album review
Album Review: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets release the fluid brilliance of ‘Night Gnomes’
I had the pleasure of witnessing Psychedelic Porn Crumpets turn a sold-out Factory Theatre to pure liquid chaos the night before this album was released. Playing songs old and new, it was celebratory for the occasion. ‘Night Gnomes’ came out fittingly at midnight, lurking in the quiet darkness, waiting for the prime listeners to play …
Album Review: Keston Cobblers Club ‘ Alchemy’ is a thing of beauty
After a two-year break-folk favourite Keston Cobblers Club return with their brand-new album, ‘Alchemy’ – the follow up to their critically acclaimed 2019 album, ‘Siren’ . Alchemy is the new album from Indie-folk band Keston Cobblers Club. Returning to their roots, the theme of the album is based on an old folklore from their hometown. The …
Album Review: Plain Mister Smith – I’m Just Plain Mister Smith
Vancouver based Plain Mister Smith showcases his strikingly unique, spotlessly produced Indie-pop-come-folk sound on his debut album ‘I’m Plain Mister Smith’. Musically complex and yet refreshingly light and simplistic on the surface, the brainchild of Mark Jowett manages to create soundscapes full of intrigue, managing to posses both an uplifting brightness and a reflective, personal …
Album Review: Sea Power crest the waves with the beautiful and shimmering ‘Everything Was Forever’, and announce launch shows.
The band whose name was formerly appended by the word ‘British’ has made a rather triumphant return in their new guise as Sea Power. On the one hand, the things that have made the band so special – their distinctive quirkiness and eccentricity steeped in a certain pastoral/rural bliss and ability to combine intelligent, witty …
Album Review: Spoon – Lucifer on the Sofa
Austin, Texas rock’n’rollers Spoon have released their 10th album – Lucifer on the Sofa – on Matador Records and it’s a blistering, thumping, rocking album that Spoon lovers will adore and those new to Spoon will too. It’s the first set of songs in over a decade that the band have recorded in Austin and was written and recorded …
Album review: Group Listening – ‘Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works, Vol. 2’: essential ambient reworkings with a real sense of place
GROUP LISTENING is a pairing of two very fine Welsh musicians: Cardiff’s Paul Jones, a deft jazz and experimental pianist and arranger who first worked with his partner on this project, Stephen Black, on the latter’s fine and wonky Sweet Baboo project (and is there any kind of Welsh indiepop that doesn’t espouse those two …
Album Review: Palace celebrate resilience in the midst of fear with ‘Shoals’.
“Consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?” Herman Melville. If I were to try and capture the essence of empowering narrative behind The Palace’s new album ‘Shoals’, this would be it. A depiction of the inner and outer conflict ; the dichotomy …
Album Review: Emily Barker and Lukas Drinkwater release the shining new covers album ‘Room 822’ and announce Emily Barker tour dates
Emily Barker has just released a ‘Room 822’ her new album, which is a homage to 10 iconic Australian songs. The album was recorded in a Perth hotel room when Barker and husband, Lukas Drinkwater were in quarantine in a Perth hotel during October 2021. The pair are based in the UK and knowing that …
Album review: Die Wilde Jagd – ‘Atem’: a dark, occluding drone masterwork
DIE WILDE JAGD – it translates as “The Wild Hunt”, Anglophones, which will surely be the only possible connection to Swedish troubadour The Tallest Man on Earth we shall ever explore – is the sonic project of producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp. Across three albums from 2015’s self-titled debut, through 2018’s Uhrwald Orange and …
Album Review: End Scene’s debut album ‘All My Ghosts’ is a masterpiece that jangles with a dark pop intent and an indelible shimmer.
There is a recognisable antipodean jingle jangle thrum in Sydney band End Scene‘s debut album ‘All My Ghosts’. Essentially, End Scene is James Jennings and Tom Dufficy and together they have produced an indie pop delight with instrumentation that chimes and rings, given a celestial reach by an acerbic and droll undercurrent in the vocals and …