Like dust settling on the floor, disrupted by unruly primitive machines, the latest release from Jamie Hutchings takes shape and begins to gel and morph amid the clatter and klang of all manner of percussion. It’s never clear whether elements of a real drum kit have been sacrificed in the process of making this mostly instrumental album. A floor tom could be an empty container … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jamie Hutchings – Making Water
Black Midi Cavalcade Rough Trade / Remote Control Records The new wave of prodigious, forward-thinking and bold UK musicians continues unabated as we near the middle of 2021. With the underground jazz scene taking its divergent strands overground to international acclaim and songwriters and players of the experimental indie rock persuasion, who were barely born when Radiohead released OK Computer, soaking up and reimagining all … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Black Midi – Cavalcade
Squid – Bright Green Field (Warp Records / Inertia Music) The last year or two have felt like yet another golden period of forward-thinking UK music. There has been a fascinating sonic collision of indie, jazz, post-punk, art-rock and avant-pop that has thrown forth various musical enigmas such as Black Midi, Black Country, New Road, Shame, Dry Cleaning and the various jazz-based incarnations of Shabaka … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Squid – Bright Green Field
THE LEMONHEADS LOVEY (30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) FIRE RECORDS In 1990, Lovey was a huge step forward for Evan Dando and his Boston band The Lemonheads. It was their major label debut on Atlantic Records after releasing their first three albums in the previous three years. Those records were a collision of noisy melodic punk rock. Part Black Flag, part The Replacements. Co-founder Ben Daily had … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Lemonheads – Lovey (30th Anniversary Edition)
Despite the weirdness and social and political fracturing of 2020, there were still plenty of great albums that saw the light of day – and that light was a salvation for many. You can check out our Post To Wire (alt-country, cosmic Americana & dark folk) Favourite Albums of 2020 HERE and Favourite AU & NZ Albums of 2020 HERE. Here are our 40 favourite … Continue reading FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2020
Cable Ties Far Enough Poison City Records Cable Ties’ debut album introduced a band built on fiery punk passion and melodic post-punk intensity. Now, three years later, they taken that template and made the loud parts louder, the hooks catchier and pushed their visceral and primitive 70s rock shapes more to the fore. Sonically, the band’s sound still recalls the stinging guitar leads and interesting … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Cable Ties – Far Enough
JESSICA THE SPACE BETWEEN INDEPENDENT (via Bandcamp) One half of folk-noir duo Jep and Dep (also featuring Darren Cross of Gerling), Jessica’s debut album takes the sound forged from that musical partnership and crafts it into her own ethereal and immersive world. Cross is still on hand as producer and engineer but it’s clear from the outset that this is Jessica’s singular and personal vision. … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jessica – The Space Between
Darren Cross returns with a new album called Keeping Up? In recent years he’s explored folk noir with Jep and Dep, his own eclectic solo albums and a pair of instrumental acoustic folk albums under the moniker D.C Cross. Here he orbits planet Gerling closer than he has since the band split back in in the late 00s. It’s still a totally different musical creature … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Darren Cross – Keeping Up?
Protomartyr Ultimate Success Today Domino Once more Protomartyr take the four elements of rock ’n’ roll – guitar bass drums and vocals, and twist, caress and mangle them into a new version of the band’s ever-evolving sound. On their fifth album that sound is more urgent, disillusioned and anxious amid the record’s dystopian assessment of modern America. There’s a desperate, pleading quality to singer Joe … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today
Khruangbin Mordechai Dead Oceans / Inertia After a busy few years touring and riding the wave of attention that their last album Con Todo El Mundo brought them, Khruangbin retreated to their Texas studio to begin work on their third album. Earlier this year we got a mixed bag EP with Leon Bridges but that was a stop gap. Mordechai is the band spreading their … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Khruangbin – Mordechai
RVG Feral Our Golden Friend/Fire Records RVG’s new album finds them presenting a fuller sound with even greater depth and clarity in the guitars and the spotlight still firmly on Romy Vager’s declamatory yelp and melancholic musings. Quality Of Mercy already had the defining ingredients of the RVG sound – The Smiths-like insistency and nimbleness of the rhythm section, those sparkling, chiming and shimmering guitars … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: RVG – Feral
There’s some incredible sound design and programming going on in this track from South London-raised, producer Telemachus. His new album Boring & Weird Historical Music came out on 22nd May via High Focus Records and this is just one example of the splendid way he pulls different genres together while still allowing a glorious vacuum of space to exist around and within his music. As … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Telemachus – I Am Delicious And Cute. So I Will Go Buy Again
Doubtful Sounds 