ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 NOVEMBER 2023

For those who think that ‘War and Peace’ is an annoyingly slim novella, we offer Silent Radio’s latest roundup of new releases. It is chaos out there. Moses Yoofee Trio           Ocean   Very pleasing album from a trio consisting of pianist/keyboardist/producer Moses Yoofee, bassist Roman Klobe-Barangă and drummer Noah Fürbringer, fusing jazz, hip hop, RnB, and […]
It’s Halloween night, but there are no spooky shenanigans at Yes this evening. The most interesting guitar band to emerge in a good few years are here to do their post-punk/goth/shoegaze/britpop/grunge thing and there’s no time for messing about. Despite being around for around 4 years now, there’s still an element of the unknown to […]

LIVE REVIEW: BAR ITALIA – YES 31/10/2023

ALBUM REVIEW – SMOKE FAIRIES: CARRIED IN SOUND

‘Carried In Sound’, the sixth album by Smoke Fairies, was recorded at home in a terraced house with the volume turned down to protect the neighbours. Recorded at the dining room table using a SM38 microphone and an old laptop, it incorporates whatever instruments were available, including a broken snare-drum borrowed from a nine-year-old neighbour, […]
For my first visit to The White Hotel in Salford, it is fitting that both acts I witnessed are themselves Manchester bands – though not at all in the Madchester sense of the phrase. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of 90s nostalgia, mind you, but the descriptor comes nowhere close to encapsulating […]

LIVE REVIEW – MANDY, INDIANA & SLAP RASH – THE WHITE HOTEL SALFORD 27/10/23

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 27 OCTOBER 2023

With an extra hour available this weekend, there is more time for catching up on this week’s releases. Mint Field           Aprender a Sur Excellent Mexico City band creating an enticing blend of avant dream pop and shoegaze with some touches of trip hop that explore the nostalgia and melancholy of daily life with complex rhythms, […]
Leo Robinson’s ‘The Temple’ has been garnering understandable comparisons to Richard Dawson. While Dawson is an almost unique presence in the music scene, there are elements to Robinson’s work that justify the link. They both take elements of folk music, especially the mythology, and turn it into a whole that merges the past with contemporary […]

ALBUM REVIEW – LEO ROBINSON: THE TEMPLE

ALBUM REVIEW – KATIE VON SCHLEICHER: A LITTLE TOUCH OF SCHLEICHER IN THE NIGHT

A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night’ is packed with songs that instantly grab the attention and never let go. Often it will be via memorable, if not downright odd, opening lines as exemplified by the record’s first track, ‘Montagnard People’ which begins with Katie von Schleicher singing “when you’re mourning the past, you’ll […]
Is there anything more delightful than a singing drummer (or is it a drummer who sings? One to debate)? There’s something magnificent about them, sitting there behind their kit, boshing away whilst also finding the wherewithal to bash out a tune too. How do they do it? How are they not completely breathless all the […]

LIVE REVIEW: SQUID – NEW CENTURY HALL 18/10/23

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 20 OCTOBER 2023

Our roundup of another busy week of new releases including several outstanding albums. Pip Blom              Bobbie With her third album, the ever-impressive Blom moves in a synth-led direction inspired by Micachu and the Shapes. The album includes duets with Alex Kapranos and Personal Trainer’s Willem Smit that work especially well. Emma Anderson              Pearlies Co-founder of […]
The best music can banish even the weariest mood. That has certainly been true for this album from Leon Keita, the latest release from Analog Africa, a German-based label that over the past 16 years has been devoted to excavating some of the finest music from the African continent made during the period from the […]

ALBUM REVIEW – LEON KEITA: LEON KEITA