadcasting's J. Willgoose takes a glorious ambient diversion - pretty doesn't cover it

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SEE: Hiatus – ‘Arrival’: meditative deep grooves from Cyrus Shahrad

HIATUS, the London-based atmospheric electronics project of Cyrus Shahrad, has announced a new album, Distancer, for a mid-March release. The very first fruits of that project are with us now…

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