Irish DJ – producer – soundtrack composer David Holmes originally conceived The Free Association as a means of taking his music live – and whilst that seems an impossibly grand ambition, it may go some way toward explaining the polarities of the record: at one pole loungey and jazzy, at the other a squealish hybrid of industrial rap. So excuse me if this sounds odd – but it’s an odd record. The Free Association (as is the name of the Continue Reading
Weaving Sonic Youth guitar snideness into the safe framework of a U2 riff with songs peppered with atmospherics from a tiny trinket box. Meet Longwave … There is, be it fleeting or not, something unerringly sexual about our current love affair with New York. And it’s only human nature that you don’t want to overcrowd your affections, not too much. Yeah, so you might start off with good intentions and a steady partner (statistically more than likely The You-Know-Whos), but Continue Reading
The video that accompanies recent single, ‘Never Be Alone’ shows the band passively instigating a pub brawl amongst a dozen or so local hoodlums in a non-too illustrious drinking establishment in London’s notorious Bethnal Green. Allegedly banned by MTV the video just about sums up the dark, schizoid mental-as-anything duality of this release – and about as far away from the lush, harmonious greenery of the band’s debut, ‘Chemistry Is What We Are’ as you can get. Starting as any Continue Reading
Although considered by many as the Godfathers of Grunge, Mudhoney was never as angst-ridden as Nirvana, never as serious as Pearl Jam and not as metal-influenced as Alice In Chains or Soundgarden. Oh sure, they wore the flannel but their sound was closer to LA’s Jane’s Addiction than anything going on in Seattle. While the band was Sub Pop’s first real success story, they never took home the big paycheck like their contemporaries. In fact they were dropped from Reprise Continue Reading
As a founding member of industrial messiahs KMFDM in the early 80s, Raymond “Pig” Watts is a seasoned producer, performer and musical engineer with the ability to morph styles with ease. Pigs’ latest solo effort, Genuine American Monster, fluctuates between aggressive industrial to ambient trance. After teaming up with Sascha Konietzko and Tim Skold for KMFDM’s recent come-back recording, Attak, Pig strikes with his sixth solo endeavor and his debut for Metropolis Records. While the KMFDM influence is still with Continue Reading
Partially synthetic and partially organic, Orbiter successfully combines trip hop beats, stellar guitar work, and perfect harmonies with a pop rock sensibility. The group returns with their second release (the bands 1st full length cd) Sparks on a String which will undoubtedly bring major labels knocking on Loveless Records door. Formed a little over 3 years ago by ex Hammerbox guitarist Harris Thurmond and vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Fiia McGann from the Seattle-based Alternative Rock band Goodness, the group’s unique style caught the Continue Reading
If you were looking for a record, a document that chronicled the past 12 months of musical counter-culture with its amp shoehorned up to 13, you have two distinct options. Earlier in the year there was Sonic Mook Experiment’s ‘Future Rock N Roll’ compilation packed with over an hour of frankly exhilarating lo-fi scuzz, spat out with cathartic nonchalance and tied together by its philosophy more than anything. Not to mention that Jubilee week poster campaign designed to rile the Continue Reading
Welcome is the second album from Michigan-based nu-metal foursome Taproot, and despite it’s firm anchoring in all that crass, generic rock, it’s actually rather ambitious: quirky, experimental, funky and as hard as nails. Whilst not exactly crafting great subtelty from their stab at complex dance rhythms, nor as clever and slinky as those obvious aces of funk-rock, the Chilli Peppers, it’s an album that does promise to yank nu-metal out of its prolonged and desolate winter. The usual primal growls Continue Reading
No amount of priming could really prepare you for this album, just as nothing could have similarly prepared you for the collective meat and two dozen veg that was the KY: release. If you haven’t heard of Lemon Jelly then you’re not the only one, rejecting as they do the usual steady roll of press activity prior to any release. Mavericks? Activists? Well actually neither – they’re simply putting music together that they rather than you are necessarily meant to Continue Reading
Liked ‘King of the Closet’? Harder vocals, harder sounds? Well it’s still as resolutely frantic and punky even if it’s a tad more ‘produced’ and a little less hardcore this time around. A little while on from fan-favourite ‘A Thought Crushed My Mind’ and Sweden’s Blindside augment their blistering guitar-driven rock with a little mystery, and a little of the mystical. Beefed-up to the pectorals like Frodo Baggins on steroids, Christian and his band of bristling, gruff cohorts continue to Continue Reading