rescuing musical virtue in distress.
We've always known that anything a man can do, a woman can do at least as well. Put two women in the same band and the possibilities are endless. If you need proof then just give the latest single from Tarah Who? a spin. This duo of guitarist, singer and front-woman Tarah Carpenter and drummer... Continue Reading →
Arsenic Tea Party makes a wonderfully big and joyous racket for a two-piece. But such are the advantages of being a musical artist in the modern age with access to all the studio tricks and techniques that it offers. And if the music is a joyous riot of beats and bombast, the lyrical content comes... Continue Reading →
Life is at its most fulfilling when it is challenging. It needs to be full of the unexpected and the new. Of wonder and possibility. It needs to take us to new places and allow us to see the world in different ways. And the same is true of music, music that matters at least.... Continue Reading →
It seems that hardly a month goes past without something new from Tombstones in Their Eyes landing on my desk. This is fine by me as they have never let me down and I always look forward to hearing any new musical machinations that they send out into the world. Being prolific is great but,... Continue Reading →
If Hawk Hill seemed like a bit of a shimmering, ever-changing musical gemstone, one which exploded with different cascades of sonic colour depending on which way you held it up to the light, My Muse seems to be a more focused affair. It echoes with so many past references from my formative years. The rush... Continue Reading →
As the dark and languid grooves of Blue Skies ooze from the speakers, you realise that the optimistic weather of the title isn't matched by the sonic climate of the music. But that's okay, juxtaposition is a great card to play and why live up to the listener's expectations when you can confound them? There... Continue Reading →
When I was handed this album, I was told it was punk. When it came to writing this review I had all of these smart references lined up, Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Clash, they all got a mention. I had a superb review written and then, like a shake of the head from fate, I... Continue Reading →
Sitting somewhere between straight out punk and the alt-rock music’s darker recesses, Black Mirror is not only lyrically a timely arrival it is also exactly what you need to blow away the cobwebs that have gathered where the live gigging experience used to sit. Okay, you won’t be able to get out and watch the... Continue Reading →
With a base of both Los Angeles and Bogotá, how much do you think South American sounds and West Coast vibes inform your music, or have we truly gone beyond geography being an influence on music in the modern age? Juan: Hello, how are you doing? I believe we have gone beyond. For me, as a composer, I... Continue Reading →
When he isn't fronting indie-folksters Fiction Peaks, Joey Doyle makes music on the side under the name Dizmation and Still is his latest single under that moniker. And it is easy to draw a line between his solo sound and that of the band, mainly through his ability to write effortlessly addictive melodies and this... Continue Reading →
Not only a cool band name and an EP title which is wonderfully poignant, but a sound which is both cool and wonderful too. Even though the general beat of the four songs found here is upbeat and groovesome, the overall sound is one of drifting mystique and hazy sonics due to the smooth and... Continue Reading →
As soon as the broad and buoyant sonic brushstrokes of A Million Miles Away start pumping out of the stereo, it reminds me that some sounds are quintessentially of a specific place. In this case, America. Much as other countries have long emulated their style, this sounds like the sort of glorious racket that you... Continue Reading →
If the previous single, Goodbye, felt like an exercise in what would happen if someone wrote a stadium-ready song which blended both brains and sonic brawn, 9 PM is a much more subtle affair. But, just like before, it is happy to show its working out. In fact, it feels like what would happen to... Continue Reading →
There is something wonderfully early 90’s and alternative about What’s Going On, a certain fragility and a sort of outsider vibe, one which seems plant a flag for creativity over commerciality, but remains a commercially viable option nonetheless. And it is that preference for substance over style, whilst remaining as stylish as hell, which is... Continue Reading →
You can make a good case for the argument that all major musical styles and forms are pretty much established now. All you can hope to do to move things forward is to conduct weird sonic experiments using these base sounds looking to concoct new musical compounds. Some minor chemists might dilute rock's might with... Continue Reading →
You know when you are searching out music on the internet, you open a few too many windows and you end up with two tracks playing at the same time due to some automated bot triggering a tune. The Internal Conflict sounds a bit like that at times. But rather than making for a series... Continue Reading →
If you are one of those people who like your music neatly boxed and labelled with appropriate names and sonic demarkations, to fit neatly into existing genres or sound like what has gone before, then you should avoid this two-track offering (what we used to call a single, kids) from Unspeakable Vehicle. In fact, stop... Continue Reading →
Hurt is one of those rare sonic beasts, a song which is better known for its popularity via a subsequent cover version rather than the original artists version. It happens rarely, Kirsty MacColl’s rendition A New England had a longer life than the Billy Bragg original and of course most people know Hallelujah thanks to... Continue Reading →
I’m not saying that we haven’t been here before, it's just that Nero Kane’s vision of a sort of apocalyptic wild western landscape where fallen angels and forgotten demons do battle for the souls of the lost and the lunatics, where redemption is sought and souls are sold, is the most starkly realised to date.... Continue Reading →
The best music is resilient to generic labels. I mean, you can try to attach succinct and snappy soundbites but they never quite fit so why bother? I Am a Rocketship is a band of which this is certainly true, a fact that their marvellous and mercurial releases continue to make clear. The latest, Orange,... Continue Reading →
Well, it is the season for the cover song, a time when everyone from the established mainstream music-maker to the reality show, also-ran celebrity…and I use the word celebrity quite wrongly… is crooning out a Christmas tune in an effort to pay for a new wing on their Cheshire manor or perhaps pay off their... Continue Reading →
I don’t know if it was a conscious move on Philip Parfitt’s part or not but the cover of this, his second solo album, seems to be a metaphor for the music found within. Take a quick glance and you easily register the main component and themes, look again and you see small and wonderfully... Continue Reading →
We live in an age where your average pop-picker demands an easy handle on their music, a quick soundbite to help them compartmentalise a track by genre, sound or style. The irony of the internet age is that the new found freedom that should have been ushered in has instead resulted in an even more... Continue Reading →
Most people will relate to Davey Woodward's eloquent and wonderfully ragged songs because he sings about the day to day life of the everyman, the human condition, of love, loss and longing. I relate to him just as much because his home town of Bristol looms large in the background of his songs, a city... Continue Reading →
With a lot of artists, it is easy to set the scene before heading off into a the rabbit hole of writing a review. So many seem to have a definite direction of travel or a style or sound which is easy to sum up in a few short soundbites. But where do you start... Continue Reading →
Is a song ever truly finished? Can there ever be a definitive form, one that can’t be improved on? Isn’t there something to be gained from revisiting, reimagining, reclothing music which is already close to your heart? These are all the sorts of questions which must concern Michael Ciravolo and in trying to answer them... Continue Reading →
What better way to announce a forthcoming full-length album than with a cracking new single, especially if you can also call in your long-term musical buddies to help with the workload. To this end, Fred Abong has unleashed not one but two videos, one lyricocentric, the other a more visually narrative based affair, filmed by... Continue Reading →
Forgive me for repeating something which tends to raise its head whenever I put pen to paper on behalf of a new Tombstones In Their Eyes record, but it does really get to the heart of what makes them stand out from the rest of the post-punk pack. As the imaginary needle drops on the... Continue Reading →
Silverback Colony, (great name by the way) has been a revolving door for the great and the good of the musical world since its inception nearly a decade ago, with one permanent member in the form of the beard-stroking Gabriel Douglas at the helm of the musical ship. Here, aided and abetted by multi-instrumentalist Kai... Continue Reading →
It is thanks to bands such as Circu5 that the term prog has shaken off some of its old image and is becoming cool again. Following in the footsteps of bands such as Porcupine Tree, Dream Theatre and Muse, it through blending the tight and to-the-point aggressiveness of alt-rock with the more thoughtful and a... Continue Reading →