rescuing musical virtue in distress.
This is sharp guitar based power pop with an indie flavour and a soupçon of punk for seasoning. There is something very familiar about this record although I'm not sure where that's coming from. They don't sound like The Buzzcocks but I can imagine The Buzzcocks could have written these songs with a little help... Continue Reading →
Mixing an orchestral, chamber pop vibe with angsty vocals, just before the halfway mark, It Is Finished… decides to reinvent itself into a swirling, post-rock landscape. It really is a song of two halves, as sports pundits might say. Initially, guitars seem to squall and howl, chop and charge as Nick Hudson punches home the... Continue Reading →
A few things happen when I listen to anything by The Mystery Plan. I brace for the unexpected. I think back to the sort of music being made on indie labels of my formative years, music that set me on a certain musical path. I expect to fall in love with what follows. That is... Continue Reading →
The City Gates seem to drift across the landscape like a post-punk spectre returned to haunt the modern listener, an echo of past times but also something perfectly present in the here-and-now. And whilst it is easy to draw lines between their icy and melancholic sound and the gothic heartland of the early eighties, as... Continue Reading →
This is a no nonsense anti-establishment band that put their uncomplicated stripped back folk/punk heritage badge front and centre. They deliver their brand of political tirades, kick-back ballads and ECO homilies with an up-tempo, danceable verve and vigour. Where does this recording sit? Well, I would most like to see this band after caning the... Continue Reading →
If certain wines seem to get better with age, the same is certainly true of the best musical artists too. Sure, if you just want some cheap sonic plonk to hit the spot, there is plenty of that available but sometimes you want something to savour, relish, slowly enjoy and really appreciate. Cathal Coughlan is... Continue Reading →
Post-Covid, Post Punk, Post Funk, Post Hip, Post Hop pent up energy waiting for the nod, is what this record feels like. A heady high energy mix of Latin, Funk, Punk that sounds like something that Shriekback would be making right now if they still had youth on their side. Razor-sharp guitar punctuates big beats... Continue Reading →
Music and books! Those are the two things that feature highly in my day to day life. I live in a house that is as much a library as a place of residence and from one of its crumbling garrets, I spend my time putting virtual pen to digital paper on behalf of new, interesting... Continue Reading →
There has been a slew of reunions of late by bands who were an important part of the post-punk and indie landscape and who perhaps didn't get the recognition that they deserved back in the day. Band such as Candy Opera, Modesty Blaise and delivering their first new music in 40 years, Cult Figures. I've... Continue Reading →
If Plastic Alter Ego seemed to be a set of musical narratives set on the fringes of a fraying society, Malediction presents us with songs set at the heart of a society spiralling out of all recognition. Previously, the themes seemed dystopian, fetched from a near future that was perhaps the territory of a novelist... 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 →
There was a time when musicians and the music that they make, were largely processed, packaged and pigeon-holed into neat boxes and within lines of sonic demarkations. A rocker was a rocker, a popster was a popster, and never the twain should meet. Thankfully, we have grown out of such childish attitudes and today's artist... Continue Reading →
There is quite a gap between the band’s two musical chapters, what are some of the differences both within the band and perhaps the music industry as you find it today? Paul Malone: We don’t find much difference between the band back then and now because we are the same people and we’ve been friends... Continue Reading →
I always find it odd that most punk music I hear just seems to be a harkening back to the music of a previous generation whereas the post-punk sound somehow seems to have moved with the times and surfed over the fad and fashion and still sounds relevant today. Maybe it is the genre's traditions... Continue Reading →
I love books. I love music. How can I not love Charlie Nieland? Okay, there is more to it than that, obviously but that isn't a bad argument to open with. Ahead of a full album, Tightrope arrives as part of a run of neat singles, sent out to tease the listener and test the... 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 →
If this was one of those TV music shows that are all the rage these days this review would actually start with a 4 minute, sob story about how the band recorded this debut album in 1986 and promptly split up prior to releasing it. The video would be underscored with melancholic classical music and... Continue Reading →
The connectivity of modern music that the digital age has ushered in can take you down some wonderful musical rabbit holes. One minute you are bopping about to something familiar, something which you have deliberately sought out and a few cursory clicks and lateral links later and you might find yourself immersed in music three... 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 →
I Like Trains feel like something that we lost along the musical way. They also feel like something that is more necessary today than at almost any time in recent history. Some of the most interesting musical movements, hip-hop, punk, even rock and roll itself, grew out of disenfranchisement and boredom and such genres embraced... 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 →
The first track I heard by you guys, “Yesterdays”, reminded me so much of any number of British, post-punk bands that I was surprised to find that you are from the quintessentially American Orange County. Perhaps we can start by discussing the band’s sound and influences? Erick: The West of House “sound” is an interesting recipe of... Continue Reading →
Not heard anything from Folk Devils for around thirty years, so this was a welcome surprise. Big bendy guitars crash in with a wall of dirty but tuneful sound behind. No space for filler in here, just big powerful chords, rhythms and melody. It has a confidence that comes with age and experience. Although the... Continue Reading →
I have always loved Cyborg Asylum’s future nostalgic blurring of time lines. Future because their music always seems to be the soundtrack to some dystopia cataclysm yet to happen, the rallying cry for the under dogs in some yet to come Big Brother, oppressive police state. Nostalgic because whilst pursuing those futuristic visions, they also... Continue Reading →
With a brooding and shrouded bass sound which pulls the listener immediately in at the deep end, Siegfried 1969 is a swirl of gothic and post-punk sonic troupes. Clinical, electronic beats, buzz saw guitars, chilling and obscured lyrics…even if you are fluent in German…explosives dynamics releasing salvos of sonic shards, Cold War allusions, stark European... Continue Reading →
Even by the time that I have written out the band name and track title, I like The Sea At Midnight. A lot! Words are emotive, titles suggestive…or at least they are when in the hands of people who understand their power… and there is something in the scope and poeticism of those nine opening... Continue Reading →
I love the way that I Like Trains begin by showing us the musical engine room before they proceed to bury it in some edgy and energetic musical shards. A Steady Hand kicks off with a motornik groove, a relentless, hypnotic beat punctuated by distant and disturbing depth-charge bass booms, the perfect driving force for the sound-bitten... Continue Reading →
A new album from Beauty in Chaos is always something which generates a lot of excitement. There are not many bands who manage to marry alt-rock swagger, post-punk inventiveness, brooding, gothic overtones and old school rock and roll so effortlessly, certainly none which do so without falling for the usual cliches. And if Michael Ciravolo... Continue Reading →
As the recent brace of songs, “Rose Devoid of Form” and “Everything at Once Forever”, makes clear, The Academy of Sun is equally at home with the heart-aching and cinematic as it is with full on rock ’n’ roll. Perhaps tell me about the bands influences and musical plan of attack? Nick Hudson: We don’t... Continue Reading →
Whilst this latest gem from Brighton’s The Academy of Sun feels like it is wandering through the same sort of territory that Nick Cave has explored from time to time, whereas the emotions our antipodean dark lord builds from err towards the bleak and torn, Rose Devoid of Form uses a more elegant, lilting beauty... Continue Reading →