Music
Track: Secret Machines – Talos’ Corpse, plus news of return with album ‘Awake in the Brain Chamber’
One of the most exciting bands of the 2000’s for me, Secret Machines, have released a new single ‘Talos’ Corpse’ and announced a new album after a long hiatus. ‘Talos’ Corpse’ indicates a complete return to form – pounding drums and rousing choruses with complexity and vibrancy. Singer Brandon Curtis’s voice is distinctive – deep, …
Track: Bretton Lee John – Rock Show
Straight out of Calgary, Bretton Lee John’s deep sonorous vocals and wry sense of self-deprecatory humour immediately entice: there are elements of Jonathan Richmond, David Berman (Silver Jews) and a low-fi thrum redolent of The Velvet Undergound and Lou Reed. His new single ‘Rock Show’ has a sense of intimacy – personal musings by a …
Album Review: Nadine Shah – Kitchen Sink
Kitchen Sink follows up Nadine Shah’s Mercury Prize nominated 2017 album Holiday Destination which received critical acclaim including AIM Awards ‘Independent Album of the Year’, a #7 ‘Album of the Year’ from BBC 6 Music, #5 from The Quietus and more. Shah has always written important songs. With Holiday Destination she sang about the refugee …
Droppin’ Knowledge: On Jabee’s Stunning New LP, The OKC MC Hopes for the Best & Prepares For the Worst
When I spoke to hip hop artist Jabee, via Zoom last week, the Oklahoma City native seemed tired, but at peace. In the past several weeks, he had attended rallies in his city against police brutality, completed three music videos for songs from his new album and readied their physical releases. He also greeted the …
TRACK: Martha Hill’s ‘Grilled Cheese’ is proud, anthemic indie
NEWCASTLE guitar-toter Martha Hill has been around on the SoundCloud/Bandcamp scene for a couple of years now, steadily, writing, recording and releasing a clutch of songs for download. She left her rural home north of the border in her teens, travelled, and later settled by the Tyne to make music. She says that she “writes …
TRACK: Bastien Keb’s ‘Rabbit Hole’ has a bone-deep 3am chill
AS renaissance men in the underground music scene go, Bastien Keb has to be near the top of the pole. Reckoning himself to be a guitarist first and foremost, he’s also adept on the trumpet, bass, drums, piano, flute, among other instruments: be they bought, borrowed, donated or found. Wearing another hat as a composer …
SEE: Karen Gwyer remixes Nathan Fake’s ‘Tbilisi’
TAKE two of the more eclectic producers working in British IDM today, and let one loose on a track by t’other. It’s a tried and tested formula, but it always produces results worthy of your ears. Nathan Fake – Norfolk-born, sometime Ninja Tune producer, who wends between pared-back, dancefloor tackle and way leftfield collaborations with …
Feature: London-based producer Kamau Kuru gives us a track by track on his new album, Oxydental
London-based producer and beatmaker Kamau Kuru has today released his new album Oxydental – a project he described to us as ’a fusion of back-catalogue samples from 70s-era India, Turkey, and Persia, with gritty lo-fi hip-hop beats, with the overall narrative driven by British colonial-era newsreel snippets.‘ How could we not be intrigued with that …
DROPPIN KNOWLEDGE: track: Busty and the Bass feat. Macy Gray – ‘Out Of Love’
CANADIAN jazz/soul/groove octet Busty and the Bass came together during their first week as students on the jazz program at Montreal’s McGill University back in 2011. Beginning as an instrumental act, they played any and every gig they could, taking $100 for a three-hour set or exchanging tunes for wine and hors d’oeuvres at a …