Album Reviews
Album Review: Pinkish Black – Bottom of the Morning
Pinkish Black is a gothic synth band that came out of the ashes of the Denton, TX experimental rock band The Great Tyrant. That band’s bass player Tommy Atkins killed himself in a bathroom and left keyboardist Daron Beck and drummer/synthesizer player Jon Teague to carry on. Instead of carrying on as The Great Tyrant Beck and …
Album review Rhoda Dakar – Sings The Bodysnatchers
The Bodysnatchers were signed to the legendary British Ska label 2 Tone after only two gigs and were part of that multi-cultural musical revolution in the late 1970s. Yet surreally they never recorded an album so vocalist Rhoda Dakar has finally put that right some four decades later. To realise this dream of finally making …
Album Review: Singapore Sling – ‘Psych Fuck’
‘Psych Fuck’ by Singapore Sling, buy it, love it, the end… Listen, feel, assimilate, emote, sensate… As a kid, I would have sat with the dictionary for hours, chasing “meanings”, following roots, finding nothing, repeatedly exposing words as empty vessels, crude, devoid approximations, blunt communicative tools, pregnant inadequacies… “I want my own stuff, my own rhythm, …
Album Review: Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – Angels & Ghosts
As lead-singer of Depeche Mode, Dave Gahan was responsible for some of the greatest albums of the eighties and nineties, taking the dubious accolade of being the biggest band in UK chart history never to have a number one hit. They shifted through genres from their synth-pop sound of the early eighties to the grungier …
Album Review: Martin Courtney : Many Moons
There’s something about Martin Courtney’s voice that just gets me. He has one of those voices that no matter what he’s singing he always just sounds like him. There’s no grandiose accenting or histrionics when he sings songs like “It’s Real” or “Talking Backwards” with his main gig Real Estate. You get the impression when …
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Why?
Music for children is often an awkward art to master. Obviously you want something tuneful and memorable, but you also want to avoid adult themes. Another thing you want to avoid is the music itself being ‘childish’, otherwise it will inevitably grate on the nerves of the parents and therefore only get played under duress. …
Album Review: Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Style
I recently read a rather poignant article over at Pitchfork about Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous. In it they talked about when he’d write a song that was deemed to “poppy” by his inner critic he’d add sonic grime over top to dirty it up. He’d also use $20 junk yard mics to record his vocals with …
Album Review: Tracey Thorn – SOLO: Songs and Collaborations 1982 – 2015
Tracey Thorn has always been a part of my life, although I was a little late to the party. As a teenager I fell in love with Everything But The Girl’s huge club anthem ‘Missing’ and her Massive Attack collaboration ‘Protection’. Throughout the next few months I went to buying up their back catalogue, and …
Album Review: Richard Thompson – Still
Good grief. I’ve had this album forever and I’ve been totally unprofessional and sat on it, and sat on it, and sat on it. Why? Well firstly, because I had been hoping that it would be as good as ‘Semi-Detached Mock Tudor’, which is the best of the, er, two Richard Thompson albums that I own. …
Album Review: The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol – ‘Masters Of The Mole Hill’
‘Masters of the Mole Hill‘ is the 9th LP by TBWNIAS – The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, perhaps Cana-duh’s best kept secret. Last year’s ‘Pathfinder’ opus, introduced to the baying UK pack by Cardinal Fuzz, rightly left the uninitiated salivating for more – ‘Masters of the Mole Hill’ consummates that fevered tryst. ‘Masters of the …