ALBUM REVIEW: JADE IMAGINE – BASIC LOVE

Let’s face it, if the blurb in the press release says signed to Courtney Barnett’s record label, you’re gonna take notice, well, I am anyway cos I think she’s great, and yes, I am easily swayed by this sort of thing! So, having not heard anything by these Aussies before, purely on the Courtney Barnett […]

What do you think of when you think about covers? For me, it’s the following: bad (but enthusiastic) karaoke, buskers (and the cover is almost exclusively Wonderwall) and Michael Bublé crooning away 24 hours a day seven days a week during the Christmas period. I’m not saying I don’t like them – more that when […]

ALBUM REVIEW: KARINE POLWART – SCOTTISH SONGBOOK

ALBUM REVIEW: NEW ORDER – SO IT GOES

It was one, if not the, best New Order gig I’ve ever been to – the band, and a backdrop resembling a climbing frame of squares, each one containing a synth player, in the old Granada Studios where their friend and label co owner Tony Wilson worked and where the band themselves had played as […]

It’s like a rucksack of bricks superglued to your shoulders – hype. Always hard to shake off, and once you’ve been proclaimed as the saviours of new music, and the answer to life, the Universe and everything, it’s like wading through the thickest Glastonbury mud to find some escape. So, casting all the aspersions aside, […]

ALBUM REVIEW: BLACK MIDI – SCHLAGENHEIM

ALBUM REVIEW: BAD BREEDING – EXILED

In today’s swirling cesspit of politics, messed up societies and uncertain times, Bad Breeding could well be the huge stomping boot of anarchic musical expression that these times have been calling for. Loud, in-yer-face, punk rumblings mingling with lyrical themes from zero hour contracts, war, politics, the media, all delivered at a warp speed pace. […]

Chris Shiflett, who’s best known as Foo Fighters’ lead guitarist and co-founder of No Use For A Name, is releasing his first solo album ‘Hard Lessons’ this week. And he quickly reaffirms his position as a talent, and an authentic country guy. The album drops on June 21st on Each Beach Records & Tapes/Thirty Tigers, […]

ALBUM REVIEW: CHRIS SHIFLETT – HARD LESSONS

ALBUM REVIEWS ROUND UP – THE REST OF THE BEST NEW RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH

Amyl & The Sniffers: Amyl & The Sniffers With an absolutely snarling beast of an album, wrapped in melodic yet ferocious overtones, Amyl and The Sniffers are Australia’s brightest punk rock band to emerge in years. The self-titled debut album from this Melbourne lot is laden with melodically charged guitar riffs, feisty vocals from frontwoman […]

Sheffield’s Richard Hawley is now in his twentieth year as a solo artist, and not one to re-tread old ground, his eighth album marks a turning point, as not only is this is the first album which doesn’t feature a Sheffield landmark but it’s one of his most full on rock records to date, finding […]

ALBUM REVIEW: RICHARD HAWLEY – FURTHER

ALBUM REVIEW: IRAH – DIAMOND GRID

IRAH, named for an entity that Danish vocalist Stine Grøn encountered during meditation, is a collaboration between Grøn and respected pianist, Adi Zukanović, a Bosnian refugee who came to Denmark as a four-year-old when his family fled Sarajevo when war broke out in the early 1990’s. Their collaboration has resulted in an evocative and generally […]

Learning to drive is never easy at any age, so fair play to Black Mountain’s frontman Stephen McBean, who’s passed aged 47. Proving it’s never too late to learn, the freedom of the open road and the first adrenalin rush of being behind the wheel have fed into the album. The album is apparently named […]