Ignoring the obvious pretensions of adopting a different pseudonym every time he feels so much a change of wind direction in his underpants, the fresh Prince of hot air augments his customary spit and sawdust melancholy with the sweetest of fiddles, glockenspiels and pedal steels for a handful of belly laughs, camp-fire choruses and high and lonesome romance courtesy of new album, ‘Beware’. Whilst no less gritty and honest than previous efforts, Will Oldham embraces a richer and broader musical Continue Reading

You’ll have probably read 28 reviews already comparing London’s raw-power blues explosion Joe Gideon & The Shark to The White Stripes , and ever the pack animal, we’ll have some of that too. Hell, they’re brother and sister. They are a whole load more Detroit than they are Dalston. And their music is an enthralling meld of the theatrical and poetic, the gritty, rhythmical and impulsive. You’ll also notice, if you skim to the end of the review, that we Continue Reading

Howling Bells arrived back in 2005/06 like a psychedelic rock lozenge. Had you ever heard a more delicious dusty strum, melodies that melted like a sunset and about the most delectable female lead vocal since Hope Sandoval drizzled magic over Mazzy Star in the early 90s? No, of course you hadn’t. And you’d have been delighted with more of the same, and in a way you’ve got it too because it’s all still in there; the distinct, hopelessly lush vocal Continue Reading

They say instant familiarity is often the sign of a good tune. But just occasionally, it’s also a sign of a good tune that’s been written before. But before we start pulling this thing apart without paying due respect to Brown’s indisputable gift with a melody (or anybody else’s melody for that matter), let’s make one thing very clear: the average music fan couldn’t give an earth, wind or fire if it has all been done before. Even if the Continue Reading

Not since Bill Corgan’s ‘Today’ combined the perky mechanics of self-mutilation with a cheery pop aesthetic has the notion of suicide and alienation seemed such a gently attractive lifestyle choice. Slacker, stoner – call it what you will, it usually arrives gift wrapped in a similar kind of envelope. It might come with a beercan delivered by a nitemare hippy girl called Polly, by an entire daydream nation reeking of teen-spirit or even by a black hole sun. It might Continue Reading

‘Jailed-rocker cleans up his act for one last crack at greatness?’ ‘Notorious smack-addict knobs the hind legs off Super Model Kate, sprays blood over walls, injects heroin into arm of unconscious fan and releases handsome new solo album?’ ‘Permanent tabloid fixture in surprisingly decent album scandal?’ Given Pete Doherty’s prevailing ‘anti-darling’ status with the not-so-great British press, it’s only fitting that Crud should frame its appreciation of the album in a manner that is most likely to appeal to the Continue Reading

A hip-hop supergroup consisting of Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, Lateef the Truth Speaker of Latyrx, and producer Headnodic of the Crown City Rockers . Not household names by any means but should you be willing to leaf through the pages of hip-hop’s complex history, these figures should jump out like the good, the gab and the ugly. Not much consolation if you don’t know your spit from your spat, your triple rhymes from your party rhymes, your freestyle from Continue Reading