Reviews

If you’re sitting comfortably then he’ll no doubt begin. Though if you’re not, and we understand your reservations, fact is you’re likely to be soon. The sun-starved wastes Nick Cave has generally roamed as master for many many years, currently with his Bad Seeds and formally with his Birthday Party, may evoke more despair than ease, but as with any compendium of tales the true test is always in the telling. The beholder’s eye can always be lulled. He is Continue Reading

Regrouped in the studio under the pretence of rehearsing for a New Year’s Eve show, and some two years since the release of last album Farmhouse, Phish return with Round Room. Produced in a 4 day stint after only 2 weeks of rehearsal (and to be fair, it shows) Round Room – looser and more relaxed perhaps than its predecessor – still offers up a staggering 78 minutes of shuffling, tangential fibres and threads. Kicking off with the 10-minute song, Continue Reading

It’s often those that need no introduction that require it the most. Why? Because it’s tragically endemic that the brightest and the best are overlooked in favour of the fickle and often featureless faces of fashion. We live in an era were the original and the true plays second billing to the illegitimate hyper model: Bjorn Again, The Bootleg Beatles, The Clone Roses, Oasis.. For those of us unfamiliar, Manuel Galbán is something of a guitar legend. As guitarist for Continue Reading

German production trio plus vocalist Sophia Larsson Ocklind. Top 3 material in their homeland no less. Formed in 1993, the production trio has been responsible for the likes of DJ Rush and Moonraker and were voted ‘best newcomers’ and ‘critics choice’ in the 2001 German Dance Awards . Some will assert they’ve more in common with the old, run-of-the-mill continental dance pop than anything like Ladytron, Fischerspooner or Adult – but this would seriously ignore the sheer playfulness of the mix. It’s pop, Continue Reading

Sometimes they appear out of the blue, directionless: untried and true. These are Curt Kirkwood’s words from the song ‘Untried’, but they just as ably summarise the lightning strike success of Novoselic’s former band, Nirvana. And it’s inevitable that we start here, as this is surely what everyone wants to be talking about. But lets end it here too: lightning rarely strikes twice, if at all in exactly the same location. It’s an imponderable task asking oneself where Kurt Cobain Continue Reading

Picture yourself tied to a bed in a motel room in downtown New York in a motley but strangely erotic get-up of rubber and black leather. You might be a director. A movie star. A private detective. A voyeur of sorts. And lying there you are beset by a swarm of pounding, heavy wrist action guitars and hammer beats. The blinds are down and the rain curls like the veins of a neighboring psycho from the ceiling. You are in Continue Reading

Released in the UK on 9 December and featuring a typically innovative and contentious tracklisting of Pop, Fan, Remix and Live selections by journalists Miranda Sawyer and John McReady, former Hacienda DJ Mike Pickering and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, New Order’s ‘Retro’ looks set to keep those pub arguments fresh and alive if nothing else. Everyone has their favourite and everyone always appears to align themselves with one particular order: the ‘singles’ New Order, the ’12 “’ New Order, ‘Early’ Continue Reading

With the buzz of static and the whirring of sounds of unknown origin, we enter the lofty and epic world of Dredg’s second concept album to date: El Cielo. Stirring Zepplinisms, and ad hoc prog aplenty it’s hardly a very cautious follow up to the recently re-released, Leitmotif album (Interscope). Together for nearly a decade, Dredg’s often intense yet strangely melodic sound is something of an acquired taste. Fluid, though endlessly tangential, fans of the band are becoming well accustomed Continue Reading

As a side project for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s guitarist Judah Bauer and his brother Donovan, 20 Miles is more blues influenced then Jon Spencer.   However, this is no traditional blues group.  The brother’s draw from the late 60’s early 70’s Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart’s Faces, as well as R.L. Burnside and the Grateful Dead.   With a jam band  foundation, 20 Miles could be compared to such contemporary bands as  Phish or Blues Traveler. The bands first studio effort, 1998’s Continue Reading

Elvis Costello is quite possibly one of the most prolific artists to emerge from the punk/new wave scene in the late 70’s.  While his earlier work was angst driven with a pop enthusiasm, Costello has experimented with literally every genre throughout his career.  From the Country influenced Almost Blue, the R&B flavor of Kojak Variety to classical music on The Juliet Letters, it seems there is nothing this Elvis won’t try.  After his collaboration with Burt Bacharach, Painted From Memory, Continue Reading