Album Review: Moby – Wait For Me (Deluxe Edition)

Maybe it’s unlikely that anything Moby releases can top the mega success of his Play LP, but Wait For Me’s charms lie in the fact that it doesn’t really try. Moby’s chilled-out tunes still sound as if they were concocted in the late 1990s where genres mixed and matched in the holy cause of the […]
Cinematic in scope and Gothic in mood, The Gilded Palace Of Sin forge modern day blues from sparse arrangements and a willingness to approach ambitious metaphysical themes beyond standard relationship squabbles. Singer Pete Phythian has a characterful, lived-in voice, though sometimes his vocal melodies are a little too rudimentary and syllabically out of step. The band’s alchemic […]

Album Review: The Gilded Palace of Sin – Your Break Our Hearts, We’ll Tear Yours Out

Album Review: The Lovely Eggs – If You Were Fruit

This début album could easily be from a slightly off kilter parallel universe. All fourteen sumptuous offerings served up here,are your ticket to this wonderful constellation that has been lovingly created from scratch by Holly Ross and David Blackwell. The opening track ‘Sexual Cowboy’ kicks off with a thrashing guitar which is reminiscent of the great bands […]
If you receive an album titled ‘It’s Frightening’ you expect to receive something covered in angst, terror and paranoia. It should hint at the end of the universe whilst never allowing you space to breath.  White Rabbits have attempted to create this feeling with a combination of dual drummers and heavy piano chords, which, at […]

Album Review: White Rabbits – It’s Frightening

Album Review: Phenomenal Handclap Band – Form & Control

The name Phenomenal Handclap Band may suggest a novelty act, but this Brooklyn-based outfit challenges no conventions. Instead it combines disco, dance and rock elements with varying levels of success, on second album Form & Control at least. When they nail it they really nail it. Opening number ‘Following’ is funky and addictive, the sort […]
Roedelius Plays Piano is a live concert recording that has lurked in the vault since the eighties and is only now seeing the light of day. Hans-Joachim Roedelius himself explains thusly: “I always knew that this concert would have to be made available some day. I was just waiting for the right moment, for the […]

ALBUM REVIEW: ROEDELIUS – ROEDELIUS PLAYS PIANO

ALBUM: Lana Del Rey – Born To Die

Divisive, talented and manufactured, Lana Del Rey is the most hyped (over-hyped?) artist of her generation. The superlative ‘Video Games’ has racked up 24 million hits on youtube, and press attention has reached unprecedented levels, rivalling that of a royal hip-replacemnt. Everyone is expecting big things from the 25-year-old New Yorker. For someone whose debut […]
Django Django’s sound is difficult to define. To say that they have a sound is probably all that needs to be said, but I have been asked to write a review so I have to struggle to find words that define them. I doubt they are interested in reducing their music to a few soundbites, […]

Album Review: Django Django – Django Django

Rough Trade Shops – Electronic 11

The London-based label has unleashed it’s annual hardware upgrade of all things electronic and this year features everything from Nicolas Jaar to Rustie to the already legendary collab between Flying Lotus and Thom Yorke, but also the likes of Solar Bears, Ayshay, Modeselektor and Hercules & LoveAffair. For specifics you can find the track listing […]
It’s a neat conceit. In a cramped marketplace of ever diminishing record store shelves; in a world where established artists continually look to re-interpret their back catalogue, to breathe life into old songs, it can be hard to divine an original approach. Some artists strip their songs down to their naked nuts and bolts, some […]

Album Review: Elvis Costello & The Imposters – The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook