Premiers
Album Premiere: Powers of Observation – Seven Crows (reviewed by Dave...
Although Chris Murphy, the man behind the Seven Crows moniker, has been dropping singles for many months as a build-up to this album, hearing Powers of Observation in...
Rock/Punk/Metal
Dark New Days – Blueprint Tokyo (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Whilst the band is the first to admit there was no conscious decision to theme this 6-track EP around a single idea, on reflection,...
Post Punk/Goth
The Flesh Of The Innocent – Me The Machine (reviewed by...
The darker realms of music have, for the last fifty years or so, been a place where digital dexterity and electronic creativity have held...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Frozen Meridian – Hallucinophonics (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It is easy to build a song, a groove, a presence by layering up lots of different elements, loading it with hooks, volume, and...
Indie
Profanity – JK Jerome (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If folk music at its best is about powerful narratives and indie music encapsulates musical accessibility, then this is indie-folk. If pop music is...
Pop/Power Pop
Love You More – Clarity Liao (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
This third solo single and glimpse into her forthcoming EP, Dear, “Love You More” reveals Clarity Liao to be an artist who effortlessly blends singer-songwriter vibes with...
Folk/Country
Innate Subjects – Tom Hancock (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The singer-songwriter template may seem as if it was set in stone a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean that the astute artist...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
post mortem – Melanculia (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Sometimes, gaining a little insight into an artist goes a long way to explaining and understanding their music; knowing a bit about who they...
R&B/Soul
ICE Cold Killerz – Darrell Kelley (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I know that I often find myself referencing Marvin Gaye when writing about Darrell Kelley, and with good reason. Like Gaye, Kelley is unafraid...
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
Market Miracolo – Racines (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Okay, I don't understand the language being sung and spoken here but this feels very much as if the sound IS the story. I...
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
Floating Sheep – Floating Sheep (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Floating Sheep might easily be labeled as a “nu-jazz” outfit, but the emphasis is definitely on the word “nu.” Of course, jazz vibes and such...
Classical/Instrumental
Blank Slate, Open Space – Alaskan Tapes & Blu Miles (reviewed...
If the core of this collaborative album lies in hushed saxophone, spacious piano, and a 4,000-mile distance between the two main players, then the...
Avant Garde
Neither Here Nor There – Milarepa’s Cave (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The man who brought you the exploratory and inventive sonic ride that is When Mountains Speak now leads us on a new, but no...
Interviews
Worlds Within Worlds: Rolling into G-Town with GALVEZTON at the wheel
With a new album, Ocean Cabaret, now out, it felt like the perfect time to catch up with GALVEZTON, aka Robert Kuhn, to find out about his life,...
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
Oori – Pharaoh’s Daughter (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
With still a month to go until Pharaoh's Daughter drop their new album, Songs of Desire, they have kindly given us a single, a...
Halfway – The Pedals (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Any band only a few years into their story that has already received the thumbs up from The K’s and The Sherlocks, and has opened for Toploader and Pentire,...
Profanity – JK Jerome (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If folk music at its best is about powerful narratives and indie music encapsulates musical accessibility, then this is indie-folk. If pop music is...
Kings, Queens and Dream Machines – Saul Damelyn (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Saul Damelyn not only creates music, but he also creates music about creating music…how meta is that? What I mean is that he is drawn...
Light Up the Sun – Sean MacLeod (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As a taste of Sean MacLeod’s 5th album, That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star, “Light Up the Sun” is a perfect track to lead the...
Burnt – Lost Velvet (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Given that my job is to be ahead of the curve, writing about things before, or at least just as they hit the general...
