Album Reviews
Album Review: Murena Murena- Take Care of Me
Some records take a few spins to sink in. Like a good book or a good film, the true personality of the work exists in layers: sometimes they are layers of interpretation, other times they are simply layers of sound or images. Given that Daniel Murena is a soundtrack composer, it’s no surprise that his …
Album Review: John Grant – Boy From Michigan
Michigan boy John Grant has always moved to the beat of his own drum. If you were to ask me to fit him into a box – a genre that he could comfortably placed in, then I could only call it John Grant. From the dream-pop beginnings of his debut solo, Queen of Denmark, to …
Album Review: Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – ‘We’re OK. But we’re lost anyway’
Is it a band, is it a group, is it a collective or an ensemble- no it’s the one and only Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, the multi-European makers of the most essential music that may just have passed you by.Revolving around the mercurial bassist/composer Vincent Bertholet and emerging from the Geneva avant music scene …
EP Review: Superlove creates an entrancing melange of heavy metal pop delights in their EP ‘….but for the moment’
The new EP from Superlove is a fascinating mix between slamming hard rock and commercial pop: a mix that is dynamic and shimmering and creates something quite refreshing. Thundering guitars sit next to bubbling synths within one track, with a vocal overlay that ranges from synth-infected vocoders to raw and emotional melodies. There is a …
Album review: Adam Stafford – ‘Trophic Asynchrony’: Falkirk composer moves to a deep, cyclical set of formal minimalism to address the ecological state we’re in
FALKIRK’S Adam Stafford, the film-maker and folk artist whose lockdown notebook album Diamonds Of A Horse Famine we warmly embraced here last summer – not least because it contained the free-associating “Erotic Thistle” and its fantastic line, “melt down my death mask to fashion it into a dildo” (read our full review here) – has returned …
Album Review: Maple Glider’s ‘To Enjoy is the Only Thing’ is a breathtaking debut filled with an exquisite sense of longing and beauty
Maple Glider – the moniker of Melbourne resident Tori Zietsch – has a voice and delivery that is like someone whispering softly in your ear: it’s close and warm and very personal. There is a delicious immediacy to her music – recalling that Danish concept of Hyyge – a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality …
Album Review: Supermilk – ‘Four By Three’
Born from an abundance of writing amid the restrictions placed on individuals by the coronavirus pandemic, Jake Popyura, AKA Supermilk, started writing and demoing songs on a regular basis as part of a studio-only product. Soon enough, he had accumulated enough material for a new record following the release of two EPs in 2017 and …
Album Review: Saint Sister dazzle on ‘Where I Should End’
When Where I Should End found its way to my email, so to speak, I welcomed it with a huge smile. I feel compelled to share my own personal connection, if you will, dear reader, with the talented duo. I first heard Saint Sister live in London, in a small but perfectly intimate setting of …
EP Review: Perth’s Onslow release an operatic, anthemic and dynamic self-titled debut
Rising Perth debutantes Onslow (duo Sean Harmanis and Scott Kay) have a remarkable breadth in their music: songs that range from jingle jangle melodic delicacy to full-throated metal screaming within seconds, and within one song. The result is something that is quite extraordinary: a hard to define genre that has an anthemic infrastructure with thundering …
Album review: Snapped Ankles – ‘Forest Of Your Problems’: a terrifically twisted tonal masterclass
FROM introductory single “I Want My Minutes Back”, the elusively enigmatic Snapped Ankles have spliced musically immediate tracks with impossibly danceworthy drumbeats and equally provocative synth work alongside sprawling, often Krautrock-eking, delightful structures of wild, spontaneous abandon. Their third album, Forest Of Your Problems, expands their ever-growing sonic boundaries into abundantly fertile territory. As with …