Album Reviews
Album Review: Trá Pháidín – ‘An 424’: Dynamic and distinctive experimental post rock from the illusive Galway collective.
So let’s get philosophical. In the mid-fifties Guy Debord developed the idea of ‘Psychogeography’, the influence a place has on its inhabitants, their attitudes, values and how they go about their day to day. If you put that into a pop music perspective could you imagine Joy Division without Manchester, Bjork from anywhere but Iceland, …
Album Review: An aural delight ‘By Design’ – With yet another landslide of impeccable songwriting, The Electorate unveil their new album.
The Electorate are finally back with a follow-up to their magnificent 2020 album ‘You Don’t Have Time To Stay Lost’ (see my review here). ‘By Design’, out tomorrow, puts on full display what has been missed during the intervening five years since their last album. Masterful songwriting with intelligent lyrics and a pop sensibility combine to …
Album Review: Matthew Nowhere’s debut ‘Crystal Heights’ is a transformative shimmering blend of gothic synth pop and Californian sunshine.
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Matthew Nowhere has just released the widescreen beauty of the album ‘Crystal Heights’: an ethereal collection of eighties-influenced shimmering synth pop that unfurls with a statuesque grace. it is incredible that this is a debut album. Opening track ‘Transmission’ is an atmospheric melange of sounds and a vocoded voice: a fittingly mysterious alien entry …
Album Review: Tidal Peak unveils the breathtaking beauty of ‘Treasureville’ – a dreamy evocation of sunshine and vast oceans with a glittering melancholia.
Capricorn Coast band Tidal Peak , essentially the work of musician/producer Kyle Lacko, has just released an expansive, glittering album entitled ‘Treasureville’. It’s a collection of sparkling gems that seem to take inspiration from the glittering sun-soaked environment where it was written. Opening with ‘Capricorntown’, the geographic connection is evident. A swell of synths and strings create …
Album Review: ‘Yorkston/ Jaycock/ Langendorf’: A thrilling electro-acoustic escapade from the alt-folk-jazz luminaries.
If ever there was a singer/song-writer laureate being bandied about then surely James Yorkston would be one of the names in the frame. Staggering to think that we’re getting on for a quarter century since ‘Moving Up Country’ swanned over the alt-folk horizon, starting a sequence of unpretentious, profoundly real albums, much loved and much …
Album Review: Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires – Sounds made by humans; Guest review by Sarah Records founder Matt Haynes
Should Bob Dylan have got the Nobel Prize for Literature? Of course not, he wasn’t a poet; as he famously said, he saw himself more as a song and dance man. And did Wordsworth, senses working overtime after a surfeit of daffodils, ever just scrawl awopbopaloobopalopbamboom across the page before hitting the laudanum? Of course …
Album Review : Steve Von Till – ‘Alone In A World Of Wounds’: Powerful, soul-searching psychedelic Americana from the post-metal pioneer.
With last year taken up with a triptych of expansive Harvest Man albums released to coincide with each new moon, the irrepressible post metal pioneer Steve Von Till might have been expected to take a sabbatical and re-charge, but no. Here we have ‘Alone In A World Of Wounds’ a new solo album recorded in …
Album Review: Ellen Beth Abdi – Ellen Beth Abdi; Soulful, smoky, and quietly spellbinding.
In a landscape where genre boundaries are dissolving and artists increasingly draw from deep wells of influence, Ellen Beth Abdi’s debut album arrives as a quietly luminous, confident statement. It is not a work that demands attention with volume or bombast—instead, it beckons the listener inward, rewarding those who linger. With a rich blend of …
Album Review: Cole Pulice – ‘Land’s End Eternal’ : An electro-acoustic touchstone moment from the ambient saxophonist and composer.
Saxophonist/composer Cole Pulice often draws on metaphors to describe their alluring electro-acoustic music. For the 2021 solo debut ‘Gloam’ they suggested the music mirrored shifting patterns of a twisting kaleidoscope whereas the follow up ‘Scry’ was closer to gazing at a stained-glass crystal ball from different angles. You wonder what poetic phrases Pulice might be …
EP Review: John Beltran presents Sol Set – Love Revolution EP
With Love Revolution, John Beltran’s Sol Set project returns in fine form, delivering a sun-drenched, deeply musical EP that radiates warmth and groove. Rooted in Brazilian jazz-funk but stretching comfortably into soulful house, Latin rhythms, and downtempo bliss, this latest chapter in the Detroit-based collective’s journey feels both timeless and joyfully present—a record made for golden …