Album Reviews
Album review: Doomsquad – Let Yourself Be Seen
Let Yourself Be Seen is the 3rd album of electronic weirdness from Canadian “art collective” Doomsquad, and it’s out now on Bella Union. Previous releases have seen brightly coloured strangeness with a techno backing, and usually a general ambience of unease. This one is billed as a clearer message, the band say “What we always …
Album Review: The North Sea Radio Orchestra feat. John Greaves & Annie Barbazza – Folly Bololey: Songs from Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom
Following his retirement in 2014, there are few, if any opportunities to hear new material from Robert Wyatt, though while he remains alive and in reasonable health, there’s always a glimmer of hope, and his canon of oddball esoteric jazz-pop remains much revered and respected within the musician community and far beyond. Save for a …
Album Review: The Raft – Abloom
Backseat Mafia has been following with great delight the prolific releases of The Raft for the last few years – a series of brilliant EPs that somehow capture an unique Liverpudlian pop sensibility. The Raft have released a full album, containing the previously released single ‘Xanadu’, and it represents a glorious evolution and development of …
Album Review: Wreckless Eric – Transience
Wreckless Eric began his recording life on Stiff Records in 1977 with his enduring hit Whole Wide World when he was little more than an ex-teenage art student. 7 albums later and 4 decades of touring and he’s still able to churn out some interesting and unexpected material. Wreckless Eric has a distinctive voice, there’s …
Album Review: Simon Bonney – Past, Present, Future
Crime & The City Solution front man Simon Bonney has drawn together songs from his last two albums – 1992’s Forever and Everyman from a couple of years later, along with hald a dozen unreleased tracks, including a cover of Scott Walker’s ‘Duchess’, and released them through Mute with the title ‘Past, Present, Future. From …
Album Review: Lomea – Echoes In Bloom
It would be easy just to tell you that London producer Lomea creates beats that are emotive and cross a number of genres. I could do that, but Resident Advisor has beaten me to it. It’s perhaps the clearest synopsis of his work though. Known for interweaving a selection of acoustic moments into lullaby-like transitions …
Album Review: Lisa Hannigan and Stargaze – Live In Dublin
The amount I love music is sometimes overwhelming. I want it pretty much everywhere, all the time. Given that, I have a pretty weird relationship with seeing and hearing it live. I’ve never been to a festival, I can’t reel off an impressive list of all the acts I’ve seen or all the iconic venues …
Album Review: The Catenary Wires – ‘Til The Morning’
The Catenary Wires are Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher, named after the overhead wires on tram systems. If their names are not familiar – their voices might be. They’ve been working in various bands together since the 80’s including legendary indie pop bands Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Tender Trap, and Marine Research (all worth checking out). The …
Album Review : Voyag3r’s ‘War Mask’
Detroit’s Voyag3r have steadily been building a reputation as one of the best progressive/heavy synth bands making music today. The trio, over the course of 6 years, have released a steady flow of sci-fi and horror-inspired albums that act as soundtracks to some lost B-movie from the late-70s or early-80s. Their blending of analog synth, …
Album Review : Papir’s ‘VI’
Papir are one of the premier three-piece rock bands working today. The trio of Nicklas Sørensen, Christoffer Brøchmann Christensen, and Christian Becher Clausen have been working their sound into a tight, ethereal crunch for close to ten years now. Part fuzzed-out blasts of psych and post-rock, while other moments glimmer and shine with daydream bliss, …