indie albums
Album Review: Ezra Furman – Transangelic Exodus
As a rallying cry for a generation of music fans with a notoriously short attention span, ”Suck the Blood From my Wound” is an attention grabbing opener. Transangelic Exodus has the unenviable task of maintaining the attention of fans that Ezra Furman gained with 2015’s Perpetual Motion People, and with a solid opener and an …
Album Review: Zed Penguin – A Ghost, A Beast
Edinburgh seems to be a bit of a breeding ground for slightly ravaged art rock eccentrics toting cellos. Zed Penguin have been around a while, ploughing not a dissimilar furrow to fellow citizens The Leg, who in turn have collaborated with Paul Vickers late of Dawn of the Replicants to similar effect. While Zed Penguin …
Album Review: The Shins – The Worms Heart
For me the fascinating thing about The Worms Heart is not its concept, or even the music within, but it’s trying to figure out exactly when James Mercer came up with the wheeze of re-recording The Shins’ previous album, ensuring that each new version of every song had a tone which contrasted the original version …
Album Review: ShapeShiftingAliens – ShapeShiftingAliens
There is no doubt that the vocals of Swedish duo ShapeShiftingAliens (SSA) will immediately make you think of David Bowie, and there are echoes of some other of my favourite vocalists from Nick Cave, Wayne Hussey (Sisters of Mercy), Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten). Vocal style alone, however, does not a great band make and SSA …
Album Review: Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy
Indie rock group Car Seat Headrest are re-releasing their classic 2011 album Twin Fantasy on the 16th of February. The same songs re-recorded, re-imagined and professionally finished, with plenty of new flourishes and extra touches to make the experience totally different to whatever you were expecting. The 2011 Twin Fantasy album was originally self-released on …
ALBUM REVIEW: Django Django “Marble Skies”
Django Django return with their third studio album “Marble Skies” which sees the Scottish-formed, London-based art/maths rock quartet honing their particular brand of quirky guitar-driven synth pop to reach new levels of success. Album opener and title track “Marble Skies” begins as a minimal Kraftwerk-esque piece of uptempo electronica and soon brings in the band’s …
Album Review: Jim Ghedi – A Hymn for an Ancient Land
A Hymn for Ancient Land is not an album I could listen to while doing anything else. It would be like texting while taking a walk in a breath-taking landscape – missing the beauty. Inspired by his home in Moss Valley, the Peaks and the Dales, this is exactly what Jim purports he is doing …
The Lovely Eggs – This Is Eggland
Eggland then. A place where the Lovely Eggs have got a producer in (Dave Fridmann no less) and gone full Hawkwind. Which means that my friend Julie, though she doesn’t know it yet, has a new favourite album. Cos that’s really how a love of the Eggs should be passed on – rocking up to …
Album Review: Leyya – Sauna
Sophie Lindinger and Marco Kleebauer are Leyya, an electronic pop duo from Vienna, Austria. Today sees the release of their new album “Sauna”, which was preceded by a single, the evocative “Heat”. “Heat” features Lindinger’s gorgeous almost languid vocals over a sparse indie electronic beat and a rousing, charged chorus. Electro melancholic pop that evokes …
Album Review: Meursault – Fuck Off Back To Art School & other stories
Having returned to releasing as Meursault last year with the often downbeat but lovely I WIll Kill Again, Neil Pennycook hasn’t been resting on his laurels. The new year has seen him sneaking out this digital album in a relatively unheralded way, suggesting that the material will develop through future performances and other media. As …