Album Reviews
Album review: Pie Eye Collective – ‘Salvation’: genius future broken beat and addictive intricacy map a curious world
PIE EYE COLLECTIVE is the solo project of Bristol-born, London-based sound scientist Matthew Gordon, who melds elements of ambient, broken beat, dub-techno and hip hop, all refracted and discoloured via a spectrum of tape-saturated synthesis; and thus makes a beats-driven and -occluded magical underground to immerse in. Sprite-like, enveloping, oozing with intelligence and devoted to …
Album Review: Youth Group’s Toby Martin’s solo album ‘I Felt the Valley Lifting’ is an uplifting amalgam of mystical realism and the minutiae of everyday life.
Toby Martin (Youth Group) has a distinctive angelic voice and astute ear for indelible melodies, but more than anything his new solo album ‘I Felt The Valley Lifting’ reveals in greater focus on his ability to weave vivid and fascinating tales: reaped from the ennui of everyday existence as well as drawing on folklore and …
Album Review: Brigitte Bardini releases stunning debut album ‘Stellar Lights’: a collection of magnificent sparkling jewels.
On the strength of two shimmering singles released earlier this year, Melbourne resident and multi-instrumentalist Brigitte Bardini announced herself as a prodigious talent in the independent music scene in Australia, a fact confirmed by the release of her debut album ‘Stellar Lights’. This is a sparkling collection of exquisite dream pop finery: spread across 14 …
EP: Silk Cut shapes a gorgeous, shimmering cloth in debut EP ‘astronaut’, with tracks that sparkle like stars in the firmament
Silk Cut is a magical Auckland dream pop/shoegaze band that has just released their debut EP ‘astronaut’, and while the band is a brand new piece of clothing, it is formed from vintage material. Singer/guitarist Andrew Thorne has played with Modern Chair – a collaboration between him and another veteran of the NZ music scene, Wayne …
Album review: Glenn Fallows & Mark Trefell Present ‘The Globeflower Masters Vol.1′: Brighton duo immerse in faux-film score elegance for your delectation
ARE YOU a sucker for an imaginary soundtrack, filmscore funk? Hell, I am. Ever since the days of Barry Adamson’s inestimably influential Moss Side Story, the score for a Manchester crime flick yet to be made, and its strapline: “In a black and white world, murder brings a touch of colour”. And it really did, …
Album review: Cahill/Costello – ‘Offworld’: contemplative dubspace, ambient and post-rock shimmer that steps gloriously out of time
KEVIN DANIEL CAHILL and Graham Costello, guitarist and drummer respectively, first set off on the path that would lead to them wedding as a musical act with an oblique and rapturous aesthetic when they met at Glasgow’s prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, at which Kevin was pursuing a classical music education and Graham, jazz; they …
Album review: The Yugoslav Attack’s modern take on traditional jazz is impassioned, unique and compelling: Sophomore album ‘Illusions’ out now via False Peak Records
Bold Melbourne jazz makers The Yugoslav Attack have released new album Illusions, an impressive eight track collection that, according to group frontman James Wiley, take further steps into his own love of jazz, as compared with debut album, Fianchetto, which showed more elements of indie jazz fusion. While this unique combination is still subtly (and …
Album Review: The Wildhearts – 21st Century Love Songs
The follow up to 2019’s ‘Renaissance Men’, sees Ginger Wildheart, CJ, Rich Battersby and Danny McCormack back in the studio to drop another tub-thumper of a record. The fact these guys are still doing this and writing at this level of brilliance needs to be heard. Ginger comments: “Renaissance Men reminded me of our first album, Earth Vs …
Album Review: Rituals – Awake EP
Newcastle metal band Rituals have been teasing audiences for a while now by dropping various singles over the last couple of years. Now the band have dropped their EP Awake full of driving powerful modern metal ready to fill many a mosh pit. ‘Awake’ rough sounding vocals with thunderous accompaniment from the crashing guitar, pounding …
Album Review: Elaine Palmer – The Land Between
Elaine Palmer hails from an isolated village up on the North Yorkshire Moors but travels back and forward to her family in Phoenix Arizona. Growing up in an old Watermill in the wilds of Yorkshire, Elaine surrounded herself by music, writing songs influenced by her surroundings both in Yorkshire and Arizona. Her album The Land Between …