Album Reviews
Album Review: Cool Sounds – Dance Moves
Melbourne’s Cool Sounds live up to their namesake. Imagine an alternate universe where Mac Demarco, My Morning Jacket, and a less Beach Boys-centric Dent May formed an indie rock Voltron and put out an album that while never truly rocked it floated along nicely on a cloud of jangly melancholy. That’s what Cool Sounds does …
Album Review: Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate review
I was immediately intrigued when I first heard Michael Kiwanuka. That feeling of intrigue later changed to one of being deeply impressed when I saw him live for the first time at Splendour in the Grass in the winter of 2012. There’s a lot to like about the guy – he writes his own sad …
Compilation – On-U Sound presents: Sherwood At The Controls Volume 2: 1985 – 1990
Okey dokey, Adrian Sherwood is back with the follow up to the first Sherwood at the controls this time hitting from ’85 to ’90. Electro, Industrial, Noise, Hip-Hop, Afrobeat and Dub. This time up we get five unreleased tracks plus four tracks previously only available on vinyl, sleeve notes and the usual goodies, so lets have a stroll …
Album Review: Swans – The Glowing Man
SWANS have one of the most intriguing discographies in music and with front man Michael Gira recently announcing that The Glowing Man would be the last for this incarnation of the band, it makes it a pivotal part of the history. So after the seminal To Be Kind, does The Glowing Man act as a …
Album Review: Ladyhawke – Wild Things
Ladyhawke is back and celebrating life with an album as sugar-coated and colourful as a pack of party ring biscuits. Ladyhawke, aka New Zealand songstress Pip Brown, has gone all synthesised on us with third album ‘Wild Things’ (out now via Mid Century Records). Her self-titled debut album was a delicious slice of indie pop …
Not Forgotten: Bill Nelson – ‘Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam’
Guitarist Bill Nelson’s trajectory has been eclectic and multi faceted – singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter, video artist, writer to name but a few. After folding his 70s band ‘Be-Bop Deluxe’, he created ‘Red Noise’ (which the Harvest label insisted on calling ‘Bill Nelson’s Red Noise’) and released the excellent ‘Sound on Sound’ in 1979. When it came …
Say Psych: Helios Rising by Moths and Locusts
I only came across Moths and Locusts earlier this year when I heard the band’s first album from 2013, ‘Mission Collapse in the Twin Sun Megaverse’, quite by chance after pushing on a conversation between two friends on social media. Initially thinking from the title that it would be some sort of straight space rock …
Album Review: Ziggy Marley – Ziggy Marley
It’s taken Ziggy Marley six albums to run out of ideas on the title front and settle for a self titled effort, and while he’s not quite run out similar ideas for his songs, you feel album number seven may need a change in direction or some fresh ideas or its going to get stayed. …
Album Review: Gojira – Magma
When the single ‘Stranded’ dropped earlier this year, fans of death metal visionaries Gojira were left somewhat surprised by the new sound. As it turns out, this song was perfectly indicative of the direction the band were taking with their latest record, Magma. Whilst still holding a firm grip on their death metal roots, the …
Album Review: Leapling – Suspended Animation
When an album opens with several bars of naked kick-snare you know you’re dealing with a supremely confident artist. ‘I Decide When It Begins’ isn’t a song title that sounds like it is lacking in authority, and while it’s deciding, the intro continues to rise tauntingly, introducing crunchy fret-noise on the beat like a funk-loving …