Reviews

It’s a bit of a mish-mash, I suppose, but eight-albums in and the boundary pushing, ivory tickling, circuit blowing, kraut rocking Berlin-US trio continue to churn out static-charged instrumentals that whilst boring the shit out of the traditional X-factor demographic make the beard-stroking beat purists positively wet with appreciation. It’s occasionally a little flat, but there’s enough bubbling beneath the surface to make even most generic of riffs (‘Forwardness’) sound sophisticated. If you’ve come across the likes of Four Tet, Continue Reading

Reviews

Whilst we anticipate the complex, whimsical and engagingly camp Dev Hynes, aka Lightspeed Champion to undergo as many time signature shifts and personality changes as the celebrated BBC One Timelord, it seems likely that the one constant in his constantly evolving solo-life will be a prodigious knack with a melody and a capacity for exuberance seldom seen outside of circus rings and bouncy-castles. So if you enjoyed the delicate and understated country drawl of his charming debut, ‘Falling Off the Continue Reading

Reviews

It’s been a full ten years since 2000’s Mercury-nominated Little Black Numbers and in that time Kathryn Williams spun one wispy yet deceptively strong web after another. Sentiment heavy but often full of witty observations about love and the patently daft tapestries it weaves, her light scouse drawl curls around the hurdy-gurdy of life in the North. But something’s changed. The coy and callow girl who sang about loving John, Paul, George and Ringo and never having anyone to take Continue Reading

Reviews

Tim Wheeler’s intentions were admirable enough: the record buying world has changed, demands are different now and the vast majority of albums are too long in the making and offer too little in the way of satisfaction. This is not necessarily the fault of the artist, it it’s the fault of an industry numbed by fear, marred by complacency and so grossly self-analytical of its craft that any joyous creative zeal shown by aspiring bands is stifled by marketing objectives. Continue Reading

Reviews

Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks

The Wu Xing. I bet you’ve never heard of it right, but in Chinese astrology it describes the five phases that show how everything here on earth interacts and relates. So you have five elements: wood, fire, earth metal, water. Wood feeds fire, fire creates earth, earth creates metal, metal carries water and water nourishes wood. It’s a ‘paper-scissors-stone’ kind of thing. But it’s water we are really interested in here. You can build a bridge over, you can lead Continue Reading

Reviews

For Simon Fowler and Ocean Colour Scene life is an endless series of sunny afternoons, waterloo sunsets, and loafing around boutiques on Carnaby Street in your Chelsea boots and your favourite crewneck sweater. Fowler is still growling as sweetly as the engine on his Lambretta and the band are still churning out songs about Monday mornings, weekend living, waiting for trains and buses and the barmaid knowing your name. In some respects it’s a bit like the last forty years Continue Reading

Reviews

Read that number on the cover, today’s pop stars, and weep. Weep hard. Seventy five tunes in itself is a commendable achievement. But seventy five tunes that were all top 20 hits!? “75 of Elvis’ greatest hits,” chirrups the sticker on the front. 75 of his greatest hits?! Because there are more! Yes sir! SEVENTY FIVE! Kind of puts Robbie Williams into context, doesn’t it. This collection is being released to mark what would have been The King’s, you got Continue Reading

Reviews

Even though countless similarities in style can be heard between this debut solo effort and releases from his band that doesn’t mean to say that Fyfe Dangerfield is just carting out a catalogue of tracks deemed not worthy of the next Guillemots album. Instead of the sporadically charged movements that you might expect from his band, ‘Fly Yellow Moon’ takes a more mature, melodic stroll. Recorded in only 5 days the album is not the ramshackle collection of half baked indie-folk Continue Reading

Reviews

Brooklyn DJs Rupture and Matt Shadetek have hooked up for new collaborative effort after a European tour revealed something of a mutual appreciation thing going on between the pair and a soft spot for mad gully beats. Their spacey reef adventures features a good few blasts of tropical heat, some Top 40 bounce, some gruelling drum and bass, some hot and sweaty dance hall and some richly grimey dubstep. The liner notes of the full-length reference a strange, Waterworld-like future, Continue Reading

Reviews

On the evidence of this who cares whether it’s a nanny, tranny or even fanny in Manhattan as New York Hip producer and all round sonic activist, Tony Simon does what al queda failed to do: he knocks it down, he builds it up and adds layers of sweeping horns, orchestras and multiple beats to create something that whilst not ‘grabbing you by the heart’ as some critics suggest does engage you in an epic cerebral challenge; more a Scrabble Continue Reading