Folk
Live Review: The Staves – The Roundhouse 9.11.15
School night out. Early start in the bar of the Roundhouse. Camden Brewery beer. Hot dogs and ale over the road at Joe’s. More beer back in the venue. Beautiful music from the Staveley-Taylors. Back into the bar for more beer. Urgh. And an über taxi home. Dirt. I think I’ve just about recovered and …
Live: The Unthanks at Hebden Bridge Trades Club
It took the Unthanks a decade, and many different guises, to produce a masterpiece like this year’s Mount The Air, but this stripped down 10th anniversary tour also showcases gems from their other projects. The Mount The Air Tour featured ten people, but tonight it is just the full time members so its the joyous …
Album Review: Tracey Thorn – SOLO: Songs and Collaborations 1982 – 2015
Tracey Thorn has always been a part of my life, although I was a little late to the party. As a teenager I fell in love with Everything But The Girl’s huge club anthem ‘Missing’ and her Massive Attack collaboration ‘Protection’. Throughout the next few months I went to buying up their back catalogue, and …
Album Review: Richard Thompson – Still
Good grief. I’ve had this album forever and I’ve been totally unprofessional and sat on it, and sat on it, and sat on it. Why? Well firstly, because I had been hoping that it would be as good as ‘Semi-Detached Mock Tudor’, which is the best of the, er, two Richard Thompson albums that I own. …
Track: Lanterns on the Lake – Faultlines
I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that slight twinge of trepidation when one of your favourite bands releases new material – will it meet expectations or be a let down. Happily, I can report that it’s a definite case of the former from Newcastle quintet Lanterns On The Lake. I’ve been a fan since …
Cattle & Cane, Leadmill, Sheffield, 20.10.2015
Cattle and Cane believe that their music needs to be experienced in a smoky late night bar for full impact. Either that, or the Leadmill have serious problems with their smoke machine being stuck on maximum. Anyway, wandering into the smoke-filled Leadmill, I watched the first UK headline tour from Cattle and Cane. I was …
Meet: Lucy Rose
Manchester welcomed Lucy Rose Parton back in its bosom and Backseat Mafia was there to catch her on the first night of her Autumn, U.K. dates. The venue’s Lucy’s dressing room backstage at Academy 3. We’re nervous but also excited about meeting her. She released new album “Work It Out” in July to generally favourable …
News: Weird World to reissue Richard Dawsons albums The Magic Bridge and Glass Trunk
Already on his way to becoming a national treasure and oft the recipient of patronage from the likes of Marc Riley, Newcastle singer-songwriter Richard Dawson’s record label Weird World are re-releasing his first albums The Magic Bridge (2011) and 2012’s The Glass Trunk, as a follow up to last years acclaimed Nothing Important. Both albums …
Track: Thus Owls – Turn up the Volumes
Secret City Records’ Thus Owls are a Montreal based group, formed by Erika and Simon Angell in 2007. Their new EP Black Matter is out on preorder now. They have a distinct Scandinavian sound; experimental cinematic music with emotive and direct vocals, taken from an ambient melay of noise into an eery and warped almost …
See: Dead Horses reveal Video to “Ain’t Got Time”
Is there such thing as a country wig-out? If there is, I would suggest that towards the end of the new single from Milwaukee trio Dead Horses is where to start looking. After repeatedly letting us know, via the catchiest of means, that they ‘ain’t got time’, they shoot that theory into space by making …