Chris Sawle, Author at Backseat Mafia

TRACK: Hen Ogledd – ‘Trouble’: further glorious wonkpop from Richard Dawson’s quartet

WHAT started as a side-project for Newcastle’s premiere exponent of passionate out- and wyrd-folk, Richard Dawson, to find an outlet for other musical stylings, has come to take on a…

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TRACK: Black Marble – ‘Johnny and Mary’: Robert Palmer gets the lofi synth look

EVERYONE loves a cover version, there can be no argument there; what do they do with the song? Do they tread carefully and deferentially; do they take a sledgehammer to…

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ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler – ‘Con’: Tangerine Dream man’s ’78 LP gets first UK issue

Tangerine Dream founder's 1978 LP of synthy motorik receives its first UK issue: spacious, eerie and polyrhythmic by turns

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ALBUM REVIEW: Fair Mothers – ‘In Monochrome’: marrow-deep dark-folk truth and nuance

THE OCCULT poet, painter and writer Ithell Colqohoun advanced the premise in her book, The Living Stones of Cornwall, that your local geology births you as much as nurture and…

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TRACK: 0171 – ‘Photograph’: yearning Hackney synthpop

COMING at you out of Hackney – that dialling-code epithet giving away their inner London roots- synth-pop duo Joe Bedell-Brill and Georgie Hoare, who record as 0171, have shared their…

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ALBUM REVIEW: GLOK – ‘Dissident Remixed’: Andy Bell’s tronica alter-ego gets a comprehensive rerub

OUT OF all the four members of Ride – Mark, Andy, Loz and Steve, it’s hands down Andy who’s had the most varied and viable extra-curricular activities. There was Hurricane…

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ALBUM REVIEW: El Goodo – ‘Zombie’: at the corner of Haight and (Mountain Ash)bury

SOMEWHERE in the Welsh village of Resolven, deep in the Vale of Neath, there is a tap. As with all such fonts, miles of pipes lead the one end to…

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SEE: Jorja Smith – ‘By Any Means’: passionate civil rights Britsoul

UK singer-songwriter Jorja Smith has shared the lyric video for a slow, heartfelt tale of empowerment,“By Any Means”, in which she brings her graceful, smokey soul tones to a stripped-back…

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TRACK: Andy Shauf – ‘Judy’: low-key baroque folk brilliance

HE’S one of those gorgeous, nuanced, baroque-pop songwriters we could all do with spending a lot more time with, is Andy Shauf. Like fellow countryman Patrick Watson, he has this…

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SEE: Daniel Blumberg – ‘On & On & On & On & On’: pushing songcraft into new shapes

THERE’S really no point in gathering together fancy wordsmithery here: if you like your music tending towards to the acoustic auteur with a personal vision, an artist who’s not necessarily…

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