ALBUM REVIEW – CIRCA WAVES: DEATH & LOVE PT.2

Circa Waves complete the final piece to the puzzle with the second half of their upcoming double album Death & Love. The indie-rock veterans are now six albums deep and have the experience to create a record with deep emotional terrain where the themes of morality and connection intersect. Death & Love relishes its raw […]
Blending traditional ‘Celtic folk’ and ‘Indie rock’, Brògeal are set to release their debut album ‘Tuesday Paper Club’. Stemming from Falkirk, Scotland the five piece are rejuvenating the genres with a reminiscent flair. Speaking to the Independent last year the band stated, ‘I feel very strongly about my country and culture, and so it’d feel […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BROGEAL: TUESDAY PAPER CLUB

LIVE: THE WEDDING PRESENT – THE RITZ, MANCHESTER 10/10/2025

The Wedding Present are one of those bands who have soundtracked a vast part of my life, from dancing at indie discos as a teen to well pretty much doing the same around the kitchen at a recent 50th birthday do. It’s safe to say the huge crowd assembled in The Ritz tonight probably identify […]
Laura Veirs       Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême)    The recording documents Veirs’ May 2025 performance of 14 of her songs – as well as one by case/lang/veirs (Veirs’ 2016 collaborative album with k.d. lang and Neko Case) – alongside a French school choir composed of 32 students (30 girls and […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 10 OCTOBER 2025

ALBUM REVIEW – LONG FLING: LONG FLING

It takes considerable chutzpah to preview your first, and it is claimed only, album with what proves to be the record’s most awkward and wiry song. That is what Long Fling do with ‘Flung’ which starts with ten seconds of ominous hum that could herald the arrival of aliens on a sci-fi movie soundtrack before […]
The third solo album from Jenn Wasner, recording under the name Flock of Dimes, is an unflinching account of addiction, co-dependency, trauma and finding peace in the face of other’s suffering. In Wasner’s own words, “As it turns out, this record is not someone else’s story–it is mine, the story of my life. A life […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FLOCK OF DIMES: THE LIFE YOU SAVE

ALBUM REVIEW- GUITAR: WE’RE HEADED TO THE LAKE

Guitar’s We’re Headed To The Lake is a scruffy album. Coming from me that’s a compliment, by the way. As a slacker rock band in the vein of Pavement etc. this kind of scruffiness is kind of the point. But Guitar does pull enough from the various corners of the genre umbrella to not be […]
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 […]
Širom   In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper       Slovenian avant-folk trio. Navigating almost two dozen instruments (some of which they’ve handcrafted), and hypnotic compositions that often exceed ten minutes in length, they court patient, deep-dive listeners via intricately woven atmospheres, rhythms and sonics. Idlewild              Idlewild              Across the ten songs of ‘Idlewild’ they welcome each […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 OCTOBER 2025