Album Reviews
ALBUM REVIEW: Liela Moss – ‘Who the Power’: pop that takes one last dance as the world ends
OVER the past couple of years and one very warmly received LP, Duke Spirit member and Bella Union solo artiste Liela Moss – watch your vowel placement with care, folks – has carved herself something of a niche for a strong and dark pop draught, heady with intensity, 80s’ melodicism, courage and a complete willingness …
Say Psych: Album Review: Autotelia – I
Autotelia, as originally coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes a process by which someone has a purpose in, rather than outside of themselves. Those who are autotelic depend less on external rewards for their satisfaction, being driven instead simply by purpose or curiosity. Such was the genesis of a new project put together by The …
ALBUM REVIEW: NOFX vs Frank Turner – ‘West Coast Vs Wessex’: a transatlantic punk song trade
IT’S a split album, but it’s not a split in the standard form. In one corner you have NOFX, probably the best and most forthright pop punk band ever to grace your ears, who have teamed up with Frank Turner, the Wessex purveyor of punk attitude filled slabs of rock/folk. They’re not satisfied with doing …
ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler/Frank Bretschneider – ‘Con-struct’: beguilingly far out in sound deconstruction
Frank Bretschneider’s instalment in Bureau B’s occasional ‘Con-struct’ series is a fascinating, rewarding and wholly synapse-rearranging glitchtronica journey – do not operate heavy machinery under the influence
ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler – ‘Con’: Tangerine Dream man’s ’78 LP gets first UK issue
Tangerine Dream founder’s 1978 LP of synthy motorik receives its first UK issue: spacious, eerie and polyrhythmic by turns
ALBUM REVIEW: Fair Mothers – ‘In Monochrome’: marrow-deep dark-folk truth and nuance
THE OCCULT poet, painter and writer Ithell Colqohoun advanced the premise in her book, The Living Stones of Cornwall, that your local geology births you as much as nurture and nature. She felt that the granite of West Cornwall gave rise to a certain hardened, otherworldly, stoicism. And you can see a certain geology at …
Album Review: Alanis Morissette – Such Pretty Forks In The Road
We Alanis Morissette fans are a patient bunch. It’s been almost exactly eight years since the release of her last album Havoc & Bright Lights. But whilst I class myself as a an Alanis super Stan (do the kids still say Stan?) I haven’t loved everything she’s ever done. It seems like she’s at her best …
ALBUM REVIEW: GLOK – ‘Dissident Remixed’: Andy Bell’s tronica alter-ego gets a comprehensive rerub
OUT OF all the four members of Ride – Mark, Andy, Loz and Steve, it’s hands down Andy who’s had the most varied and viable extra-curricular activities. There was Hurricane #1, his Britpoppish outfit from immediately following the black nite crash of first-era Ride, who grazed the top 20 with “Only the Strongest Will Survive.” …
ALBUM REVIEW: El Goodo – ‘Zombie’: at the corner of Haight and (Mountain Ash)bury
SOMEWHERE in the Welsh village of Resolven, deep in the Vale of Neath, there is a tap. As with all such fonts, miles of pipes lead the one end to the other, far up above in the Welsh hills, to a reservoir. As you approach that source, in your mind’s eye, you notice the visuals …
Album Review: Haneke Twins – Astronaut
Deep down inside Switzerland’s CERN Laboratory, working hard on the Hadron Collider and the Higgs Bosun particle, a couple of scientists from Greece have found something else quite exciting. Paschalis Vichoudis (vocals and bass guitar) and Stefanos Leontsinis (guitars) are at the core of Haneke Twins – a post punk/shoegaze group that has just released …