Music
Preview: 110 Above Festival – Twycross, 4-6th August 2017
110 Above Festival returns on 4th August 2017, welcoming bands and punters back to their site in Twycross, Leicestershire, for a weekend of indie pop music and festive revelry. The independent festival have just announced 10 bands forming the line-up of 2017’s festival, welcoming back returning artists and introducing a few new ones, too. I …
Album Review: Mark Eitzel – Hey Mr Ferryman
It’s always good to have Mark Eitzel back. There will always be some who hanker after the particular dimensions and textures that American Music Club brought to his songs. But his solo work has given him a chance to explore different sounds and collaborate around and about a pretty consistent songwriting style. Given that probably …
See: Former Bullies release video for Stranger, ahead of new album
Out next month on Towed By The Ghost records, Former Bullies new album “Stranger” is preceded by a video for the title track. Watch the band play while simultaneously wearing amusing home made hats – an image fitting perfectly with the engagingly shabby lo-fi sound cut through with pop riffs and scratchy shoegaze style harmonies. …
Album Review: Delicate Steve – This Is Steve
Delicate Steve is not what you’d think of as a guitar virtuoso when you listen to his records, but that’s exactly what he is. The reason you don’t think of him as a guitar great is because his albums are too catchy sounding to be considered as “virtuoso playing”. It’s like listening to the best …
See: White Lies release video for Don’t Want To Feel It All, ahead of UK tour
White Lies whet the appetite of fans hungry for their tour with the video for ‘Don’t Want To Feel It All’. Taken from their current album ‘Friends’, released late 2016, ‘Don’t Want To Feel It All’ is a dream for all fans of the 80s new romantic bands. The track has a minimal but catchy …
Obituary: Jaki Liebezeit – Can’s human drum machine 1938 – 2017
Jake Leibezeit will be best remembered for his work with German avant-garde band Can. He played on some of their most memorable albums, such as ‘Ege Bamyasi’ and ‘Monster Movie’, and brought a steady motorik beat, relentless and minimalistic, yet unmistakeably human. His rhythmic repetoire however had infinite depth beyond the bare-bones pulse of Krautrock, …
See: Syd Arthur release new video for No Peace
Rsing Canterbury quartet Syd Arthur have returned with a new single/video for the track No Peace, taken from their recent Apricity album, released on Communion/Harvest It’s a slow burner of a track, but features all the things that made their debut album such a winner – great tunes, and their lo-fi slacker rock infused with …
See: Minor Victories release new video for “Scattered Ashes”, from Orchestral Variations
We’re big fans of Minor Victories here at Backseat Mafia, and their eponymous debut was up there amongst the best albums of last year. The band have now stripped back those tracks to produce “Orchestral Variations”, which you might expect to simply be, well, orchestral versions, but no. Take “Scattered Ashes”, one of the stand-out …
Classic Album: Elton John – Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Managing to traverse the chasm between critics favourite and global commercial acceptance at the same time as David Bowie, the former Reg Dwight seemingly had the best of both worlds by the mid 70s. Like Bowie, he had segued almost effortlessly from lauded singer-songwriter to glam rock icon (and, lest we forget, had even cracked …
Playlist: Boxcutter exclusively picks out some solo cuts from jazz/fusion artists
It’s about time Boxcutter, aka Northern Irish producer and musician Barry Lynn, started getting the recognition he deserved. Since his early Dubstep material released through Hotflush, or his debut album Oneiric, which came out on the iconic Planet Mu label, he’s managed to create a niche within electronic music which showcases his skills, both as …