Premiers
Single Premiere: The Greatest Gift – Leem of Earth (reviewed by...
Taken from the band’s forthcoming album, SEE, an ambitious concept album inspired by George MacDonald’s Victorian-era fairy tale The Princess and Curdie, ‘The Greatest Gift’...
Rock/Punk/Metal
Maybe Love’s A Crime – DownTown Mystic (reviewed by Dave...
I look forward to those moments when music from Downtown Mystic slides out of the review pile, engages with my ear, and slips under...
Post Punk/Goth
Kissing Lions – Ghost Painted Sky (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You always know something good is going to happen when you drop the needle and are greeted by a bass line that is all...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Only Human – Tallulah Rendall (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
In a world full of noise and self-importance, physical hustle, and ego-driven bustle, you have to admire how Tallulah Rendall quietly goes about her...
Indie
Running Out of Time – SirenBlue (reviewed by Dave Frankin)
If there is a sweet spot between rock weight, pop infectiousness, and indie cool, and the annals of history suggest there is (otherwise how...
Pop/Power Pop
Save You Now – The Summertimes (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
With a sound as warm and welcoming as the band name, ‘Save You Now’ is a shimmering slice of indie meets old-school power-pop –...
Folk/Country
Reclaimation – Lurleen Ladd (reviewed by Dave Frankin)
Artists might write songs for very personal and individual reasons, as a way of sharing experiences and thoughts or perhaps to exorcise demons or...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
Scenes From a Well-Worn Path (Side Two) – Music By Jeremy...
If debut albums are supposed to be the sound of an artist finding their feet, finding their sound, finding their way into the musical...
R&B/Soul
Funkin Days – Made Retro (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Made Retro is, on reflection, a great name for the music made here, suggesting something being constructed in the here and now, but with...
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
Walk On The Fire – Mr B (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It's always refreshing to see artists making music that fits very much into the modern dance-popscape, making songs with instantly apparent commercial appeal and...
Hip-hop/Rap
Snap, Crackle & Bop – Us3 (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Hip-hop and the myriad styles and sounds that it spawned have moved a long way from the soul and funk and jazz and pop...
Jazz/Blues
Ghosts – Mark Newman (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Blues spans a broad spectrum, from the spacious roots sound of a simple, battered acoustic to the full-on electric band sounds made by superstars...
Classical/Instrumental
Get Together – Summer Fades Away/Vaudlow (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The modern world is a marvellous place. Not many years ago, the idea of a Chinese band and a US duo collaborating on a record would have been...
Avant Garde
Phantoms of Nagasaki – Vantablack (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Nick Hudson has been responsible for some of the most moving, eclectic, devastatingly beautiful, beguiling, exciting and adventurous music of recent times, probably because...
Interviews
The Truth is out there: A conversation with Larsa Dahlén of...
Under the name Yeah Baby Yeah, Larsa Dahlén has just dropped ‘The Truth’, a timeless message wrapped in wonderfully nostalgic music that explores fact...
Live
Deadlight Dance/Flowers of Sacrifice @ The Tuppenny, Swindon 17th Sep ’26
Ahh, those were the days, my formative years spent in basement rock clubs drenched in dry ice, the smell of patchouli, the floor sticky...
Swindon
My River – M3G (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Trying to stand out in a world of guitar-slinging folk-popsters and would-be hipster troubadours when you make music with just voice and guitar is...
News
Latest single ‘So Keen’ from Indie punk band Poets Corner is...
Following a great bunch of reviews & a host of radio plays for previous single She’s Got You Now, Hull’s authentic indie outfit Poets Corner are back with...
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
Serial Dreamers – Wren + Wilde (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Is there such a thing as dreamicana? I ask because stepping into the sonic world Wren + Wilde unlocks with the release of the...
Black Pearl Summer – Fanny Alexandra (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Sonically, the new one from Fanny Alexandra feels timeless. As the song breezes in on a Latin lilt, island vibes shot through with blues...
Funkin Days – Made Retro (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Made Retro is, on reflection, a great name for the music made here, suggesting something being constructed in the here and now, but with...
Musical Machinations: A quick conversation with Mattias Alsander about writing songs in the age...
With a new single from Fräulein Und Alsander just out, I caught up with the man behind the name, Mattias Alsander, to find out...
November Shadows – Bad Valentines (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Hats maan! You can tell a lot about a band from the hats they wear. So when I see the cover of ‘November Shadows,’...
Ghosts – Mark Newman (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Blues spans a broad spectrum, from the spacious roots sound of a simple, battered acoustic to the full-on electric band sounds made by superstars...
