Premiers
Album Premiere: Favourite Girl – Favourite Girl (reviewed by Dave...
We are used to artists emerging from under a known band moniker to make music under their own name; it happens all the time....
Rock/Punk/Metal
Turn Down The Noise – The Yum Yum Tree (reviewed by...
Just as you would hardly expect to find a rock and roll band asking someone to “Turn Down The Noise,” you might think that...
Post Punk/Goth
Visions From the Frontier – Noise Factory United (reviewed by Dave...
As you work your way through the six songs that make up Noise Factory United’s Visions From The Frontier, you quickly realise that the frontiers that...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Birthday Cake – Ava Valianti (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If I were one of those more pedantic writers, I would probably be giving you a potted history of the early eighties post-punk scene...
Indie
Peasants Of The Show – The Casbahs (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The thing I love about this Durhamite 5-piece, one of the many things, is their ability to write songs that already feel like classics....
Pop/Power Pop
Bad Feeling – Rowhome (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I love songs that sit on the cusp, or in the case of this latest one from Rowhome, many cusps. I get it if you like...
Folk/Country
149 Northbound – Elephant Moon (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
First take performances have a special place in studio recording. While the assumption is that the modern studio and the technology of the day...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
Firefly – BLOCK (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Songs are written for so many different reasons, perhaps for as many reasons as there are individual thoughts and life experiences to be had....
R&B/Soul
In Every Quiet Moment – Lawrence Tomini (reviewed by Dave...
“In Every Quiet Moment” is a song that seems to exist in a very specific space, a place between not only genres, sounds, and...
Reggae/Ska/Dub
Album Premiere: Lost Files – JaDon Blaxx (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If Dancehall arrived in the seventies as reggae's leaner, faster, more street-charged younger sibling, then Lost Files is a clear snapshot of where that...
Dance/EDM
Needle – Hot Hail! (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Walking deftly between the rich soundscape of those post-punk synth pioneers and the cutting edge of alternative pop, this third single, taken from Hot...
Hip-hop/Rap
Mind How You Go – PanthaDogg (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Hip-hop has come a long way from its birthplace in the South Bronx all those years ago. And while all genres move with the...
Jazz/Blues
Video Premiere: Hearts Like Caves – Dilly Dally Alley (reviewed by...
As I sit here writing, the spring sun streaming through the window, the cat following the warm spot across the floor, green things sparking...
Classical/Instrumental
Rust Mountain (Monochrome Piano Version) – Aptøsrs (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It is one thing to listen to and enjoy a song; it is another to understand it, or at least get a feeling for...
Avant Garde
True Human Trough – Bell Barrow (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Comfort zones? Who needs them? Well, not Bell Barrow that’s for sure. Anyone already familiar with any music that Jeremy Moore has made under this or any other...
Interviews
Beyond Words: A brief conversation with Myles Cochran
With a new album, What You Said, now out, I caught up with Myles Cochran to talk about his journey, physical and musical, the new album, and...
Live
The Crack – En Heat (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If, like me, you feel that mainstream music is all a bit safe, merely appealing to fads and fashions, comfort zones and marketing reports,...
Swindon
Back where it all began. A Big Day out with EXTC
Terry Chambers will always remember his twenty-first birthday. After all, who would forget being subjected to their friend’s TV show reel, fifteen minutes (well,...
News
‘Mariachi El Bronx IV’ out February 13 Marks Alter Ego of...
On February 13 LA trailblazers Mariachi El Bronx will release Mariachi El Bronx IV, their long-awaited new album, and first in over a decade. MEB is the alter...
Playlist
That Was The Music Week That Was – 080825
Another busy week at Dancing Towers, plenty of cool grassroots artists put under the pen, lots of great music mused over, and lots of...
Books
How Not To Write About Music – III: Starting the Week...
One of the joys of writing about new music is that it stops you from getting trapped in the past. Of course, bands like...
6 of the best
Single Premiere: Move the Needle – Frank Gappa (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’ve always loved music made in that certain sweetspot, the one where the growl and groove of rock and roll washes up on more...
Melt – Poison Oak (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Poison Oak has always been one of those bands brilliant at balancing the fresh with the familiar. Listen to any one of their songs, and...
Trick of the Light (The Ellipsist remix) – Aarktica (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Remixes fascinate me. They also speak as voluminously about the person, allowing their music to have another day in the sun, a whole new...
Beyond Words: A brief conversation with Myles Cochran
With a new album, What You Said, now out, I caught up with Myles Cochran to talk about his journey, physical and musical, the new album, and...
Flight – Near Death Experience (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’ve been writing about Near Death Experience for a while now, and even with a handful of their releases under my pen, I would be hard...
F.I.V.E. – Fear Increases Violent Emotions – Christine Plays Viola (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Kicking off with a song that runs for almost seven minutes shows you that this is a band that isn’t bothered about building things...
