ep review
EP: Salarymen bring a ray of heady sunshine with their ‘Head In The Sand’.
Salarymen have perfected a luminescent sixties-infected pop sunshine buzz in their songs, which have been collected in a dazzling array in their new EP ‘Head In The Sand’. Opening track ‘Summer’s Coming’ is blinding with its light headed optimism and positively bounces as it extols the virtues of sunshine and holidays with tongue-in-cheek anodyne lyrics: …
Album Review: Loose Articles – Chaos EP
Surely Loose Articles ‘Kick Like A Girl’ should have been the closing track when Englands Women’s Football Team won the Euro 2022. Sadly not, we have some way to go yet but their feminist working class voice shouts loud and strong on themes including global warming, women’s football and misogyny in sport, and the gentrification …
EP Review: ARKLEY – Origins (Our Space Records)
Emerging Scottish DJ and producer ARKLEY has released his EP Origins via Our Space Records and it continues his music influenced by classic 90s rave and big beats sounds. The 3-track EP is an utter joy and perfect to soundtrack the summer. Genres of music may have their moment in the sun, but to see …
EP Review: Been Stellar – Been Stellar
Sometimes its difficult to pinpoint exactly why a band and/or song resonates. Having seen New York-based Been Stellar at The Great Escape in Brighton in May I was captivated. It seems I wasn’t alone as it resulted in a return to these shores last month to play a number of gigs. They say timing is …
Album Review: deep tan – diamond horsetail
Deep Tan (or rather, deep tan, as they are more correctly styled) are one of those bands that it’s really hard not to keep coming back to. Their stripped-back, almost minimalist approach speaks of a charisma and a confidence that is rarely found, and their live outings somehow manage to be oddly chill and intense …
EP Review: Lilo’s ‘Sleep Country’ teaches the true meaning of bittersweet.
New from Practise Music comes the full length EP by duo Lilo, entitled ‘Sleep Country’. The record is a collaboration between BFFs Christie Gardner and Helen Dixon, and partly comprises the best of their singles released piece-by-piece throughout the previous year. There’s a certain understated power and weight to the songs Lilo has produced for …
EP review: Clarice Jensen – ‘Identifying Features’: a second, delightful leftfield venture into filmic cello
WAY BACK in January we took a dive into Ainu Moisir – our full review can be found, here – a deft, brief quarter-hour of exploratory cello and electronica meshing and also a first entry into the world of the soundtrack for Clarice Jensen, the artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. The titular …
EP Review: Superlove creates an entrancing melange of heavy metal pop delights in their EP ‘….but for the moment’
The new EP from Superlove is a fascinating mix between slamming hard rock and commercial pop: a mix that is dynamic and shimmering and creates something quite refreshing. Thundering guitars sit next to bubbling synths within one track, with a vocal overlay that ranges from synth-infected vocoders to raw and emotional melodies. There is a …
EP: Incessant – Perennial Umbra
Irish black metal band Incessant have released their debut EP ‘Perennial Umbra’. It is best to keep in mind that this is a trio whilst listening to this EP. The noise they produce and clever arrangement of the tracks makes this hard to believe in places. As the tracks are well set out as the band have …
EP REVIEW: Kero Kero Bonito – Civilisation II – helping lift the weight of isolation off everyone’s minds
From the poster child and early adopters of what has come to be known as hyperpop, comes the second EP in Kero Kero Bonito’s Civilisation series. For a few years now, following the cult sensation of albums like Bonito Generation and Time ‘n’ Place, there has been a very vocal effort from the band to …