FEATURE – ECUADORIAN MUSIC – PART 1

One of our Manchester-based writers, Alejandro Burbano, hails from Ecuador and recently proposed a feature on music from his homeland via a series of individual track reviews. Here is the first featured song. Track 1: El poder #1 (me quitas todo) by Letelefono (2025) Letelefono is the musical project of the Ecuadorian artist Leo Espinoza. […]
“I had to grow my own garden”. The Spring season is in full swing; the flowers are blooming, the sun is out and shining, the weather is perhaps ever so slightly too warm for my liking. All of these aspects have returned to our life. But something is missing, something is yet to be added, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – AMINE: 13 MONTHS OF SUNSHINE

ALBUM REVIEW – LAVINIA BLACKWALL: THE MAKING

Anyone listening to Trembling Bells for the first time would have been struck by Lavinia Blackwall’s vocals. A classically trained soprano, she brought a purity of voice to their freak folk music, soaring with grace yet also having a lived-in edge. It would not be hyperbole to draws comparisons with Sandy Denny. Unsurprisingly, her second […]
Rivers of Nihil are a band that has never been scared to experiment between different metal subgenres. Even though they are considered a progressive death metal band, they often blur the lines between progressive metal, death metal, and on their self-titled album, jazz and blues as well. This combination of different music genres creates a […]

ALBUM REVIEW – RIVERS OF NIHIL: RIVERS OF NIHIL

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 23 MAY 2025

Marc Ribot      Map of a Blue City     While it’s not a traditional singer-songwriter album, it is his first to centre his plaintive, wise voice quite so prominently throughout. Map of a Blue City showcases songs colliding disparate traditions: roots, bossa nova, no wave, noise, free jazz, and sounds that have no genre associations. There is […]
With each pluck of a string and every beat to a drum, The Kowloons present their undeniable talents upon a polished platter of silver.  An upbeat rhythm with an infectious nature, ‘I Don’t Care’ draws a hit of jaunty acoustics before exhaling a sweet summer sound. Revealing a narrative, this track is “spoken like a […]

SINGLE REVIEW – THE KOWLOONS: I DON’T CARE

LIVE REVIEW – EZRA FURMAN: LIVERPOOL ROUGH TRADE – 21/05/2025

“You seem like a rowdy northern crowd if that isn’t too much of a stereotype.” From the roars of the boisterous crowd, they relish Ezra Furman’s description. Record shop in store shows can be strange events. Audiences tend to be more restrained as they are often clutching CDs or vinyl, precious cargo compared to the […]
  The latest album from Sufyann Ben Youssef under the moniker AMMAR 808, ‘Club Tounsi’, is a fearless display of heavy electronic rhythms combined with traditional Tunisian sounds. Ben Youssef’s back catalogue illustrates his alchemist’s skill in fusing disparate elements. His 2018 debut, ‘Maghreb United’, combined deep electronic elements with traditional North African instrumentalists, vocalists […]

INTERVIEW – AMMAR 808

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