Music
Track: The Coral’s Paul Molloy releases debut solo single ‘Dungaree Day’
Dungaree Day marks The Coral guitarist’s first foray into solo song-writing, after being a major pinion in legendary Liverpool bands such as The Zutons and The Stands. The previous two years have been a creative journey for the songwriter; besides masses of heavy touring, Molloy has gone through the losses of both his mother and …
TRACK: Emmy the Great’s ‘Dandelions/Liminal’ is intelligent and breezy
BELLA UNION’S Emmy the Great has had a major shift in consciousness and the place she calls home since her last album, Second Love, back in 2016. Born in Hong Kong, Emma Lee-Moss (for it is she) moved to London with her parents at the end of the city’s loaned colonial status; more recently she …
TRACK: Funk legend Steve Arrington releases ‘Keep on Dreamin’’
STEVE Arrington has serious funk pedigree. First breaking through as percussionist and drummer for “The World’s Greatest Funksters”, Slave, on their boundary pushing 1978 classic The Concept, the group soon had the measure of his extraordinary vocal agility. He moved to lead singer on the band’s string of more R&B-flavoured hits in the early 80s, …
ALBUM REVIEW: The Streets – None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive
When The Streets burst onto the scene in 2002 with ‘Original Pirate Material’, it really was exhilarating zeitgeist-moment stuff. Mike Skinner was a much-needed, refreshing and relevant voice, and his musical portrayal of a loved-up rave-night experience will never be bettered. On subsequent albums however, his social commentator side became increasingly subservient to the “geezer” …
News: Charity album released in aid of CALM/CALMzone
Out now on Bandcamp, is a charity album, called ‘Music Against Living Miserably’ supporting The CALMzone/ CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) featuring 20+ songs by UK Punk,Indie, Alternative Rock, Acoustic and Experimental bands and artists. These include, Fuzz and The Felts, Das Kapitans, The Scuts, Elvis Valentine and the ghosts of chance, Fyzz Wallis Band …
See: Wye Oak’s ‘AEIOU’ spells out the inadequacy of language
BALTIMORE’S Wye Oak are on a real creative roll. The stylistically free-grazing duo of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack have released a video for “AEIOU”, a taster for their new EP for Merge, No Horizon, which is due out on July 31st. It’s composed of a beautiful animated line drawing to convey the lyrics, put …
Track: Legendary jazz fusion figure Jon Hassell releases ‘Unknown Wish’
Jon Hassell, trumpet player, sonic explorer and elder statesman of the ambient fusion scene has offered up another preview from his upcoming album ‘Seeing Through Sound/Pentimento Volume Two’. Unlike the previously released teaser the protracted and tensely metronomic ‘Fearless’, the new track ‘Unknown Wish’ offers up numerous possibilities in a succinct three -minute excursion. Moving …
Track: Astral Swans – Bird Songs
Inspired by some sort of wildlife-induced paranoia in an Amsterdam park, Astral Swans have released a fabulous piece of whimsy entitled ‘Bird Songs’. There is a sweet doleful sound to ‘Bird Songs’, infused as it is with a sense of melancholia and a slight self-deprecatory air. I’m reminded of The Eels and The Lightning Seeds: …
Track: San Cisco – Messages plus album news
Western Australia’s eternally stylistic San Cisco have just released another highly effervescent track – ‘Messages’ – and announced details of a new album entitled ‘Between You and Me’ due out on 4 September 2020. ‘Messages’ has a sixties Burt Bacharach vibe, and the sun-filtered bleached-out video matches the vibe with its yellow bright tones. It …
Track: The Blinders- ‘Black Glass’
THE BLINDERS’ latest track, “Black Glass”, is a seamlessly evolving, six-minute behemoth, is the final single to be featured from their upcoming album. The track begins tantalisingly slowly, before lead vocalist Thomas Haywood’s commanding “Black Glass” cry is subsequently offset by a parry of jolting lead guitar. The pace then catapults into a violent and …