LIVE REVIEW – KIKUOLAND: MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 – 01/02/25

I’ll be honest, I didn’t anticipate there being that much of a turnout for this show. In actuality, the Kikuoland concert at Manchester Academy was sold out, but I had made the easy mistake of assuming that, as the music of the headliner is relatively niche and enjoyed particularly in communities whose interactions are mostly […]
Olly Alexander, the former frontman of Years and Years, makes a striking debut with his album Polari. The title itself is a nod to a coded slang historically used by minority groups, particularly within the gay community, symbolising themes of visibility and self-expression. This rich metaphor is intricately woven into the lyrics, as Alexander embarks […]

ALBUM REVIEW – OLLY ALEXANDER: POLARI

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 7 FEBRUARY 2025

Another busy week of new releases with plenty of highlights. Nadia Reid      Enter Now Brightness            Reid was pregnant during the album’s creation and plagued by morning sickness — there are photos of her asleep on the studio sofa and memories of vomiting between takes. But she found impending motherhood, and, later, the intricate process of […]
Orchids shoot upwards from a single point. Their stem and flowers stretch from one inseparably tangled mass of roots. Perhaps this imagery was the exact thinking behind the artwork for the third studio album of Irish sound-florists, Inhaler. Their Joy Division meets Radiohead feel coupled with an ambition and work ethic to rival any emerging […]

ALBUM REVIEW – INHALER: OPEN WIDE

ALBUM REVIEW – THE DELINES: MR LUCK & MS DOOM

There is a magic to the story of The Delines’ foundation. Willy Vlautin, singer-songwriter with Richmond Fontaine, heard Amy Boone of The Damnations sing one ballad. So struck was he by her voice that he secretly wrote her songs for over a year before approaching her and asking to form a band. Fortunately, she was […]
DITZ’s Never Exhale is a difficult album to categorise. I’d lean toward calling it a noise rock or post punk record, but that would undersell the sometimes unexpected range of influences that bubble up throughout the album. As a band who weren’t on my radar until very recently, I was super excited as every song […]

ALBUM REVIEW – DITZ: NEVER EXHALE

ALBUM REVIEW – HELEN GANYA: SHARE YOUR CARE

On her previous album, 2022’s ‘Polish The Machine’ the Brighton-based musician Helen Ganya had begun with the words “I had a fear of the ordinary.” That was apparent in a style that contained echoes of Kate Bush, The Cocteau Twins and Bjork. However, her new album, ‘Share Your Care’, marks a progression into extraordinary realms. […]
January ends with a flurry of new releases. Here is our guide. Eddie Chacon               Lay Low             Best known for the Charles and Eddie mega hit ‘Would I Lie To You’, his third solo album is a thoughtful strain of R&B that muses on intimate themes like mortality, failure and experience. Geologist & D.S.         A Shaw […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 31 JANUARY 2025

ALBUM REVIEW – GNONNAS PEDRO & HIS DADJES BAND: ROI DE ‘LAGBADJA MODERNE 1974-1983

Gnonnas Pedro and His Dadjes Band sometimes became known as ‘The Band That Speaks All African Languages’ for their ability to sing in Fon, Mina, Yoruba, French, English and Spanish. Combined with their masterful blend of Agbadja, Cuban fon, jerk, highlife, and other African rhythms, it gives the sixteen tracks on the latest release from […]
Two years after her melting EP A comforting notion, Heartworms (the solo project of Jojo Orme) releases Glutton For Punishment, under the production of Dan Carey and his Speedy Wunderground label (Black Country, New Road, Tiña, Lazarus Kane among many others). So many times I listened to the record, that the promotional album I was […]

ALBUM REVIEW – HEARTWORMS: GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT