John Parry, Author at Backseat Mafia

Album Review: Whitney K –’Bubble’ : Hard-won songs ringing with indie pop sharpness and country rock twang.

Canadian singer-songwriter Konner Whitney aka Whitney K is keeping that hardcore troubadour tradition alive and still kicking up the rubble. After releasing three mighty slices of his raw, country rock…

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Track/Video : Rising São Paulo songsmith Sessa previews upcoming album with the blissed out bossa-funk of Vale a Pena.

It’s been a long wait for São Paulo songsmith Sessa’s follow up to 2022’s sultry and succulent ‘Estrela Acesa’ album. That record, all cosmic haziness wrapped in the soft power…

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Album Review: Blank For.ms – ‘After The Town Was Swept Away’ : Subtle but significant experimental downtempo from the New York based electronic musician.

It’s been a decade since Brooklyn-based Tyler Gilmore, aka Blank For.ms followed his musical intuition and shifted from the world of big band jazz composition and ensemble arrangements to focus…

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Album Review : Gwenifer Raymond-‘Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark’ : Primitive guitar thrillingly taken widescreen and cosmic.

It’s difficult to make a personal imprint on solo instrumental music but Brighton-based, Welsh acoustic guitarist Gwenifer Raymond continues to make an impression with every step she takes. Opening up…

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Album Review: Rún’s exhilarating self-titled debut – an alchemic forging of psychedelic doom and dark folk.

The darker hues of metal, folk and other musics enticingly converge on the self-titled album from new Irish trio Rún, released by those perennial psych-rock discoverers at Rocket Recordings. A…

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Album Review: Fantuzzi – ‘An Open Heart’ : Re-issue of the Woodstock visionary’s absorbing seventies debut.

Following on from the exquisite folk-rock curio ‘Stargazer’ by Shelagh McDonald, DJ and selector Oz Adams’ Different Strokes For Different Folks label brings more crate diggers’ grail with ‘An Open…

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Album Review: Prefaces – ‘Acqua Marina’: Cinematic surf rock and dream-state instrumentals from the singular Beirut trio.

If you thought the limits of surf-rock had been reached by Gitkin or Ribot or Khruangbin then the Beirut trio Prefaces have other ideas. Formed around the mercurial and prolific…

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Track/Video : Hip Hop duo JED & Kavzad offer up new vid “COME&GO” from their spikey debut album ‘BROKEN GLASS’.

Brighton may be best known musically as an indie outpost but fizzing around the fringes there’s some potent R ‘n B meets garage meets hip-hop alchemy going on. Step up…

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Album Review: Fabia Mantwill Orchestra – IN.SIGHT : Expansive big band jazz packed with invention, melody and sonic lushness.

For any composer the jazz orchestra has always been about much more than expanding the soundscape, it represents a leap of faith where artists dare their own capabilities and imagine…

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Album Review: Yesterday’s Princess – ‘Tomorrow’s Yearning’: Library music influenced duo deliver a brisk, fresh debut set of soul-jazz teasers.

Bringing something new to the table where Library music sits as the prime influence is difficult but Swedish producers Fredrik Bergsten and Marcus Larsson might be onto something with their…

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