ALBUM REVIEW – THE ANTLERS: BLIGHT

A glance at a record’s list of songtitles often offers an indication of its type of music. The Antlers’ ‘Blight’ is deceptive in that respect. In addition to the title track, there are songs called ‘Carnage’, ‘Calamity’ and ‘A Great Flood’ which suggests that they could be accompanied by some brutal, pummelling Napalm Death type […]
The breakup album is virtually a cliché. There are reasons why it can be irresistible to artists and listeners alike. It is a common, almost universal, experience. Very few will have been lucky enough to immediately fall into the perfect relationship so the emotions may well be familiar but repetition of themes make it inevitable […]

ALBUM REVIEW – CATE LE BON: MICHELANGELO DYING

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 26 SEPTEMBER 2025

An absolutely mega week in which it would be impossible to cover all the great releases in the depth that we would like. Here is our precis of the new releases. The Cords         The Cords         Sisters Eva and Grace take their cues from forebearers like Dolly Mixture, Shop Assistants, Heavenly and Tiger Trap, reinvigorating the […]
With a sudden crusade of the charts, Olivia Dean is on everyone’s lips and in their ears becoming the first artist since Adele to have three songs in the top twenty at the same time. The debut album ‘Messy’ was critically acclaimed yet didn’t make the dent in the charts like it should have, however, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – OLIVIA DEAN: THE ART OF LOVING

ALBUM REVIEW – RAGE: A NEW WORLD RISING

Trying to release a new album after releasing a masterpiece is one of the hardest tasks for any musician. Rage is no ordinary band though and when the three-piece set themselves up for something, they usually achieve it. This German thrash, power and speed metal hybrid released what is easily their best piece of work […]
Sometimes artists kindly try to do journalist’s work by describing their music. On Cerys Hafana’s Instagram page, their music is described as “sad Welsh harp pop”. As a description, this barely scratches the surface of what can be heard on their latest album, ‘Angel’. Whilst they indisputably sing in Welsh and play the triple harp, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – CERYS HAFANA: ANGEL

ALBUM REVIEW – MULATU ASTATKE: MULATU PLAYS MULATU

Over the course of a long gig-going life, there will inevitably be regrets about opportunities missed. Festivals in particular offer so many choices that there is bound to be the odd misstep. From the perspective of what happened in the following few months, I look back with a rueful shake of the head on being […]
Fear not! This is not an ode to Messrs Collins, Banks and Rutherford, or even Gabriel. The Genesis is an entirely separate beast and ‘A Story’ comes, aptly enough, with an incredible backstory. Hand of Glory Records’ Will Twynham (who records as Dimorphodons) was searching eBay for interesting instruments and came across an old Hohner […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE GENESIS: A STORY

ALBUM REVIEW – JOHNNY MARR: LOOK OUT LIVE!

Skim through my concert bucket list and find Johnny Marr, most likely sitting between some random all-acoustic folk singer who last wrote a good song in the late Seventies and an Indie band that the NME tried to push to popularity in the mid-Noughties. A personal guitar hero and one of the few cool people […]
Cardiacs            LSD       The culmination of the late Tim Smith’s work and brings all of his faculties to bear in one place: a unified whole world of experience. Elements of more folk-horror offshoot The Sea Nymphs, his solo work OceanLandWorld and pop-flavoured Spratleys Japs flow alongside distinct references to Cardiacs’ 80s albums and on through to […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 19 SEPTEMBER 2025