Gold: After All The Wishing – Jim Johnston
“After All The Wishing really sees Jim Johnston up his game and even after the strange beauty of his previous solo outing he has again delivered something both weird and intoxicating, dangerously attractive and unlike anything you have heard before. In the right light it would be easy to convince yourself that this is actually a long lost album from Bowie’s Berlin years and there are not many albums that you can say that about.”
Silver: Guard Down EP – Salute The Sun
“Overall, the five tracks on offer are put together in an almost mini-concept sort of way, building, for me at any rate, a sense of being at a club gig over a whole night, starting with funky upbeat energy, through intense atmospherics, and on into end-of-night chillout. I like an album that sounds like it’s been put together with some sort of narrative. It’s old-school, like recordings used to be before the age of the “shuffle” button.”
Bronze: Balloon Ascents EP – Balloon Ascents
“With this great collection of songs as a calling card and with age on their side (they look so young it is scary) and the whole image package coming together they are hitting all the right targets for greater success. Watch this lot; they could do rather well for themselves.”
