rescuing musical virtue in distress.
If you were going to place Black Note Graffiti on a musical timeline of rock’s ebbs and flows, you would place them very much in the here and now. But not because they are just part of the modern pack particularly, more because they are forging a sound which is part past musical glories and... Continue Reading →
Vacation is a celebration of the good times. It’s as simple as that. But rather than adopt the usual worn cliches - bottles of Cristal being drunk in dark hotel rooms, tables piled with cash, bags of weed and guns being waved around, this a much more life affirming view of the party attitude. It... 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 →
Evolution is the sound of 80’s sonic glitter being scattered over a wonderfully modern alternative dance track. It may be easy to draw a line between Julian Shah-Tayler’s latest creation and earlier, post-punk, keyboard pioneers but only in the same way that you can connect an Umberto Eco novel with an illuminated medieval manuscript. Everything... Continue Reading →
Power-pop. It’s an interesting term. It’s a much misunderstood term. To some it might imply that navigating its mysteries require you to merely crank up the guitars in a pop tune. Or swap sonic weight for more infectious melody in a rock number. Well, yes, it is sort of about that but it is about... Continue Reading →
Genres eh? Who needs them? Certainly not The Amber Bugs. As their track record shows they are as happy funking up as they are rocking out, as deft with reggae grooves as they are jazz refrains, as comfortable delivering punk chops as they are weaving pop melodies. And best of all, they have a wicked... Continue Reading →
It has to say something about the popularity of rap, hip-hop and urban music that a sound so associated with America in particular and the western world in general, is even being made in places as far distant as India. I know that the world is a small place and music is largely able to... Continue Reading →
Although there is the most intimate and personal inspiration behind Phillip Gilchrist’s latest single, it is also a song which everyone will be able to relate to. Based on the idea of two people meeting for the first time and getting lost in each others eyes to the point where they felt like the only... Continue Reading →
We get so wrapped up in the idea that music is a career path, a way to pay the bills, of gaining recognition, notoriety even, maybe even wealth, that we forget that music has so many other, more worthy, applications. We forget that music can be a powerful way of broadcasting ideas, it can move... Continue Reading →
Metal, especially the more technical end of that particular spectrum, and classical music have always made slightly odd but perfectly compatible travelling companions. But require high levels of skill, dedication and dexterity, both revel in florid and intricate soundscapes, byzantine sonic structures and whatever the opposite of the “less is more” approach is. Both also... Continue Reading →
As we enter the post-genre world, as generic divides are wilfully hopped, razed or ignored altogether, it might appear that it is the world of rock and metal that has benefited most from such a new and open attitude. It has always been a sector of the music community which thrived on sub-genres and strict... Continue Reading →
If you think that rock and roll is exciting, the sound of rock and roll evolving is even more fun. It’s easy to think of the genre as having found its perfect form a long time ago and, perhaps like the shark, not finding the need to change its form to fit its surroundings. Think... Continue Reading →
Rich Jacques has long known, and consistently proven, that music can be more powerful, more perfectly poignant, when it is used sparingly. It’s all very well to load up the musical space with all manner of instruments, double-tracked and ramped up, over-driven and over-played, if that's all you know, rock bands do it all the... Continue Reading →
Music is made for many reasons, from escapism to autobiography, from joyful euphoria to howls of anger, but perhaps it is at its most powerful, most poignant, when it is raising real-world concerns, when it is using its platform, its sonic soapbox to broadcast ideas to the world in general. And it is this that... Continue Reading →
Releasing the occasional single, as is the modern way, is fine for making a quick and temporary impression, but if you want people to really appreciate and understand the full width and breadth of your artistic endeavours, then an album is where it’s at. And whilst we already know that Kemper Grant has a fluid,... Continue Reading →
Although best known as a songwriter and producer in his own right, Chapstick is Huntington’s first time in the centre-stage spotlight and he finds a great way to kick off this new career path. It is a high-energy, pop-dance song, one driven by infectious grooves but also containing enough dynamic shifts, from full-on clubland crescendos... Continue Reading →
Just as the weather begins to take on a chill and you start thinking of more Autumnal activities, Miss Sunshine comes tumbling through the air to add some sun-soaked, soulful sass to the day. It’s a song which lands easily on the ear, which oozes warmth and good feelings, from the understated guitar work to... Continue Reading →
Trey Connor makes music which sits in a sweet spot. It isn’t big enough to be rock but it channels some of its energy whilst neatly swerving the cliched baggage that the genre carries about with it. It isn’t really pop, not in the current sense of the word anyway, but its easy attractions and... Continue Reading →
Heartfelt promises, a personal challenge and unlikely inspirations are what drives, multi-instrumentalist and obvious fan of Spoonerisms, Tash Hagz’s first single release. Having made a vow to his father that he would write, record and release a song that was totally of his own creation before he turned 50, it was to the story of... Continue Reading →
Didn't have time to put. list together last week so here is one that takes in all of the great sounds that have been floating around the office in the last fortnight. Enjoy…and then purchase, it's the done thing you know. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3EiVEG9vq1KIztJ4GZhyaR?si=SP9lrkZkRFiPI9zDt23N4A
If you heard someone throwing around the term pop-rock you could be forgiven initially imagining some sort of middle of the road, fashion-driven dross that neither delivers the immediacy of the former nor the integrity of the later. But what if there was a way of taking the instant hook, the cool catch and inherent... Continue Reading →
Perhaps, now more than at any other time in recent history, people are looking for a ray of hope, a long lost, sliver-lining, a glimmer of light breaking through the dark clouds which seem to be gathering at an ever increasing pace. Okay, we shouldn’t look to musicians to provide the solutions, that isn’t their... Continue Reading →
Here’s the conundrum. Music which explores new territories is more important in the creative scene of things than music which covers old ground. But music which is, at least in part, familiar is going to pick up listeners more readily than music which is challenging to listen to. So how do you create something which... Continue Reading →
Like most music and entertainment related things happening this year, the pandemic caused a drastic rethink in how The Great River Folk Fest Songwriting Contest might work. The festival itself was clearly a no go area but the wonders of modern technology and the socially connected nature of the world meant that the Songwriting Contest... Continue Reading →
Remixes of songs can fulfil a number of roles in music. To some artists they are just a way of getting more milage out of the current single, a collectible cop-out at best adding little to the musical landscape. To others they are means by which to explore the hidden depths of a song, to... Continue Reading →
Us journalists are fond of describing artists using past sonic reference points, of trying to chart an imaginary family tree or deliberate direction of travel via past sounds and albums. And whilst it is easy to plot such a path through a whole bunch of power-pop mavericks, alternative guitar-slingers and out of the box thinkers... Continue Reading →
There's a lot to get through on this 21 track double retrospective album. The band have skirted with fame on several occasions, being picked up notably by both John Peel and Tom Robinson. I have to admit that they have snook under my radar until receiving this to review. The familiarity though, makes me think... Continue Reading →
Yolanda Arrey is proof that the world is a small place. So small in fact that musical styles and cultural inspirations are free to mix and clash and create at will, to fuse and confuse, to find new balances and new forms as people move around the world living their lives. Genre and geography are... Continue Reading →
When you look at the singer-songwriter, perhaps the purest form of modern music, it is easy to think that nothing has really changed over the 50 or so years since its late 60’s/early 70’s boom. But that is a fairly short-sighted way to view things. Okay, the genre, if indeed it can actually be seen... Continue Reading →
Although opening salvo Vein of Blue might lull the listener into a sense that Cowboydelic is going to be a fairly straight down the line country collection, by the time the second track, Muck, arrives you realize that this is going to be a much more interesting prospect. It is also at this point that... Continue Reading →