ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 29 NOVEMBER 2024

As we head towards December, there are fewer releases this week but here we collate those that warrant a listen. OCS     Live at Permanent Records                Brigid Dawson and John Peter Dwyer, the duo known together as OCS, got together at JPD’s house in Los Angeles and started transcribing a nice list of songs. “Some new, […]
There is often a sense of cheap cash-in to Christmas albums, a quick fix. Throw together a few familiar cover versions and the odd original, garnish with tinsel and sleigh bells for a quota, quickie package, a good way of fulfilling contractual obligations. Thankfully, The Unthanks’ ‘In Winter’ is a far more satisfying proposition. As […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE UNTHANKS: IN WINTER

ALBUM REVIEW – THE INNOCENCE MISSION: MIDWINTER SWIMMERS

There is a great sense of detail in The Innocence Mission’s latest album, ‘Midwinter Swimmers’. It is apparent in lyrics that have a poetic precision and colourfully capture place. The music is imbued with a fragility reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan and mingles lo-fi charm with subtle shifts to create a cinematic palette. It is a […]
Sometimes pink is the blush in your cheeks. The charming pigment that fills your lips and filters your romances. Sometimes it’s the stain of a slap full in the face. The electrifying shade of a force your skin won’t forget. On its best days, pink is all of the above. Animated and charming, electric and […]

LIVE REVIEW: THE ROYSTON CLUB – LIVERPOOL ACADEMY 19/11/24

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 22 NOVEMBER 2024

Here are the week’s stellar collection of new releases. Cistern              New Standard              From a group featuring members of N0V3L and Crack Cloud comes a 5-track display of DIY-rock anthem recorded on an 8-track tape machine. The band are defined by tight musicianship, harmonious and dissonant instrumentation, do-it-yourself recording and experimentation. The Attendant              Unit EP              Pete […]
“Just want a girl as cool as Kim Deal” The Dandy Warhols sang in 1997. Not many musicians have had such songs of adulation written about them, but then not every musician has dominated the alternative music scene like Kim Deal. It seems remarkable that this is her first solo album in a musical career […]

ALBUM REVIEW: KIM DEAL – NOBODY LOVES YOU MORE

ALBUM REVIEW – FATHER JOHN MISTY: MAHASHMASHANA

With his 2022 album, ‘Chloë and The Next 20th Century’, it appeared that Father John Misty was trying to dial down the ambiguous signals that had permeated his earlier releases. Its mixture of golden era Hollywood and cruise ship opulence signified an artist happy to embrace the mainstream, an arena for which his outstanding melodicism […]
An ultra busy week with lots of tantalising releases. Here is our summary of what’s what. Xeno & Oaklander     Via Negativa (in the doorway light)               Refined retro-futurist synth pop with a tension between Teutonic, utopian synthetic pop and lyrical narratives of ghosts in silos, ruined mills, and the traumas of mineral excavation. The Green Child          […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 15 NOVEMBER 2024

ALBUM REVIEW – JULIAN MAYORGA: CHAK CHAK CHAK CHAK

What a joy it is to discover a new favourite record label. It can open entire new colourful worlds of sound. Over the past month alone, Glitterbeat Records has offered up an extraordinary collection of new releases, a veritable magic pick and mix. From Turkey has come the psych rock mayhem of BaBa ZuLa’s ‘İstanbul […]
Unquestionably, Tomo Katsurada’s ‘Dream of the Egg’ has the week’s most intriguing concept. It is a collaboration with visual artist Shoko Otake for which Katsurada provides the soundtrack to a 20-page picture book inspired by the 1920’s children’s story, ‘Yume No Tamago (Dream of the Egg)’. In addition to the picture book, the package consists […]

ALBUM REVIEW – TOMO KATSURADA: DREAM OF THE EGG