LIVE: THE SLITS – 12/10/2009

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MACHESTER – Ari Up looked magical, yet slightly kooky as she confidently bounced onto the warmly lit stage. With her eyes blazing beneath a huge shock of dread-locked hair that would make Heather Small weep with envy and wearing figure hugging gold lamé hot pants and tatty bomber jacket, the 50-year-old singer resembled one of those scary bounty hunters from Mad Max. Accompanied by original Slits bass player, Tessa Pollitt and new recruits Hollie... Read More

SINGLE: Tanja Maritsa – Live For Today

Tanja Maritsa’s gentile, jazzy folk comes from a time that I just can’t quite place. Before the 60s my knowledge gets a little hazy. Not my fault! I’m only 25 and I was brainwashed from an early age to believe that The Beatles were year zero, and nearly everything that came before was rendered redundant by those floppy haired hippies. Still, if I was to hazard a guess Live For Today hails from the 1940s, and is the kind of music that soldiers and their sweethearts fell... 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 through a field of buttercups.... Read More