Album Reviews
Album Review: Bradford release ‘Bright Hours’: a magnificent follow-up to ‘Shouting Quietly’, 31 years on
SOME things change and some stay the same. Whereas before, with debut album Shouting Quietly, there was a car journey home from nearby Loughborough, Left-Legged Pineapple bag strewn on the floor, I pored over the lyrics typed onto the inside sleeve, studied who played what, did what, wrote what and where; anticipation building, found the …
Album Review: Loathe – The Things They Believe
This is an album Loathe have been threatening to make for a while, something more conceptual, akin to that of a film score; less Meshuggah, more David Lynch. The heavy, distorted guitars are absent for the duration of The Things They Believe. Instead, they are replaced by waves of otherworldly synths and more subtle instrumentation. …
ALBUM REVIEW: slowthai – TYRON
The funny thing about TYRON is how clearly slowthai intends towards something, but never quite approaches it. Nothing Great About Britain was excellent – not to mention very clear in its concept – and bought him considerable goodwill, but it may also have painted him into a corner. Tyron Frampton approaches things differently this time …
Album Review: The Actions unveil the luscious atmospheric ‘Flourish’
Bristol duo The Actions‘ display their home town trip hop roots adeptly in their new album ‘Flourish’, out now through Niteo Records. This album has a spacious expansive atmosphere with glitchy, sticky percussion, eclectic instrumentation and Marta Argenio’s voice a soft, silky breathless whisper floating across the surface. There is a rich luscious patena to …
ALBUM REVIEW: CAMERA – ‘Prosthuman’: the current Berlin motorik
SO, LET’S talk krautrock. In many ways, it’s all about the rhythm, isn’t it? Think Can; think Jaki Liebezeit, that perfect control, poise, underpinning. Motorik, propulsion, but also tremendous fills and patterning. Metronomic, relentless, the beating heart of the record. Berlin’s CAMERA have that. They have their own Jaki in the shape of the excellently …
ALBUM REVIEW: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound
The tricky thing about this Psychedelic Porn Crumpets album, particularly when stacked up against the likes of High Visceral {Part 1}, is that it feels like it has to be constantly in motion. When you hear a song early, it’s fresh. When you hear the same concept rehashed even two songs later, it feels stale. …
ALBUM REVIEW: Indigo Sparke – ‘echo’: a jaw-dropping country-folk debut
You can hear Indigo’s very essence shot right through echo. It’s never less, at any point, than extremely lovely; at many points its genuinely bloody stunning. You know when someone has that alchemical it, and boy: Indigo incontrovertibly does.
It’s not an album to have on in the background, because it’s far too arresting and enveloping, commanding. She’s royalty in waiting on the leftfield folk scene. Astonishing; buy
EP REVIEW: Tape Runs Out – ‘Ghost Fruit’: hail Cambridge’s new intelligent indiepop geniuses
I really, genuinely think Tape Runs Out may one day take a place in the pantheon of the proper eccentric, intelligent British pop genii – they can turn their hands in any direction they wish, know how to arrange a tune so it makes you sit bolt upright, aren’t afraid to push that tune in whichever stylistic direction it seems to demand; yet are also completely enthralled to the brilliance of a well-turned pop song. Brilliant, insouciant and intelligent
Album review: Alberteen’s sparkling analogue voyage of discovery ‘Lowenva’ is a refreshing beacon of light.
In ‘Lowenva’, Alberteen have created a mesmerising, organic album that crinkles with visceral instruments – melodic crunchy bass, pounding percussion, rumbling guitars, riffing horns and deep laconic cool vocals. It is a sound that seems to encapsulate the recurring nautical and natural themes in the album – deserted coastal towns, windswept beaches and pounding waves. …
News: Nic Dalton reissues brilliant and vibrant solo album Romolo for the first time in limited edition vinyl
There was a while when the capital of Australia – Canberra of course – punched way above its weight in terms of music – legendary bands like The Church, The Lighthouse Keepers, The Falling Joys, Youth Group and the Plunderers all made their way out of the remote sterile planned city to greater things in …