rescuing musical virtue in distress.
It seems that hardly a month goes past without something new from Tombstones in Their Eyes landing on my desk. This is fine by me as they have never let me down and I always look forward to hearing any new musical machinations that they send out into the world. Being prolific is great but,... Continue Reading →
As I said when musing over the previous single, Blue Cherry, the great thing about Magic Wand’s sound is that it is both confident and muscular whilst being hazy and dreamlike. It seems like a sonic oxymoron, a creative contradiction in terms. But they create this unique sound by having a hard kicking, beat-driven engine... Continue Reading →
Between The Raft and music made under his own name, Phil Wilson has been responsible for a wealth of great music over the years. Music which tips its hat, in no small part, to those sonic explorers of the days of the independent label era, bands and artists which made labels such as Sarah, Postcard,... 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 →
The first spin of a new black watch album always feels like coming home. Those first few guitar strums of Saint Fair Isle Sweater are the crunch of your feet on that familiar drive way and then the door opens and you are warmly greeted by shimmering guitars, the lushness of which beckons you inside and... Continue Reading →
Some bands sound as if they are inspired by 90’s alt-rock. Velodrone sound as if they ARE 90’s alt-rock. And I mean that in the most flattering of ways. It is easy to listen to past bands and simply copy their sonic moves, but Velodrone is a band that captures so much more; the world-weary... Continue Reading →
It’s funny how mainstream music seems to age very quickly but its underground opposite number always sound exactly what it always was. I suppose that is the trouble with surfing zeitgeist waves in search of fad and fashion. That’s the trouble with conformity. Follow you own mind, abide by your own rules and no-one can... Continue Reading →
As the opening shimmering salvo and drifting haze of Turned Too Slow washes out of the speakers you know that you have found your way back to a very special musical place. But even though e.ps and singles have kept us abreast of the what has been going on there, it seems a rawer and... Continue Reading →
Written, in part, to try to encapsulate, possibly exorcise, the memory of a European tour and specifically the downward spiral of the bands relationship with their driver, Swiss Mountain Myth is a slice of dark beauty that the band themselves refer to as being their “version of The Shining.” And even without knowing that, there... Continue Reading →
As always, A Shoreline Dream seem to pose more questions than they present answers for with their latest release. Then again, if your music isn’t working that hard then perhaps it is just taking up too much space anyway. Seek To Hide is certainly a cluster of contradictions, one that will ponder notions such as... Continue Reading →
Maybe it’s some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. A band who, consciously or otherwise , find themselves going down a certain creative route eventually find themselves working with someone who was, in part at least, one of the architects of just such a sound in the first place. Perhaps it is just co-incidence. Perhaps million to... Continue Reading →
When you have ten albums…count them, ten…under your belt it is safe to assume that you are doing something right. More so when it becomes clear that you have made your music without any attempt or desire to follow fad or fashion, tick other peoples boxes or satisfying public expectation. Clearly inspired by and infused... Continue Reading →
If you haven’t fallen in love with The Mystery Plan by the mid point of opening salvo Those Stars, then you really should see a doctor, or perhaps even a psychiatrist. How could you not find everything you need in its drifting textures, louche beats and sultry saxophone? If there was a decent bookshop nearby... Continue Reading →
When I look outside my window I see a world built of angles and sharp edges, littered with colour schemes that are either brash or drab, skies half hidden by man made structures and people who seem to be dutifully going about their business and finding little joy in it. That’s why I listen to... Continue Reading →
I did it again! I took one look at the band name, the artwork, the track's title and jumped to conclusions. Everything suggested that what lay beyond would be some sort of strange electro music, digital dalliances made up of synth textures and angular, programmed off-beats. Well, you know what they say about judging books... Continue Reading →
I've said it before and I’ll say it again, “sun-damaged American music” is a pretty apt description of the sound Palm Ghosts make. At once vague and accurate, a description which doesn’t really tell you much going in but which in hindsight is the perfect summation, and Wide Awake and Waiting is another chapter in... Continue Reading →
Whilst some bands may sound as if they are stealing from the past, The Orange Kyte sound like they live there. Or at least have occasional use of an apartment with commanding views of an acid-laced, psychedelic, musical time. Chronology may suggest that they are at the modern end of a time-line which runs back... Continue Reading →
I shouldn't be writing this. I shouldn’t need to. Anyone who reads this site, who agrees with my tastes or knows that the common denominator of of this place is that if it makes the cut its worth checking out, should just take on board the fact that Tombstones in Their Eyes has a new... Continue Reading →
Whilst there has been a wave of bands from the post-punk, Shoegaze and early nineties scenes reuniting of late, few have come back to the fore with new material. And of those who have returned clutching a new album, few have one as interesting as this. Not content with riding the nostalgia wave, Medicine do... Continue Reading →
It’s an odd combination of clattering punk grooves and drifting, dreamscape indie but somehow it just seems to work. But that is the art of music making really, being brave enough to throw things together that have no business being together and seeing what happens, of not worrying if it fails or flies, and understanding... Continue Reading →
Slowness make music which seems less about presenting songs to the listener and more about cocooning them in smooth and sultry swathes of drifting textures. This isn’t so much music to be listened to at all, but rather to be experienced, something to surrender too and just let it wash over you rather than trying... Continue Reading →
If the term Shoegaze has always suggested intricate walls of guitar noise whilst Dream-pop suggestive of a more drifting and hazy soundscape, then it is where those two genres meet, merge and meld that Submotile operate. A strange world where solidity and structure are drenched in half-heard lyrical delivery and fluid, formless riffs, where music... Continue Reading →
Some music hits the review pile to the voice in my head muttering “oh, them again, I suppose I might find time to write that up.” Other music evokes a pleasant, “Ahh, that should be a good listen.” Then there is music that falls into the category of, “ Man, I’ve missed you.” Phil Wilson... Continue Reading →
It always feels like a lottery when an album is shoved under your nose without any explanation or description of what to expect. It’s a little like finding a can of food after the wrapper has been torn off, what lies inside will only be revealed when the can is opened. This split EP –... Continue Reading →
Although writing for and fronting punk duo Ghoul Kids gave Taylor Barnes a great place from which to speak on any number of topics and narratives, it wasn’t until he suffered the unexpected departure of a close friend that he decided that a different musical platform would better serve his creative needs. That new sound,... Continue Reading →
Even before they had made a single noise, Spiritualized's moves were being closely watched by discerning music fans and press alike by virtue of front man Jason Pierce and his previous musical vehicle Spacemen 3. And whilst their droning, pedal heavy, shoegazing and tremolo driven sound would warp and shift to absorb many genres, particularly,... Continue Reading →
To give people something a bit more familiar in-between the unknown, new and breaking music we write about here, I thought I'd do a daily post of some of the music that continues to inspire us and the musicians we write about here. Monday has been designated the realm of Shoegaze and so there is... Continue Reading →
Sometimes less is more, there’s a whole cliche built around that notion. But sometimes more is more…I guess the clue was right there in front of us all the time. More means more and more has to be better than less. No? If you don’t believe me then just listen to Finnish shoegazing kraut-punk leviathan... Continue Reading →
In a world of entrenchment and demarcation, of accepted norms and conformity, A Shoreline Dream is a transient and translucent haze that can’t be tied down. When everyone else is playing by the rules of commerciality or bowing to the fads of fashion they would rather move, smoke-like, on a breeze of their own making. They... Continue Reading →
At that point where the haze of shoegaze meets the pristine lines of pop, where cool of the underground overlaps with the more discerning end of the commercial music machine, where the dream-like meets the danceable, you find Soft Science. They join dots between that pre-Brit pop territory of the likes of early Lush or... Continue Reading →