rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Often, the term “Americana” is used to describe an amalgam of sounds which when fashioned together result in songs which echo with the quintessential vibe of the United States. Forest Sun takes this a stage further and his latest album, his tenth to date, is a series of songs, each inspired by and infused with... Continue Reading →
It’s the same old story. You form a band, play some gigs, rub shoulder with the likes of Tom Robinson and The Monochrome Set, have tea and cakes with Slade and party with Paula Yates at the 1987 Brits. You split up, move on with your lives. And then 30 years on a record label... Continue Reading →
Whilst many artists seem to be too focused on creating the next sound and being first to surf the incoming zeitgeist, and others happier to just repackage the sounds of the past, the really smart artists understand that the place to be is somewhere between the two approaches. Artists such as John Lathrop who makes... Continue Reading →
It is easy to hear a sonic link to the past when the dulcet and delicious tones of Ruth Blake’s latest single begin emanating out of the speakers. It brings to mind the likes of Joni Mitchel, Suzanne Vega and Natalie Merchant, Laura Marling and Carrie Tree. But it is also a song whose relevance... Continue Reading →
If the term “singer-songwriter” conjures up images of gap-year troubadours in wide-brimmed hats, waxing love-lorn and lyrical over a working knowledge of A minor in the corner of a basement venue, then you need a bit of Dave Giles in your life. Sure, he describes himself as a singer-songwriter but I guess only in the... Continue Reading →
Woah! This is certainly a track which gets right down to business. No softening up, no gentle easing in, just a sonic salvo powerful enough to knock you across the room. Still, if you are going to make a fast, first impression, why not just come out swinging? And that is exactly what happens on... 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 →
Writing about music is obviously a passion for people like me, but it is also a way of making a living. This obviously means that, like any job, you find yourself writing about music just out of obligation, a means to an end. Sometimes you are pleasantly surprised by what you find under the pen,... Continue Reading →
Pop music is not known for having hidden depths. In fact, most three-minute groovers with their sights set on assailing the pop charts would be lucky to boast hidden shallows. But the ability to write poised and purposeful pop, songs which are both fun and throw-away yet which are so meaningful and relevant to the... Continue Reading →
As part two of the Monomyyth Trilogy, which began with the breathtaking beauty of Astronomica, you would expect there to be some similarities between the two albums. And indeed there are. But there is also plenty which makes this album able to stand alone from its predecessor. As the opening track, Kabuki of the Starred... Continue Reading →
If the previous single, Goodbye, felt like an exercise in what would happen if someone wrote a stadium-ready song which blended both brains and sonic brawn, 9 PM is a much more subtle affair. But, just like before, it is happy to show its working out. In fact, it feels like what would happen to... Continue Reading →
It’s great when a song's musical make-up reflects the message being pushed in its lyrics. So, as James O'Connor reinforces the edge of madness vibe by repeated use of the title as a recurring lyrical motif, he does so over a brooding bassline and simple, relentless beat to drive the idea home. And by the... Continue Reading →
Garrison Hawk may be a name more associated with alternative and progressive rock and even pop music, but on his latest album, The Adrenaline, he returns very much to his roots. If working with Tricky on his 2001 album Blowback brought him to wider recognition, it was working with such artists which also set him... 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 →
When I Fell In Love With You was my first taste of Stephen Jacques wonderfully ragged, slightly world-weary rock and roll. I loved it. It reminded me of a wealth of gipsy-rock guitar-slingers from my formative years, ones who understood that it isn’t about polished conformity or echoing commercial sounds, it is about doing what... Continue Reading →
Blending some gorgeously evocative Spaghetti Western vibes through an Americana musical landscape, the fabulously named Kung Fu Hippies, kick up a wonderful sonic storm. They take a simple folk structure and hang some resonant 50’s guitar twangs and country grooves on it but throw in a bucket of their own inspirations too, especially in the... Continue Reading →
As much as musicians of the modern age often seem in search of the next new sound, eager to fuse genres into sonic chimaeras, be the first to the new fad or fashion, sometimes you just want to stay in your comfort zones. There is nothing wrong with returning to the sounds of your youth,... Continue Reading →
There are not many people who truly deserve the accolade “icon,” of whom when people say that “we shall not see their like again,” it is truly justified. Ian Fraser Kilmister, known to the world as Lemmy, was certainly one of those people. After leaving Hawkwind in the early '70s, on less than amicable terms,... Continue Reading →
Our usual selection of the music that we have been working with to help drive away the winter blues and the lockdown boredom. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Qj8QRy6gRtBa7GBk49737?si=FmXuiAeqQ4eLwzQbAMC1dw
Issues of equality, sadly, seem to only be redressed in very small increments. Although we are hearing increasing talk of levelling the playing field on issues of colour, gender, religion and race, change seems to move at a glacial pace. Which is why it is great to hear of promoters such as The Herbal Tea... Continue Reading →
Soul Music never goes out of fashion, it seems to be able to move with the times, finding its way into every successive era and across all genres of music. Burned is the sound of it being wound around the core of a modern pop song and the results are as wonderfully accessible as they... Continue Reading →
Here the word Nashville and you automatically conjure the archetypical Rhinestone clad cowboy or rugged, troubadour with a pick-up truck and another place to be. Perhaps we shouldn’t listen to our inner stereotyping, perhaps it’s Schroder’s Boston roots but what we get on Skyline isn’t the sound that the Music City is immediately associated with.... Continue Reading →
The modern musical world is a fast-moving place. A place of exploration, of innovation, of invention. It’s a place where genres are fused into new forms, new sonic territories sought, zeitgeists are surfed and the ever-changing fads and fashions adhered to. But sometimes it all gets a bit exhausting. Sometimes it seems to be trying... Continue Reading →
This latest album from Chicago’s Speedyville Nardy is a riot of spoken word, random vocal sounds and dexterous raps, put to the beguiling and meandering electronica which has become the hallmark of modern rap music. The music definitely takes second place to the vocals that it forms a platform for but that has always been... Continue Reading →
Humans have been making music for a long time. From the ritualistic evocation of ancient gods to the choral wonders of medieval religion, through classical grandeur to the explosion of contemporary sound which technological advances have allowed. It's been a long and fascinating journey. The Wizard is an album which seems to short cut that... Continue Reading →
These Australian Noisemakers initiate this recording with 3m45s of edgy awkward tune-ups. It's the sort of sound that might get Glyndebourne aficionados running to the exits demanding their money back in a Mr Angry from Tonbridge Wells stylee. However, they'd have to push past me as I was gatecrashing the turnstiles and rushing towards the... Continue Reading →
Let’s start with the name as in many ways those two words were chosen to sum up a sound and an approach to how you make music? Noble Barz: I first want to say thank you for having me on The Big Takeover platform. I consider it a privilege as this is primarily a rock and indie... Continue Reading →
Liking this from the very start. It sounds very theatrical. I'm imagining a big stage with a huge supporting cast of actors, dancers and people dressed in mad animal costumes interacting with a crazy colour world of sculpture and animatronics. The falsetto might not be to everybody's taste but it is a good fit to... Continue Reading →
There is something wonderfully early 90’s and alternative about What’s Going On, a certain fragility and a sort of outsider vibe, one which seems plant a flag for creativity over commerciality, but remains a commercially viable option nonetheless. And it is that preference for substance over style, whilst remaining as stylish as hell, which is... Continue Reading →
Anything that puts me in mind of the songwriting of Del Amitri’s Justin Currie is always a good thing, and lyrically at least, there are plenty of similarities to be found here. The same everyday narratives, the same matter-of-fact deliveries, the ability to turn the minutiae of the day to day into semi-mythological stories…not the... Continue Reading →