Premiers
Single Premiere: Be the Light – Mother Coyote (reviewed by Dave...
If anywhere needs a song of hope at the moment, it is Minneapolis. There are many troubled places and turbulent events taking place across the world,...
Rock/Punk/Metal
Ur Cure – Royal Blush (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Feeling like a modern piece of music made at the alt-rock/power-pop divide yet seemingly following the tenets that made so much nineties sound and...
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
The Laws of Life – Lois Powell + Night Wolf (reviewed...
This fourth collaboration between Lois Powell and Night Wolf sees the two artists pushing their already hard-to-pin-down sound, but hey, isn’t that the whole point? As a famous...
Indie
The Grief – The Sway (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Cards on the table, I wasn’t aware of The Sway back in the day, well, you can’t be everywhere, can you, and I suspect that back...
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
A New Moon – Joseph Turner & The Dudes of Hazard...
Music from the Dutch delta? Yes, please. Especially if it is all going to be as cool as this one from Joseph Turner & The...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
To Cold To Swim – Art Schop (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
There is always a deeper story running through Art Schop’s songs, not for him throwaway lyrics or offering up merely more of the same old,...
R&B/Soul
Call Me Crazy – Gregory Ackerman (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’m not sure if “Call Me Crazy” is an echo of a golden age of music past or a sonic signpost to a better...
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
Furtiva – FREZYA feat. LPSV (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It is perhaps quite telling that the single's cover shows the image of a strawberry-shaped, golden hand grenade because "Furtiva" does sound like someone...
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
Home From Home: Ben E Davis talks London, LA, his musical...
With the single “Hometown” dropping, I caught up with Ben E Davis to talk about being that American Boy in London, how he got started in...
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
Visions From the Frontier – Noise Factory United (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
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...
Powerlines – Jana Pochop (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Most music has at its heart a sense of place. Well, good music does, at least. There is very often something of the landscape,...
Sunday Knockout – Yard Sale (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Reference points are all about age, I guess, and I’m probably older than this band’s target audience. (Though I like to think that they...
Electric Gloom/Fire and Smoke – Hollow Shift (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Given that my formative musical days, that learning curve which informed my lifelong tastes and sonic attitudes were formed at a time when the...
The Last of Men – SPKtR (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
They say that good things come to those who wait, but I’d say that nearly forty years between releases is pushing things a bit....
I Am Not Myself – trainboy (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Trainboy's I Am Not Myself is a collection of songs that seems to sit in that intriguing space between the intimacy of the singer-songwriter...
