Album Reviews
Album review: Mint Julep – ‘In A Deep and Dreamless Sleep’: kaleidoscopic and dreamy shoegaze pop
FOLLOWING on from 2019’s sumptuous release Stray Fantasies, the duo of Hollie and Keith Kenniff return with a kaleidoscopic and dreamy shoegaze pop venture that is at times an extension of the previous album and yet also a progression of the creative partnership. From the album opener, “A Rising Sun”, this is not merely a collection …
Album review: New Bums – ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’: Ben and Donovan reveal an unexpected treat
Last Time I Saw I Grace reveals more depth than the two single drops really hinted it contained; yeah sure, there’s cracking moments of that raggedy-assness, but the run of wider-screen psych-country and other tracks are deft and prettily arranged, less … excellently thrown down than you might expect. It probably isn’t the kind of album that throws you back against the wall at some party downtown for a ruby-red lipped snog; but it very much is the kind of album you end up on a spontaneous road trip with, or hanging with on a rainy Sunday, and realised you had deep feelings for all along.
Say Psych: Album Review: Tren Go! Soundsystem & Ornamental – Assessment
Tren Go! Sound System is a guitar, loop and fx driven one-man-band psychedelia. The steel driving man behind this locomotive is Pedro Pestana (10 000 Russos and Talea Jacta) who started this journey on train tracks back in 2006. Ornamental is the alter ego of Sidney Jaffe is producing and performing music since 2013. The …
Album review: Lake Street Dive delight with ‘Obviously’
HYPOTHETICALLY speaking, we were all waiting for this album to drop. Well, I was at least. Ever since I heard the now-viral acoustic cover of Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back’ on YouTube , I’ve been following Lake Street Dive (along with their side projects, such as Rachael and Vilray) with great admiration. They are …
Album Review: Black Honey – ‘Written & Directed’: a masterclass in vintage nostalgia
Written & Directed is an absolute masterclass in vintage nostalgia without it being cheesy. Black Honey are leading the way for bands to experiment beyond their typecast genre and just find a niche sound and execute it to the nth degree
Say Psych: Album Review: The Underground Youth – The Falling
The Underground Youth, a Manchester-born, Berlin-based group, led by Craig Dyer, release their tenth LP The Falling this week via Fuzz Club Records. The new album sees Craig and the band trade their acerbic post-punk melancholy for a more refined and stripped-back sound which enters the world of romantic, shadowy folk-noir. A marked departure from the …
Album review: Chad VanGaalen – ‘The World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener’: an excellent, multifaceted curio of psych and fun
YOU’VE gotta love Chad VanGaalen, the Albertan singer-songwriter who completely follows his own muse, sees the world his own goddam way, thank you very much; and who’s been delighting those of us in the know for a decade and a half now. He first emerged blinking into the musical sunlight with his Infiniheart album for …
Album review: Deniz Cuylan – ‘No Such Thing As Free Will’: a pastoral instrumental guitar gem
No Such Thing As Free Will is a much prettier and more enveloping record than words can convey; it has a really nice poise between the disciplines of the leftfield, the guitar soli and that of bright folk melody. In this regard if you’re a fan of early to mid-period James Blackshaw, but also very much the quartet of ‘free folk’ albums Stockholm’s Andreas Söderström released as ASS in the decade from 2006, you’ll find an awful lot to love. A bright, studious, harmonic, pastoral gem
Album Review: The Paper Kites’ ‘Roses’, featuring stunning collaborations with global female guest singers, is a delicate and beautiful album
The Australian folk/indie pop band The Paper Kites are musical icons and in ‘Roses’, their fifth album, they have crafted a breathtakingly beautiful album that has an indelible sheen and stature. This is a band that is simply getting better every release, and in this release the boundaries have been further extended by a coterie …
EP: The Great Emu War Casualties release the dynamic and shimmering indie pop EP ‘Vanity Project’
Australian-based and evocatively-named The Great Emu War Casualties (TGEWC) have released the EP ‘Vanity Project’ – a dynamic, fresh and dazzling collection of effervescent shimmering tracks. There is an indefinable sound to the band, but it is one grounded in a great musicianship and creative, innovative songwriting – an indie pop sensibility that has been …