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
Where The Wild Things Are – Duane Hoover (reviewed by Dave...
Imagine the lost signal from a transistor radio tuned to BBC 1’s new music show in 1973 getting lost in a wormhole and suddenly finding its...
Post Punk/Goth
By The Stars – Octavian Winters (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The impressive thing about this new one from Octavian Winters is that the band has managed to step out of their more usual, heavier, post-punk place...
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
Roomful of Strangers – Tom Tikka & the Missing Hubcaps (reviewed...
Tom Tikka writes great songs. It’s as simple as that. Okay, that isn’t much of a review, but when you get right down to it,...
Pop/Power Pop
Something Nothing – Heron (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Sassy, that’s the word that springs to mind as “Something Nothing’s” sonic charms pick you up and breeze you along. But “sassy” is a bit of...
Folk/Country
Travelin’ Heart – Joseph Turner & The Dudes of Hazard (reviewed...
The music world is full of what ifs. What if the Beatles hadn’t split up when they did? What if punk had never happened? What if Syd Barrett had...
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
A Fistful of Covers – The Hempolics (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
A band releasing an EP of recordings covering their favorite songs is nothing new. A band doing that while also offering a dub reworking...
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
A Fistful of Covers – The Hempolics (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
A band releasing an EP of recordings covering their favorite songs is nothing new. A band doing that while also offering a dub reworking...
Travelin’ Heart – Joseph Turner & The Dudes of Hazard (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The music world is full of what ifs. What if the Beatles hadn’t split up when they did? What if punk had never happened? What if Syd Barrett had...
The Promise – Undefy (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Despite, or perhaps because of, the unusual time signature “The Promise” runs on, it has a subtle and wonderfully seductive pace, a free and...
Bonfire – James White & The Wild Fire (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Music has to come naturally; the best music does, at least. Try and force it, and it sounds…well, forced. Which is perhaps the reason...
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...
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,...
