ALBUM REVIEW – AMMAR 808: CLUB TOUNSI

AMMAR 808’s ‘Club Tounsi’ is a classic example of a culture clash that works magnificently. It is a mix of bass-heavy, floor-shaking dance rhythms from the TR-808 drum machine of Denmark-based producer, Sofyann Ben Youssef, combined with the Mezoued folk tradition of his native Tunisia. Mezoued takes its name from the goatskin bagpipes that provide […]
Offering chaos and a distinctive style of music impossible to categorise, Sports Team’s upcoming album ‘Boys These Days’ might be their boldest release yet. With a constant infectious energy, Sports Team aren’t comparable to any other artist currently. Really slotting into their own niche of Indie-Rock laced with Saxophone and Keyboard, ‘Boys These Days’ is […]

ALBUM REVIEW – SPORTS TEAM: BOYS THESE DAYS

ALBUM REVIEW – ROBERT FORSTER: STRAWBERRIES

As Robert Forster’s solo songwriting usually proceeds at a methodical pace, it is an unexpected delight to be welcoming a new album a mere two years after ‘The Candle and the Flame.’ This latest record, ‘Strawberries’, is out of the ordinary compared to Forster’s recent output. It was recorded in Stockholm and produced by Peter […]
If you’re a regular in the galactic digital aether we call the Internet, you will have come across the tag ‘hopecore’. A trend that has proliferated on platforms like Tiktok, it has become associated with a particular brand of short video, distinctive by the plaintive synth-pad soundscapes ever-present in the background, created with the intention […]

ALBUM REVIEW – ANATOLE MUSTER: HOPECORE

LIVE REVIEW – SUPERGRASS: MANCHESTER ALBERT HALL – 16/05/2025

I miss Britpop. I wasn’t there – about eight years too late – but I miss it. Its optimism, rugged energy and ability to weave between storytelling and subtle social commentary all still translates today. Perhaps now though we reflect on it with the bittersweet notion of nostalgia, longing to return to a time where […]
Tune-Yards     Better Dreaming        Proudly waving an anti-fascist, liberation, freak flag, Better Dreaming contains some of Tune-Yards smoothest, funkiest, and most direct pop music to date. Carmel Smickersgill               Unsolicited Advice EP           Modern classical / outsider pop artist whose new EP is subtly darker in tone to its predecessor, Smickersgill is keen to stress that “Unsolicited […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 16 MAY 2025

EP REVIEW – FARMER’S WIFE: FAINT ILLUSIONS

If you took lemonade, Pop Rocks, a little bit of mud and some glitter you would get something that resembles how this EP from Farmer’s Wife sounds. It comes as part of the ongoing shoegaze renaissance bringing a sort of backwoods goth vibe to the genre. I’m talking about the feeling of soil on bare […]
 I’m 23 now, which is a weird age. I’ve completely lost myself and have no clue what I’m really supposed to do anymore, I think some would call it a kind of burnout. The last year has really put me through it and yet I just can’t shake this feeling that there is something more […]

ALBUM REVIEW – SHUNKAN: KAMIKAZE GIRL

ALBUM REVIEW – SLEEP THEORY: AFTERGLOW

Metalcore is one of the only subgenres of metal that blurs the line between metal and more mainstream music genres such as pop. That is why people either love it or hate it. It is very rare to find a band that innovates metalcore as so many metalcore bands just focus on the catchy choruses […]
The greatest music can often be borne of desperation and crisis. While it is impossible to explain why this should be, it is surely linked to the catharsis of creativity being the best coping mechanism. Ezra Furman’s tenth album is a wonderful example of this. On 11 April 2023, she woke ill, limped to the […]

ALBUM REVIEW – EZRA FURMAN: GOODBYE SMALL HEAD