Torche return in 2015 with a new album Restarter and from the sound of this first taste ‘Minions’ they haven’t lost any of their unique blend of metal and melody with its grinding sludge that builds and holds tension for 3 minutes before opening up into a soaring psychedelic sprawl. Out February 24th on Relapse Records Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Torche – Minions
Over a couple of solo albums Jamie Hutchings has been ploughing fertile ground with more introspective and quieter material than that of Bluebottle Kiss, his band from 1993-2007. Now he’s convened a new band featuring ex-BBK drummer Jared Harrison and headed back into dense, noisy, exploratory and discordant rock music. River Mirrors takes many twists and turns such as the meditative Necks-ish mood on Termites (a … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Infinity Broke – River Mirrors
Guitarist Chris Forsyth widened his audience considerably last year with his album Solar Motel and now, with the band he formed to perform that album live, he has a new record Intensity Ghost which came out last week on No Quarter. Here’s the 11 minute epic opening track from it called ‘The Ballad of Freer Hollow’. Below you can also check out their very cool cover … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band | The Ballad of Freer Hollow
Writing and recording widescreen and cinematic music, where mood and atmosphere is paramount, and conveying it with minimal instrumentation shows both great restraint and ambition. That is exactly the musical world that Jessica Cassar and Darren Cross (Gerling) have created on their debut album Word Got Out. The cover image of the pair stepping out of darkness and into an unknown light sums up the … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jep and Dep – Word Got Out
In late 2011 tindersticks were commissioned by the In Flanders Fields World War One museum in Ypres, Belgium to provide the soundscape for the new permanent exhibition being planned to commemorate the centenary of the Great War and beyond. Ypres was the epicenter of the Western Front in The Great War and was virtually destroyed by the conflict. It has since been rebuilt to its … Continue reading NEWS: Tindersticks release new museum soundtrack Ypres
On her fourth album Melbourne’s Laura Jean decamped to Bristol, UK to work with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey) and the pair have created a sparse, lilting world of bare-boned, yet emotionally ornate folk music. With her unassuming voice and songs about everyday struggles and successes this is the most direct Jean has been with her songwriting to date. The music and both her and … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Laura Jean – Laura Jean
In 2005, out of the ashes of Earth’s first phase of existence as a band immersed in heavy metallic drone, came a new beast. Still laden with slow-crawling repetition this was drone with quite different colours, textures and most significantly elegant desert-parched melodies that hung in the air rather than being sucked into a dense morass of guitars. With each album over the last decade … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Earth – Primitive and Deadly
Sydney’s Bearhug have taken things into new sonic territory on So Gone, the follow-up to last year’s Over Easy EP. Gone are the clean, jangling and relatively unassuming songs. In their place are eleven tracks that buzz and fizz with layered, distorted guitars in the vein of Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth and a lively The War On Drugs. Their breezy way with melody is still … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Bearhug – So Gone
I’m loving this new track from Melbournian Peter Bibby. With its woozy, drunk guitars, Spectorish drums and lyrical bent in the vein of Courtney Barnett. It pulls you in and seduces you with a ramshackle and desperate charm. Bibby’s voice is a grizzled, burnt out yelp of a thing which suits the song perfectly. Bibby, a recent signing to Spinning Top Music, has just been … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Peter Bibby – Hates My Boozin’
On his second solo album O’Connor has again created a retro-futuristic album of constructed and knowingly-crafted songs. Musically he digs deeper into the well of primitive 80s electronic landscapes and soul-tinged new wave. It’s a pastiche of everything from Pet Shop Boys to New Order with one ear to contemporaries like Xx and Austra and an overall sonic vibe reminiscent of Underground Lovers’ ‘Cold Feelings’. … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Geoffrey O’Connor – Fan Fiction
It took Robert Scott a decade to get from his debut solo album (The Creeping Unknown, 2001) to 2011’s Ends Run Together and now he’s turned around his third effort in a mere three years. Of course Scott isn’t just sitting around twiddling his thumbs and working on his paintings between records; he’s still actively involved in both The Bats and The Clean and from … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Robert Scott – The Green House
Thurston Moore has a new album called The Best Day ready for release later this year via Matador Records. Thurston Moore Band is notable as it also includes Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe and UK musician James Sedwards. Their first performance together is on August 19th at Ocii in Amsterdam. Here’s the first taste of the band with ‘Detonation’. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Thurston Moore Band | Detonation (feat. MBV & SY members)
Doubtful Sounds 