rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Before you even get to the music, everything about itso seems to reflect what is great about making music in the modern age. They are a collaborative project between producer Martin Hanisch and ex-Hellfire club frontman Scobie Ryder. They are based in both Germany and Japan. They make socially conscious music. Their music is relevant... Continue Reading →
We seem to live in an age where style seems far more important than substance, at least in the music world anyway. Artists are often more interested in what the studio can do to enhance their music, what gimmicks and gizmos, tricks and traps they can add to their songs to make them stand out.... Continue Reading →
I'm not saying that CSIC sound anything other than modern and part of the musical here-and-now but they do remind me of the past. My own past, that is. Part of it at least. Too young for punk, I grew up listening to "what punks did next" how their attitude, new technologies and broader horizons... Continue Reading →
I normally wouldn’t touch an album of covers for all the tea in China. After all, where would I put it all, the logistics would be a nightmare. But more than that, I’m more about looking for the next musical thing rather than harking back to what has gone before. But Whole Lotta Love is the work... Continue Reading →
Previous singles, such as What Is Love? and Do What You Gotta Do, have perfectly displayed Dejhare's ability to make music that straddles the worlds of underground clubland cool and mainstream chart accessibility. Plead The Fifth, her latest five-track offering, continues that journey to merge worlds but it is much more than just a collection... Continue Reading →
If this is the modern face of folk music, and I'm sure it is, then I'm on board. Blending traditional folk and singer-songwriter vibes with something more indie, more polished, Stand Aside is a cool mix of understatement and accessibility, grace and groove. Essentially a voice and guitar, there is a richness that comes from... Continue Reading →
If folk music is about depth and delicacy and indie music excels at accessibility and infectiousness, then it is safe to say that I Don't Want To Stay, the debut release from Jeremy Engel, walks a perfect line between the two camps. The folk vibes are perfect for such a sensitive song. On the surface,... Continue Reading →
Reggae music, like soul before it and the rap and hip-hop scenes that have evolved since, has always been music that beats with a conscious heart. But then such music has always been born of real struggles and Don't Do That is Link & Chain's response to just one aspect of that struggle. Don't Do... Continue Reading →
Blues is music of emotion, at its very core are emotions of loss, sadness and heartbreak, but over the decades that this seemingly simple genre has refused to sit still, it has taken on lots of different guises. Rock is based around its three-chord structure with mighty bands such as AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac and ZZ... Continue Reading →
We may live in a world where artists seem to think only as far as the next release, hopping from one event to the next, where the single is king and music seems fleeting and transient, but there are still some who think in more overarching terms. Byorn Gold is one of those people. His latest release,... Continue Reading →
Okay, I missed last week so this is another long list. But sometimes you can have both quality and quantity and this is one of those times. So have a listen, explore the artists back catalogues, buy a CD... think of it as a warm up for getting back out to gig going. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3nJQo0ZEhJiWXtmw4zqaUQ?si=0baaef6d80a4479b
I have always been one to advocate evolution over revolution. Revolution might give you the impetus to jump the barricades, but what you build when you land on the other side is still going to be, in some ways, beholden to what has gone before. It was true in my formative post-punk years, it is... Continue Reading →
Musing on the strange and fluid nature of time (does it really go faster when you are having fun?) Time is a subtle and supple slice of ska-pop. It leans into many other genres, sure, it is soulful and understated, it is as addictive as any great pop song but it is the dance between... Continue Reading →
Opening with the title track, we are presented with a soft and soulful song with lush, Laurel Canyon harmonies and a deft country lilt. And to be honest, this mini-album would be more than worth the money if it just featured this one song. So, in a way, the four songs that come with it... Continue Reading →
The term concept album seems more associated with unwieldy and outdated progressive rock than fast-flowing, up-to-the-minute hip-hop but this is a concept album nonetheless. 7 DEADLY SINS takes…well, I guess I don't have to spell it out to you…let's just say, seven tracks, seven sins, seven extremely cool songs. PRIDE kicks us off, a hip-hop-driven... Continue Reading →
There are certain names in music that initially conjure an indelible and instant sound. Hear the name Layla and that classic riff runs through your brain. Peggy Sue and you are transported to the formative years of rock'n'roll. Angie and you can almost hear Jagger's heart breaking. And if the name Delilah triggers Sir Tom... Continue Reading →
I always look at the press blurb for any band before I put pen to paper, particularly the bit where it says what the musical touchstones and reference points seem to be. It always pays to know what you are getting into. So when I see The Manic Street Preachers, Gang of Four, Josef K,... Continue Reading →
The best-laid plans of mice and musos, eh? Although they have been friends since their 80's youth, it wasn't until 2016, 35 years later, that Michael Clapham and Russ Phillips finally collaborated on music. And after several singles, they now offer an ambitious full album, the beguilingly titled, …from Prince's Park to Farsley. And, as... Continue Reading →
This is sharp guitar based power pop with an indie flavour and a soupçon of punk for seasoning. There is something very familiar about this record although I'm not sure where that's coming from. They don't sound like The Buzzcocks but I can imagine The Buzzcocks could have written these songs with a little help... Continue Reading →
Mixing a slow and sultry vibe with an effervescent and energetic rhythm, Let Go is the perfect blend of grace and groove. On the one hand, the beats are full of life, bustling along vivaciously, helped by encouraging harmonies and sweeping strings washes. On the other, the main vocal is perfectly poised, sensual and seductive.... Continue Reading →
Music, and perhaps pop music, in particular, has the ability to bring warmth, joy and happiness into the world in a way that few other things are able to. When done properly, a 3-minute blast of upbeat music and optimistic sentiments can be the perfect rallying call, sugar-rush and an act of escapism all wrapped... Continue Reading →
Jazz music can, to us outsiders at least, sound ornate and complex, dense and impenetrable. And whilst that may or may not be true, this view has come about through people's encounters with the music which lies at the more extreme end of the spectrum. Marius Billgobenson makes music about as far away from that... Continue Reading →
Most artists create a stage persona for themselves, an identity apart from their real-life world, a character to escape into that adds mystery to their musical avatar. But few create whole alternative timelines and build new worlds for that character to inhabit. But that is the lengths to which Gye is prepared to go. Divorce... Continue Reading →
They say that you should never meet your heroes. But they also say that "many a mickle makes a muckle," so perhaps we shouldn't listen to the advice that "they" pass on. Case in point, when Justin Kelly, who makes up 50% of the Sons of Southern Ulster, eagerly bought Boomtown Rats singles as a... Continue Reading →
A lot of music that is made today is hard to put into a single, all-encompassing category or a specific genre, not because it is unfocused or unsure of what it wants to be but because it knows exactly what it wants to be. And what it wants to be is unhampered by the rules... Continue Reading →
It did seem for a while that as technology brought accessibility, both financial and creative, to a generation of would-be music makers the contemporary music scene was awash with identikit beatmakers and dance music wannabees. But as the adage proved, "it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it," most fly-by-night, style... Continue Reading →
Mixing an orchestral, chamber pop vibe with angsty vocals, just before the halfway mark, It Is Finished… decides to reinvent itself into a swirling, post-rock landscape. It really is a song of two halves, as sports pundits might say. Initially, guitars seem to squall and howl, chop and charge as Nick Hudson punches home the... Continue Reading →
Music legend and XTC co-frontman Colin Moulding is back with new music, this time as a solo artist, presenting his new single 'The Hardest Battle', released as a CD single in 4-panel digisleeve via Burning Shed. Containing two songs - 'The Hardest Battle', 'Say It (original version)', and an exploratory demo of the title track, The Hardest Battle represents XTC founding member Colin Moulding's first-ever fully... Continue Reading →
I love it when I find a band that understands that songs are not set in stone, that they can be recorded for posterity but that this is just one small part of a bigger story. That a song is never truly finished and is there to be reinterpreted, re-invented, rerecorded whenever the moment feels... Continue Reading →
If the family tree of contemporary music is one where blues begat rock and roll, where soul and funk are first cousins and dance music is the strange nephew lost in his own world, then this single is a long-overdue family reunion. Okay, Easy Baby certainly runs on a heavy rock groove, but it is... Continue Reading →