Album Reviews
ALBUM REVIEW: Robbie & Mona – ‘EW’
The album is a hypnotic work of dreamscape electronica that prompts comparisons with The XX and James Blake, now while those may be more mainstream artists, the ambition of this partnership cannot be overstated and the ability to deliver on this level is both mesmeric and entrancing
Album review: The Sonder Bombs – Clothbound
The zest that comes through the speakers throughout this album is paramount to its success. It’s a joy to listen to. Bear witness to a band harnessing the power of live performance into an album of real skill and capability
Album Review: Black Country, New Road- For the first Time
FURNISHING a burgeoning buzz from just two singles – albeit uniquely abrasive, jazz/noise flecked singles- and a feverish clamour for their live shows, Cambridge’s Black Country, New Road quickly set themselves apart from both their contemporaries. The band were also praised as “the best band in the world” by The Quietus. Again, within just two …
ALBUM REVIEW: Madlib – ‘Sound Ancestors’: beats genii’s wide-eyed, wide-open odyssey
Madlib’s Sound Ancestors, produced by Four Tet, is the beats genii’s wide-eyed, wide-open odyssey. Like a fractal pattern, the deeper you focus and the more you pull out, the more you see
Album Review: Black Pistol Fire Release their best album to date – Look Alive
Originally from Toronto but now based in Texas, Black Pistol Fire are a two-man band consisting of vocalist/guitarist Kevin McKeown and drummer/bass synth player Eric Owen. After spending almost a decade building a dedicated fanbase and refining their singular two-man approach, the band are set to release the next chapter with their new album ‘Look …
Album Review: The Notwist – Vertigo Days
I’ve been quiet on this thing lately, and reviewing The Notwist’s new record Vertigo Days was as close to a perfect step back into the game as I could have asked for. It’s the band’s first album in 6 busy years…and when they say busy they mean really busy- from scoring films to running a …
ALBUM REVIEW: Bill Jr. Jr. – Homebody
A first suprise for 2021 from a Vancouver-based indie-folk-rock project
ALBUM REVIEW: Cheap Meat – People Are the Worst’
Cheap Meat are, the promotional material asserts, back with their debut album, ‘People Are The Worst’, released 29 January 2021 via Jerk Store Records. Their return follows a four-year hiatus between a 2016 EP, ‘The Parts That Show’ and December 2020’s ‘Marigold Moon’ single (included here), in which Ross Drummond (vocals and guitar), Matt Rebeiro …
Album Review: Ngozi Family – ‘45,000 Volts’ (reissue)
At times it’s hard to keep tabs on the overflowing treasure chest of re-issues from the ever-giving seventies African rock and funk scenes. But here is one gem that shouldn’t be missed- it’s got pedigree, it’s got provenance but more importantly it’s a blast. Originally released in 1977 Ngozi Family’s ’45,000 Volts’ was a sharp …
Album Review: Kieran Mahon – Eternal Return
The latest from St. Leonard’s prime manipulator of drones, loops, and echoes uses adeptly generated, cyclical synth-komische to delve into Mahon’s newly realised perspective upon the notion of ‘Eternal Return’ and everlasting life. Mahon elucidates on this realisation, saying that rather than “seeing the prospect of living life over, unknowingly, on an endless loop as …