That Samson-esque voice, that gravely tone that stands firm like granite – not groaning under the weight of the dusky woe that it carries on its shoulders at all, but hunched pensively nonetheless – leaving a epic silhouetted impression as the backdrop to every song, is impossible to deny. It’s a genuine force of nature, an ace with which he can win every hand he plays. Its purpose is to be marvelled at and to communicate great scales of emotion. Continue Reading

You thought you had Interpol pegged, didn’t you. Yeah, us too. They probably weren’t far off the mark either, the way they’d nailed themselves up on the post-punk crucifix (still well-dressed, mind – always well dressed), wherein they thrashed through the motions of toil and regret for all to see. They sat behind the blacked-out windows of a cruising juggernaut of emotional turmoil and introverted tension, every bold manoeuvre or sudden swerve so very clear to see, especially when we’re Continue Reading

Joy Denalane was born in Berlin-Schoeneberg as the third of six children to a German Mother and a South African Father. At the age of six the family moved on to Berlin-Kreuzberg, a more racially diverse part of the city, where Joy entered school and spent the greater part of her adolescence. At sixteen, she left home and began focusing on music. The name Denalane is South African and means shining star (in Pedi); it is as if the young Continue Reading

Well at least they had both the foresight and the hindsight not to call this a ‘Greatest Hits’ package, a package that would in all probability consist of little more than a picture of tubby little bald fella with a cuppeth not exactly overflowing with sales and an I.O.U slipped in with the liner notes. But sales don’t mean anything and Blackie doesn’t seem to give a s**t either way anyway, so there’s little point in heckling the man. After Continue Reading

Have to admit that after the first 15-minutes or so I was fed up to the back teeth with the insufferable perky, cheerfulness of this bonkers ska sextet operating under the increasingly spurious banner of J-Pop (or Japanese Pop to those still blissfully ignorant of the term). Fresh out of Japan, and fresh some paedo wet-dream if you ask me, six-girls just out of J-School and recently signed to Sony Music Japan, not coming up with material that belies their Continue Reading

Compiled by Marc Collin and Gilles Leguen of French musical collective Nouvelle Vague, and clearly inspired by Jarvis Cocker and Steve MacKay’s recent ‘trip’ down memory-lane, the New Wave comp features an absolutely cracking collection of covers by some of the great names of 80’s First-Wavers and Synth-Acts like Visage, Devo, OMD and Gary Numan. Why have they done it? Who cares.  Anyone who remembers the early eighties will understand: peddle-pushers, one-finger synth parts, a loquacious disregard for dancing or Continue Reading

Crikey, we could bang on all day about what makes the ultimate mix-album. Should it recreate a live dance club experience? Should it provide a banner under which to unite a multi-tiered mesh of moods and/or concepts? Should it provide a seamless spirit of sound? Should it in some way reveal a little bit more about the artist themselves? Tosh. What the hell does it really matter? When you, me, Hot Chip or even my great Aunt Maud compiles a Continue Reading

Believe it or not, Pepe Deluxe is so much more than the outrageously cool single, ‘The Mischief Of Cloud 9’. It’s also so much more than the sum-total of their parts: James Spectrum (AKA Jari Salo) and JA-Jazz (AKA Tomi Paajaanen). So much more than samples. And new album, ’Spare Time Machine’ is the timely blessed proof. Coiled brightly around the world’s largest reverbation unit and packed to the rafters with solid chunks of paisley-patterned funk, tracks like ‘Ms Wilhelmina Continue Reading

It’s been many moons now since Sean Cook left Spiritualized under a black cloud, though not before playing his part in crafting one of the finest pieces of recorded music ever committed to tape of course. Go straight to the back of the class if you know not that we refer to ‘Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space’, and when the final bell has tolled race to the nearest record stockist and acquaint yourself with it immediately. It Continue Reading

You know when someone comes up to and starts telling you about this fantastic film they’ve just seen, or this fantastic book they’ve just read and continues to rattle on about it for five-minutes without pausing for breath only to conclude their eulogy by thrusting it in your hands and telling you that you can borrow it? And you don’t have the heart to take the wind out of their sails by saying that you got it yourself 12months ago? Continue Reading