Premiers
Single Premiere: Nicht Nur – DegHerl (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I love the way that DegHerl manages to blend the big and bombastic with the deft and the delicate on their latest single, “Nicht Nur.” It...
Rock/Punk/Metal
Vicious Vultures – Empty Machines (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You would have to say that Empty Machines, the current musical vehicle of Glasgow-based artist Thomas Crawford, perfectly encapsulates the potential there is for the modern, open-minded music...
Post Punk/Goth
War – Hollow Shift (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Taking the stark and attention-grabbing War as its title, this triptych of songs explores the concept in its various forms, from the internal battles we all...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Houston – Frank Joshua (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Frank Joshua is not the first person to have had a problem in Houston, but his tale is perhaps the most sonically beautiful, cosmic in...
Indie
Die of Love – Silver Summer (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If, like me, your only taste of Silver Summer so far has been a stripped-down, live piano version of “Breath,” “Closer”, which comes crashing in to...
Pop/Power Pop
Come Over/About You – Mick Eddy (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Having spent a lifetime (so far) moving through many countries and cultures and musically wandering through many sounds and styles, it comes as no...
Folk/Country
Why There’s Something Rather Than Nothing – Brennan Gilmore (reviewed by...
I want to start by talking about the album that this single is taken from, Brennan Gilmore’s debut, which will be out in a few...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
My Tomorrow is Already Missing You Today – George Collins Band...
Some songwriters merely write songs, which is fair enough given the job title. Others, however, capture the most intimate parts of what it is...
R&B/Soul
Don’t Waste My Time (LA Mix) – 4fro Nick (reviewed by...
Given that 4fro Nick is effortlessly able to blend funky grooves and acid-soaked blues guitars with bubbling synths and the sound of tight, modern production, I...
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
Keep Dancing (remix) – Schkeuditzer Kreuz (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Even if you can’t make out the vocals, which are both minimal and obscured beneath the raw, abrasive sonics and the industrial, delirious dance...
Hip-hop/Rap
00′ Shawty – Ja Fearce (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Taken from the EP of the same name, Ja Fearce's latest single, "00' Shawty", sits in a beguiling middle ground between artistry and energy....
Jazz/Blues
Navigating the Madness – Franky Fugazi (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
There is a path that blues took, perhaps since the eighties, that has delivered big, polished, sanitized albums from big-name, polished, sanitized artists, a...
Classical/Instrumental
Ad Majorem Sathanae Gloriam – Abstract Absorption (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
With tracks such as "Ad Majorem Sathanae Gloriam," we enter some very interesting territory, a place that makes us think about what concepts such...
Avant Garde
In The Style of Dead Sparrows – AD Ozium (reviewed by...
You never set foot into Jeremy Moore’s sonic world without bracing yourself for the unexpected. In fact, the unexpected is the one thing you can...
Interviews
Punk and folk and all that jazz: Welcome to the eclectic...
With her album of covers, Born in Time, now out, it seemed the perfect time to catch up with Rachelle Garniez to find out about her influences, her...
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
Chris Murphy announces new Seth Lakeman produced single, Songs From The...
Los Angeles-based Americana/roots rocker/world Musician Chris Murphy is excited to announce his new single ‘Songs From The Trees’ on June 19th. It’s the second...
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
Everything – The Lunar Keys (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I love the band’s own tag for their latest single, “Everything” – “Modern panic wrapped inside an alt rock anthem,” a line which in itself makes...
Die of Love – Silver Summer (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If, like me, your only taste of Silver Summer so far has been a stripped-down, live piano version of “Breath,” “Closer”, which comes crashing in to...
Ad Majorem Sathanae Gloriam – Abstract Absorption (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
With tracks such as "Ad Majorem Sathanae Gloriam," we enter some very interesting territory, a place that makes us think about what concepts such...
Last – The Pixel Rain (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Ahead of the release of their forthcoming debut album, A Sense of Danger, The Pixel Rain gives us a taste of what’s to come with the majestic...
Vicious Vultures – Empty Machines (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You would have to say that Empty Machines, the current musical vehicle of Glasgow-based artist Thomas Crawford, perfectly encapsulates the potential there is for the modern, open-minded music...
Blue Side Volume 2 – Tobin Mueller and Tomás Martinez (self-released)
As the title suggests, Blue Side Volume 2 is the continued sonic adventures of Tobin Mueller and Tomás Martinez, a collaboration that runs the...
