COMPETITION: HALF MOON RUN – GRAB A PAIR OF TICKETS FOR DEAF INSTITUTE SHOW + A COPY OF NEW ALBUM ‘DARK EYES’
The Montreal quartet Half Moon Run will release their debut album ‘Dark Eyes’ through Glassnote/Communion/Island Records on the 1st July 2013. It will be preceded by a new single, ‘Call Me In The Afternoon’, on the 24th June. Recorded in Montreal, the album was produced by the band alongside Nygel Asselin, Daniel Legace, and Jim Eno. Its release will be surrounded by a handful of UK live shows including two performances at the Glastonbury... Read More
NEWS: OF MONSTERS AND MEN – UK LIVE DATES
Icelandic alternative folk sensation Of Monsters and Men have emerged as the breakthrough international act of 2012. Whilst the excitement around the UK release of their debut album ‘My Head is An Animal’, out 27th August on Island Records, continues to grow, the band announce details of a 2013 UK tour. Of Monsters and Men’s rise to music’s upper echelons has been unstoppable. ‘My Head is an Animal’ has already enjoyed huge success outside... Read More
Album Review: DJ Shadow – Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow
He sounds like a dark superhero nemesis haunting the alleys and sidewalks of some fictional North American future city. Or perhaps the murky pools that lie within the darker recesses of our psyches. In fact, he is Josh Davis, ironically from the Northern Californian town of… Davis, and for the last 20 years he has been behind some of the most innovative electronic music to have filtered out of the human imagination and into nightclubs across the... Read More
VIDEO: REN HARVIEU – ‘TONIGHT’
21 year old Salford born singer Ren Harvieu, whose breathtaking voice has had the critics reaching for the superlatives and whose critically acclaimed debut album “Through The Night” stormed into the UK chart this week at no. 5, releases her new single “Tonight” on July 16th through Kid Gloves/Island Records. Ren has just announced her first major UK tour for October and will also be playing a very special one off acoustic show at the... Read More
NEWS: OF MONSTERS AND MEN – ‘LITTLE TALKS’ VIDEO + UK TOUR DATES
Celebrated Icelandic indie-pop sextet Of Monsters And Men, will release their boisterously catchy, chart topping second single ‘Little Talks’ on the 6th August through Island Records. Since winning a local battle of the bands competition less than twelve months ago, Of Monsters And Men’s trajectory to music’s upper echelons has been unstoppable. The band’s debut album ‘My Head Is An Animal’ has already enjoyed huge success in Iceland... Read More
Album Review: The Drums – Portamento
The new Drums album is named after a 17th Century Italian word meaning a slide between two vocal pitches, an apt name for an album, which also slides from one mood to another. The first album, Summertime!, is a release the band describe as a concept album, that while visceral and fun, lacked depth. This time around they have focused inwards, taking time to reflect and make a more personal LP that tackles issues such as religion, heartbreak and….trans-genderism.... Read More
ALBUM: DJ SHADOW – THE LESS YOU KNOW, THE BETTER
Having followed DJ Shadow since the release of his seminal debut album ‘Endtroducing…’, I’ve yet to hear anything from the Californian producer that surpasses it. I still very much enjoy his work and follow his career, though nothing compares. ‘The Less You Know, The Better’ would appear to be an appropriate instruction, if I’m to give this new LP a chance. At his Manchester gig a few years back, Josh Davies... Read More
EP Review: DJ Shadow – I Gotta Rokk
DJ Shadow is perhaps the ultimate postmodern expression of the potential within electronic dance music. His 1996 debut album “Entroducing” was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the first to be composed purely of samples. Forget the Halle orchestra – all Josh Davis needs to make music is an Akai sampler, a dark mood, and a pair of turntables. Perhaps not surprisingly the tracks on this EP – comprising remixes of tracks from... Read More
ALBUM: Mumford and Sons – Sign No More
There’s a festival feel here. I’m not sure which one either. Whether it’s the easy informality of Leicester’s Summer Sundae or something more profound like echoes of Woodstock. But I am sure that the songs are wonderful. They’re uplifting, skipping along with a deftness of touch which makes them comfortably familiar and yet still fresh and exciting – the way the first plays of a new album should feel. Throughout it feels like I’m dancing... Read More
