ALBUM REVIEW: PHILIP TABANE – THE INDIGENOUS AFRO-JAZZ SOUNDS OF PHILIP TABANE AND HIS MALOMBO JAZZMAN

Is the association of jazz with heroin a fairly universal thing or have I inherited this unrealistic stereotype based on mid-20th-century cinema’s lazy caricaturing of counter-culture and “hippy music”? It would seem there is more “substance” to it, both in the supremely talented opiate-using US jazz maestros Miles Davis and Charlie Parker and in a […]
John Grant is an already well-established artist, who takes a seemingly cosmic direction with his new music. With a couple of albums under his belt, ‘Love is Magic’ and ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ to name two.  The beginning of this album seems to be its awakening. Different instruments begin to chime in and it seems […]

ALUM REVIEW: JOHN GRANT – BOY FROM MICHIGAN

ALBUM REVIEW: DRUG STORE ROMEOS – THE WORLD WITHIN OUR BEDROOMS

The Hampshire based; electro-pop outfit Drug Store Romeos release their sombre, yet dreamy debut this week after meeting in the quaint town of Farnborough. The fifteen track album, throughout has capturing time changes and interesting descents into disco. I personally find the vocal style to be rather unique and is definitely not for everyone. Highlights […]
The sun is shining, it feels like summer, we’re in the mood… what better music to put on than some ska? No, sorry, that was a rhetorical question. The answer is “Nothing, ska is easy summertime tunes that remind you of being young in the late 90’s and it should be piped into the world […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES – WHEN GOD WAS GREAT

ALBUM REVIEW: ST VINCENT – DADDY’S HOME

Welcome back to the weird, wonderful, and downright enthralling world of St Vincent. St Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has been making music over the last two decades and growing in popularity and critical acclaim throughout six inventive records. Her 2017 record ‘Masseduction’ was her best yet, teaming up with the busiest man in pop music […]
Royal Blood return with a bang! Or should that be a sidestep and groove, as this new version of Royal Blood is dance-driven but as riff heavy as ever, making for interesting listening. After scrapping the original version of this album and deciding to take it in a new direction, with clear influences from Daft […]

ALBUM REVIEW: ROYAL BLOOD – TYPHOONS

ALBUM REVIEW: TEENAGE FANCLUB – ENDLESS ARCADE

Seeing Teenage Fanclub live again at the Academy 3 in 2018, reminded me just how uplifting music can be, well, their music at least. A large amount of time in my youth was spent listening to their records, whatever mood I was in, putting on a Teenage Fanclub album seemed to make the world that […]
I’d heard their name mentioned by some of my favourite bands, yet nothing prepared me for the whirlwind of noise induced melodic chaos which came blasting out of the radio, late one evening in my musically formative years. A sound that took you to the sonic boundaries of the deep, with melodies that entranced and full-on […]

ALBUM REVIEW: ALAN VEGA – MUTADOR

ALBUM REVIEW: CORY HANSON – PALE HORSE RIDER

Cory Hanson’s second solo album finds the Wand singer conjuring up sounds reminiscent of long summers in Laurel Canyon, Hanson’s words floating effortlessly throughout the album, as if drifting on a warm ocean breeze. The fact that this album was recorded in a place called Cactopia, in the desert, surrounded by 6ft tall sculptural psychotropic cacti only […]
The fact that William Doyle’s fourth album is here at all is a major triumph of man versus machine. Having a computer wipe most of your tunes from existence leaving just a few ideas on a trusty old tape machine was what faced Doyle during the making of ‘Great Spans Of Muddy Time’. Rather than […]

ALBUM REVIEW: WILLIAM DOYLE – GREAT SPANS OF MUDDY TIME