rescuing musical virtue in distress.
If Deep C Divers has always made music with a certain clever understated quality to it, here they wind things back even further and prove that less is certainly more, familiarity is a fine quality for music to have and that music doesn’t have to be big when it can instead be clever. And this... Continue Reading →
If you are not enchanted by Ingraham’s gorgeous, crystalline voice right from the start then head straight for the Accident and Emergency department of your local hospital, there is something seriously wrong with your heart. And with most of the music going on behind her being tastefully stripped back and delicately woven around, you have... Continue Reading →
It’s great after a day of reviewing mumbly, bedroom rappers and kids who still worship at the feet of Oasis to be presented with something a bit different, a bit original, a bit unexpected. And Momma Told Me So is all of those things. It has one foot in the past soul and r&b sound... Continue Reading →
If her debut album Butterfly put her on the map via a suite of classic covers reworked for a modern pop audience, Smile will probably be the song which shows what Sofia Evangelina can do when she has free rein over the songwriting. Co-written with Kimberly Taylor Smile is the perfect song with which to open... Continue Reading →
London based singer-songwriter Elena Flury, has a unique talent for bringing vintage sounds and styles into the 21st century. She has immersed herself in the capitals vibrant Neo-Soul and Jazz scene that’s emerged over the past few years. Steadily building a following around London with her live performances, this year Elena took the step to... Continue Reading →
Blending the soothing qualities of soul, the simple, though far from simplistic, approach of traditional folk and a certain pop accessibility…not to mention hints of gospel and blues, Lifeline is an oasis of sweetness and light in a world of overly earnest pop-pushers and cliched rock bravado. Mutlu is clearly someone who understands music’s past... Continue Reading →
Roots music, like most generic labels, is too broad a term to really convey anything useful to the listener. It covers all sorts of world, folk and traditional sounds, sounds that seem to lie at the beating heart of one culture or another and also seems to imply a nostalgic backward glance to a sound... Continue Reading →
It’s difficult to tell from this song whether Jo Oliver is a rocker who happens to write very melodic and infectious songs or is a pop artist trying to build a more robust and memorable sound. Not that it really matters that much because either way you look at it Shine On works a treat. If... Continue Reading →
Even on the first play of this album you come away with the feeling that these are songs forged by a very skilled writer and recorded by an experienced band. And you would be right, just one look at Mats Ronander’s resume reveals that he not only has a pile of solo albums behind him... Continue Reading →
I have to admit that as a new name to hit the review pile I was more than pleasantly surprised at Slightly Stoopid’s latest, and ninth, album. Always one to judge books by covers (hey, we all do it) and on this occasion the music by the band name, I was relived when what emanated... Continue Reading →
Dan Owen has announced a string of live dates for October and November, following the release of his forthcoming debut album Stay Awake With Me on August 17th. Regarding the record Dan says, “This is my first album. I like to think of it as a collection of personal stories and experiences. I feel like this is... Continue Reading →
In the few short encounters I have had with the fabulously named Mr Mooq, he has never ceased to surprise me. Whether he is updating post-punk pop for the modern age with Double Happiness or contributing to the post-industrial dance/TED talk machinations of The New Occupants, there is always something interesting going on within his... Continue Reading →
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 people move things forward. It’s evolution, it’s forward-thinking, it is the way the world turns. Jackie Dope is the sound of the world turning and music moving into pastures new.... Continue Reading →
Covering iconic songs is a tricky thing especially songs as ingrained in the public consciousness as Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music (White Boy). Many have tired, Euro-poppers Roxette made it sound predictably…well, Europop, Tim Campbell delivered an over-produced, over-polished version, Extreme rocked it out, Prince made it sound like it was his own song... Continue Reading →
There is some music which transcends genres. I’m not saying that in a sensationalist way or to invoke the modern trend for hyperbole, it is just that some music is built along such classic lines that it predates the contemporary need for generic labels and neat pigeon holes. Okay, there is a touch of jazz... Continue Reading →
You have to love an album which comes at you like the future of pop music whilst effortlessly blending past golden ages and Where’s The Magic does all this and more. For every cutting edge synth line there is a funky groove, for every futuristic dream-pop vibe there is a jazz-soul heartbeat for every forward... Continue Reading →
There is an interesting ambiguity that sits at the literary heart of Things I Wish You Said, the first single from Indifferent Matters. Whilst the lyrics seem to dwell on a loving and functioning relationship, heartwarming analogies and the realities of trying to make things perfect in an imperfect world, the title hints at a... Continue Reading →
Even if I didn’t rate the music you have to love a band with a name like The Harpoonist and The Axe Murderer, doubly so once you find out that their current album is called Apocalipstick! Thankfully I do rate their music. A lot. They make exactly the sort of vintage music for the modern... Continue Reading →
I know age shouldn’t really come into such things, I always see art, music… creativity of all sorts as being a level playing field and it is all about the end result not the back story so beloved of TV shows and marketing companies. But I will say this. Damn! Grayson Word is seventeen years... Continue Reading →
Molly Kruse has that classic Americana sound, it is hard to pin down musically in anything other than a general sense but geographically it is the cultural pulse of that great nation. Tilt your head one way and it is a classic soul number, the other and you catch a lilting country vibe, step back... Continue Reading →
A band closely associated with a previous era returning to the musical fray has a few problems when it comes to recording a new musical calling card, something to underline that this is more than just a bank balance driven, rose tinted, nostalgia trip. New material finds you ignoring your obvious selling point and the... Continue Reading →
Music can’t help but be anything other than the sum total of the artists creative past and the more mercurial and wide ranging that is, the more likely the end result is something unique and ploughing a singular furrow. Zialand’s musical make up reads like a strange contemporary fantasy novel, a backstory penned by the likes... Continue Reading →
Music is driven by many factors and we often find that the biggest inspirations, the best creative flows are the result of being presented with the biggest hurdles. When faced with two life changing diagnoses, instead of pulling away and feeling sorry for himself, Alphonso Archer was driven to be more creative, more pro-active, more... Continue Reading →
Life affirming, that’s what this is! It is a term which gets banded about a lot but there is something so positive, so infectious, so groovesome, so...well, great, that there is really no other term for it. At a collision point where pop contagion smashes into soul vibes, where just enough rock solidity underpins strutting... Continue Reading →
Lindsey Harper does that most rare of things, she makes pop that sounds both grown up and wonderfully infectious at the same time. Throwaway pop is two a penny, it always has been, and that is pretty much the nature of the beast. But pop aimed at a more mature audience generally misses the point,... Continue Reading →
Well, if that isn’t the feel good hit of the summer I’d like to know what is! As earnest heroes of indie crank out earnest indie songs, rockers master their clichéd poses and pop divas suggest pointless dance routines which everyone will have given up on by next week, Nick takes a simpler approach. Simple,... Continue Reading →
Working as a reviewer who has no real control (pun intended) over what music lands on my sonic desk has a few drawbacks. For all the wonderful unpredictability, lucky finds and eureka moments about ninety per cent of what comes my way falls into the identikit-dance or twee singer songwriter categories, all been done, all... Continue Reading →
Amidst the gradual rise in the public awareness of issues surrounding gender, gay rights and equality in general, The Bleeding Obvious album comes at the perfect time. Whilst most of the issues it deals with generally pervade into the public’s consciousness via weighty TV debates by dusty academics or sensationalised news stories, the songs here... Continue Reading →
Ever since a string of, essentially pop, artists from Amy Winehouse to Duffy to current hyperbolic sensation Adele re-appropriated and repackaged soul for a shallower, style over substance world, the genre seems to have traded in its essential elements for ticket sales, music awards and a fast track to the dream. What their particular brand... Continue Reading →
Last summer the video for Baby 126 seemed to come out of no-where, brimming with infectiousness and feel good, sun-soaked vibes. And if the concept of a Shakespearean sonnet delivered as a rapped vocal may have then been hard to imagine, this song proved that with the right ingredients - blue-eyed street soul vocals, breezy... Continue Reading →