rescuing musical virtue in distress.
You should never judge a book by its cover. And you should never judge n album by just the opening song. For whilst the first track 6.59 is an understated slice of chilled, jazz-infused piano, the sort that evokes images of smokey cocktail bars from the 50's full of sharp-suited men and elegant ladies, the... Continue Reading →
So many people listen to music quite wrongly. That might sound like a bit of an elitist thing to say but we seem to have become so invested in the throwaway, six-word, repetitive pop chorus that we miss the deftness and smarts of the music which it uses as a musical vehicle. It's why I... Continue Reading →
Taken from the soon to drop EP Delilah, Often is a smooth blend of sultry, up to the minute R&B grooves, ambient pop vibes and sensual electronica. It runs on a platform of floating synths and skittering beats, a blend which brings just enough pace and structure to the drifting sonics but which never gets... Continue Reading →
Writing about music is obviously a passion for people like me, but it is also a way of making a living. This obviously means that, like any job, you find yourself writing about music just out of obligation, a means to an end. Sometimes you are pleasantly surprised by what you find under the pen,... Continue Reading →
As part two of the Monomyyth Trilogy, which began with the breathtaking beauty of Astronomica, you would expect there to be some similarities between the two albums. And indeed there are. But there is also plenty which makes this album able to stand alone from its predecessor. As the opening track, Kabuki of the Starred... Continue Reading →
Ambient music has probably been the saviour of the soul over the last, terrible, year. Many people, unable to go to live shows or hang around in the usual hustle and bustle of a lively social scene, have been turned to ambient music to add some colour and company to their isolated existences. The art... Continue Reading →
With a title like that, you expect the song to either be crazy as a cat’s whisker or dark and brooding with nods to HP Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe, refreshingly, it is neither. As slices of trancey electronic dance music goes it’s mightily impressive. Built around a twinkly keyboard riff, the music can grow... Continue Reading →
Why hasn’t anyone done this before? Perhaps they have and I’m just out of the loop but as a concept what Norse Foundry do seems like the logical collision of worlds, a place where Role Playing and Tabletop gaming meets underground music. When gathered round the table for a session of your favourite Cyberpunk Role... Continue Reading →
To be perfectly frank I've struggled to review this album but with some perseverance I found an inroad on the third listening. Initially I found the vocal and language particularly jarring. I love European sounding recordings but confess I'm generally drawn to the French and Eastern parts of the eurosound spectrum. However, once I found... Continue Reading →
As Flair kicks off this small but perfectly formed e.p, blending chilled and spacious dance floor beats with beguiling electronica, you realise that A Photo In The Dark is a musical entity unconcerned with fad or fashion, which is happy to ignore the zeitgeist and would rather follow its own sonic pathways to musical ends... Continue Reading →
When most creative people were bemoaning their lack of freedom, lack of access to their art-spaces and stages, creating a wave of, often, let’s face it uninspired, live-stream shows from their downstairs toilet due to pandemic imposed strictures, at least two people were swimming against the tide of lockdown's lack-lustre reactions. After all if an... Continue Reading →
It’s been a tough year, that’s for sure and most news coming out of the music and arts sector these days is rarely good. But the way to get through it is to look to the future and try to find the silver linings. They are always there if you look hard enough. So the... Continue Reading →
Electronicy, Loopy, Eastern Blocy and experimental are what initially come to mind when this recording is played. But its much much more than that. It feels like it is coming from a transitory place where the musical world has been stopped in order to regroup and re-evaluate. This feels very current. Very pandemic. It seems... Continue Reading →
You can tell that an artist really understands the power of music when they are able to deliver tracks which are about mood rather than melody, anticipation and atmosphere rather than anything as unimaginative as lyrical hooks and the usual pop and rock gimmicks. Brittleness is just such a track, a drifting collage of textures... Continue Reading →
Cyborg Asylum has always wandered between timelines and done so effortlessly. A band making music predicting the future yet inspired by music of the past. Leaning on post-punk sonic pioneering styles whilst making post-futuristic moves. Using cutting-edge digital technology to update and upgrade a sonic movement which began in the late 70’s. Artists based very... Continue Reading →
The artist's name alone should have warned me that the musical ride I was about to go on was going to be anything but the usual experience. Nothing quite prepared me for this. To call Super Wolf Blood Moon, EDM or dance music is like saying that Picasso liked to paint a bit, and yes,... Continue Reading →
Imagine the spirit of early pop-punk being recreated in the mind of a techno-kid. Who's had too much coffee. Or the sound track to a drive by skateboard prank steaming through a rave club dance floor after 72 hours with no sleep and just chemicals coursing through their veins. If you can even begin to... Continue Reading →
I’m not sure how I feel about this. But that has to be a good thing, right? Music should confuse rather than conform... shouldn’t it? And the coming together of such a well-respected producer and artist and such an iconic song is going to blip on a lot of people's radars. But anyone expecting a... Continue Reading →
Music, all too often, sounds very much like the product of the human world. Even when it is trying to express more abstract concepts, talking about the wider world or dealing with intangible ideas such as emotions and feelings, it still generally sounds, without wanting to sound obvious, man-made. How could it not? What has... Continue Reading →
I have only recently written about one of Jude’s tracks and I’m not sure if I am completely over the encounter, and I mean that in a good way, I think. But then it is in the strangeness around the edge of any art form where the most fun is to be had and Jude... Continue Reading →
When I read that this EP is based on the story of a deserting soldier’s journey through doubts, disappearance, lies, regret, pride, PTSD, anxiety and a sense of alienation, I immediately expected to be presented by some lofty prog rock sonics or intense metal riffs. Such powerful and poignant subjects are, after all, usually the... Continue Reading →
Someone once eloquently and controversially reasoned that if you aren’t living on the edge then you are taking up too much space. And whilst that is a bit of an unrealistic expectation of most people’s lives, it is just such an attitude which keeps the creative world moving forward. It is those working on the... Continue Reading →
Jude Gwynaire is an interesting chap. A self-taught musician and science-fiction author, and the maker of music which is impossible to pigeon-hole. He sounds like my sort of person. Made in Wuhan is a strange sonic slice of eastern sound forged into unusual dance-infused soundscapes via a riot of references. Tablas build primal rhythms, cymbals... Continue Reading →
If only as an antidote to the madness of the world at the moment, the hustle and hassle, the knee-jerk reactions and the lack of thought, the self-centred view points and the narrow-minded visions, a new album from Astronomical Twilight feels like the perfect healing process. The first thing that hearing such ambient drifts and spacious... Continue Reading →
If The Weeping Souls merged Beatlesque pop sounds with a more underground yet classic acoustic rock vibe, this latest single shows just how much ground Jonny Polonsky can cover from one song to the next. The former was built on jangling melodies and infectious lyrics, this time out he takes things in an altogether different... Continue Reading →
First impressions are massive in life, that split second when your mind sub consciously decides whether something can be trusted or not, liked or not, goes a long way to how you feel about something long term. Music is the same, the opening few notes of an album can keep you interested or make you... Continue Reading →
Get Your Shit Together is like little that you have heard before. Well, it’s like little I have heard before and I basically listen to music for a living. I guess the clues where there to see in the track titles. What does Observation of Obfuscation really mean? Is it actually possible to have a... Continue Reading →
Music makes the perfect platform for people who have something to say. In fact having done the work to get your creations to a point where you have a captive audience, where you have developed your own sonic signature so effectively that it is heard above the white noise of the modern musical world, it... Continue Reading →
Fathom, the single, was an unexpected pleasure, so much so that it made me keen to hear what else this musically astute duo had up their sleeves. With the arrival of a four-track e.p. of the same name the question is answered and alongside the title track we are offered up three more slices of... Continue Reading →
British electronic act Cabinet of Millionaires has announced the new 'Stop The Coup' EP, a politically-charged set of three tracks, which was released on December 6. The video features stunning artwork from Oliver Lancaster Smith. Political change in the UK often prompts Yorkshire electronic act Cabinet of Millionaires to pull out a champion protest banger! With... Continue Reading →