rescuing musical virtue in distress.
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 →
In a world where music is often reduced to a commodity, a product to be marketed in ways akin to cans of beans or the latest trainers, where fad and fashion is king, it is easy to forget that such creativity is at its best when it is made for more honest reasons. You can't... Continue Reading →
I always worry when I’m heading into a review where the first image appears to be of someone who used to knock about with Aleister Crowley or perhaps runs a stall at Whitby Goth Weekender. Immediately I expect music made by ex-metallers with an unhealthy fascination with Clive Barker novels and lyrics written by people... Continue Reading →
Electronic music always had more potential than the guitar scene that it had to fight its way through. I, being old, remember the way it was treated in its infancy, how it was derided for not being real music, but even in those early, monophonic keyboard days, as ex-punks bent broken keyboards to their will,... Continue Reading →
It’s quite easy to see where Watch Clark’s influences lie, that 80’s synth dance groove, the darker tones seeping in from the gothic shadowlands, the sound of nineties club grooves and outlying industrial scenes. But everyone has their inspirations even if they are not always worn so openly on their sleeves. And there are much... Continue Reading →
For a large portion of its long existence the broadly termed “prog” genre has largely been about dexterous rock music anchored down by the fluid sounds of keyboards and synths. It seems long overdue therefore, that in some quarters there would be music-makers who would eventually flip the priorities and make music that is essential... Continue Reading →
The remarkable thing about Ummagma is their ability to wander diverse musical pathways, soaking up influences and juggling so many disparate and different sounds yet bring it all together in music that sounds cohesive, natural and …well, Ummagma-esque. There is nothing wrong with bands having a singular vision, to want to fit neatly into a... Continue Reading →
Art often has its roots in the strangest of places and Misophonic’s point of origin goes something like this. “Can you chew a little quieter please?” “Excuse me? You’re saying that I’m chewing loudly?“ “No but…” An argument, a near break-up and a week in the studio putting the idea that the person who you... Continue Reading →
It’s interesting how quickly the world turns against technology, it’s somehow comforting that deep down, beneath all the sparkly tech with improved operating systems and “enhanced user interfaces” there is still that niggling feeling that maybe we shouldn’t trust things so blindly. It’s been a subject explored in literature for decades, the idea that technology... Continue Reading →
Want a quick review of m1nk’s debut album? Sultry! Oh, you want more, how about…really sultry. Okay, I’ll play nice, but as opening track Some Elusive floats from your speakers, no other word is sufficient to describe this dark and slightly dangerous vibe, this weave of the illicit and the exciting, this transient and intangible... Continue Reading →