John Parry, Author at Backseat Mafia

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…

View Post

View Post

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…

View Post

View Post

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…

View Post

View Post

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…

View Post

View Post

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…

View Post

View Post

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…

View Post

View Post

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…

View Post

View Post

Track/Video: Montreal minstrel poet Whitney K previews anticipated new album ‘Bubble’ with the warm, waltzing ‘Jolene’.

Modern day troubadour, Canadian singer-songwriter Konner Whitney aka Whitney K is on the move. After releasing three mighty slices of his raw, country rock poeticism for Bologna’s Maple Death Records,…

View Post

View Post

Track/Video: RAKEL, an emerging new voice from Reykjavík announces her debut album with the softly powerful ‘Rescue Remedy’.

Pianist/composer Ólafur Arnalds forward thinking OPIA project, part performance festival, part label, part community builder, is making a habit of bringing illusive talents out into the wider spotlight. You might…

View Post

View Post

Album Review: Wolfgang Pérez-‘Só Ouço’: Bringing a new avant-pop, no-wave edge to MPB lushness.

Chance happenings sometimes take music to the right place. For Spanish-German, Cologne-based singer-songwriter/arranger Wolfgang Pérez that place is his new succulent album ‘Só Ouço’ out now via Hive Mind Records.…

View Post

Pages