ALBUM REVIEW – THE DARKNESS: DREAMS ON TOAST
A heavy, thumping riff. A strong, pounding drumbeat. That glamourous metal swagger of Justin Hawkins. The Darkness are back and ready to rock your socks off like they have many times before. The opening track to Dreams on Toast, ‘Rock and Roll Party Cowboy’, is the perfect start to any glam metal album. Loaded with some Mötley Crüe style vocals and lyrics that scream masculine dad rock (“Zippo lighter, Marlboro Reds, Jack Daniels”), you can tell the band are back in... Read More
ALBUM REVIEW – SPELLLING: PORTRAIT OF MY HEART
Four years after the release of The Turning Wheel (2021), Tia Cabral dares to fiddle with the work of God in Portrait of My Heart (2025, Sacred Bones Records); creating a unique record in her catalogue that takes distance with their predecessors without losing identity. Cabral is cautious in Portrait of my Heart: the tracks are short, direct (never simple) and blooming with restraint. If hope, optimism, magic, faith and phantasy were the traits of The Turning Wheel, this record... Read More
FEATURE: WHO ARE YA – DREAMWAVE – BRISTOL BAND TAKING INSPIRATION FROM THE LIKES OF OSEES, KING GIZZARD, PINK FLOYD, AND ADDING THEIR OWN MELODIC TWISTS TO CREATE A DAZZLING PSYCH ROCK MINDMELT
Dreamwave create the kind of swirling, garage psych rock which is brimming with melody and guitar fuelled adrenaline blasts in equal measure. With new EP ‘Moon Dogs’ due for release on 25th April 2025, and several sold out shows already under their belts, we caught up with this Bristol bunch to find out more: Who’s in the band and what do they play? Ben – guitar/vox Hester – keys/vox Cam – bass/vox Alex – drums How long have you been doing... Read More
ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 21 MARCH 2025
Silent Radio’s guide to the week’s new releases. Benefits Constant Noise The band take a different approach to the in-your-face polemics of their debut. Recalibrated as a two-piece featuring founding members Kingsley Hall and Robbie Major. The album is still angry, the band is still angry, but rather than regurgitate what they’ve already done, it sees Kinglsey deliver his stream of consciousness style vocals on the frustrations of... Read More
LIVE REVIEW – MICHAEL KIWANUKA: MANCHESTER APOLLO – 13/03/2025
“How does it feel when it’s quiet and calm?” Is there such a thing as the “perfect venue”? A venue designed to host live entertainment, Theatre, Live Music, Comedy, can that venue be so intrinsically in tune with the acts it puts forth? Can a venue simultaneously look and embody it’s chosen acts? …well sadly not, I can’t imagine a venue which specialises in Hardcore, Death Metal would be writing up emails to Sabrina Carpenter asking if she can tour the place. Now... Read More
ALBUM REVIEW – CHOSES SAUVAGES: CHOSES SAUVAGES III
It will come as no surprise that ‘Choses Sauvages III’ is the third album from the Montreal based six-piece of that name. While they might take their numerological approach to record naming from Led Zeppelin, that is where the similarities end. Back in an era where musical tribal loyalties were more dogmatic, they would have been arch enemies as the Canadian group specialise in a sound that is marginally closer to new wave than post-punk. Their name translates as Wild Things... Read More
ALBUM REVIEW – SACRED PAWS: JUMP INTO LIFE
Sacred Paws have a signature sound, a blend of Afrobeats and highlife with a post-punk spikiness and pop melodicism. While this can be blessing, it also has its drawbacks. Any of their songs are instantly identifiable as their own work but it does mean that new releases do not contain a huge element of surprise. Thus, it is no shock that their third album, again released on Mogwai’s Rock Action label, ‘Jump Into Life’ fits this template. However, there is a definite sense... Read More
SINGLE REVIEW – LUCY WROE: THE VAULT
It had been a rough winter. Global politics swung with the same volatility as the weather outside—unpredictable, unrelenting, and sometimes disconcerting. Cold, dark days had felt endless, as if the world had settled into a permanent sepia haze, with no sign of spring and the inevitable feeling of hope that it carried. Then, in the last two weeks, without warning, colour crept back in. Light seeped through unseen cracks, illuminating crevices of possibility. Spring arrived in... Read More
ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 14 MARCH 2025
Silent Radio’s guide to the week’s new releases. Circuit des Yeux Halo on the Inside The latest from Haley Fohr is a rhapsodic, hedonistic, dance floor-adjacent, pagan-friendly, horns-adorning wall of sound and emotion. The Loft Dr Clarke Latest from first Creation band on TV, first to hit the top of the indie singles chart, first to be invited on to a major UK tour and first Creation band to record a coveted... Read More
ALBUM REVIEW – JEFFREY LEWIS: THE EVEN MORE FREEWHEELIN’ JEFFREY LEWIS
A songwriter with the ability to mine his autobiographical persona, fears and self-loathing to emotional yet comedic effect, Jeffrey Lewis has a catalogue of songs with a unique quality. Dating back to 2001’s ‘The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song’ and 2006’s ‘Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror’, he could weave his heroes and influences into songs riddled with humour. There has always been a defiantly political element to his outlook, most explicitly pursued on 2007’s ’12... Read More
