Premiers
Album Premiere: Mindmap of a Madman – Dull Fantastique (reviewed by...
With thirty-five songs ranging from one and a half to over eight minutes. Mindmap of a Madman feels less like an album in the usual sense...
Rock/Punk/Metal
A Taxi Ride – Betty Moon (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Blending groove and grace, funk and sophistication, “A Taxi Ride” sits on the edge of so many worlds, musically and otherwise. Raw rock guitars...
Post Punk/Goth
Hollow Heart – Everything But the Everything (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I have to say that I appreciate the brilliantly named Everything But The Everything’s ability to sound like both the most cutting-edge slice of rock...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Needling – Form Affinity (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If Form Affinity were going to lay out a sonic stall that shows their extreme sonic scope and scale, they couldn’t have picked a better example...
Indie
Vulnerable Forms – Jak Lizard (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
How Jak Lizard manages to make music that, from one song to the next, feels eclectic, taken as a whole, feels so adventurous, genre-hopping, and boundary-pushing,...
Pop/Power Pop
Mavis Sings Mavis – Flight of Mavis (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Everyone needs a break, especially from making music. Sometimes you need time to reenergize, relax, recoup, and wait for the reservoir of creative juices...
Folk/Country
Does Anybody Else – Steve Stinson (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Although the message here is contained in slow and serene sonics, heady blends of poised singer-songwriter seductions, echoes of Americana textures and mellifluous tones,...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
unfinished conversations – Meli Foster-Turner (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
We are constantly hearing about the industry movers and shakers looking for the new Dylan or the successor to Joni Mitchell. I must admit, it all gets...
R&B/Soul
Just a Daydream – Amber (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Soul, jazz, and funk music have always been close sonic travelers as music has moved down the contemporary music timeline; all three, after all,...
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
High Noon – Moon and Aries (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If music associated with deserts usually comes at us in the form of spaghetti western soundtracks, Turaug blues albums, or Palm Desert rock bands, Moon...
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
Mojo Maker – Jim Blair (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Jim Blair is known as the man with the slide guitar and the gravel voice, not a bad combination. For many years, either fronting bands...
Classical/Instrumental
Récif – Rorksha (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Allegory is everything. The alluded-to image here is that of the reef (Récif), a literal and metaphorical rock, in the form of someone who...
Avant Garde
Or Will You – Wytold & Tolk (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If you needed any more proof that we are living in a post-genre world, one where artists aren’t just hopping genres and dancing deftly...
Interviews
Groovers on Manoeuvres: Sgt. Splendor reporting for musical duty
With the new single, “Brave, Rough and Ready To Go,” just out, I managed to grab a few minutes with Sgt. Splendor to find out...
Live
Grasslands @ The Richard Jefferies Museum, Swindon, 4th July 26
If ever an artist and a gig location were perfectly suited, it was watching Grasslands in the shaded courtyard outside the museum dedicated to...
Swindon
Grasslands @ The Richard Jefferies Museum, Swindon, 4th July 26
If ever an artist and a gig location were perfectly suited, it was watching Grasslands in the shaded courtyard outside the museum dedicated to...
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
Oh My God – The Snow Ponies (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The music world really is a small place, as proven by the blip of The Snow Ponies on my sonic radar. Main pony wrangler, Phil Dean, is...
Vulnerable Forms – Jak Lizard (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
How Jak Lizard manages to make music that, from one song to the next, feels eclectic, taken as a whole, feels so adventurous, genre-hopping, and boundary-pushing,...
Green – Lottie Gray (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I love songs like this, ones that don’t really fit into a genre, not because they don’t adhere to any one set of stylistic...
TV On Fire – The Silverteens (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The Silverteens, both together and as individual players, have been found at the beating heart of the Minneapolis music scene for decades, via iconic bands such as Nip...
Hollow Heart – Everything But the Everything (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I have to say that I appreciate the brilliantly named Everything But The Everything’s ability to sound like both the most cutting-edge slice of rock...
Needling – Form Affinity (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If Form Affinity were going to lay out a sonic stall that shows their extreme sonic scope and scale, they couldn’t have picked a better example...
