Album Review: Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People

Ezra Furman’s rise to prominence stems from some hyperbolic words from Michael Hann. His five star review of Day of the Dog, where he proclaimed the record a “genre classic…that never feels like an exercise, but a living breathing piece of self-expression”, gave the band the success they enjoy in the UK. And those words aren’t unfounded, […]
What is immediately striking about Jenny Hval’s third studio album Apocalypse, girl is the Norwegian’s fearlessness in exploiting speech and melody to convey her highly individual worldview. As a credited lyricist, writer and singer all rolled into one, her work demonstrates an artistic, experimental quality that incorporates familiar influences yet stretches out far beyond them. […]

Album Review: Jenny Hval – Apocalypse, girl

Album Review: Gengahr – A Dream Outside

Gengahr have trapped a little nugget of sunshine. A Dream Outside is music perfectly paired with a healthy dose of vitamin D. It percolates your inner ear and clouds your vision and poof: you’re at a sunny festival, on a grassy knoll overlooking satellite stage. It gives you that midway-through-my-fourth-warm-can buzz. Although there are plenty […]
The new album from Kathryn Williams owes its origin to a commission from New Writing North for the Durham Book Festival, when she was asked to write songs inspired by Sylvia Plath’s book The Bell Jar. It was a daunting prospect for the Liverpool-born singer-songwriter and after returning to the source text, the initial five […]

Album Review: Kathryn Williams – Hypoxia

Album Review: Nozinja – Nozinja Lodge

There is as much to treasure about Nozinja Lodge as a statement of where the music industry finds itself in 2015 as there is with the addictive music itself. Nozinja – aka Richard Mthethwa – hails from the poverty-stricken South African province of Limpopo, and has become the talisman for the burgeoning genre hybrid known […]
This experimental London garage punk band emit a studious vibe – Dreamlands’ album cover is simply a photo of their instruments sat player-less in front of a typical looking shared house. If there were to be a new version of The Young Ones on our tellies, I’d like to think it would sound like this. Band members […]

ALBUM REVIEW: SAUNA YOUTH – DISTRACTIONS

Album Review: Pins – Wild Nights

It doesn’t feel like three years since Pins first arrived with their killer EP LUVU4LYF. This is mainly because they don’t seem to have stopped since then, constantly touring and supporting the likes of Sleater Kinney and Warpaint, and endlessly plugging away for their début album Girls Like Us. That album didn’t seem to capture […]
When Eccentronic Research Council announced they had signed to Trash Mouth Records for a collaboration with Fat White Family and Bafta-nominated Maxine Peake earlier this year, the lead track ‘Sweet Saturn Mine’ indicated a claustrophobic synth-rock stalker epic largely fronted by Fat White Family. What has been released is a spacier, more surreal narrative composition based […]

Album Review: Eccentronic Research Council – Jonny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine (I’m Your Biggest Fan)

Album Review: Fight Like Apes – Fight Like Apes

Last year Fight Like Apes delivered one of the best pop songs of 2014. ‘Crouching Bees’ saw the Dublin-based outfit smarten up their thrashy electro-pop sound with plush production, ice cool synths and the ever sharp vocal work of front lady Mary Kate. It seemed like after nearly 10 years of being a band, Fight […]
Wolverhampton-based alt-pop veterans The Nightingales return with their brand new album Mind Over Matter, and it’s a bit of a weird one. I usually don’t like using the word ‘weird’ to describe music. For me it’s just another way of saying: “nah that’s shit that get the kettle on!” However, I’m gonna be honest with you, […]

Album Review: The Nightingales – Mind Over Matter