Album Reviews
Album Review: Disk Musik – A DD. Records Compilation; Beautifully broken sounds from the Japanese fringe.
In the cultural afterglow of Japan’s postmodern early ’80s, Disk Musik emerges as both an endnote and a revelation—a window into a scene too strange and insular to ever fully cross over, yet too fascinating to ignore. Originally released as one of the final statements from the cult cassette label DD. Records, the compilation has …
Album Review: Penelope Trappes – ‘A Requiem’: Resonant, deeply fulfilling ambient songs which need to be heard.
Penelope Trappes recognises she makes music goes deep and once described her approach as “digging up the underworld with visual motifs, and a mystical, gothic darkness that symbolises my struggles”. Now after over a decade of excavation, through four albums and inspired side projects, the Australian, now Brighton- based, experimental musician reveals that there is …
EP Review: ‘Is It Really Goodnight?’: Celeste Madden’s Introspective and Evocative New Release
Key to London-based singer-songwriter Celeste Madden’s new EP, Is It Really Goodnight?, is its dense atmosphere. It’s not foreboding or oppressive, but rather a sleepless sheen that coats the tracklist in a way the cyanotype cover art would suggest. Madden’s sound swings between minimal, almost ambient guitar ballads and brooding alt-rock cuts that could soundtrack …
Album Review: The Nightingales – The Awful Truth; Post-punk chaos meets twisted pop brilliance.
The Nightingales return with The Awful Truth, their first album since 2022’s The Last Laugh, proving once again that Robert Lloyd and company remain as sharp, unpredictable, and essential as ever. Released on Fire Records, the album is a tangled, exhilarating mix of post-punk urgency, surrealist storytelling, and skewed pop sensibilities—an acerbic, sideways glance at …
Album Review: Release the bats – Infinity Broke are rampaging through the cities with their excoriating, thrilling new album ‘This Masthead’.
It’s hard coming up with enough new superlatives to accurately describe an Infinity Broke album. Inevitably epithets and phrases such as contained chaos come to mind, along with freight trains careering out of control, sonic explosions, disturbances in the cosmos, mind shattering shards of metal. It’s enough to suggest that you should ensure any sound …
Album Review: Emma Rawicz & Gwilym Simcock – ‘Big Visit’: A sax/piano jazz connection that sets new standards.
The similarities in the musical pathways between saxophonist Emma Rawicz and pianist Gwilym Simcock are a bit uncanny. Both studied at Chethams School Of Music and The Royal Academy, both have won a sleuth of UK Jazz plaudits including the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Simcock in 2007 and Rawicz in 2021, both release through the seminal …
Album Review: Florist – Jellywish; a warm, intimate exploration of uncertainty
Florist’s Jellywish is a delicate yet expansive exploration of life’s biggest uncertainties, delivered with their signature warmth and intimacy. Across its ten tracks, the band weaves together folk, ambient textures, and hushed, dreamlike melodies, creating an album that feels deeply personal yet quietly transformative. It’s a record that doesn’t offer answers but instead lingers in …
Album Review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious; an unrelenting, thrilling ride
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have never been ones for half measures, and Death Hilarious is no exception. Their fifth album is a raw, unrelenting barrage of noise, riffs, and fury—a record that grabs you by the collar from the first note and doesn’t let go. If Land of Sleeper was their attempt …
EP Review: Heijmat – Echoes Of Solace
Coming from a space of beat driven alt-electronica, the new EP from Heijmat Echoes Or Solace sees the Dutch producer move further into the realms of ambient experimentation with swells of emotionally driven electronics and some beautiful, cinematic soundscapes. The project of acclaimed producer Huub Reijnders (Oscar and the Wolf, The Subs, Jack Parow, Kraak …
Album Review: Jetstream Pony – Bowerbirds and Blue Things; collective of indie legends play to their strengths while continuing to evolve.
Jetstream Pony return with Bowerbirds and Blue Things, a shimmering collection of indie pop that balances sweetness with a touch of melancholy. Since their self-titled debut, the Brighton/Croydon-based band—featuring members of The Luxembourg Signal, The Wedding Present, The Popguns, and more—has built a reputation for crafting jangly, slightly rough-edged pop that harks back to the …