Album Reviews
Album Review: the black watch releases the magnificent double album ‘For All The World’.
Spanning 21 luminescent tracks, the new double album ‘For All The World’ is a magnificent journey through the fertile imagination of John Andrew Frederick and his band the black watch. The common theme throughout is the ear for indelible catchy melodies, infused with a sparkling melancholia and shimmering instrumentation. Incredibly, it is the black watch’s …
Album Review: I Am Fya – ‘Homeland’: A future dub, avant pop, deep searching story that makes for vivid listening.
Manchester’s I Am Fya’s new audio-visual album ‘Homeland’ is a project that’s been evolving for some time. She swaggered into the electronic, avant-pop arena with the punchy ‘A Womxn’ debut in 2019, a dark dub, twitchy glitch, post-mod RnB drill down into socio-sexual dynamics. It was some announcement followed up by a string of forceful …
Album Review: New Mexico’s Tan Cologne beam in an extraterrestrial shimmering dream fugue with their new album ‘Unknown Beyond’
New Mexican duo Tan Cologne has just finished supporting the magnificent Trentemøller on their European tour, and they have now released their third studio album ‘Unknown Beyond’ via Labrador Records. ‘Unknown Beyond’ is less a collection of songs and more of an evolving dream state that takes you up into the skies and leaves you in a fugue. There has …
EP Review: Adelaide’s Oscar The Wild are a little ‘Blue’ as they release their epic second EP.
Kaurna/Adelaide’s Oscar The Wild deliver a vibrant, expressive brand of indie pop, threaded through with a steely spine and soaring melodies. They have just released their new EP entitled ‘Blue’ and it’s a refreshing collection of guitar driven tracks that sparkle and pop. Opening track ‘Roll with The Punches’ shines with an infectious pace and …
Album Review: Madalitso Band-‘Ma Gitala’: More pulsating, street band afrobeat from the unstoppable Malawian duo.
Obviously no-one has told the irrepressible Madalitso Band about the third album wobble. The Malawian roots duo, Yosefe Kalekeni and Yobu Maligwa, are a partnership who take everything in their stride, including their steep rise from years spent busking on the Lilongwe streets to delivering knock-out sets at recent Roskilde and WOMAD fests. Supported by …
Album Review: Ty Segall – Possession; the relentlessly creative Segall releases one of his best albums to date
Ty Segall’s Possession is a technicolor journey through the underbelly of modern America—psychedelic, melodic, and bursting with invention. His 16th album is one of his most sonically adventurous yet, moving effortlessly from gentle acoustic brushwork to brass-fueled psych-pop blowouts, stitched together with Segall’s uniquely off-kilter charm. It’s an album that invites you in with sweet melodies and …
Album Review: Tavare-‘Too Small To Be So High’: A delicate and solemn slow core triumph.
Trying to keep track of Canadian experimental guitarist and composer Aidan Baker’s recorded output since his first release in 2000 is an almost impossible challenge. The Discogs bible lists around 170 albums under his name and that’s not including the stuff he’s created as part of bands like Arc and Nadja. Baker has become a …
Album Review: Pulp gives us ‘More’ – returning with an aged beauty and graceful pose but the same louche insouciance we missed.
In ‘More’, Pulp return not with a bang but with a graceful, knowing nod – like old friends who’ve learned that the quietest whispers can sometimes carry the heaviest truths. It’s a record suffused with a poignant maturity, and yet it dances with all the absurd, anxious glamour that has always made Pulp more than …
Album Review: Sparks are ‘MAD!’ and their enduring legacy is safe.
In the realm of art-pop, few acts have maintained the level of inventive audacity that Sparks have exhibited over their five-decade career. With their 28th studio album, MAD!, the Mael brothers—Ron and Russell—continue to defy expectations, offering a record that is as unpredictable as it is exhilarating. ‘MAD!’ unfolds like a sonic kaleidoscope, blending genres …
Album Reviews: Nadah El Shazly -‘Laini Tani’: The evocative voice of Cairo’s leftfield scene delivers a soul-searching stunner.
Where is Egyptian-born, Montreal-based producer, vocalist, composer, Nadah El Shazly likely to be heading with her second solo album ‘Laini Tani’ (out now on One Little Independent)? From a starting point in the Egyptian capital’s only Misfits cover band to a debut album, ‘Ahwar’ which placed her at the centre of the Cairo leftfield scene, …