Album Reviews
Album Review: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ debut album, ‘The First Born is Dead’, opened with the formidable track ‘Tupelo’, a roaring, thundering peon to the birth of Elvis Presley, born to be King during an apocalyptic storm: mythologizing the King of rock’n’roll, born in chaos, born to rule. And now, decades later, ‘Ghosteen’ apocryphally begins …
Album Review: Local Authority – Negative Space
What was Valley Heat Records is now 4000 Records, but what remains is the singular dedication to the local Brisbane music scene and an obsession with the cassette. And there is no better way to launch this new face than the debut album from Local Authority, ‘Negative Space’. Local Authority is the product of Jacque …
Say Psych: Album Premiere: Déjà Vega – Déjà Vega
BSM have been championing underground psychedelic bands for a number of years now and so it is a great honour for us to bring the premiere streaming of Déjà Vega’s debut self-titled LP ahead of its release on 11 October. Cheshire’s answer to musical boredom already host a cult live following (including a chant all …
Album Review: MNNQNS – Body Negativity
Hailing from Rouen, France, post-punk quartet MNNQNS are following up their critically acclaimed debut EP ‘Advertisement’ with their first full-length album, ‘Body Negativity’. The band claim to “hate rock ‘n’ roll” and be influenced by artists as wide-ranging as Deerhunter, Death Grips, and the Beach Boys, along with various bands on the Cardiff music scene …
Album Review: Low Hums – Zzyzx
There’s a happening taking place in Seattle, helmed by Low Hums’ “band-guru” Jonas Haskins. Or is it Sanoj Snikhas? Before the references to Manson Family occur though (who are back in the spotlight by virtue of Tarantino’s somewhat polarizing Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood), we are assured that Zzyzx, the fifth release from music-nauts …
Album Review: DZ Deathrays – Positive Rising: Part 1
It would appear some of my fondest memories of Auckland (New Zealand, Aotearoa) have managed to follow me to Backseat Mafia. I recall there was a buzz about a band from over the ditch (Australia. Just Australia) about a noisy three-piece who were of the Blood Brothers ilk. A little bit dance-punk, a touch of …
Album Review: Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie
How many subsequent releases after hiatus subjugate the lineage of a band? Is it one? Two? Three? Should they even reform and create new material anyway? What if it’s bad? Does it then dim the historical importance of a back catalogue? These are questions some Pixies fans, including myself, have asked since the release of …
Album Review: Cassels – The Perfect Ending
Cassels are woke. That’s at least what the media surrounding their new album, The Perfect Ending, centres on. Climate change, victim-blaming, the far-right, millenial liberalism, sexual assault. These are all lightning-rod topics in today’s climate and can either be addressed with a certain nuance, an unbridled rage or, more worryingly, a clumsy heavy-handedness. Thankfully, it’s …
Album Review: Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes
So, if you’re going into this, you need to prepare yourselves. You need to brace yourselves for the rawness, the thunder, the desperation, the tenderness, the rage, the love, the abyss, the hope. Don’t expect to be comfortable when you listen to this. Furman gives us one break – the remarkable lovesong ‘I wanna be …
Album Review: Meatraffle – Bastard Music
Nearly four years after their 2015 debut ‘HiFi Classics’, South London indie gang Meatraffle are finally releasing its follow-up, ‘Bastard Music’. It features the band making various left-wing yet parochial observations about modern life to a twee, whimsical musical backdrop. The album’s first song opens with the sound of the titular cyclops snoring and this …