They’ve come a long way since the contrary hip-parodists of ‘Carnival’, ‘Lovefool’ and the immeasurably sunny and delicious ‘Life’ album whose kooky, lounge jazz and post-Bacharach irony had us kitsched up to the nines and swooning and humming for a full half decade. They’ve also come a long way since the irrepressible modernist complications of perfectly measured masterpiece of ‘Gran Turismo’ (1998). True it had its share of sunny off-kilter pop nous, but it was dark and frosty affair all Continue Reading

There’s an age-old but popular belief that’s if it’s obscure and esoteric, it has to be good; a belief more often than not brought about by a feeble mind and hand grappling hopelessly to reproduce the slight and complex strokes of intentional genius. In short, the best place for the feeble mind to hide is in obscurity. If no one knows your artistic intention, there’s an even greater likelihood they’ll fail to recognise there never was one. And no one Continue Reading

For a brief spell in the late eighties and early nineties, video spawned a monster: and its name was Morrissey. First released in 1990 off the back of albums ‘Viva Hate’ (1988) and ‘Bona Drag’ (1990) the collection is a veritable treat for anyone who enjoys a shapely promotional short. You’ll doubtless love the homoerotic cut and thrust of ‘Last Of The Famous International Playboys’ (in a bedroom green with envy, no less) just as you’ll doubtless love the miserably Continue Reading

Sheffield’s Pink Grease are dirty. And this is not your off-brown ‘n’ black grime, these are pinks and yellows and flickering red neons. Based on ‘The Pink G.R.EASE’ they’re “gonna make you sweat” too. Promises promises. This is gutter-glammer rock ‘n’ roll at its gaudiest. And there are more promises too, like they’re flaunting their wares candidly in a wide-open window display as the light falls and night draws in. “Pump it up boys” comes the call in ‘Party Live’, Continue Reading

Is it any wonder that this album is beautiful? Naturally it’s not. For many a year she’s provided fresh air to Neil Halstead’s dusty musings in Mojave 3, happy to hang around fairly unassumingly, keeping tabs on all that unfolds around her, nudging things along where necessary. And about a decade on it’s barely worth mentioning that she fronted lauded-by-some shoegazers Slowdive along with Halstead. Her first solo outing doesn’t evoke even a nostalgic pinch of deja-vu for that era Continue Reading

The Orkney Island’s Kevin Cormack likes listening to musicians who challenge the functions of specific instruments, those who try to make other objects into musical instruments. It’s a simple enough wish. Why have the same old tired samples coupled with the same old tired riffing coupled with the same old tired drum-kit when you can make a pleasing enough racket with a washboard, a badly tuned guitar, a suitcase and a box of cornflakes? With the exception of the Animal Continue Reading

Gentle, if unevenly grave lyrical troubadours are not traditionally associated with Warp Records. Quite the contrary, it’s often only the grittiest, edgiest and obscurest acts that survive the label’s incomparable roster of maverick talent. Not that this whimsical Bristol trio are without edge or attitude, just that you have to look for it well beneath the placid romanticism and gossamer fretwork of songwriter Nick Talbot. ‘Tunnels’ is a case in point; spectral, sinister organ sounds and spine-tingling guitar-sounds prevail at Continue Reading

The surprise with this album is how impressions garnered from the zesty electro-rock single with a punch ‘Assassinator 13’ and its squelching predecessor ‘Like It Or Leave It’ were so far off the ticket. We thought infuriating insistence, nagging computer-generated aural intrusions and a bratty flailing were order of the day. We liked their style but saw a short shelf life and were unsure of their capabilities. But what we get here, when taken in its entirety anyway, is actually Continue Reading

Don’t talk to me about rap and rock hybrids – I just don’t wanna know. So let’s move on… Debut album ‘X-pressions’ and 2002’s ‘Built From Scratch’ proved beyond a reasonable doubt that turntabilists Roc Raida, Mista Sinista, Rob Swift were an innovative enough force. And although you got your fair share of Linkin Park fans grabbing a copy from the shelves, it has to be said that all three albums move way beyond the indelicate melding of rock and Continue Reading