Album Reviews
Album: Matt Berry – Phantom Birds
Matt Berry’s debut album on Acid Jazz, Witchazel, included prog gems and a McCartney-featuring track; since then he’s released well-received albums like The Small Hours and Television Themes. New album Phantom Birds is no different to previous marvels, confounding expectations once more. This sees a simpler sound, with Berry accompanied only by pedal steel guitarist …
Say Psych: Album Review: The Asteroid No. 4 – Northern Songs
Psychedelic rock legends The Asteroid No.4 will release their new album Northern Songs this Friday through a partnership with UK-based Cardinal Fuzz Records and Portland’s Little Cloud Records. Stalwarts of the modern ‘psych’ genre, they are known for their prolific discography of reverb-drenched recordings and liquid-projected live performances. With a sound all their own and neo-psychedelic / shoegaze leanings, they are often compared to acts …
SORBET – Life Variations EP
SORBET is the new project from drummer and producer Chris W Ryan; his debut EP under the SORBET name, Life Variations, is a navigation through the key stages of life over three tracks in a suite of more than 20 minutes. Ryan states that the three tracks are borne from the same musical seed: “Every …
Album Review: A. Swayze and the Ghosts release the brilliant debut album ‘Paid Salvation’
Emerging from Hobart at the very edge of the settled world, A. Swayze and the Ghosts (AS&TG) are loud, noisy, abrasive, shouty, opinionated and – did I say loud? They are also, somewhat antithetically, the purveyors of some of the greatest intelligent pop songs around. ‘Paid Salvation’, their new album is a triumph – full …
ALBUM REVIEW: Osees – ‘Protean Threat’: John Dwyer trips us further into prog-tinged fuzz garage
JOHN DWYER’S Osees. I mean, they’re an absolute force of nature; a vivacious, fiery, disciplined, fun, piledriving force. If you’ve never seen them, by jiminy you need to: kinda meh at Vampire Weekend on the main stage, I wandered into their second-stage headline set at End of the Road in 2018 and stopped dead. Absolutely …
Album: Schlammpeitziger – Ein Weltleck in der Echokammer
Manifesting as the 10th record of multi-faceted illustrator, musician and performance artist Schlammpeitziger, following 2018’s Damenbartblick auf Pregnant Hill (Bureau B), this new album is as elusively innovative as his 1992 beginnings. Jo Zimmerman, the figure behind Schlammpeitziger, gained great renown in making impeccably sophisticated, serene lo-fi krautronica. This burgeoning influence upon music and culture …
EP REVIEW: HAAi – ‘Put Your Head Above The Parakeets’: a quartet of hard future tronica floor-fillers
HAAi is the future tronica smithy of London-based, Australian-born sound forger Teneil Throssell. She’s taken a meandering journey to become who she is musically now, moving through a myriad of scenes and influences in order to fashion the sound she’s arrived at for Mute. A teenage guitarist with a vision of where she wanted to …
ALBUM REVIEW: El Ten Eleven – ‘Tautology’: ambitious, thrilling post-rock triple set from LA duo
YOU have to admire the scope and ambition of Los Angeles postrock duo El Ten Eleven, who are about to release their eighth full-length LP, Tautology, on September 18th. You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck. They’ve been releasing it bit by bit in the digital world for months now: Tautology I …
ALBUM REVIEW: Arch Garrison – ‘The Bitter Lay’: a psychedelic folk song of the Wiltshire downs
ARCH GARRISON is, in some ways, the flipside of the coin to Craig Fortnam’s excellent, self-styled alternative chamber group North Sea Radio Orchestra. But it’d be wrong to think of them as the ‘other’ band; although perhaps it’s the latter outfit who claim the higher profile, they’re both remarkably potent musical creations. North Sea Radio …
ALBUM REVIEW: Junkboy – ‘Sovereign Sky’: fraternal pastoral-psych excellence finally gains a proper issue
ONCE you’ve taken a listen to Junkboy’s Sovereign Sky – out on Fretsore on September 25th – you’ll have reason to thank label boss Ian Sephton. He signed the band, at whose heart are brothers Mik and Rich Hanscomb, and released their rather lovely album from last year: the baroque acoustic wondrousness of Trains, Trees, …