Album Reviews
Album Review: Brad Laner – Nearest Suns
Seconds into “Be Gone”, the lead off track from Brad Laner’s newest solo album Nearest Suns you know this isn’t going to be your average listening experience. Part psych-pop, part Eastern-influenced, and all aural sunlit grandeur, Laner takes his Medicine magic and spreads it over 60s-influenced pop and makes a record that sounds quite magical. …
Album Review: Debukas – I am Machinery
John Clark knows his stuff. Already creating a buzz with his three EP releases over on the 2020 vision label, he, under his moniker Debukas produces music that shows a deep understanding of the history of both techno and house music. His tunes might not fit neatly into those genres, but have elements of both, …
Album Review: Various Artists – A Sunday Matinee
Where would we be without Matinee Recordings? The Santa Barbara label is celebrating its fifteenth year of releasing indie pop, and have just released this compilation of track as a celebration of that fact. Straight away what’s evident is the worldwide appeal of both sides of the indie pop coin, the scuzzy and the twee, …
NOT FORGOTTEN – WARREN ZEVON – WARREN ZEVON
There are some albums where you can actually hear the substances that went into their creation. This album is much like Hotel California and Rumours and pretty much every LA rock album recorded in the late 70s, in that they all sound big, flashy and possibly suffered a little from having too much money thrown …
NOT FORGOTTEN – NEIL YOUNG – TIME FADES AWAY
As this alphabetic odyssey of overlooked albums draws to an end I look back on the last few weeks and have to admit I’ve surprised myself about some of the albums that I’ve selected to celebrate (Billy Joel’s Cold Spring Harbor?) and even discovered a gem that I myself had previously overlooked (the great Songs …
NOT FORGOTTEN – XTC – APPLE VENUS VOL. 1
The British terraced house is a humble dwelling. I’m not talking the huge Edwardian terraced villas that sell for obscene amounts of money in London, no I’m talking about the rows upon rows of two and three bedroom houses that make up the bulk of the majority towns and cities across Britain. Houses where your …
NOT FORGOTTEN – TOM WAITS – CLOSING TIME
Throughout his career Tom Waits has made his reputation for being a wilful and wayward force of creativity in music. His reputation is legendary, his output is revered by his peers and if anything, he’s become increasingly uncompromising as his career has progressed. As a result of this his best known albums like Heart Attack …
Album Review: New Model Army – Between Dog And Wolf
It’s a deeply unfair position to put any band in, waiting so long to listen to new material. How can any fan fail to build up an unreasonable degree of expectation and an unsurpassable association that makes the sound of THAT favourite album become the only possible sound for the band, ever ? It’s not …
NOT FORGOTTEN – VIOLENT FEMMES – VIOLENT FEMMES
It’s been some time since I realised that I am getting out of touch with the guitar music that appeals to today’s youth. I can understand why the music in question appeals to those in their teens and early twenties, but it just doesn’t appeal to me, I’ve moved on, I’ve (for want of a …
NOT FORGOTTEN – U.N.P.O.C. – FIFTH COLUMN
I’ve been writing for Backseat Mafia for a while now, prior to that I honed my music reviewing on a website where members of the public were encouraged to review the music in their collection. It was as a tiny part of this small but enthusiastic online community that I first encountered Fifth Column, the …