Comparisons to Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello ARE indeed inevitable. That much is true. Not for being ‘reflexively literate’ as the admission of guilt from the press release states, but because he sounds alternately like each of them, almost to the point of exactitude. That said, the stunning likeness is such that tracks like ‘Baby Bye Bye’ (our Bob) ‘Eva’ (our Elvis) ‘Don’t Make Me Leave’, ‘I Need You’ (our Bob) and ‘Jane’ (our Elvis) are as approximate to the Continue Reading

Available as a double CD, limited edition double vinyl and DVD, ‘Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars – The Motion Picture’, celebrates some 30 years treading the boards – and what a treat you have in store. In addition to the new 5.1 Dolby surround sound stereo mix by long time Bowie collaborator and producer, Tony Visconti (responsible for classics like Low, Heroes, and Scary Monsters) you have for the first time on CD all the concert introductions and Continue Reading

Oh for first impressions to be forbidden. Or easily reversible. Of course this album suffers immeasurably from the weight of what has come before. Or what hasn’t. The last absolutely essential Placebo album was their ‘96 debut after all. And it’s unfortunate but impossible to listen to a single word or melody uttered mechanically from those cold poisonous urchin lips of his without a retched shiver miscarrying down your spine and immediately triggering your most tensed defences. Or at least Continue Reading

Is it just me, my age or my gender, or would the world really be an actual better place if 70s cop show theme tunes were piped constantly onto the streets, day and night, rain or shine? Christ, of course it would. And we’d all obviously be more use in The War Against Terrorism. They want us all to be more attentive? Well what better way? Every day you’d wake up, step out of the front door and straight into Continue Reading

Imagine the amount of people out there right now, this second, clutching a Stooges record (any one will do, or ‘Funhouse’ if we have to choose) as if it’s the be all and end all. That’s all very well, nobody here’s suggesting Iggy and Co can or should have anything less than a profoundly heavy impact, still, even decades after their heyday, certainly not this man. Now try and think about the amount of bands who probably form as a Continue Reading

Okay then, throughout their 5-year career, Air have openly embraced new challenges, continually driving themselves to explore the boundaries of their skills as composers and freakishly sincere spokesmen of ‘cool’.  They’ve also been known to have a few hairbrained schemes and crackpot ideas up their sleeves too, and this is no exception. Following the strangely interesting “10,000 Hz. Legend“ album, Air (JB Dunckel and Nicolas Godin) released Air & Alessandro Baricco – “City Reading“ on March 25th . Alessandro Baricco is Continue Reading

‘Oh Mother, oh Mother, why do you make me dress up in all your old clothes and make me murder all those young and notoriously pretty girls?’ Such is the incredulous state of any would be psycho that they’re never entirely sure whether what propels them is a childlike needing of control or a flagrant dismissal of it – and it’s here that we find Colin McKintyre – his Mother’s newly acquired motel in the remote, barren wasteland of Mull and Continue Reading

Latecomers to camp Malkmus – those for whom this is no more than a second album – could be forgiven for grossly simplifying his appeal. Quirky, indie, oddball man from America with permanent drawn-on half grin, a satchel of mid-strength hum-able tunes and comfy slacks? It’s just that Rivers Cuomo from Weezer (or heaven forbid, that pointless twunt from Wheatus) minus some smugness and plus a few extra years, right? Granddad geek rock? Maybe, time will tell, but his history Continue Reading

The third instalment in the ongoing GPS Records saga, apparently,and successor to the seemingly well received ‘Harry The Guitar’, ‘Disco Scene’ and ‘Step On’ EPs. With Flamenco guitar all-a-jigglin’ and a-wrigglin’ and the insatiable patter of tiny congas and bongas, it’s a seductive enough affair. Classic nocturnal, 4.00am stuff. And make that a Sunday one too – with a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a mighty spliff in the other – and birds singing outside – with Continue Reading