Premiers
Single Premiere: Something in the Water – AudioGust (reviewed by Dave...
There is no substitute for good songwriting. Forget all the studio gimmicks, the clever tricks, and zeitgeist-driven sonic fashion statements; if there isn’t a...
Rock/Punk/Metal
You Want Love – Ava Renn (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’m going to start with the obvious… man, Ava Renn has an amazing voice, one that blends rock power with a vibrato-infused arabesque and no small...
Post Punk/Goth
Vox Populi – Deadlight Dance (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
With all things goth, post-punk, and darkwave having a real resurgence of late, Deadlight Dance finds itself perfectly placed to surf the dark prevailing zeitgeist. Not...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Sky Bleeds – MothBreath (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Most of the music that lands on my desk is merely work. Of course, I put the effort in, but at the end of...
Indie
Fading – Land Mass (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Some music can be read like a pop history, and that is certainly the case with Fading, the latest EP from Land Mass. I don’t mean...
Pop/Power Pop
Better Days – Andie Case (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
There are several prerequisites for pop music to be effective, a number of tried and tested elements that have been the driving force since...
Folk/Country
Devil By Your Side – Wayward Sparrow (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
There is a purposeful brevity to the music that Rich Clark makes as Wayward Sparrow, not so much music stripped back to its essence, but rather a...
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
Freeze – Adrielle Bow Belle (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Singles can be just that: stand-alone pieces of music. But that isn’t always the case; something that gets slightly lost in this age when...
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
Ode to Disco – Norma Jean Wright (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Although the title might suggest a straightforward sonic revisit to those heady days of the disco dancefloor craze, Norma Jean Wright’s creative time machine has...
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
Sombra Del Sol – Spanish Castles (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It’s a hot day; the sun is streaming through the office window; the cat is lounging on the wall outside doing a passable impression...
Avant Garde
David – Mazmere (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
David is an EP of music connected by a stark theme: loss. It wasn’t intended that way, but both via subject matter and collaboration,...
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
Vox Populi – Deadlight Dance (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
With all things goth, post-punk, and darkwave having a real resurgence of late, Deadlight Dance finds itself perfectly placed to surf the dark prevailing zeitgeist. Not...
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
Stuck – Camille K (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As a “music writer,” I tend to have a high-falutin ‘ opinion of myself, as if I’m using my accumulated years of scribbling experience...
You Want Love – Ava Renn (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’m going to start with the obvious… man, Ava Renn has an amazing voice, one that blends rock power with a vibrato-infused arabesque and no small...
Plastic Ocean – French Inhaler (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Blam! That’s how you grab the listener’s attention. No preamble. No slow build-up. No gradual intrigue or sense of anticipation. Right from the first...
Witness – The Life of Christ – Miguel De La Wiest (reviewed by Dave...
Instrumental music is, by its very nature, a more expressive form of communication than mere words. Where music that relies on lyrics to tell...
In The Blur (remixed) – Waves Crashing (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As I have stated many times before, I am a big fan of the remix. I’m old enough to remember when remixing tracks was...
Ode to Disco – Norma Jean Wright (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Although the title might suggest a straightforward sonic revisit to those heady days of the disco dancefloor craze, Norma Jean Wright’s creative time machine has...
