ALBUM REVIEW – PHARMAKON: MAGGOT MASS

Maggot Mass is the first new piece of music by Pharmakon to burrow its way out into the world in five years. 2019’s Devour was 36 minutes of unrelenting power electronics and noise, but on this new record she produces songs that have been consumed and reconstituted by caustic noise, their structure only partly eaten […]
Cards on the table, if asked to select a continual favourite band over the past two decades, I would plump for Field Music. Their capacity to evolve, taking on different influences whilst retaining recognisable elements and consistently high-quality control is second-to-none. This was demonstrated to perfection on this year’s limited edition Record Store Day release, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FIELD MUSIC: LIMITS OF LANGUAGE

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 4 OCTOBER 2024

As Autumn develops its tentacles and the nights grow ever longer, there are plenty of new releases to keep us company on those lengthy evenings. Nice Biscuit   SOS     The nine-track album embodies the fuzzy groove-laden psych that Nice Biscuit is renowned for, while introducing new danceable feels influenced by their love of disco, jazz fusion […]
It would be fair to describe NJ White’s, aka Whitey, latest release, ‘Mental Radio’, as sprawling. As a double album there is less need for tight focus and it allows the space for him to flit through a range of styles and moods. It is exemplary of his eclectic career that has seen him release […]

ALBUM REVIEW – WHITEY: MENTAL RADIO

ALBUM REVIEW – HALF WAIF: SEE YOU AT THE MAYPOLE

The backdrop to ‘See You At The Maypole’ is heartbreaking. Nandi Rose, who performs as Half Waif, was expecting her first child but in December 2021 a scan revealed no heartbeat. The treatment for a missed miscarriage is most effective with two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. However, Rose was only prescribed the latter so her […]
When I first saw Black Midi nearly two years ago at New Century Hall in Manchester, my mind was blown, I was enthralled by what I was seeing on stage, my eyes as wide as humanly possible, stood in complete awe as others around me screamed every word back to the band. From that moment, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – GEORDIE GREEP: THE NEW SOUND

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 27 SEPTEMBER 2024

Rounding up a bumper week of releases that is equally high on quantity and quality. Sharada Shashidhar                Soft Echoes   Described by Gilles Peterson as ‘The Jazz Kate Bush’, ‘Soft Echoes’ justifies the fanciful description. A step forward, eschewing her previous work’s hip-hop tilt for expansive compositions that blend jazz and Indian classical influences into a […]
I haven’t anticipated the release of an album as strongly as I have in the case of Alan Sparhawk’s debut solo record, ‘White Roses, My God’. Like countless other fans of the work he produced while a member of the esteemed duo Low (alongside Mimi Parker), I was taken aback upon listening to ‘Can U […]

ALBUM REVIEW – ALAN SPARHAWK: WHITE ROSES, MY GOD

ALBUM REVIEW – EZRA COLLECTIVE: DANCE, NO ONE’S WATCHING

“Dance is life and you can’t be angry when you’re dancing so keep dancing”, states the voiceover on ‘Our Element’, a brief linking track on Ezra Collective’s new album, ‘Dance, No One’s Watching’. While “anger is an energy” as John Lydon once described it, the horrendous fact that he has ended up as a Trump […]
The sixth album from singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes falls into the “grower” category. It is not an album that clamours for attention but through a combination of cunningly low-key instrumentation and storytelling weaves its spell. Having relocated from London to Baltimore, West Cork and taken up residence in the holiday home of her husband’s family, Hayes […]

ALBUM REVIEW – GEMMA HAYES: BLIND FAITH