Can enthusiasm be a catch-all defence for everything? It is nice to see people enjoying themselves, isn’t it. And The Automatic are certainly that, it’s either ‘on’ or ‘off’, there is no dimmer-switch for their ready youthful gusto. They’re the kind of chaps who seem to think a point can be proved, an argument won, by simply raising their voices. Or failing that, screeching like they’ve got a biro lid stuck in their throats. Considering they’ve creatively positioned themselves at Continue Reading

His best album to date? Well that’s what they’ve been saying. And given that the Atlanta-based rapper and the self-proclaimed “King of the South“ has had to make his fourth studio album twice in response to the growing pirate interest in ‘Tip’ Harris, it’s probably just as well. Not that it was going to be easy. The first version leaked months ago, prompting the unofficial mix-tape release of DJ Drama’s Gangsta Grillz: The Leak. Now it’s back again for a Continue Reading

Moving on the from the intense, wormholing journeys navigated by last year’s ‘The Days Of Mars’, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom offer a further four alienating and diffucult tracks courtesy of the pair’s ‘Relevee’ EP,  featuring remixes from the DFA, Carl Craig and Babyford. And whilst techo geeks everywhere are likely to wetting themselves over the sheer transcendental minimalism of it all, the rest of the record buying public are likely to be left scratching their heads. It’s not unpleasant. Continue Reading

There’s nothing wrong with having a message. Gang Of Four, Killing Joke, the Clash, all prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that music can and will knock hard at the walls of convention and provide momentum for change. But then you have bands like The Alarm and U2 and the whole thing begins to sound fairly unconvincing; not because there’s anything wrong with the message, but because the rallying call that propelled them from obscurity and inconsequence in the Continue Reading

There’s delays and there’s delays. And we’re talking delays here. Serious ones. ‘From The Roots To The Shoots’ has been a long time coming for Mr Sedgley. Christ, even Fatboy Slim saw the potential of the now almost iconic ‘Happy’ as far back as 2004 and it was written as long back as 2001 in an era before all that terrorism, Iraq and Weapons of Mass Fabrication jiggery-pokery of our beleagured imaginations took hold. Let’s face it; it was a Continue Reading

If you’ve been waiting patiently for The Killers to return to frenetic indie fringes of our increasingly high eighties standards or were disappointed with the shite rolled out by Babyshambles then copping a load of The Rifles while you wipe off your indie tears just might be the best course of action. Hotly tipped to become a success story in 2005 this breakneck London 4-piece have already been charming the likes of former Creation Records boss, Alan McGee and Radio Continue Reading

What you have here is the world’s most famous Jazz/Big Band ‘king of swing’ Benny Goodman and other legendary Big Band leaders like Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey rubbing their boldand brassy, jitterbugging breaks and beats up against urban graffiti villains like Brooklyn’s Kool Kojak Commandante, spy-chasing, cross-tempo duo Thunderball and the smooth, classic chill-out of the Worldwide Groove Corporation. In a seamless conflation of styles and approaches ‘Big Band Remixed and Revisited’ just about manages to Continue Reading

As the sleeve-notes freely confess, compilations featuring sassy soul sisters are hardly a new concept but this Stateside compilation mercifully leaves out all the usual tampon-rattling sister statements you’d naturally expect. There’s no sign of Aretha Franklin’s penis-lopping ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T’, no sign of the Weather Girls, no ‘Sisters Doing It For Themselves’ nonsense, just all the husky, earthy, uplifting sixties soul joy that labels like Blue Note, Liberty, Veep and Roulette heaped upon us in sweet delicious spoonfuls back in the Continue Reading

It would have given me immense satisfaction to have announced that this was likely to be the second time that the 32 year old Roy Kerr was apt to have been issued a ‘cease and desist’ order; the first being for his cheeky, chart-seeking mash-up of the Strokes’ ‘Hard To Explain’ and Christina Aguilera’s ‘Genie In A Bottle’ and the second for the slightly awkward, identity switching ego trip, ‘Waiting For Clearance’. ‘Cease’, I could have shouted. ‘Desist’, I could Continue Reading

‘The east coast girls are hip and the mid-west farmers daughters really make you feel alright.’ It sounded exotic then and it still sounds exotic today. Even in an era of cheap flights and tacky package holidays, Brian Wilson and his chums still manage to make the warm, sandy dunes of Califronia sound like another world. Ever dig a French bikini on Hawaii island? A palm tree in the sand? No me neither, but somehow it felt like we ought Continue Reading