ALBUM REVIEW – MAJA LENA: PLUTO

It is rare to discover a musician extoling the virtues of repetitive motions like walking, seed planting and sweeping when discussing the creative process. For Marianne Parrish, who performs as Maja Lena, spells working on a no dig permaculture vegetable growing project and in a natural horsemanship yard allowed space for her imagination to flow, […]
The Ruby Cord’ is the final part of a trilogy that started with ‘Peasant’ which was set in medieval times and was followed by the social realism of ‘2020’, an album that saw Richard Dawson hone his idiosyncrasies into a more traditional song format. ‘The Ruby Cord’ is more impressionistic and open-ended, exploring the idea […]

ALBUM REVIEW – RICHARD DAWSON: THE RUBY CORD

ALBUM REVIEW: FUCKWOLF – GOODBYE ASSHOLE

‘Goodbye Asshole’ is the debut album for San Francisco Scuzz-Wave based band Fuckwolf. At first the album title and design create a bold glance of sounding as an ode to no one. It leaves you wondering will be there be sense of heartbreak? Rejection? The trio of Tomo Yasuda on guitar, Simon Phillips on drums, […]
Steve Gullick and James Johnston have both made a name for themselves in their respective creative fields. Gullick as a photographer who has taken some of the most iconic images in rock photography from Nirvana to Spiritualized to Wet Leg and more. As a founder member of indie rockers Gallon Drunk, former member of Nick […]

ALBUM REVIEW: STEVE GULLICK AND JAMES JOHNSTON – EVERYBODY’S SUNSET PLUS VIDEO PREMIERE FOR SAVE OUR SOULS SINGLE

ALBUM REVIEW – CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS: REDCAR LES ADORABLES ETOILES

It has been a tumultuous time for Héloïse Letissier since the release of 2018’s ‘Chris’. April 2019 brought the sudden death of his mother while Christine and the Queens were performing at the Coachella festival. In addition to handling the grief of that momentous personal loss has come the subsequent liberation of announcing that he […]
Any review of Personal Trainer ought to address the Stephen Malkmus-shaped elephant in the room. In his previous band, Canshaker Pi, Willem Smit, the group’s conductor and cheerleader, recorded with Malkmus and there is a distinct air of Pavement’s swallowed a thesaurus and must select the most phonetically pleasing words approach to Smit’s lyrics. ‘Big […]

ALBUM REVIEW – PERSONAL TRAINER: BIG LOVE BLANKET

ALBUM REVIEW – EZRA COLLECTIVE: WHERE I’M MEANT TO BE

The London jazz scene has been incredibly vibrant in recent years with thrilling albums by the likes of Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Sons of Kemet. Ezra Collective can now take a prime place in that list with their second album, ‘Where I’m Meant To Be’. A glance at the titles gives a coherent sense […]
It is impossible to overstate the importance of cassettes to music fanatics growing up in the 1980s. For Ajay Saggar, that included recording John Peel sessions onto cassette, taping gigs onto his Walkman and putting together mixtapes. Later, his first band, the Dandelion Adventure recorded demos tapes that were sent to record labels, venues and […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BHAJAN BHOY: SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI

ALBUM REVIEW: ALELA DIANE – LOOKING GLASS

As far as singer/songwriter music goes, my taste tends to skew older. I’d rather hear about raw, lived-in experiences than the broad platitudes any day of the week. Sure, the music might oftentimes be slow, relatively mundane, and lacking hooks, but intelligent construction and thoughtful writing can make up for a lot. On that note, […]
1985 was the year when I started attending gigs regularly. It was a time of fervent excitement where with teenage obsessiveness and excitability every few weeks I would be discovering a new Best Band in the World Ever! It was hard to understand why the whole world was not falling in love with the bands […]

ALBUM REVIEW – VARIOUS ARTISTS: C85