Dave Franklin
Musician, scribbler, historian, gnostic, seeker of enlightenment, asker of the wrong questions, delver into the lost archives, fugitive from the law of averages, blogger, quantum spanner, left footed traveller, music journalist, zenarchist, freelance writer, reviewer and gemini. People have woken up to worse.
Restless – Natalie Lucassian (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The art of making great pop music is the ability to produce something that is all things to all people but which still seems...
Scene and Heard – CCCXV: Everyone – The Gospel General (reviewed...
Faith is a very personal concept, music however is universal and it is the most natural thing in the world to use music as...
Scene and Heard – CCCXIV: Warm, Silky – Ant Cruze (reviewed by...
Well, this is a saucy little number and no mistake, something straight out of the Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg playbook I might add....
Crusin’ – Gentlemen and Scholars (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The wonderfully named Gentlemen and Scholars sound like nothing less than the beating heart of the American Dream. It is the sound of truck...
Parts – Itay Lavi (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If the term instrumental rock immediately conjures up thoughts of being in the lift of a big department store or the background score for...
Natural Causes – Anton Barbeau (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You can tell a man, they say, by the company he keeps. Okay, hardly the most up to date cliche to kick off a...
Shoes – Tony Tedesco and Full Fathom Five (reviewed by Dave...
Shoes combines everything I love about music. It’s all very well for perky pop princesses and production line indie kids with complicated hair to...
Before She Knows – Rhett Repko (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If ever there was a place where the traditions of classic song writing meets the neon glare of the more fickle clubland scene, where...
Scene and Heard – CCCXIII: Drive ‘n’ Text – Robert Boog...
By his own admission, Robert Boog isn’t a natural musician, but he is naturally a creative soul, as a string of work in literature...
Mark Fisher and The XTC Bumper Book of Fun For Boys...
We live in an information age. Actually we live in a too much information age, especially when it comes to knowing about your favourite...
Scene and Heard – CCCXII: The Birthday Party – The Kunig...
The Kunig, to paraphrase Forrest Gump’s mother, is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. (You just...
Scene and Heard – CCCXI: Living My Life – Droop ft....
Revelling in the past is all very well and good but the best music, or at least the most original, seems to be made as...
Scene and Heard – CCCX: She Wants – Iam Justified ft....
Iam Justified is that rarest of things in music today, especially music made in the broadly urban field. Iam Justified is a man who...
Return of The Split Lip – The Judex (reviewed by Dave...
The Judex is less a band, more a collection of contradictions, a whirling mass of opposites that somehow have managed to attract and believe...
I Just Can’t Believe It’s True – Tom Esch (reviewed by...
Having stumbled upon a few reviews of Tom Esch’s latest release recently, I had in my mind that he would be peddling a big,...
Scene and Heard – CCCX: I Want You To Die –...
For someone who lists a whole lot of grunge and alt-rock bands as influences, I Want You To Die sounds a lot like a...
Scene and Heard – CCCIX: Violet – Blacknoise ft. Maria Skaaren...
I have to be honest, when I saw the name and the geographic location of the band I did jump to some conclusions as...
Scene and Heard – CCCVIII : Dreams – The Kunig (reviewed...
The forthcoming album, Kunigunda, from which Dreams is taken, is a wonderful and searching collection of sounds and styles, of free-wheeling across generic demarcations...
Kunigunda – The Kunig (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
This latest 10 track slice of chilled loveliness from The Kunig comes from a very interesting place, one where psychedelic and progressive experiments of...
Scene and Heard – CCCVIII : The Letting Go – Natalie...
This song has passed our way before, previously as an audio recording only but like all songs the right video can certainly underline and...
Scene and Heard – CCCVII : Refugee Child – B Freed...
There was a time when music was used to highlight causes and drive issues, when protest singers had a point to make and disaffected...
Scene and Heard – CCCVI : Double Happiness – Mr. MooQ...
I didn’t know people were still making music like this, but I’m glad they are. Double Happiness reminds me of that time when a...
Scene and Heard – CCCV : Heptapod – Loya (reviewed by...
Heptapod exists at a point where pop falls into a dark abyss, where electronica starts to become self aware, where gothic music finds its...
In Verses – Daxton (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Daxton Monaghan, as an artist, is a wonderful mixture of influences, sounds and styles, but then any artist worth their salt should be and...
Scene and Heard – CCCIV : Someday The Record Might Show...
What generic pigeon-hole you drop David Arn’s latest release into really depends upon which texture of the music you hear first. Pick up on...
Scene and Heard – CCCVI : Just Wanna Be – KayBad...
KayBad may be based in the colder climes of East London but his music certainly snaps and fizzes with the warmth of an African...
Time Between Us – Trent Miller (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Trent Miller is a great example of why the various tribal demarcations found in music, its generic barriers, its tribal affinities, its journalistic pigeon-holing...
Outermost Edge – Alex Stolze (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Outermost Edge is a collection of songs which sees contemporary classical music heading into experimental jazz territory and takes the form of sonic creations...
Scene and Heard – CCCIII : French Cigarettes – Djo Life...
Some music is great for talking about the big issues, of the meaning of life, the grand philosophical questions, politics and the human condition....
Scene and Heard – CCCII : Underground – Mikäel (reviewed by...
Some music is bombastic and out going, full of vim and vigour, getting the message across by being up close and personal. And that’s...
