Album Reviews
Not Forgotten: Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle
Okay, let’s just forget for a moment that Snoop was the comedy dad character in reality TV show Father Hood. Try and forget his terrible commercial dance track ‘Sweat’ with ubiquitous producer of the moment David Guetta. And if you can, try to wipe from your memory his collaboration with Katy Perry on airhead anthem …
Album Review: Lamb Of God- VII: Sturm Und Drang
In the three years since Randy Blythe’s incarceration in the Czech Republic, the Lamb Of God frontman and his band have faced things that some bands could only imagine in their worst nightmares. Following his arrest, Blythe faced charges of manslaughter relating to the events at a Lamb Of God show in 2010. He spent …
Album Review: Czarface – Every Hero Needs a Villain
It’s two years since Czarface released their first album, to some surprise from the hip-hop listening public. The three piece, Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectoh Deck and Boston duo 7L and Esoteric got together to produce something that played to both their collective and individual strengths, and compares with some of the more familiar work from their …
Album Review: Tame Impala – Currents
Okay, so I’ve listened to Tame Impala’s excellent new album Currents several times now. Like everyday, twice a day, since last Friday. I can say very confidently that it’s a masterpiece. Kevin Parker has finally decided he no longer has to make albums that sound like they’re being performed by a crusty crew of long-haired, bearded psych …
Track: TAU – ‘Wirikuta’ EP
TAU is the collective brainchild of Dubliner, Shaun Mulrooney. Shaun is perhaps best known for his involvement with the Dead Skeletons and as the “Invisible Man” with Camera. TAU’s ‘Medicine Music’ was envisioned during a Mulrooney sojourn in Mexico with the Wixárikas, an ancient shamanic tribe whose culture and mythology is immersed in peyote lore. This …
Album Review: LA Priest – Inji
There are two ways an artist can go when breaking free from the shadows of a former group and going it alone. They can either adopt the style of their band and continue with a well practiced formular, or go completely rogue and try something totally new. Rising from the ashes of nu-rave band Late …
Album review: Years & Years – Communion
2015 has been an amazing year so far for London based three piece Years & Years. They took the title of BBC Sound of 2015, scored their first number one hit with ‘King’, and performed triumphantly on the John Peel stage at this year’s Glastonbury. But the crowning of a great band always comes with …
Album Review: Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People
He’s mixed up, Ezra Furman. His third album, and first for Bella Union, Perpetual Motion People mixes up genres as it sweeps through indie, rock and roll, blues, folk, musical theatre (well, almost) and a host of other things, and he shoots from the heart about his battles with mental illness, love and the lack …
Album Review: Ecstatic Vision – Sonic Praise
Ecstatic Vision are a band that linger in a class of chunky, driving metal that only a few can do right without coming across as ludicrous. It’s THC-fueled space rock that falls somewhere between fuzzed-out caveman Krautrock, and a less doom-and-gloom Black Sabbath. These Philly guys are steeped in 70s progressive rock and 90s doom, …
Album Review: Act – Love and Hate – A compact introduction to Act
One of the blink and you’ll miss it bands from the time of synth-pop revolution, Act flashed and burnt out, pretty much before anyone noticed. The duo, Thomas Leer and ex-propaganda singer Claudia Brücken, convened after Propaganda fell apart over their contract with label ZTT, the band and Brücken (then Mrs Paul Morley, ZTT co-founder) …