ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 11 AUGUST 2023

Probably the quietest week in terms of volume since early January but there are some tasty releases nevertheless. Candy Claws      Ceres & Calypso In The Deep Time           Tenth anniversary reissue that warranted a fanfare first time round. Candy Claws craft traces of Broadcast, The Left Banke, Blonde Redhead and Tropicalia into an eye-popping sound while […]
Hooking vocals and guitar riffs that’ll have you on the edge of your seat make The Sherlocks new album ‘People Like Me And You’ a must listen. All thirteen tracks are unique but still ideal to make a gig crowd go wild. A sharper more edgy track ‘Sirens’ was a standout from the album. Beginning […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE SHERLOCKS: PEOPLE LIKE ME & YOU

ALBUM REVIEW – CHELA: DIAGONAL DRIFT

Side projects offer the ideal space for artists to reveal previously unseen aspects of their musical fascinations. The band Bo Ningen is associated with brutal slabs of heavy psychedelic guitar assaults but the first release from Chela allows their guitar mangler and synth wrangler Kohhei Matsuda to reveal a more experimental side. On ’Diagonal Drift’ […]
Sometimes, you listen to a band and imagine that one Tuesday, sitting at the kitchen table two retired parents watch their middle-aged child emerge from his basement bedroom, long hair flowing, leather jacket shining in the midday light, carrying his spiky guitar off to band practice and they just look at one another as if […]

ALBUM REVIEW – DUN RINGILL: 150-WHERE THE OLD GODS PLAY ACT 1

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 4 AUGUST 2023

Here is a chance to browse through the Silent Radio rack of this week’s album releases, an intriguing array of generally newer artists to discover. Oiro Pena            Puna      Finnish jazz collective creating a mix of lo-fi spiritual jazz, experimental, and avant-garde music forms. It includes four vocal tracks recorded with Merikukka Kiviharju, which feature both […]
At a Tarot reading during the pandemic, Ryan Fuson of Holy Wave was struck by the Five of Cups card which signifies loss and grief. A cloaked figure with a bowed head looming over three spilled chalices while ignoring the two full vessels, it is seen as symbolising dwelling in a negative past rather than […]

ALBUM REVIEW – HOLY WAVE: FIVE OF CUPS

ALBUM REVIEW – THE CLIENTELE: I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE

The Clientele has been described as a band who rather than merely creating their own individual sound have gone a step further to create their own world during their 32-year career. It is characterised by a hazy, shimmering, understated guitar pop married to an evocative lyricism. Their first release since 2017’s ‘Music for the Age […]
There is a healthy selection of new releases this week, including a few covered in greater depth elsewhere on this section. Here is our brief roundup. Dexys    The Feminine Desire      Their first album in over a decade sees Kevin Rowland reevaluating the whole concept of masculinity that he grew up with. Dot Allison         Consciousology Former […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 28 JULY 2023

ALBUM REVIEW – DOT ALLISON: CONSCIOUSOLOGY

Concept albums were scorned and derided for a long time. Recently, the pendulum has flipped and significant numbers of long players, if not advertising themselves as concept albums, have an underlying theme that links the songs. This could be a response to streaming and the need to make long-playing records relevant as entities rather than […]
Blur are back with their ninth album, a whole 20 years since 2003’s ‘Think Tank’ and eight years since 2015’s ‘The Magic Whip’. At this point, you’re probably questioning what is happening. Is there finally a resurrection of our classic, beloved Britpop? Or have we just harped on enough to get another album? Either way, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BLUR: THE BALLAD OF DARREN