Tag: "Reviews"

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Blancmange – Blank Burn

By on Mar 07, 2011 in Albums, Reviews
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Having spent 23 years in the musical wilderness; the release of ‘Blank burn’ comes as nothing less than an intriguing surprise.  The fact that it has become so eagerly anticipated is a further incredulity, but with the likes of La Roux shamelessly plagiarising their sound, it was perhaps inevitable the duo would return, ‘Blanc Burn’ being their first album in 23 years.

Blancmange split in 1984, leaving a trail of mediocre, insecure albums, however they are yet to garner the critical [...]

LEIKA – ‘Space for Tuesday’

By on Mar 06, 2011 in Albums, Reviews
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Indie rockers LEIKA dig deep into their musical memory to shine through the cream of contemporary composers with four tracks of cleverly interwoven, futuristic yet iconic alt-rock that showcase what is to be expected of their debut long-player – ‘Space on Tuesday’ (set for release on March 7th ).

London-based LEIKA, a band described by industry experts as the missing link between the Buzzcocks and Talking Heads have produced an album that is unashamedly catchy and radio-friendly yet as original and [...]

New OkGo video – White Knuckles

By on Sep 20, 2010 in News
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OK Go, the most downloaded band ever, are set to return with a brand new video to their forthcoming single White Knuckles which is released on 11th October and is closely followed by the deluxe release of the album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky “(Extra Nice Edition)” on 18th October on the band’s own label Paracadute.

In a seemingly epic battle with themselves to create even more amazing and imaginative videos OKGO return with another mind-boggling video for new [...]

AM – Self Preservation

By on Jul 20, 2010 in Uncategorized

Ironically enough, it takes a lot of effort for something to sound truly effortless, and Tulsa born, New Orleans raised artist AM has pulled it off spectacularly on his Debut UK single, Self Preservation. Opening on a gorgeous electric guitar melody, backed by brushed acoustic guitars and the simplest of drums, the song doesn’t deviate much from that formula, but it doesn’t have to in order to be a great song.

As the song progresses melodicas add a certain amount of [...]

Bill Kirchen – Word To The Wise

By on Jul 20, 2010 in Uncategorized

Bill Kirchen has been hailed as the original “Dieselbilly” guitarist, as a standout singer and songwriter, and as a pioneer of rock and roll honky-tonk with the band Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. Now Kirchen is headed for a breakout with his new album of all-star duets, ‘Word to the Wise’ (Proper).
Full of humour, Telecaster twang, and serving up heaping portions of rock and roll, country, boogie-woogie and Western swing, ‘Word to the Wise’ features duets with nearly [...]

Pendulum – Witchcraft

By on Jul 20, 2010 in Uncategorized

Already one of the defining bands of 2010, Pendulum’s summer profile will receive another huge boost with the release of the new single ‘Witchcraft’ on July 19th on Earstorm / Warner Bros. Records. The single is taken from the band’s recently released third album ‘Immersion’ which went straight to the top of the charts..

Witchcraft is a good electro- rock ballad featuring Rob Swire’s vocals that turns into an energising drum ‘n’ bass beats supported by a crunching riff.

Pendulum have a [...]

Allan’s Grand Day Out – Maastricht

By on Jul 19, 2010 in Uncategorized

The ear-tickling atmospheres of ‘Maastricht’ are one of the most refreshing surprises of this summer.

Four musical watercolours oozing with Balearic beats à la Delorean via JJ, defused through electro-folktronic glitches as only Dntel’s Tamborello and Electric President would assemble.

‘Allan’s Grand Day Out’ is a duo, composed by Zoe Klinck and Bryn White. They come from London, but their musical sensibility is a melting pot of sounds, coming from Spain, chilled through the Morr Music sound of Berlin, and refined with [...]

Department Of Eagles – Archive 2003 – 2006

By on Jul 19, 2010 in Uncategorized

Soundtrack for a folk-tale: this could be the best way to describe exhaustively ‘Archive 2003-2006’ in four words.

Six songs and five sketches coming straight from Daniel Rossen, voice and guitar of Grizzly Bear, and Fred Nicolaus, produced by multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor, member of Brooklyn-based quartet too.

‘Archive 2003-2006’ gathers the works composed in the hiatus between ‘The Whitey on the Moon’, then reissued as ‘The Cold Nose’, and ‘In Ear Park’, the critically acclaimed album of 2008.

It’s hard to find any [...]

Max Richter – Infra

By on Jul 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

‘Infra’ started life as a ballet soundtrack, however this is no ordinary ballet. Max Richter’s influences lie much more in modern composers such as Philip Glass than the traditional masters, and so the results here are a ballet, but not as we know it.

We start with the haunting buildup of ‘Infra 1’, some hushed morse code beeps and static crackle fading to retreat behind an ethereal string buildup masked by some resonant single electronic notes, before that too disappears, sliding [...]

John Cunningham – 1998-2002 Homeless House/Happy-Go-Unlucky

By on Jul 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

Sometimes, angst just doesn’t cut it. For all the anger and screaming and life-isn’t-fair shredding apart of your own mentality, life and the human mind never work as simply as feeling demonstratively angry. And that’s where John Cunningham steps in, with his silky-smooth melancholy that seems to have been totally bypassed by the last few decades of music and their tendency to overemote. This release brings together his two albums ‘Homeless House’ and ‘Happy-Go-Unlucky’ into an 18-song collection [...]

Toro Y Moi – Leave Everywhere

By on Jul 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

South Carolina’s “Toro Y Moi” (a.k.a Chaz Bundick) is nominally one of the main purveyors of what is worryingly known as Chillwave but this new single places the lineage to a more early rock ‘n’ roll, soul sound, with astounding results. “Leave Everywhere” saunters along pleasingly on Spector-esque drums and a maddeningly catchy surf guitar line. It does peter out by the end, as if Bundick ran out of ideas and let the song just stop, but it doesn’t stop [...]

Shit Browne – Electronics

By on Jul 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

Still vying for the hotly contested title of “world’s worst band name” is Parisian quintet “Shit Browne”, who thankfully enough create a racket that is not quite as bad as their excruciating moniker, but not earth shaking by any stretch. The band attempt, with varying degrees of success, to combine the dance music they’re familiar with (the entire band are made up of ex DJ’s) with classic Manchester sounds such as The Charlatans and Oasis. “Electronics” is the bands love [...]

Orphan Boy – Popsong

By on Jul 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

Someone has been visited by the spirit of Ian Curtis. Orphan Boy’s ‘Popsong’ has a deceptively mainstream surface that suits its name, the indie rock sound we’re all too familiar these days dancing across a glassy veneer of more of the same with a regional accent affectation and that kind of melodic progression.

But beneath the glassy veneer, a much darker and deeper river flows. The haunting keyboards, the jangling guitars, and rambling percussion placed forwards in the mix, [...]

Jamie Liddell – I Wanna Be Your Telephone

By on Jul 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

Sometimes soul can be an incredibly subversive and interesting genre. More than most give it credit for. And Jamie Liddell is a relatively new addition to this canon or soul-influenced mavericks, using it as a springboard for his own distinct style on his latest single, ‘I Wanna Be Your Telephone’. The lead track starts off with some heavy synthesised percussion abuse and what sounds like a mechanical donkey, before the funky bassline and electro-pop hooks creep in. The [...]

Stagecoach – Crash My Ride EP

By on Jul 16, 2010 in Uncategorized

Well, what do we have here? No, really, what do we have? Because I’m not entirely sure. For all intents and purposes we have the new extended play, or EP,  ‘Crash My Ride’ by Stagecoach. There are six songs on it. And I suppose that’s a starting point.

The first ten seconds of opener ‘Hieroglyphics’ drags in a heavy guitar squall and mass of dense feedback that a Norwegian black metal band would be proud of. And then the brooding DOOM [...]

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