rescuing musical virtue in distress.
By wrapping deft soulful tones around a gentle pop groove, Dez Money manages to lift his latest single, Lost, above the rank and file of the usual chart fare. Well, above it. And rather than try to draw attention to the song by throwing in all manner of pop tricks and studio gimmicks, he instead... Continue Reading →
On this latest release, Pollux King blends any number of outsider vibes into a sound that will act as a Trojan Horse for mainstream music. It has rock integrity but is far from your average rock and roll song. It has a slow hip-hop groove but certainly doesn't sit comfortably in that realm. It also... Continue Reading →
Although working in the techno genre, Conundrum is more than just the usual relentless drive of electronic beats. It builds its energy through hypnotic grooves, certainly, but it also plays with subtle dynamics. There are unexpected and intriguing lulls, false endings and slow-burning restarts. There is also a neat use of texture and tones as... Continue Reading →
This week has been the usual mix of new music from old friends and songs which have put artists on my radar for the very first time. With live gigs on the horizon, there is no better time to support such grassroots artists and make sure that they are still working the circuit when you... Continue Reading →
Hearing music in a film and then exploring it fuller at a later date is something that we all indulge in. Hearing a song inspired by a novella (and the film which came from it) and then immediately ordering the book is something much less common. In the interests of balance, I must mention that... Continue Reading →
Pop music doesn't generally have much to say in its lyrics, not beyond love lorn platitudes or euphoric sentiment. But that isn't pop music's job. Its main concern is engagement with the audience, lifting spirits (or perhaps sending the mood the other way) offering something immediate and of the moment. But what if pop could... Continue Reading →
Just because a song has been written and recorded a certain way, why draw a line under things so soon? Why resign yourself to the idea of a definitive version of a song when it can have any number of rebirths and reinventions. A good song is a good song after all, so why not... Continue Reading →
Both as a solo composer and as frontman of the gloriously experimental The Academy of Sun, Nick Hudson has been responsible for some gorgeous and creative, not to mention gorgeously creative, music. Some of it has pushed the boundaries of what alternative rock can be, at other times it has taken more graceful and ornate... Continue Reading →
I've listened to this half a dozen times now and I'm still not sure what is going on. But then, the best music is challenging. The best music is weird. The best music doesn't have to make sense. In fact, things are better when there is a whiff of confusion in the air. And this... Continue Reading →
Arriving with the tag line "sad vibes for rainy days" the track immediately sets the tone with Kristen Stewart's now-classic monologue of being at odds with the modern world from the film Anesthesia, something that it returns to reinforce the feeling of disaffection and dislocation. From there the song runs through a melancholic, electronic soundscape,... Continue Reading →
There is something unashamedly 60's about this latest single from The Silent Boys. But more than that it is the sound of that decade as reimagined by a whole host of 80's indie bands. And then too, it is that combination of sounds, repositioned, repolished and repurposed for the audience of today. How meta is... Continue Reading →
The term alternative rock is as broad and unwieldy as the generic label that it offers an alternative to. Starting life as a way of defining music that stood apart from, say, classic rock, it now seems to include a broader spectrum than the thing that it used to be a subset of. That said,... Continue Reading →
It's a couple of years since The Pink Dust first blipped on my radar with the single Fathom and then the EP of the same name. Dark Seas is their new full-length album and it is a glorious affair. Each release has felt like walking through an ever-broadening sonic landscape. If Fathom, the single, offered... Continue Reading →
I've said it many times before. There is a sweet spot between pop and rock music that manages to combine the best of both genres. Find your way to that magical crossroads and you will find that your music is imbued with the infectiousness of the mainstream and the weight and swagger of rocks sonic... Continue Reading →
You can't say that the life of a music reviewer isn't a varied occupation. One moment you are putting pen to paper to describe the classic sweeps and graceful moves of an ornate, neo-classical piece, the next you are up to your neck in raw and gritty lyrics and pounding, urban beats. But that is... Continue Reading →
I'm always intrigued when you read a list of artist's influences and inspirations and not one of them lies within what you would call the mainstream for modern music. Whilst so many artists are looking to tried and tested templates from Oasis to Taylor Swift to Drake to emulate, Fredo Viola follows more in the... Continue Reading →
Blending the sonic traits of the folk troubadour, the accessibility of the acoustic pop perpetrator and the authenticity of the singer-songwriter, N/SH makes music that is both perfect for today but which echoes with the sounds of the past too. It is a sound that is folk driven but like the music of so many... Continue Reading →
There is an assumption in the modern world that artists with a long gap between album releases are somehow out of the picture, that their absence from the endless "hamster wheel of recording and gigging" as a means to an end renders them invisible. But, in the ten years since her last album, Atoosa Grey has been... Continue Reading →
Delicacy. That's the word that best sums up the nature of Daniel Blake's latest EP. You can throw about all the genres and labels that you like, but the common denominator of the music found here, the music that he has always been so deft at fashioning, is its gossamer and fragile nature. Not ambient,... Continue Reading →
If you are expecting the daughter of Top Topham, he of Yardbirds fame, to make music with a bluesy rock groove, then you have come to the wrong place. If, however, you are a fan of gorgeously delicate piano tunes, deft folk infusions, shimmering acoustic guitars and charming lyrical narratives, then step right in. All... Continue Reading →
The great thing about Whole Damn Mess is that whilst they employ the sonic weapons of a rock band, what they create is so loaded with a pop sensibility, so wonderfully melodic, so addictive and infectious that they seem to create a genre all of their own. Pop-rock doesn't seem the right term, perhaps selling... Continue Reading →
Often the term "bedroom singer-songwriter" is used to imply unprofessionalism and lack of production, but on Cowpoke, Raf Sanchez proves that the term can stand for something else. It can stand for intimacy and honesty. Employing mainly voice and acoustic guitar, with occasionally just enough warm and hazy wash of effect and electronica to lift... Continue Reading →
Although sonically it doesn't sound like it, especially given the rewriting of its own history that the genre has applied to itself, Rwandan Energy, the opening track of New Bohemia, reminds me of everything that punk music promised, and largely failed, to deliver. You take a retro pop riff and use it as a vehicle... Continue Reading →
With live gigs now on the horizon it's the best time to be checking out new, grassroots music. Please support them in any way you can, share their music, buy CD or download and hopefully when the time comes you will find some of these cool artists playing live in your area. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PO8poweo68wim2nepdBdF?si=bm9KTT15ROuE2sPYZQQqrg
MeNTaL GLooM is perhaps the perfect name for this album of ten songs, for even in its seemingly more upbeat moments the music is swathed in a sort of claustrophobic and negatively charged fug. How much of what follows is from personal experience and how much is creative narrative, we will never know, but it... Continue Reading →
Jazz is often seen as an acquired taste, a complex and niche musical style with a slightly inaccessible vibe to it. Pop music, by contrast, as being a frivolous and perhaps throwaway genre. But perhaps by mining a sonic seam that runs through both, you could come up with the best of both worlds, music... Continue Reading →
As their array of past singles will testify, ReLoVe is a band with a wonderfully fluid sound, one that sonically shifts, hops boundaries, fuses genres, and embraces different styles as the whim takes them. But no matter which musical path they are exploring, their music is always identified and united by one core aspect. Groove.... Continue Reading →
A lot of the hard rock of the past, that made in the '80s in particular and the rise of Thrash Metal on one side of the Atlantic and the NWOBHM on the other, often seemed lacking in its lyrical content. Cliches, which by today's standards would seem bombastic, immature and misogynistic, abounded. And although... Continue Reading →
Blending elements of 90's hip-hop with 21st-century r&b vibes, Crown is an understated slice of accessible urban electronica. In it, Malik Mos High talks of ambition, of aiming high, of not allowing others to hold you back, of having your sights set on the ultimate prize, the Crown and whatever that means to each individual.... Continue Reading →
It is safe to say that Erika Bach likes her own creative freedom. She has always played by her own rules, from her days as a member of Melbourne alternatives Hard Candy to recent musical musings as one of transatlantic electronic gothic duo m1nk, making the music that she wanted to make seems more important... Continue Reading →