rescuing musical virtue in distress.
There is something both primal and angelic about the a cappella introduction to Old Soul, which takes us gently by the hand and leads us into this exquisite album. If music is about emotive communication then Steve McCormick and Heather Donavon, the people behind Love Me In The Dark, are some of the most effective... Continue Reading →
Get Your Shit Together is like little that you have heard before. Well, it’s like little I have heard before and I basically listen to music for a living. I guess the clues where there to see in the track titles. What does Observation of Obfuscation really mean? Is it actually possible to have a... Continue Reading →
Hip-hop has always dreamt big. Whereas many quarters of music have struggled with the battle of perceived integrity versus commercial success, Hip-hop artists have largely been okay with proudly saying - “I want it all and I want it now!” It pays to be honest, I guess. Ro$ewood Renegade is one of those artists happy... Continue Reading →
Music makes the perfect platform for people who have something to say. In fact having done the work to get your creations to a point where you have a captive audience, where you have developed your own sonic signature so effectively that it is heard above the white noise of the modern musical world, it... Continue Reading →
We have all been there. Lying awake in the early hours of the morning, the silent world outside punctuated only by the occasional noise - a lone car passing, an animal going about its nocturnal business, a distant shout - but for you sleep seems to be ever illusive. Oh Well’s latest four song suite... Continue Reading →
With German maestros of doom-laden classic rock meets dark wave Mono Inc. releasing their 11th album, it felt like the perfect time to catch up with frontman Martin Engler to find out about the twenty year journey of the band, how such music is perceived in the current musical climate and where the band are... Continue Reading →
Is it too early to be talking about album of the year? It probably is, especially as the album in question was actually released at the tail end of 2019, ok I admit it, I’m still getting through the last few albums of last year, but that doesn’t change the fact that ‘If Wishes Were... Continue Reading →
I did it again! I took one look at the band name, the artwork, the track's title and jumped to conclusions. Everything suggested that what lay beyond would be some sort of strange electro music, digital dalliances made up of synth textures and angular, programmed off-beats. Well, you know what they say about judging books... Continue Reading →
You get so used to hip-hop and rap being built of sharp lyrical edges and pounding backbeats, of being bombastic and in your face that when something like Live to Ball comes along it seems like a wonderful breath of fresh air. What King Femi seems so good at is taking all those tried and... Continue Reading →
As this album kicks off with short opener Hate Me, you wonder if your speakers are going to survive. The bass line that drives the song is less about creating a groove and more akin to sonic warfare, a strange blend of rap, industrial drone music and sonic aggression. From there things calm down a... Continue Reading →
I love when bands take a genre and push it a little to see where things lead, it’s a strange, yet refreshing, brew that makes up the duo’s second album, ‘The Dark Ages’. Pitched as something called ‘dark folk’ the music sits somewhere between David Lynch and the Brothers Grimm, it’s time to say cheerio... Continue Reading →
If you are going to do pop you might as well tick all the boxes, pop done half heartedly is a waste of everyones time. Those boxes include things like, infectiousness, addictive grooves, danceable beats, euphoric lyrics and a sense of adventurousness, abandonment and escapism. Kamryn Marie makes music which visits all of these stations... Continue Reading →
If Deep C Divers has always made music with a certain clever understated quality to it, here they wind things back even further and prove that less is certainly more, familiarity is a fine quality for music to have and that music doesn’t have to be big when it can instead be clever. And this... Continue Reading →
You shouldn’t judge books by covers but occasionally it is okay to judge a band by their name. Rio Trio immediately suggests something latin, something with a jazz vibe, something subtle and sensuous, something cool and charming. And Footprints is exactly all of those. A sweet blend of flute, guitar, saxophone and percussion, Rio Trio... Continue Reading →
Inhabiting a space somewhere between contemporary country and bluesy southern rock, Judgement Day both sits comfortably within traditional sounds and pushes boundaries too. There is a lot that fans of such southern sounds will warm too immediately (though it should be noted at this point that David is actually from North Dakota but geography has... Continue Reading →
There is certainly something about Katrina Stuart’s brand of R&B driven, clubland pop that sets her apart for those around her. It isn’t so much the sounds that she uses or the type of song she is writing, for those aspects, whilst still cleverly wrought, stay within the generic norms for someone with an eye... Continue Reading →
Labels are rubbish, genres even more so. I read the words “indie” and “rock” used as a handle and I immediately think of 5-piece rockers who have polished their sound off sufficiently to have a crack at the charts. I think of predictability, lack of integrity and of tried and tested formulas. I certainly don’t... Continue Reading →
As the world becomes a smaller place it is only logical that sounds and styles merge, cultures and musical traditions weave together and even languages become interchangeable. Not that Acapulco, Mexico and California, USA, the two places that La Sinclair has called home, are that far apart but her ability to deliver her songs in... Continue Reading →
They say that everyone has that one novel in them. I think the modern equivalent is that we all have that one song in us…and it is probably about having your heart broken. Denial is Fawaz’s break-up song, a sweet slice of R&B infused pop, driven by slow, trippy backbeats and dripping with emotion. Such... Continue Reading →
What’s in a name? Well, in the case of the curiously named Gemtarra, plenty. A combination of two Italian words Gemilli’ which means twins and ‘Chitarra’ which means guitar, it is a name which sums the band up perfectly. We are used to seeing brothers in the same bands - from The Kinks to Oasis... Continue Reading →
If rap and hip-hop and the more modern sounds which have coalesced around them are defined largely by the lyrical flow and dexterity of the delivery, then one listen to Trust from Lil Dream’s latest e.p. proves that this is an artist who deserves to be on a very exclusive short-list. Not only does he... Continue Reading →
There is redemption in creativity. More and more often people are turning to artistic pursuits - art, poetry, writing and particularly music - to help combat inner demons and past problems and that is exactly the reason that Austin Arndt was drawn to the music making process. Under the name YT (a stylised version of... Continue Reading →
I get my fair share of country music passing beneath my nose, I would guess fifty percent of the new music I get to hear is country-based, be it country, country and western or that blurry genre of Americana. Obviously, some is good, some is bad. Some decides to tread the tried and tested formula... Continue Reading →
There are many unanswered questions in the world. Why does a round pizza come in a square box? Do penguins have knees? If you dig a hole at the south pole are you digging down or up? Why do birds suddenly appear? And why has it taken The James Warner Prophecies so long to make this... Continue Reading →
I've said it before and I’ll say it again, “sun-damaged American music” is a pretty apt description of the sound Palm Ghosts make. At once vague and accurate, a description which doesn’t really tell you much going in but which in hindsight is the perfect summation, and Wide Awake and Waiting is another chapter in... Continue Reading →
Previous to today’s video Kiwi Jr have shared the album’s title track and “Salary Man.” Football Money will be released world-wide via Persona Non Grata Records (following debut EP by Pip Blom). The album had a Canadian release this past March on Mint Records. The album was engineered by Aaron Goldstein, and mixed by Holy Fuck's Graham Walsh. The band have... Continue Reading →
Fathom, the single, was an unexpected pleasure, so much so that it made me keen to hear what else this musically astute duo had up their sleeves. With the arrival of a four-track e.p. of the same name the question is answered and alongside the title track we are offered up three more slices of... Continue Reading →
It’s always great watching acts grow to fulfil their full potential. It’s one thing to have good songs, and Ben Sydes has never had a shortage in that department, but it is tough to deliver the song that is in your head when you are racing around the country in a solo, plug in and... Continue Reading →
Wandering well-trodden paths and staying within comfort zones is all very well but surely life is about seeing what is around the next corner, about trying new experiences and feeling new sensations. And that is as true for those making music as those listening to it. But sometimes that feeling of being too far from... Continue Reading →
As 2019 ends and we move into a new year it was with much excitement that I grabbed a cd from my haul of things to review but without knowing it I had a small pile of albums from last year that had somehow fallen by the by so the first album of the year... Continue Reading →
