Album Review: Kindness – Otherness

I had the pleasure of watching Kindness perform at the Berlin Festival last month and was impressed by his mixture of modern day soul and outright smoothness. The combination of decent tunes, a fantastic wardrobe and one of the tightest backup bands going around, made him my favourite musical discovery of the festival. This lasting […]
Wild Cub present their début album in a flourish of melody-heavy and anthem driven tracks with the aptly named ‘Youth’. The Nashville based outfit, assembled around frontman/guitarist Keegan Dewitt and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bullock, have quickly erupted across the United States and are now set on emulating such success in the United Kingdom. After recently releasing […]

Album Review: Wild Cub – Youth

Album Review: The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers

The supergroup: a lazy term for a generally dirty concept in rock music. It brings to mind egotistical, indulgent, short-term projects comprising disparate musicians operating on different wavelengths. But after 15 years and six full length albums, The New Pornographers have found a way to circumvent these problems, chiefly by only convening every few years. […]
When you talk about slackers, the glamorous, Americanised image is of beautiful surfer dudes smoking lots of weed and making lovely, reverb-heavy music about being sad. Best Coast, basically. The British equivalent isn’t nearly as cool. With a climate like ours, it’s nicer to sit in and watch telly all day and eat biscuits and […]

Album Review: Sex Hands – Pleh

ALBUM REVIEW: SWANS – TO BE KIND

A hypnotic bass line introduces you to the slightly surreal adventure that is ‘To Be Kind’; Swans’ newest addition to their large collection of music. In what will feel like a two hour long hallucinogenic trip to the unseasoned Swans listener, this album may pass many people by as nothing more than a noisy din. […]
The Vacant Lots came to the attention of the shoegazing ‘select’ when they were featured on Sonic Cathedrals ‘Psych for Sore Eyes’ compilation. The track in question ‘6am’ is included on their debut album Departure released again on those bastions of fine taste Sonic Cathedral. The duo from Burlington, Vermont, have already won over some influential fans […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE VACANT LOTS – DEPARTURE

Album Review: Tom Vek – Luck

It’s quite crazy to think that we’re nearly at the 10 year anniversary of the début Tom Vek album We Have Sound. Even though it fitted in with the punk funk scene of the time, it still lived in its own little world and remains one of most unique sounding débuts of its time. Shortly […]
Morrissey-baiting Glasweigan indie punk trio PAWS’ second LP Youth Culture Forever opens with something of a curveball. Erreur Humaine starts out deceptively bluesy until stabs of grunge guitar kick the record into life. It combines alternating whispers of cello and huge guitar blasts with a charming tendency to try and fit too many syllables into […]

Album Review: PAWS – Youth Culture Forever

Album Review: Cherry Ghost – Herd Runners

The chorus of ‘The World Could Turn’ – the fifth track on Cherry Ghost’s third studio album Herd Runners – sums up its underlining tone perfectly: “Haven’t you heard, in a heartbeat, the world could turn. For every end there’s a beginning, what’s a life if not for living, you see the way it just keeps on […]
As what would have been Gil Scott-Heron’s 65th birthday this past April 1st, Record Store Day is gifted with a magical posthumous release by the legend. Widely considered as a hugely influential figure in hip-hop and jazz, his unique style of spoken word poetry garnered worldwide acclaim. After a huge back-catalogue of 13 albums from […]

Album Review: Gil Scott-Heron – Nothing New