Premiers
Album Premiere: Recalibration – Amana Melome’ (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Amana Melome’ describes Recalibration as an awakening, using the analogy of the humble caterpillar turning into the majestic butterfly, an album that captures an artist similarly blossoming...
Rock/Punk/Metal
$trawberry Blues – BruceBan$hee (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Imagine if pop-punk had grown up and evolved into something more interesting. Imagine if it had left behind the frat-boy humour and the identikit...
Post Punk/Goth
Fog – Lung (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Whoever said that we are meant to mellow with age hasn’t listened to Fog, the sixth and latest album from New Zealand’s Lung. Always known for a unique...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Fertile Mind – Frank Joshua (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If, to those still bothered about genres and musical pigeon-holing, the singer-songwriter conjures images of acoustic precision and folk finesse and dream-pop, blends of...
Indie
Everyone’s A Ghost – Pantomime Horses (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Pantomime Horses have a sure-footed way with musical history, and “Everyone’s A Ghost” is a great example of what they do so well. Blending a...
Pop/Power Pop
Northern Lights – Sputnik the Band (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As much as the great blend of dreamy pop sonics and rawer indie guitar that sets up “Northern Lights* is brilliantly lush and wonderfully...
Folk/Country
In the House of the Lord – Matt Basile (reviewed by...
As buzzwords such as alt-country and Americana have become the cool byline for those trying to outrun the past; terms such as roots and country and western have fallen out of fashion....
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
Tremble – The Quiet North (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The ability to move so effortlessly between understatement and anthemics is just one of the traits that make "Tremble," the new single from The...
R&B/Soul
Album Premiere: Recalibration – Amana Melome’ (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Amana Melome’ describes Recalibration as an awakening, using the analogy of the humble caterpillar turning into the majestic butterfly, an album that captures an artist similarly blossoming...
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
The Woven Project – Laura’s Kitchen – Intro/Outro (OuNoSoGo Remixes) (reviewed...
The Woven Project's music is, for the most part, a quietly mercurial experience, more sound as atmospherics or sparingly collated strands of ambience than...
Hip-hop/Rap
Invincible – 40pzz (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If you’re still clinging to that worn-out notion that rap doesn’t evolve, Invincible should put that idea out of its misery in under four...
Jazz/Blues
It’s Called Love…It’s Called The Blues – Wattmore (reviewed by Dave...
Pop music might have cornered the market for infectiousness, rock for energy, but the blues has always been the place where emotion reigns supreme....
Classical/Instrumental
Video Premiere: Boreal – Seven Crows (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Continuing with the singles that pre-empt the release of the full album, Powers of Observation, Chris Murphy now gives us “Boreal,” another delicate and emotive sonic...
Avant Garde
Avoidance Moon – Zabus (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As I head into the opening titular track of the new and sixth Zabus album, Avoidance Moon, I get the strange sensation that I am listening to...
Interviews
Deep Roots. Pure Soul: Paula Boggs talks soulgrass, the new album...
With the latest album, Sumatra, about to drop, I sat down with Paula Boggs to talk about artistry and ancestry, roots and soul, where music has...
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
Rooks – M3G (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The word ethereal is used a lot in music. Too much, really. Not least by overly-verbose scribblers like me. But sometimes no other word will do....
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
Avoidance Moon – Zabus (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As I head into the opening titular track of the new and sixth Zabus album, Avoidance Moon, I get the strange sensation that I am listening to...
The Silver Lining Shines Bright – Blossom Aloe (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You have to be impressed when you read that this album was recorded in the various band members' homes, quite unexpected given the attention...
Album Premiere: Recalibration – Amana Melome’ (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Amana Melome’ describes Recalibration as an awakening, using the analogy of the humble caterpillar turning into the majestic butterfly, an album that captures an artist similarly blossoming...
Tucker’s Having A Baby – French Dogs (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If their eponymous four-track debut EP explored that sense of being at an age where you feel caught between the social pressure to grow...
Northern Lights – Sputnik the Band (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As much as the great blend of dreamy pop sonics and rawer indie guitar that sets up “Northern Lights* is brilliantly lush and wonderfully...
$trawberry Blues – BruceBan$hee (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Imagine if pop-punk had grown up and evolved into something more interesting. Imagine if it had left behind the frat-boy humour and the identikit...
