Music
Album Review: Converge and Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
One of 2021’s most satisfying post-metal albums.
Say Psych: Interview: Girls In Synthesis
A few weeks ago I caught the sizzling set from Girls in Synthesis at Rough Trade in Nottingham. This week they were back on my home patch so I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see them at The Deaf Institute supporting The Membranes; yet another perfectly executed set with an intensity that’s hard to match. …
Live Review: Skinny Lister / The Longest Johns – Glasgow, King Tuts 27.11.2021 plus Gallery
One of the surprise joys of lockdown was the emergence of sea shanties which, with the help of the TikTok generation, went viral. Skinny Lister invited The Longest Johns on their current UK tour and the gig in Glasgow at King Tuts was as raucous as you would expect. The added ingredient was the fact …
See: If your android’s paranoid, The Boy From Space’s ‘Positive Affirmation For Robots’ may be just the seasonal tonic
ALTHOUGH nominally hailing from the Wiltshire city of Salisbury, The Boy From Space – the trio of cosmic travellers Marshall Ward, Frant, and SuperDave – have far less earthbound concerns. They’ve just released a new digital EP, entitled Positive Affirmations For Robots, in which they look to provide a little holiday season musical relief not …
Track: Swoon for the Mediterranean cafe romance of Violetta Zironi & Ed Prosek’s ‘Come What May’
VIOLETTA ZIRONI is a delicate and lovely cantate from Correggio, in northern Italy’s Po Valley; she’s been releasing digital singles and EPs for nine years or so. More recently she’s been working with guitarist Ed Prosek to produce airy and sunshine-filled lovers’ cafe jazz; music to fall head over heels to on the Adriatic coast. …
Live Review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Albert Hall, Manchester 23.11.2021 plus gallery
If you’ve ever wondered, and to be fair it’s extremely unlikely, what Harry Enfield’s 80’s creation, Stavros, would look like fronting a doom metal band, then look no further than Pigsx7. Lead singer, Matthew Baty, resplendent in a t-shirt proclaiming, “Find What Feels Good” and a very natty pair of “pig-dragon” shorts, prowls the stage …
Live Review: Junior Brother / The Bonk – Whelans, Dublin 26.11.2021
At a packed, sold out Whelans, Junior Brother thrilled the crowd alongside support band The Bonk. The project is led by Waterford musician Phil Christie (O Emperor), who’s first recordings were undertaken and captured live a Big Skin Studios in Cork City The Bonk (click on thumbnail for full view) Borrowing a term used to …
Album Review: Various Artists: The Roots Of Indie Pop 1980-1984
Cherry Red seem to have become the masters of the box set compilation in recent years, with the C86 and C87 sets some choice punk and new wave compilations; and now The Sun Shines Here, the natural follow-up to the Scared To Get Happy Box set, which in fact proved so popular it has recently …
Album Review: Richard Dawson & Circle – Henki
Think of those records inspired by plants…Stevie’s sprawling ‘Journey Through The Secret Life of’, Edgar Froese’s pondering on ‘Epsilon in Malaysian Pale’, Genesis hailing a ‘Return of the Giant Hogweed’ or maybe the Cocteau’s glistening ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’. Judged sublime or ridiculous depends on your starting point but one thing is clear, the mix of botany …
Track: The Mother Hips examine a soured, bruised love in the riffin’ roots rock of ‘Clay Mask Clown’
WITH the first recorded cover version of their entire roots-rockin’ career, their cover of Anne Murray’s “I Don’t Want To Drive You Away”, just fading in the dust of the rearview mirror; but the street light glow of their eleventh album, Glowing Lantern, and a run of dates Stateside just cusping the horizon, The Mother …