Premiers
Video Premiere: Spring Cleaning – Benjamin Cartel (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Benjamin Cartel walks with one foot in the deftness of the Americana sound, the other in the accessibility of more commercial concerns, making for an...
Rock/Punk/Metal
Like A Tiger – Cello (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If rock music has a tendency to take itself too seriously from time to time, and pop often errs on the side of the...
Post Punk/Goth
30 Dolls – St. Divine (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
People forget one crucial point when making music that falls into the general garage-rock, punk, or even post-punk. It was never just about making...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Theme Songs – Camille Baziadoly and The Filthy Honey (reviewed by...
Theme Songs is essentially the next chapter following on from Camille Baziadoly and Phill Honey’s (hence the striking moniker The Filthy Honey) debut album, Fifteen. And if that album was a...
Indie
Surf Spot Steamer Lane – Stephen Jacques (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’m sure that I’m not the first to notice that Stephen Jacques has a voice like Joe Strummer traveling along the California Trail in 1843 (even more pertinent...
Pop/Power Pop
Worth It – Kim McClay (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The best artists are the ones you can’t describe with a simple word-tag or generic byline, even when making a fairly familiar sound (broadly...
Folk/Country
Keep On Moving/I’m Here/Roses and Thunder – Taivi (reviewed by Dave...
Although the album that spawned these three songs, Rising Tide, has been with us a while now, reappraisals, relistens, and reminders are useful exercises, especially...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
New Scrolls – Erik Rabasca (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
There is an art to finding that sweet spot between freshness and familiarity, that place from which to make music that both plays into...
R&B/Soul
State of Mind – Darryl Scotti and Big Yard (reviewed by...
If the original version of “State of Mind” ran on a soul-soaked strut and gentle boogey-some rhythms, 2026 sees it reemerge as a more...
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
Music For Walking – Eythor Arnalds (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Just as Iceland is a place where worlds collide – myth and modernity, fire and ice, beauty and harshness, so that landscape in all its conflications...
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
Cosmic Country Calling: The strange world of The Sensational Country Blues...
With a new album out, the fantastically named Music Sounds Better When You’re Stoned, I sat down with Gary Van Miert of The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! to find...
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
Surf Spot Steamer Lane – Stephen Jacques (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I’m sure that I’m not the first to notice that Stephen Jacques has a voice like Joe Strummer traveling along the California Trail in 1843 (even more pertinent...
Like A Tiger – Cello (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If rock music has a tendency to take itself too seriously from time to time, and pop often errs on the side of the...
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...
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...
All For Nothing: Unreleased, Alternates, and Rarities 2016-2026 – Last Letters (reviewed by...
To my shame, I have to confess that I am not that familiar with Last Letters music. But I will say that if this compilation is...
Serving Your Country: Ed Earl’s twin worlds of boots and boogie
Ed Earl’s world of Navy Reserve Officer by day and country rocker by night might seem an odd balance, so I sat down with...
