Are You OK? – Wasuremono (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It’s got to the point now that any time I find myself coming back to Wasuremono after any significant time away from their music, it feels slightly like coming home. Or at least returning to a place that you didn’t realised you had missed until you find yourself surrounded by its radiant charms. And Wasuremono’s... Continue Reading →
Are You OK? – Wasuremono (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I always imagine that Wasuremono live in a strange animated otherworld, one fashioned from vibrant colours and the broken remnants of 80’s pop bands, sweets with unacceptably high sugar content and psychedelic lift music, Japanese screen prints and haunted music shops. I know this isn’t the case but who wants their favourite bands to seem... Continue Reading →
So For Real – Ed Hale (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
There is a real skill to being able to make music that simultaneously sounds like you have been listening to it all of your life but also the newest, freshest music to waft through the airwaves and it is a skill that Ed Hale appears to possess in no small amount. I guess it is... Continue Reading →
Scene and Heard – CCLXXXII: Holy Now – Wasuremono (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You can trust Wasuremono to be both right on the current zeitgeist but still way out ahead of the pack when it comes to any video that accompanies their gloriously beguiling music. So only a day after watching Ready Player One I find my screen filled with retro gaming shenanigans and music which sits somewhere... Continue Reading →
Paper Cranes – Cherry Coloured (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The wonderful Cherry Coloured is back with a song which blends the usual dreamy, ambient soundscaping with something slightly more driven, slightly more tangible. Without abandoning the washed ambience and tentative tones, Paper Cranes is instead built on a throbbing, hypnotic, motorik beat and some lovely and exotic, skittering chiming charm. It is this walk... Continue Reading →
Something Left Behind – Wasuremono (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I always approach writing about new music from Wasuremono with a mix of joy and trepidation. Joy, because immersing yourself in their strange, musical world, one which seems to mix musical whimsey with clever sonic choices, left-field approaches to the job at hand and a genre-hopping …well, otherness is always time well spent. Trepidation because... Continue Reading →
Lies! Lies! Lies! – Nick Harper and The Wilderness Kids (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
In a world that seems to be brimming over with guys with guitars, pop troubadours and fey, indie-folksters it would be very wrong to place Nick Harper anywhere amongst their ranks. Yes, he is a guy. Okay, he has a guitar. But that is where the similarity ends to the new kids on the singer-songwriters... Continue Reading →
Songs of Praise, Swindon – My 12 favourite gigs of 2016 – part 1 (by Dave Franklin)
I don’t get to go to many gigs that I am not involved in promoting these days, but whilst I am always present in more of a work than a punter capacity, I still get to watch, work and hang out with some wonderful bands and a set of people who are imaginative, affable, mad,... Continue Reading →
Kaboom – Wasuremono (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
I often find that music dictates the way you write about it. Music full of boast and bombast evokes muscle bound descriptions, commercially loaded pop often results in over-egged efforts to sell its style rather than its substance and most conventional indie music leaves me appropriating descriptions I have used before, for better deserving bands.... Continue Reading →
The Cadbury Sisters @ The Victoria, Swindon – 27th May ‘15
For a town locked into its nostalgia-fest of tribute and cover bands, there is still the occasional gem to be found amongst the denim clad purveyors of classic rock and the Ellie Goulding wannabees, and The Cadbury Sisters coming to town is a show that stands out from the pack immediately. And so there I... Continue Reading →
Wasuremono – Wasuremono (The Wilderness Records) reviewed by Dave Franklin
With the emergence a few years back of a new My Bloody Valentine album and bands such as Ride and Slowdive seemingly falling over each other to hitch themselves to a shoegaze revivalist bandwagon, Wasuremono seem perfectly placed for when the powers that be coming looking for their slice of the action. The album is... Continue Reading →