ALBUM: Cloud Nothings – Turning On

There’s such a buzz behind Cloud Nothings at the moment that it’s easy to imagine that they could be the next American alternative act to break through big, which makes the release of their debut album Turning Onrather timely. With that in mind, ‘Can’t Stay Awake’ is a fantastic way to open proceedings, very much a […]
In popular music time is nearly always against you. Most genres lend themselves to younger musicians. The apolitical/anti-political sentiments of the punk movement would have sounded lame and childish if they’d been sung by OAPs (though The Sex Pistol’s are immature regardless), and Westlife would never count legions of screaming, braindead female fans (and Wayne […]

ALBUM: John Fairhurst – Band

ALBUM: Denis Jones – Red + Yellow =

I’ve seen Denis Jones live thrice – once was with a full band, and it was the least effective of the three. The other shows gained a lot from the fact that Denis does everything himself (mostly with a loop pedal) – and it’s genuinely fascinating to watch him do it. I’m worried that this […]
Scrolling through FatCat’s recent and upcoming releases, it is abundantly clear that they set thebenchmark for fascinating, challenging alternative music of a standard that other record labels could only dream of. Few, though, are more challenging or fascinating than Hauschka, and no one takes as long to set up for a show. Until recently it took […]

ALBUM: Hauschka – Foreign Landscapes

ALBUM: Violens – Amoral

Whenever you hear of another band from NYC, you have to think, are they really from NYC or have they just relocated there and adopted the NYC brand name because it’s ‘cool’?  Violens are one of the latest acts to come out of the city peddling their debut album, Amoral, which is due to be released shortly. Maybe, […]
An idiot once said to me: “All the best trilogies come in threes”.  I thought about it, and realised the idiot had a point.  This came to mind upon hearing what Damon Gough was planning to do next, for the bearded behatted one has cut quite the elusive figure of late.  Aside from the soundtrack to […]

ALBUM: Badly Drawn Boy – It’s What I’m Thinking Part 1: Photographing Snowflakes

Fast-Forward – The World Cup Goes Indie – Final Knock-out Stages

I can’t contain it, the excitement is reaching fever-pitch: I am going to a music festival on a Mediterranean beach in July. On an unrelated and much less exciting note, I am also going to find out which one of 32 plinky little indie tunes I dislike the least. But to make it interesting, and […]
The knock-out stages are ready to begin. The rules are simple – I think most of these tunes are the musical equivalent of those horrible world cup flavoured crisps, so I don’t want to listen to them any more than I have to. It’s a simple contest – two songs play, the best one goes […]

Fast Forward – The World Cup Goes Indie [Round of 16]

Fast Forward: The World Cup Goes Indie

Fast Forward: An Indie Music Companion To World Cup 2010 [The Group Stages] Yes folks – now is the time – the time to be excited about the World Cup. Now is the time for hope, before the inevitability of England bowing out (on penalties) in the Quarter Finals, and Brazil narrowly overcoming Spain and […]
‘They don’t feel,’ Exit Calm’s Nicky Smith calls out at the emotional climax of their eponymous debut album’s ‘Hearts and Minds’ — something that could never be said about his band. Indeed, their soaring first full-length is a work of undeniable majesty. It’s best to get mention of the overtones of The Verve out of […]

ALBUM: Exit Calm – Exit Calm