ALBUM REVIEW: GNOOMES – NGAN!

This one is hot off the press – not much is known about Gnoomes. Google, inevitably, will insist that you actually want to search for ‘gnomes’, but persistence leads you to Facebook and Twitter pages that are yet to take off. This needs to be put to rights. Gnoomes are vocalist/bassist Alex Pyankov, drummer Pavel Fedoseev […]
It is evident that Protomartyr singer Joe Casey, ten years senior to the rest of the band, is on a mission to make the band stand out amongst the flotsam of modern music. In recent interviews Joe Casey explains that he “needed this, needed Protomartyr”. He states that he didn’t want to end up singing […]

Album Review: Protomartyr – The Angel Intellect

Album Review: John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure

If you were to judge the new album from John Grant on the title alone, you may surmise that this was going to be heavy going. Especially when you find out that Grey Tickles… is the literal Icelandic translation for mid-life crisis, and that Black Pressure… is from the Turkish word for nightmare. Having listened to this […]
Pressing play on a Mercury Rev album is like the aural equivalent of opening a volume of fairy tales. You know you’ll be in for an intense and evolving series of narratives infused with melancholy and introspection best enjoyed in its entirety as an immersive experience. For a band with a track record of creating […]

Album Review: Mercury Rev – The Light In You

Album Review: Shopping – Why Choose

October sees the return of Shopping with their first full length since their 2013 début Consumer Complaints (difficult to find on a search engine on two counts, I know). The band have been busy of late, having supported Montreal post-punk outfit Ought on their UK tour last month, the London trio continue with a plethora […]
I just wanna point out straight away, this music isn’t my cup of tea at all. However, I do respect its beauty and inoffensive nature, which you can’t really say a bad word about…well, except “bored shitless” maybe. Track 1, ‘Never Change’, is just a little dull to be honest. Dreary. Trying to find the […]

Album Review: Kodiak Deathbeds – Kodiak Deathbeds

Album Review: Downpilot – Radio Ghost

Right from kick off with the track ‘Radio Ghost’, Downpilot instantly remind me of so many other artists. The vocals are like a strange mix of Michael Stipe and Thom Yorke, and the music itself has that sort of R.E.M./Radiohead melancholy sound which I like a great deal. The sense of sadness in the guitar, the […]
Within the first 30 seconds of b’lieve I’m goin down… we are once again fully acquainted with the languid, finger-pickin-on-the-ranch, meandering tendencies of Philadelphia’s Kurt Vile. After a brief spell as member of The War on Drugs, he has been releasing solo albums for seven years, peaking commercially with 2011’s Smoke Ring for My Halo and […]

Album Review: Kurt Vile – b’lieve i’m goin down…

Album Review: Battles – La Di Da Di

La Di Da Di is an interesting choice of name for Battles’ third album. Where Mirrored had those weird, indecipherable, pitch-shifted syllables and Gloss Drop had fairly traditional guest vocalists, La Di Da Di is wholly instrumental and all the better for it. If anything the vocals were distracting on Gloss Drop. This record feels […]
Beirut band leader Zach Condon’s story is film-worthy – as a young jazz trumpeter, he was exposed to mariachi music while growing up in Sante Fé, New Mexico. At 17, he dropped out of school and ran away to Paris after working in an international film cinema, where Sicilian funeral brass music and Balkan folk had caught his […]

ALBUM REVIEW: BEIRUT – NO NO NO