rescuing musical virtue in distress.
When most creative people were bemoaning their lack of freedom, lack of access to their art-spaces and stages, creating a wave of, often, let’s face it uninspired, live-stream shows from their downstairs toilet due to pandemic imposed strictures, at least two people were swimming against the tide of lockdown's lack-lustre reactions. After all if an... Continue Reading →
Music which owes its origins to the hip-hop scene of the early 70’s, which is essentially everything which can be loosely termed urban music, has always worn its heart on its sleeve. Plus, there has always been a central duality in its message. It is music from the streets dealing with the tough grind of... Continue Reading →
It’s fair to say that the life of a modern-day music writer is filled with variety. One moment you are trying to capture the atmospherics of a fragile helping of ambient of dream-pop, the next you are putting pen to paper on behalf of an epic symphonic metal concept album. So it comes as no... Continue Reading →
Pop-Punk might seem to be a bit of a “been there, done that, bought the Sum-182 t-shirt” sort of genre these days but like any classic musical form, there is always an audience for new music if you present something exciting enough. Anyone working in such musical territory, places where the rules are already well-established... Continue Reading →
It’s been a tough year, that’s for sure and most news coming out of the music and arts sector these days is rarely good. But the way to get through it is to look to the future and try to find the silver linings. They are always there if you look hard enough. So the... Continue Reading →
Eric Scott has shared stages with the great and good of the music scene from Mavis Stables to Roger Waters and can regularly be found as bassist and vocalist for award winning blues and jazz artist Deanna Bogart. It’s safe to say that he moves in some rarified circles and can turn his hand to... Continue Reading →
I ended my review of Rocadopolis last record, City Inside The Desert, by saying that his music was what “honesty sounds like,” so it is only fitting that he is moving along similar open and heart-on-sleeve lines on the latest release too. Broken Promises is a confessional song, one where Rocadopolis is honest enough to... Continue Reading →
Silverback Colony, (great name by the way) has been a revolving door for the great and the good of the musical world since its inception nearly a decade ago, with one permanent member in the form of the beard-stroking Gabriel Douglas at the helm of the musical ship. Here, aided and abetted by multi-instrumentalist Kai... Continue Reading →
Another busy week of turning music into words and quite an eclectic playlist. Please give it a whirl, check out some of the artists in more depth and perhaps buy something…afterall, what's the worst that could happen? https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sJPwf8pnX8eOwWAbhvr9O?si=qfR5tOshRJitfcDVxQJY7w
It is thanks to bands such as Circu5 that the term prog has shaken off some of its old image and is becoming cool again. Following in the footsteps of bands such as Porcupine Tree, Dream Theatre and Muse, it through blending the tight and to-the-point aggressiveness of alt-rock with the more thoughtful and a... Continue Reading →
There are some things in this world that I can’t really do without. I don’t want to envisage a world without coffee in it and I certainly don’t want to live in one that doesn’t have cheese. The world is a better place for Victoria Coren-Mitchell and old Waterboys albums, China Mieville novels and Marx... Continue Reading →
Your music is more often than not described as Power-Pop, what does that term mean to you, is it right for the band and are you conscious of genres and their boundaries? Jim Styring: Yes, I’ve seen that term mentioned a few times, and that’s fine, we’re more than happy to be called Power-Pop, but I think... Continue Reading →
You could say that the job of a storyteller, a real storyteller, whether they are an author, musician, poet, artist, whatever, is to soak up life, act as a sponge, a repository for narratives and tales, events and anecdotes, to travel the world really getting to the heart of the human experience. How can your... Continue Reading →
What’s this? A dulcet and delicate slice of considered acoustic pop from Mr McD? Tish. Tish. Tish. Tish. Boom! Ahh..there it is and were off down a more punky-acoustic-frantic-folky-rant-a-thon…and why not? He does it so well. But even when he is letting off steam in such a raw and raucous fashion, the music is never... Continue Reading →
Bluntfield doesn’t have the answers, he doesn’t pretend to, Strange Times is more about raising important questions, making the listener ask the why’s and the what ifs? That has got to be better, hasn’t it? What we have here is a year in the life of a country on the brink, a diary entry, one... Continue Reading →
'6 Aprile' is the second album by Verde Lauro, created by the Italian-Swiss singer Fabrizio Sassi, which follows the debut album 'Son animali al mondo' which saw the participation of numerous guests, including Roberto Tiranti and Alessandro Del Vecchio Unlike "Son animali al mondo", this second chapter was designed and created to be played live. The orchestrations were reduced and the verses were... Continue Reading →
In a world were easy labels and generic pigeon-holes still seem important to many people, the terms “Outsider Americana” and “Chicagoana,” not my terms but the artist’s own musical shorthand, are both perfectly apt for what this veteran singer-songwriter does.... Read the full review at The Big Takeover
Music has become such a ubiquitous and money driven product these days that we often forget that, if you go back far enough, all music has a shared origin in the devotional music of the middle ages. Many artists wander their own musical path to different ends but Chris Bender is still focused and following... Continue Reading →
Matters of The Heart is essentially the sound of inner turmoil put to a lush, 12-string-laced, acoustic waltz. It’s a song which seems to be built on collisions; for the artist one between the heart and head when it comes to making important life decisions, for the song a strange harmony between raw, intimate lyrics... Continue Reading →
You have to love an artist who puts out a single called This Song Won’t Get Played On the Radio, it tells you a lot about their world view, their sense of humour, their ability for slight self-deprecation. I like this guy already. There is also a lot to like in his second solo album,... Continue Reading →
You can’t say that FaB …aka Neil Fitzsimon and Bee Brogan, haven't moved in some pretty neat circles over the years. As members of Pretty Blue Gun they shared the studio with members of Art of Noise, Moody Blues and Eric Clapton’s band and now as a duo in their own right can boast a... Continue Reading →
Blues seems to have become so slick and unconnected from its roots theses days that when something raw, something delivered with such passion, comes along, it seems to almost be from a different world…or a different genre at least. Blues never was about guys in Armani suits playing to stadium crowds for bucket loads of... Continue Reading →
Up until now, most journalistic pens put to paper regarding Paul Lappin have dwelt on the back-story, the chance meetings, the lucky alignment of factors, the path from rural France to a Swindon recording studio. But the release of this first full length album means that all of that can now take a back seat,... Continue Reading →
We keep hearing that the world is becoming an ever smaller place. Most people take that to mean that things such as travel and technology are making us more connected, more accessible, more globe-trotting. But for me, the most interesting aspect of the concept is the merging and creative collision of cultures which goes with... Continue Reading →
Quite a long and eclectic list this week, but that just shows how busy I've been, I guess. Please listen, explore the artists further and maybe buy some of their music, let's show grassroots musicians just how much we value what they do. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7fOD6YRf8KT0TyUjip2LGP?si=gh67JLz7S8ug0IZp14irhw
We know that JD Days has the ability to wander all over the sonic spectrum, taking in all manner of influences and hopping between numerous musical genres, from folky acoustica to indie groovers to rap-infused dance-pop. But I feel that in his heart he is an old-school acoustic balladeer, a hopeless romantic who loves nothing... Continue Reading →
As a calling card for the e.p. Lovestruck, Hamid J has just released a sassy, pop groover that goes by the name of 3Way Call. It sits squarely at a point where forward-thinking pop, understated and infectious dance and modern R&B all buffer up against each other, it is wonderfully spacious, is fun, infectious and... Continue Reading →
The appropriately named Stories With Unhappy Endings sounds like a horror movie writing its own soundtrack. Whereas someone setting about composing such a score is trying to make music sound like evil acts and depraved urges, mindless violence and heart-wrenching terror, this sounds the other way around, as if it is the acts themselves which... Continue Reading →
We spend so much of our time looking to the future for sonic saviours to appear, for the next great slice of music, for the next big thing, that we often ignore the wealth of music which has gone before. What is great about Chris White’s current revisiting and remastering of just some of the... Continue Reading →
At the risk of sounding rude, Rollcall feels to me what pop music might sound like if it was made by someone on Ketamin…and I mean that in a good way…well, the end result, not the taking of industrial strength, horse tranquilliser. It’s certainly pop music but swerves the more obvious sonic tropes and the... Continue Reading →