Alt-country we’re perfectly comfortable with – and all of its unwashed t-shirts, shaggy haircuts, bruised personalities and cute, smooth-skinned chancers that are just that little too meek to sell their soul and go all the way with rock ‘n’ roll. The bare bones of the real-deal though we weren’t so sure of. We thought that was the preserve of ageing Midwestern country folk happy to hum the same song to themselves day in day out, year after year, decade after Continue Reading

‘Original Pirate Material’ was 15 years in the making. From the moment the rap obsessed kid from the Midlands first heard copies of his older brother’s Run DMC and Beastie Boys records right up until the moment he upped and relocated to the UK Garage capital of London. White kid from Birmingham makes good. White kid from Birmingham makes unshakeably well-realized and clued up hip-hop/garage hybrid. White kid from Birmingham introduces the ordinary and unremarkable narratives of the British underclass Continue Reading

First, we have to make up our mind about one thing; is it acceptable to be influenced in this day and age by The Police, or is not acceptable? Whatever the age. The fact there’s only two of ‘em is no excuse. There’s similarly no excuse in having played in bands performing cover versions of Police and Queen songs in pubs and bars around West London and Brighton for the last 45 years. These things don’t just happen by accident. Continue Reading

It’s hard not to like Supergrass.  Unless you happen to despise mutton sideburns that is. On a less hairy level, there is nothing to hate.  I mean really?  They’re a lovable trio, bit of cheek, bit of charm, the sort of band you could go for a day in the park with.  We all remember ‘Alright’.  Anthem for an optimistic youth, bubbling with happiness and yet oh so simple. ‘We have teeth nice and clean’. Indeed.  Then the reality hits Continue Reading

The thing with live gigs is they shuffle the songs chosen into such nonsensical bloody orders. Which is probably as it should be, nothing wrong there you say. But put this whopping-large Alexandra Palace show from last Christmas back in a chronological order it would be like watching the unveiling of some big-budget musical interpretation of a great Shakespearean tragedy adapted for modern times. And just that touch more entertaining. See, Travis were the men who were worth getting to Continue Reading

With all this seemingly compulsory hyperbole and white-wash 24/7 Mozza-lovin’ hanging heavy in the air at the moment it’s easy to forget he ever made and released ‘Southpaw Grammar’, which is result enough. Wiping the history books clean once we’ve become a little less insatiable towards his charms may prove harder. But more importantly it’s hard testament to what he’s actually crafted here. No matter how exclusively enthusiastic our leaning towards innovation, evolution and experimentalism, we all still have an Continue Reading

Title track on this curiously satisfying compilation of tunes by former Miami business man, Timmy Thomas, the 1972 smash, ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’ has Timmy singing to his customary organ and primitive, early drum-machine. Nothing else. Just an organ and a drum machine. Way ahead of it’s time in each and every respect, and the embodiment of simplicity and grace itself. Fair enough, it might be the only real hit the man had – but what a sizzler: teasingly Continue Reading

If your life has been transformed recently by trouser flapping, cardigan-wearing retrospectives like Kill Bill and Starsky and Hutch then ‘Boogie Cops and Disco Pimps’ is going to stretch your lapels just that little bit further. And even if you’ve absolutely no interest in these. trainer-spotting style flicks then you still might get a bit of a buzz out of knowing where folks like Amp Fiddler, Jamiroquai, Metro Area and Usher learned all their tricks as ‘Boogie Cops and Disco Continue Reading

A number of years ago I would have found it inconceivable that anybody but dodgy old university music boffins or people running the late show on Radio 4 could have spliced together thrift-store folk, jazz and funk without it sounding faintly ridiculous. But what’s ridiculous and ungainly one day can be pretty vital and peachy the next. Those are the laws of physics. So it comes as little surprise to learn that another little white darling of hip-hop is about Continue Reading

Now I’m not going to try and suggest for a moment that just to the right of middle of the road is an especially perilous place to be. It’s not. But it is still a wholly commendable feat to knock around there day in day out and then go and make a record as bracing in parts as ‘Hopes & Fears’. Though labelled “indie-without-guitars” by all and sundry who see them as a logical progression from Travis and specifically Coldplay, Continue Reading