LIVE: JON HOPKINS – 24/09/2013

Photo by Steve Gullick – GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I’m a little dubious about tonight’s gig at Gorilla, the main reason being that Jon Hopkins’ recent Mercury Prize nominated album ‘Immunity’ has been played to death since I got hold of it a few months ago and I’ve never listened to it with anyone else around. For me the whole album feels like I’ve broken into Hopkins’ house and bugged it. Right from off it’s as if... Read More

Album Review: Cuushe – Butterfly Case

For a pianist to adopt a chillwave sound for her sophomore album, a form of music often associated with amateur bedroom musicians, would seem like a dumbed-down shot at accessibility, and ultimately this album follows that lead, with sprinklings of beautiful musicianship along the way, just increasing the frustration of what could have been.To put together a successful and coherent album of this genre, the musician has to achieve the harmonic balance of both relaxing yet, most... Read More

LIVE: SAMARIS – 24/09/2013

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – After walking in Gorilla to find Samaris’ lead singer of just nineteen rushing through her homework, it was hard not to expect an uptight performance tonight, mirroring the Icelandic band’s young age, with the three-piece barely touching twenty. However, clarinet player, Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir, explained to me after the gig, how the band are “very calm” about their age, and that literally shone through tonight, with her... Read More

INTERVIEW: SAMARIS

Samaris delivered an ambitious yet wonderful album earlier this year, mixing traditional Icelandic poems with twisting and contorting electronics, all layered over and completed with the simple yet enchanting melodies of the clarinet. I spoke to possibly the only clarinet player in the electronic scene from the three-piece, Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir, just after their performance in Manchester supporting Jon Hopkins. She told me why this album should not be perceived as their... Read More

NEWS: STRFKR – UK TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED + ‘WHILE I’M ALIVE’ VIDEO

Hot on the heels of the release of their acclaimed third album Miracle Mile, Portland OR-based STRFKR reveal a string of UK November tour dates. STRFKR have always maintained a very close relationship with their fans, demonstrated again recently with the fan led remix for While I’m Alive. The original video is here…Following a run of incredibly successful US festival dates, which included FYF and Summerset, this extensive Winter tour marks another opportunity for the band... Read More

NEWS: PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING – NEW SINGLE ‘NIGHT MAIL’ + DVD RELEASE OF DEBUT ALBUM & TOUR DATES

After a triumphant festival season which has seen Public Service Broadcasting playing to packed stages and tents across the UK, the duo return this Autumn with Night Mail, the stand-out track from their critically-acclaimed debut album ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’. As well as new single ‘Night Mail’, the nation’s favourite corduroy obsessives have finally confirmed that the much-requested and oft-rumoured DVD edition of the album will be released on the same... Read More

Album Review: Au Revoir Simone – Move In Spectrums

Generally in the music press, writers love the idea of ‘genre’. The desire to pigeonhole and categorise artists is an instinctive one: it give us the ability to compare and contrast similar artists, which in turn allow us to grade them based on their individual merit. However as we plough ever further into the 21st century it becomes rapidly more difficult to do this successfully. Genre is becoming more subjective; one person’s ‘chillwave’ is another’s ‘shoegaze’,... Read More

NEWS: WOODEN SHJIPS – NEW ALBUM ‘BACK TO LAND’ + TOUR

‘Back To Land’ is the new album from Wooden Shjips, released November 11th through Thrill Jockey Records. Wooden Shjips’ rise to prominence from the psychedelic underground to the rock and roll overground has been a steady sojourn. With each consecutive release, the band has found new ways of transforming heady psychedelic rock into minimalist masterpieces, bridging the gap between the woozy freeness of Les Rallizes Denudes and Crazy Horse and the tightly wound simplicity... Read More

NEWS: BENEATH THE BEACH – DOWNLOAD NEW SINGLE ‘THE WAY YOU COULD HAVE LOOKED TONIGHT’

Beneath the Beach have released their new single ‘The Way You Could Have Looked Tonight’ which will be available to download from today via their Bandcamp page (link below). ‘The Way You Could Have Looked Tonight’ combines weaving guitars, complex driving rhythms and vocal samples from Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane and the offspring of Ivor Stravinsky. Its is a track to make you both think and dance to simultaneously.Beneath The Beach  Official | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud |... Read More

LIVE: ELIZA AND THE BEAR – 20/09/2013

– PHONES 4U ARENA, MANCHESTER –  It’s a pretty big deal when a young British band, who have spent years playing every toilet venue in the UK and beyond finally get a break and get to play some bigger rooms. So it must feel pretty good to be in Eliza And The Bear right now. After a successful headline tour around the UK, the London based outfit were picked personally by pop-punk princess Hayley Williams to support her band Paramore on their current arena tour... Read More