ALBUM REVIEW: TY SEGALL – HELLO HI

Just when you think you know Ty Segall as the modern king of psych rock, he blasts any preconceptions you have of him into outer space, as the ‘Whirlybird’ soundtrack released earlier this year demonstrated. Hot on the heels of that epic, comes his latest studio album ‘Hello, Hi’. There’s always been a touch of […]
During ‘Vietnam Tabloid’, the closing track on ‘The Sound of Musick’, Stan Batcow launches into a spoken description of what it takes for a piece of music to become popular, arguing that it merely has to become familiar. In safe, formulaic music, the listener can easily predict the chord changes, where the chorus and instrumental […]

ALBUM REVIEW: HOWL IN THE TYPEWRITER – THE SOUND OF MUSICK and THE RED ALBUM

ALBUM REVIEW: THE BURNING HELL – GARBAGE ISLAND

Anyone who writes a song about a gannet called Nigel, which starts with the opening lines “They’ve all been making plans for Nigel, and by them I mean the ornithologists”, is already on to a winner. ‘Nigel The Gannet’ is a catchy tale of the natural world complete with The Burning Hell’s brilliant take on […]
Snappy song titles are a sure way of grabbing attention. Since unleashing ‘Alternative Facts’ as a Too Pure Singles Club release in 2017, Mush have specialised in the sort of titles that suggest a pithy, barbed, obtuse take on the modern world (‘Gig Economy’ with its perfect irony for a band, ‘Hey Gammonhead!’ and ‘Poverty […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MUSH: DOWN TOOLS

ALBUM REVIEW – THE WOLFHOUNDS: BRIGHT AND GUILTY

The Wolfhounds’ timing was always askew. Coming to attention at the tail-end of the C86 movement, their debut album ‘Unseen Ripples From A Pebble’ did not fully reflect their garage rock and post-punk racket. By the time they released the far-superior ‘Bright and Guilty’ in 1989, now reissued by Optic Nerve, music press attention had […]
Although we are officially at the “living with Covid” stage of the pandemic, otherwise known as pretending it no longer exists, the backlog of vinyl releases means that streams of lockdown records are emerging bleary-eyed into daylight. Even if lockdown might not be the overwhelming subject matter of Harkin’s ‘Honeymoon Suite’, the recording process was […]

ALBUM REVIEW – HARKIN: HONEYMOON SUITE

ALBUM REVIEW – GIRLS AT OUR BEST!: PLEASURE (DELUXE EDITION)

The post-punk era was a time where the original punk wave had opened the floodgates for DIY bands that were happy to shine brilliantly but briefly before disappearing back into civilian life. Girls At Our Best! were a prime example, releasing three singles and an album in the early 1980s, surely never envisaging that 40 […]
Over the course of two decades, Japanese band Mono have been leading exponents of instrumental post-rock. Unjustly, they have not received the acclaim accorded to peers like Mogwai but have taken that quiet/loud dynamic which can be every bit formulaic as a verse/chorus pop song and made the journey from a whisper to ear-shattering volume […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MONO: MY STORY, THE BURAKU STORY (AN ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK)

ALBUM REVIEW – KIKAGAKU MOYO: KUMOYO ISLAND

Psychedelia at its best is a kaleidoscopic delight that can transport fans to places deep within the imagination. Of course, often it proves little more than an excuse to grow your hair and indulge in interminable heavy guitar riffs or, at the opposite pole, excessive whimsy. Fortunately, while Kikagaku Moyo definitely fit the hirsute tendencies […]
When you hear that the album you’ll be listening to is called ‘Unsoothing Interior,’ it’s safe to say don’t expect an atmosphere akin to a chamomile tea and a sit-down. Vero has very different ideas on their debut project, which has a lot to say about the chaotic nature of their twenties and evokes the […]

ALBUM REVIEW: VERO – UNSOOTHING INTERIOR