Album Review: Speck Mountain – Badwater

There are certain bands that demand attention, whether good or bad, whilst others (which personally I much prefer) draw you in gradually and seep under your skin. Speck Mountain are very much the latter and their melodic, dreamy soundscapes have been critically lauded over their previous two albums, Summer Above and Some Sweet Relief. The band centres around […]
There’s something about winter – gazing at blankets of cold, soft snow – that invites introspection. Maybe it’s the human urge to hibernate, or perhaps its nature imposing on the 9-5 bustle that makes us stop and become happily enveloped in the wider picture. Nothing goes together quite so well as reflection and music – […]

ALBUM: MASAYOSHI FUJITA – STORIES

ALBUM: YO LA TENGO – FADE

‘Fade’ is the 13th studio album to be released by Yo La Tengo since they formed in 1984. Hailing from America this three-piece band has worked on a multitude of projects, from charity singles, to soundtracks, to covers for compilation albums. Originally started by husband and wife duo Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, the band […]
Sudden Elevation may be Icelander Ólöf Arnalds’ third album, but it remains a landmark, being her first sung wholly in English. For this I’m awkwardly grateful as reviewing it is my first encounter with her otherworldly brand of folk. However, as a latecomer I find myself trailing behind an influential admirer of Arnalds who has already hit […]

Album Review: Ólöf Arnalds – Sudden Elevation

Album Review: Nils Bech – Look Inside

Look Inside is the second album from Norwegian artist Nils Bech. His first critically acclaimed album Look Back, released in 2010, catapulted him onto the world stage. His music is indefinable by any one genre. It is the coming together of art, performance and music, giving birth to the hauntingly beautiful, concept that Nils Bech […]
Sekou Kouyate and Joe Driscoll present us with their first collaborative album, Faya, a collection of songs, which span genres from around the world. Communicating through music they have produced an album, which incorporates Kouyate’s sounds of Africa and Driscoll’s eclectic mix of New York bedroom-music styles. It’s an easy-listening reggae-funky-hiphop-afrobeat-rap-rock cocktail that’s refreshing and […]

Album Review: Sekou Kouyate and Joe Driscoll – FAYA

Album Review: Cody ChesnuTT – Landing On A Hundred

Soul singer and funk guitarist Cody Chesnutt is back with his second album, a decade and a few EPs separating them both. Landing On A Hundred is a neo-soul and funk album with all the musical flex of a 70s classic. The sound he’s gone for is BIG in every sense –with bold melodies, a […]
It’s not for nothing that Rolling Stone magazine named The Velvet Underground & Nico the most prophetic album of all time. If the hippies hoped that universal fraternity, peace and love would be the basis for some teleological, utopian future, it is Lou Reed’s vision that – however unhappily – dominates contemporary society. 60s counter […]

Album Review: The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Anniversary

Album Review: Tamaryn – Tender New Signs

American dream-pop, shoegaze combo Tamaryn are named after New Zealand-born Tamaryn, who provides soft girlish vocals, and guitarist Rex John Shelverton (Vue, Portraits of Past), who does the instrumentation and plays the role of producer. Tender New Signs is the follow up to their first full length album, The Waves, and in making this album […]
Psych rock maverick Ty Segall is a man in a hurry. Not content with releasing two excellent albums already this year, namely the collaboration with White Fence’s Tim Presley, Hair, and Slaughterhouse, coming under the Ty Segall Band ‘nom de plume’, we now find ourselves with a third, Twins, which is officially a follow up […]

Album Review: Ty Segall – Twins