rescuing musical virtue in distress.
In an ideal world, the release of a new Fassine album would be something which brings the whole country together, like a new series of Love Island or the hunt of a serial killer. And to be fair, given their increasing popularity with each release, they will probably get there. But for now they are... Continue Reading →
Somewhere at a point where soul and rock, jazz and blues all collide, you find Pointdexter. Their sound is created not so much by the colliding of those sonic worlds themselves, but more out of the mixed and cross-pollinated remains once the initial big bang has subsided. As the dust clears what appears is a... Continue Reading →
With his latest album Urban Gothic Blues painting such a vivid picture of the ever changing nature of the modern city, as well as being such a fantastic collection of songs, I spoke to Harry Stafford about the thens, the nows and the where next for him, his band, his music and the city which... Continue Reading →
When the Zombies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside Rod Argent, Hugh Grundy and Colin Blunstone, stood Chris White, and rightly so. As co-producer and co-writer of Odyssey and Oracle his place in the annals of music history are of course assured, further work with Argent and his songwriting finding... Continue Reading →
The one thing that hip-hop and all its sub-genres has always been good at is the quick hit, the knife edge incision, the punch to the chest that comes through deftly wielded lyrics and pugilistic beats. And whilst Nath does bring plenty of that to the table, the real selling point is the almost symphonic... Continue Reading →
This recording starts with a beautifully spacious sonic landscape that took me back to the time when Kate Bush experimented with the latest in Fairlight synthesizer technologies. Towards the end of the first track, big crescendos build from nothing to a dazzling ball of musical complexity. 'Bluebird' is driven along by a lo-fi 8 bit... Continue Reading →
There is an art of building a song, to creating understated atmosphere and tingling anticipation before unleashing into the musical Sturm und Drang that is the pay-off. And if part of that art is to keep the listener hanging on for as long as possible until they have abandoned all hope that there is even... Continue Reading →
Some music seems to not concern itself with conforming to this style or that genre but instead heads straight for the part of the music annals which concerns itself with the classics. A bold statement but Panicis one of those songs. One which feels as if you might easily have been listening to it for... Continue Reading →
Titles can tell you a lot about music. Not so much what that music might sound like but it does suggest something about the way the artist behind it thinks. Anyone who capitalises their title and introduces unnecessary spacing, writes track names in lowercasewithnospacing, removes vowels from a ttl or uses one title to reference... Continue Reading →
Where does hip-hop end and pop begin? Where does soul start to give way to R&B? What happens at those meeting points? The answer to all three of those questions is Complications. Vancouver rapper Emotionz seems to make music in just those musical creative collision points, where the rigidity of one genre is tempered by... Continue Reading →
If only as an antidote to the madness of the world at the moment, the hustle and hassle, the knee-jerk reactions and the lack of thought, the self-centred view points and the narrow-minded visions, a new album from Astronomical Twilight feels like the perfect healing process. The first thing that hearing such ambient drifts and spacious... Continue Reading →
The first time I saw Flour Babies play live I blubbed like a ludicrous 57 year old giant bald baby. This is reaction that is not unfamiliar to me or my despairing and tutting wife but in my defence my blub threshold is set pretty damn high. To put this in perspective my blub to... Continue Reading →
Music tends to fall into one of a few categories; there are the musicians who deserve the title, they know their instrument inside out, know music theory inside out and can create and structure a piece like an architect. Everything in its correct place, the building blocks are the chords, melody and rhythm, yet they’re... Continue Reading →
When cd’s get delivered to me I usually have an A4 piece of paper to accompany the album, it’s normally PR spiel giving a brief biography and hints for the finished review, artists that the bands are likened too and often there are quotes and praise for former releases. On the sheet of paper that... Continue Reading →
Things are getting tough for everyone and they are probably going to get a lot harder as the full affect of Covid-19 is realised. With artists cancelling tours and events being shelved due to limits on the size of gatherings, a lot of people in and around the music industry are going to take a... Continue Reading →
As he proved so eloquently before on Shadow Visions, Earl Donald’s music has a wonderful softness to it without ever resorting to being too fragile or overly delicate. He makes a sort of ambient, electro pop but he does so by first building a strong, though often spacious, backbeat. And it is this solidity which... Continue Reading →
Well, this certainly wasn’t the place for me to put my very elementary Spanish to the test. Why? Because unlike many rap songs which opt for a very simple lyrical delivery, Loco Loquita is actually a smart set of lyrics. Very smart. Arising out of conversations about why performers who are prepared to take the... Continue Reading →
There is something wonderful going on in Jamit’s music, and for once I’m not talking about the sonic intrigue and or the out of the box approach to alternative dance music making, we will get to that shortly. It is a more holistic thing that says something about the turning of the modern world. The... Continue Reading →
Wow. Just Wow. I’ve been listening to ‘Origins’ for the last few days, it’s been playing from start to finish so I can take in exactly what is going on and, to put it mildly; a lot is going on. To sum up the album would take a while, in short it’s an old fashioned... Continue Reading →
If any more proof were needed that the modern music maker has out grown genres, The Glow Up is a lesson in mixing familiar styles together to make wholly new creations. It runs on a laid back urban beat, one woven from slow trippy back beats and a triplet-trap percussive energy. But it then steps... Continue Reading →
On Friday March 13th, three very different musical artists are coming together to play a benefit for Crisis at Oxford’s Old Fire Station. The gig is the brainchild of Aliens founder and frontman, Tim May. He vividly remembers how on his daily early morning walk to Oxford station he’d encounter the same people struggling to... Continue Reading →
Germany had a huge, life shattering, impact on the world during the last century, obviously some good and some bad (putting it mildly), from the impact of Bauhaus and the Dada art movement to the post-war involvement in electronic music and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 1990’s. It’s safe to say Germany... Continue Reading →
What makes great music easy to describe through subtle, or not so subtle, name drops which I am about to demonstrate, is not because it is trying to copy what has gone before but because it drinks in its inspirations from the same sonic well-spring. It is easy to hear any number of sonic bed-fellows... Continue Reading →
Both folk and classical, perhaps more than any other styles of music have always been the best at capturing something of the natural world. The former seems in touch with its primal nature, its lore and history, the latter able to use sweeping compositions and grand sonics to describe the natural, and sometimes supernatural, drama... Continue Reading →
Anything which immediately makes me think of Paul Simon has got to be good right? I’m not saying that Socrates is necessarily ploughing the same musical furrow, certainly not intentionally, but there is something of the ex-Mrs Garfunkel’s spirit and joyfulness in the songwriting. He might not be the coolest name to bandy about when... Continue Reading →
If pop music is all about addictive melodies and dance music is based on infectious beats then Right Direction is where the two worlds collide. The result is something which would feel as at home in the underground nightclubs as it would getting regular play on mainstream radio playlists. And that is a cool trick... Continue Reading →
Perhaps the best thing that a journalist can say about a slice of music which finds itself under the reviewing pen is that it is easy to write about. That may not seem very important or very cool but with the amount of derivative music being made, re-inventing of the wheel, or people just happy... Continue Reading →
It’s difficult to pitch an album such as this. It’s an accumulation of lots of parts, when you consider the album is essentially a live recording of a jazz band being supported by a big band (Ricky-Tick Big Band Brass), oh and the main pull is a sax player from Finland, you’ll be forgiven for... Continue Reading →
This album opens with a track that's driven along by pounding tribal drums offering a feel of marching to an unknown destination and an unknown conflict. A new sense of urgency is evident as a vocal line spits out a message that feels like it can no longer be suppressed. These guys have clearly been... Continue Reading →
Hip-hop, and all the musical forms which it spawned, has always been about lyrical dexterity. If it doesn’t have a cool lyrical flow and deft wordplay at it’s heart then you are making that style of music in name only. You can’t make rock music without a guitar, not really, you can’t make pop music... Continue Reading →
