EP REVIEW – CRAWLERS: TURN OFF THE TV

Two years after their last release, Crawlers are returning with their new EP TURN OFF THE TV. They describe the process of writing the EP as “patiently rebuilding everything around us and taking time to write music that felt healing in a time of hopelessness which then became our hope.” With endless teasing of tracks […]
Emerging with an EP that bottles up overwhelming coming of age fears both lyrically and musically, Tooth aren’t going to slip through the cracks and rightly so. Even with only three singles out, the London-based group have been creating a loud buzz, a buzz which is only going to grow from the release of ‘Restless […]

EP REVIEW – TOOTH: RESTLESS IN BLOOM

EP REVIEW : BLEECH 9:3 – BLEECH 9:3

Even before releasing anything, Bleech 9:3 became much talked-about from their thrilling live shows and raw energy and since the announcement of their self-titled debut EP, the hype has not died down. Not only selling out headline tours but also landing spots on a ton of festival lineups (impressive for a band with only 4 […]
For the select few whose musical upbringing was shaped by the obtuse end of the C86 scene, the three track 7” single holds a special place in the imagination. It was associated in particular with bIG fLAME who romanticised it as the ideal format for communication: uneven, angular and demanding concision and urgency. The format […]

EP REVIEW – NORMAL SERVICE: SONGS FOR SWINGING LOVERS

EP REVIEW – RED IVORY: PLEASE LEAVE, I NEED TO WAKE UP NOW

Twiddling your thumbs after finishing your A levels? Not if you’re Red Ivory. The South-London teenage four-piece released a new EP, Please Leave, I Need to Wake up Now instead. It’s gritty indie rock that hits you in the face – and the gut – offering confrontation rather than escape. The first notes of opener […]
In just ten minutes, Dress & Tie have managed to capture everything that love is. In its more dramatic moments, it’s the backstreets of Paris, amoristic accordions pulled together by a crescent moon. In domesticity, it’s home video tapes, subtle ukuleles that reveal in their haze how lucky we are to know and be known […]

EP REVIEW – DRESS & TIE: LOVE SUNG BY… DRESS & TIE

EP REVIEW – THE ORCHESTRA (FOR NOW): PLAN 76

To anyone unfamiliar with London’s Windmill scene, The Orchestra (For Now) offers the perfect introduction. Named after The Windmill pub in Brixton, the scene offers a brand of art rock characterised by jagged urgency, regular stylistic spasms, and lyrics that read more like raw poetry than conventional songs. Black Country, New Road rode the sound […]
The biggest constant throughout over half a century of Sparks has been their willingness to try something new. In the case of ‘MADDER!’, it is one of their least revolutionary acts, merely their first ever EP, and acts as a companion piece to ‘MAD!’ which achieved their highest ever UK album chart position. What is […]

EP REVIEW – SPARKS: MADDER!

EP REVIEW – HOLYBONES: I GOT A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

When I was 16/17, I got really into writing poetry. That was largely because I was consuming a lot of bands that did spoken word set to music and the stuff I was writing massively ripped off the likes of Listener or whoever else I had on rotation at the time. I cringe to think […]
A week before the release of his new EP, Manchester-based musician Lei Hope shared the dictionary entry of ‘inertia’ in a social media post: “a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged” or, in physics, the property of matter that causes it to rest or move in a straight line, unless an external force […]

EP REVIEW – LEI HOPE: INERTIA