ALBUM REVIEW: SAUNA YOUTH – DISTRACTIONS

This experimental London garage punk band emit a studious vibe – Dreamlands’ album cover is simply a photo of their instruments sat player-less in front of a typical looking shared house. If there were to be a new version of The Young Ones on our tellies, I’d like to think it would sound like this. Band members […]
It doesn’t feel like three years since Pins first arrived with their killer EP LUVU4LYF. This is mainly because they don’t seem to have stopped since then, constantly touring and supporting the likes of Sleater Kinney and Warpaint, and endlessly plugging away for their début album Girls Like Us. That album didn’t seem to capture […]

Album Review: Pins – Wild Nights

Album Review: Eccentronic Research Council – Jonny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine (I’m Your Biggest Fan)

When Eccentronic Research Council announced they had signed to Trash Mouth Records for a collaboration with Fat White Family and Bafta-nominated Maxine Peake earlier this year, the lead track ‘Sweet Saturn Mine’ indicated a claustrophobic synth-rock stalker epic largely fronted by Fat White Family. What has been released is a spacier, more surreal narrative composition based […]
Last year Fight Like Apes delivered one of the best pop songs of 2014. ‘Crouching Bees’ saw the Dublin-based outfit smarten up their thrashy electro-pop sound with plush production, ice cool synths and the ever sharp vocal work of front lady Mary Kate. It seemed like after nearly 10 years of being a band, Fight […]

Album Review: Fight Like Apes – Fight Like Apes

Album Review: The Nightingales – Mind Over Matter

Wolverhampton-based alt-pop veterans The Nightingales return with their brand new album Mind Over Matter, and it’s a bit of a weird one. I usually don’t like using the word ‘weird’ to describe music. For me it’s just another way of saying: “nah that’s shit that get the kettle on!” However, I’m gonna be honest with you, […]
Shoegaze is back! Grow that fringe (I only wish I could)! Not everyone will be doing cartwheels at the return of the ‘scene that celebrates itself’, but I have to admit to becoming quite giddy at the prospect of seeing Ride later this month at the beautiful Albert Hall. Club AC30 are no strangers to the […]

EP Review: Flyying Colours – ROYGBIV

Album Review: Django Django – Born Under Saturn

It is hard to be objective about a band’s long (three years is far too much) awaited upcoming release, when you personally feel they were robbed with their début. It was the boffin rock intro-spectacles that eclipsed their début’s success. Alt-J’s Mercury win with An Awesome Wave led to headline slots at Leeds and platinum […]
Bernard + Edith are distinct, first and foremost, in that they buck that trend completely. The latest in an eclectic line of bands affiliated with Salford label SWAYS RECORDS to sign with independent stalwart Bella Union, Bernard + Edith, like predecessors PINS and MONEY, prove that the minds at work behind both labels have real […]

Album Review: Bernard + Edith – Jem

Album Review: The Leisure Society – The Fine Art of Hanging On

The Leisure Society are the Brighton band that are likely to always be remembered as the band that, against all the odds, secured two consecutive Ivor Novello Award nominations, the first of which for ‘The Last of the Melting Snow’, a modern pop masterpiece. That is a claim to fame for anybody to be proud […]
Edge of the Sun is Calexico’s ninth studio album. For those who don’t know them, Calexico is formed by core founding members Joey Burns and John Convertino plus a varying line-up of musicians for recordings and tours. Burns and Convertino met in Los Angeles in the 1990s and started playing together in Giant Sand with […]

Album Review: Calexico – Edge of the Sun