rescuing musical virtue in distress.
If it is the “cold light of day” that is given over to the practicalities of life, a time for fresh starts and renewed vigour, it is The Golden Hour, the dying embers of the day when the light changes in increments of gold and grey, that is a time for reflection. And that is the... Continue Reading →
If music is all about conveying messages, ideas and feelings then it is worth remembering that there are different ways of doing this and what works for one style of music isn't always right for another. At one end of the spectrum you have the no-holds-barred, bombastic nature of the punk and rock aproach. Usually,... Continue Reading →
Being that Rewind, as the name might suggest, is an album that sees Tiny Fighter re-explore, re-interpret and re-imagine some of their existing songs, it raises a really interesting point. When is a song ever really finished? Just because a song is released and becomes known for having a certain sound or style, does that... Continue Reading →
Sitting perfectly between the infectiousness and hook of classic pop and the ambience and grace of its dreamier, electronic younger sibling, Chase The Light is one of those songs which is as much about space as it is about creation. The busy shuffling beat and occasional glitchy waves of electronica make for a great structure... Continue Reading →
Pop is perhaps best known for being upbeat and energetic, thumping and throwaway, transient and ever-changing, blown by the winds of fad or fashion. What's Left To Lose is none of that and yet it is the best pop music you will hear doing the rounds at the moment. It exists at a point where... Continue Reading →
If there is an EP that better sums up the creative scope and genre-hopping nature of song-crafting in today's music scene than this, then I am yet to stumble across it. Most people would be more than happy to have created a record with such grace and beauty, such cinematic elegance and infectious artistry, that... Continue Reading →
Most band stories follow similar lines. A bunch of like-minded, music fans write songs, tread the local boards whilst trying to change the world using old blues riffs and a working knowledge of A minor. I Am a Rocketship did it differently and the creation myth behind this duo is best described as " successful... Continue Reading →
Goodbye, Molly Jenson's sophomore album is a remarkable, spacious and utterly gorgeous affair. Built of gentle swathes of dreamy pop vibes, drifting sonics, and fantastic use of space, the music ebbs and flows, digital waters crashing on analogue shores, often gently and seductive, occasionally employing more dramatic tones. On top of this, you have Jenson's... Continue Reading →
The word ethereal is much overused in music writing these days. I should know, I'm more to blame than anyone. But sometimes there is no better word to use to sum up a piece of music that seems to have been beamed down to this world from somewhere far beyond. This is one of those... Continue Reading →
Downbeat, chilled and delicate, Fragments is a track well named. There is a sparseness and understatement to its form which might perhaps suggest that it is just a fragment of a song, a work in progress or a sonic sketch to which more is yet to be added. But that is also its charm. By... Continue Reading →
I remember watching a band many years ago and the person I was with saying to me, " I don't really like this band, they don't know what they want to be." My response was, "It's when they work that out that I'll probably stop liking them." And to this day, I would rather listen... Continue Reading →
I shouldn't be surprised that a music maker based in Jakarta seems to channel about half of the bands I was watching and listening to as far back as the '80s. The world is a small place. A connected place. A place where influences and ideas ebb and flow across both time and geography. It's... Continue Reading →
On paper at least, the ideas and influences which go into FLDPLN's sound shouldn't work. A return to the saxophone as the driving instrument, the nostalgic whiff of classic 80's pop music (as experienced through the ears of a young music fan via a late-night Walkman), electronic soundscaping and plenty of it. But in the... Continue Reading →
Some artists tell stories via a song. Others create longer narratives via, for want of a better word, concept albums...or at least albums of concepts. Keeley, via the band of the same name, has an even more focused and singular approach to story-telling. Five years ago she read about German tourist Inga Maria Hauser, whose... Continue Reading →
We have had lots of music born of the lockdown experience over the last year. Naturally. But now, as the rough shape of what the new normal might look like is beginning to make itself known, our thoughts, also, quite naturally, turn to how we might transition from the isolation of the last year and... Continue Reading →
We know that all the best things come in small packages and ahead of a two-track release, which in the past would have gone by the ungainly name of a double A-side single, LA-based multi-instrumentalist, AMMO, releases just one of those tracks to light the way. And light the way it does, shimmering and shining... Continue Reading →
After charming us for just over a minute with a delicate wash of shimmering, ambient indie vibes, Neon then pulls the rug away from the listener's expectations and turns into an upbeat and texturally rich, pop song. And no matter at which end of the song's sonic journey you find yourself, you are cocooned in... Continue Reading →
It's been a while since I had a Screens 4 Eyes track waft my way, but as always it has been well worth the wait. And waft is the perfect word to use as their music seems to drift through the listener's consciousness, floats around you and fogs the senses and get absorbed by osmosis... Continue Reading →
Although happy to admit references to '80s and '90's dream-pop sounds and electronic scenes, Something Stranger is nothing if not music for the here and now. It is easy to find past sounds threaded through the music, a sort of gentle motorik hypnotism powers much of the music and, songs such as The Storm could... Continue Reading →
Sitting in the lush sonic space between the ethereality of dream pop and the more intense sonic swathes of psychedelia, Seasurfer makes a sound that walks a fine line between space and intensity, light and claustrophobia. They also dance between the musical world's of post-punk past and dark electronic futurism, dream-state vocals and solid beat... Continue Reading →
If Kiera Lyons music has taught us anything it is that it is possible to make pop music which is musically elegant, sonically eloquent and a big step above the usual chart fodder we see vying for the pop-dollar. Aflame was the perfect demonstration of exactly that and Hurry Back just seems to underline the... Continue Reading →
If someone was going to write music that would chime perfectly with my current tastes, then it wouldn’t sound radically different to the beautiful and beguiling sounds that Norrisette conjures up. If at all. Back in the heady days of post-punk when synths were new and samples were just about imaginable on the technological horizon,... Continue Reading →
If you were to consider music in terms of writing, as perhaps sonic pen strokes on a musical page, then Norrisette’s 2020 is the equivalent of stunning calligraphy but also written in a somewhat off-beat and otherworldly hand. Some people just make music to merely communicate or lift spirits, Norrisette seems more concerned with enthralling... Continue Reading →
Blending beat with beauty, Magic Wands manage to make music which is driven by a tightly-wound, energetic engine room yet simultaneously the stuff of blissed out, sonic dreamscaping, and that is a hard thing to pull off. But pull it off they do and Blue Cherry is all the proof that you need. Dream dance... Continue Reading →
It’s safe to say that Stay Lunar have found their groove, and it is a good groove. Make that a great groove. Whilst so many of their peers are looking back to that much maligned decade…the 80’s…and finding inspiration in the twee-indie and synth-driven landfill pop which seems only to define it in hindsight or... Continue Reading →
Imagine if Ennio Morricone had taken a different approach to Leone’s iconic Spaghetti Western soundtracks and decided to invent dream-pop whilst scoring them. You can’t imagine such a scenario? Well, give The Roogs debut album a spin and you’ll get some idea what that might have sounded like. Courtney Davies and Steve Gerdes are perhaps better... Continue Reading →
There is nothing like kicking off an album with some beguiling and engaging sounds, the sort of musical exoticism which grabs the listener right from the first languorous and luxurious vocal, the first skittering and skewed beat. That’s how you get peoples attention and Bakhchalarda does just that and does it perfectly. A blend of... Continue Reading →
If ever there was a piece of music which deserves to be prominently placed in the next Sci-Fi blockbuster movie, then this is it. With it’s obvious Vangelisian, Blade Runner-esque fluidity and a video which revels in mystery, beauty and science fact, this short dream state slice of ambient cinematics goes beyond just being about... Continue Reading →
Given that the last time I had Daniel Angelus under my pen it was to write about an album called Act I, it wasn’t entirely unexpected that I should now find myself with a new album titled Act II in front of me. What wasn’t expected was how much he had moved things on since... Continue Reading →
If you are going to choose to cover a song, especially one by a band known for having such a signature sound, you really need to be bringing something interesting to project. Otherwise what is the point? The Pull of Autumn really understands this and this cover of The Bee Gees' Holiday has so many unique... Continue Reading →
