rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Cultural historians and academics of the sonic arts will tell you that rock and roll never really grew up. Devotees of the form will tell you that it never felt the need to. Country music may have forged its sound around three chords and the truth, but rock and roll was always happy to get... Continue Reading →
I often look down a band's list of influences and think, those might be the bands which you would like to sound like, but I bet you don’t come close. I’m normally right, that’s not to say that the bands are not worth a listen, it’s just that they seem to lull you into a... Continue Reading →
Arandel's new opus, ‘InBach’, out now via French label InFiné, pays a poetic, infinitely respectful and innovative homage to Bach’s sacred workings. In his new video, depicting a post-apocalyptic world, a couple drive along deserted roads, surrounded by mountains and wheat fields. The recklessness offered by total freedom leads them little by little to... Continue Reading →
Sometimes an artist’s vibe, their defining quality, their unique selling point, is less about the face value sound of their music but what is going on below the surface of the sonics. Paul Lappin seems to support this theory of mine. If previous single Life Was Good motored along on an ever building, energetic indie... Continue Reading →
If the broad genre which came to known as gothic evolved out of various strands of rock, punk, electronica and dance, it seems only fitting that those influences and inspirations are very apparent in Dispel’s music all these years later. Goth was never a very united scene even at it’s most cohesive, for every band... Continue Reading →
About this time last year, I remember being thoroughly impressed by Tiny Fighter’s Tell Me, a song which seemed to echo everything that was cool about the pre-Brit-pop underground scene, a rare blend of mainstream accessibility and effortlessly cool alternative vibes. Strangest Thing is a equally impressive song but one which seems to sit very... Continue Reading →
Scars is one of those songs which goes beyond merely being a pop song, if pop it even is. It runs on a balladic, throbbing, understated musical line, energised by a wave of tension and a dark undercurrent, melodic certainly but more hypnotic and beguiling than what you might call infectious. But that is a... Continue Reading →
You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so kicking off the EP with Feel It is the perfect way to start. I mean, if that doesn’t get your synapses snapping along in time to its euphoric pop gloriousness, then music might not be for you. And as that song fades out... Continue Reading →
In a world were people seem content to follow the rules, where they want to find the fastest and most obvious route from A to B, where comfort zones are the order of the day and people are happy to stick with the tried and tested, the brilliantly named Alienbaby Collective is all about breaking... Continue Reading →
It seems to me that there are two sorts of people in this here parish. There are those who spend their time on-line moaning that, musically speaking at least, nothing ever happens in Swindon. And there are those who don’t have the time for all of that nonsense as they are out supporting all the... Continue Reading →
I think by now we should have discovered a new word to cover music which resonates with the spirit of post-punk. After all, that scene's first stirrings lay more than a lifetime ago but I guess as a useful shorthand for a certain set of sounds and styles, for atmospheric soundscapes which would soon fracture... Continue Reading →
If last time out Johanna Kuvaja was the epitome of perky pop, delivering high energy groovesome music designed for a good time, Back For Good sees her in a much more reflective mood. It’s an upbeat ballad, of sorts, one that drives on a mid-paced beat and peppered with dynamic lulls and rising tensions. It sounds like... Continue Reading →
Videos play all sorts of roles in modern music. They used to be just a nice piece of performance to accompany the music. They then evolved through high-end art and interesting narratives and finally, the increased availability of the technology at reasonable cost meant that the medium could be explored by a wider range of... Continue Reading →
I get to hear my fair share of Americana artists, every so often I need to go off and fill my ears with some jazz or rock just to ‘clear the palette’ so I can return, refreshed with cleared ears to music which can sometimes drift into being something every creative mind dreads; ‘Samey!’ There... Continue Reading →
I must admit, writing this from an ocean away I don’t know the difference between alt-country or Americana, I can’t really tell you where country music becomes bluegrass or even folk music. I’m sure, like genre debates across the world, no-one will ever really agree where these demarcations lay and to be honest does it... Continue Reading →
In a world where bands are trying to build the future by creating whole new genres to inhabit, mixing sonic potions like mad scientists in midnight laboratories, who think that the past is the past, what’s done is done and that anyone looking backwards instead of forward is some sort of dinosaur, there is one... Continue Reading →
One of the great things about listening to a band over a long period of time is watching it grow. Since I started writing about Love Ghost back in 2018, things have certainly evolved, sonically and otherwise, and the music you find coming out of there corner today is certainly a more mature, more thoughtful,... Continue Reading →
The word on the street is that Jonny Polonsky writes “interstellar anthems for a new generation of mindfreaks,” and to be honest, whether that is true or not, anyone who merely evokes that sort of language has got to be work a listen. And even if you dismiss that as mere hyperbole, the fact that... Continue Reading →
There is an art to making understated music. As any musician worth their salt, sea salt in this case, will tell you, playing is easy, it's knowing where to leave the gaps that is the harder discipline to master. And if you take that skill set to the most virtuosic levels, you end up with... Continue Reading →
It’s been a while since anything popped into the review pile from Jamit, you start to get worried, but it turns out that his absence from the in-box was more than justified. A wholesale relocation of your whole life can affect you in lots of ways, some expected, some less obvious, so as I span... Continue Reading →
Just because you can’t pronounce a song's title doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy it. Just as, my limited knowledge of the Ukrainian language (I know the words thank you and…beer, obviously) doesn’t mean that I can’t get lost in it’s vocal charms. What is life without a little mystery? And what’s life without a... Continue Reading →
There is perhaps too much music out there these days. Especially when an increasing proportion of it amounts to TV stars offering up covers of songs which add nothing to the musical canon or established bands playing arenas the size of the African Rift Valley with tickets running at around the same price as a... Continue Reading →
The neat trick that Harry Stafford seems to pull off is that whilst he sounds slightly like a few other artists, the artists that he sounds like sound like nobody else. Not even him! I’m not even sure that’s possible but its the only way that I can describe it. I could list the most... Continue Reading →
Someone once asked me what the difference was between playing standards and playing covers. I replied that if you were taking familiar themes and reinterpreting them, breathing in new life, opting for new approaches and updated attitudes then you’re playing standards. If you were sucking all the soul and swagger out of a half-baked rendition... Continue Reading →
Music is at it’s best when it is crossing borders, when it is free to sample the sonic delights of any number of genres and then forge those sounds and ideas into something new, appealing and unique. Genres have a way of focusing the musical mind too narrowly, of suggesting that their are rules and... Continue Reading →
It just goes to show how broad a genre rap is that under such a banner, you can find street-wise, gangsters spitting angst and attitude ridden lyrics at one extreme and at the other something as euphoric, fun and infectious as Mojo Mayne’s Bounce It Back. Sure sometimes you want your super-cool, edgy urban warrior... Continue Reading →
You can see where Fifth is coming from. The same place as the likes of Tupac and Jay-Z pretty much but as I always say, not all music has to re-write the story of music or create new genres, sometimes it is good enough to take an established style and just do it better than... Continue Reading →
I love bands with names that you can’t second guess. The Zombie Bikers From Hell could only be a rock band, similarly, He! She! You! Me! They! We! Us! OK?…could only be an indie band…probably from New York but play a record by Tower Crane Towers well, you could expect to be greeted with anything... Continue Reading →
We like Nelson King here at Dancing About Architecture, of course we do, just look at the amount of times we have written about his music. But of course the real test of a musician's worth comes not so much in the studio but in the live arena. Of course there is an art to... Continue Reading →
