ALBUM REVIEW: GNOOMES – AX OX

A psychedelic twist on electronic music is what Gnoomes have been carefully crafting over their four albums, now having fled their home country of Russia, and relocated elsewhere, their latest album is awash with hypnotic electronica. Opening track ‘Ural Sun’ sounds like a dystopian dream, with deep rumbling sounds which build into a mountainous soundscape […]
It takes bravado to open an album with a track that feels like a close sibling to an all-time classic symphonic pop song, ‘I Saw The Light’. With its piano line echoing Todd Rundgren’s melody, indulging in jigs with dual saxes, a brilliant dip as most the instrumentation temporarily drops out leaving a solitary piano […]

ALBUM REVIEW – H HAWKLINE: MILK FOR FLOWERS

ALBUM REVIEW – JEN CLOHER: I AM THE RIVER, THE RIVER IS ME

Jen Cloher’s latest album is an unashamedly political record but that should not conjure images of angry, shouty music. Thankfully, what is on offer is a warm collection of songs which celebrates community and acknowledges creating art as an act of resistance,  The opening track on ‘I Am The River, The River is Me‘ evolved […]
It’s testament to the musical ambition of Mogwai that more than twenty-five years years after they started they can now sell out Manchester’s Albert Hall so fast a second date had to be added. Not bad for a band whose spellbinding tunes mostly consist of epic instrumentals with minimal vocals. Having recently spoken to Stuart […]

LIVE: MOGWAI – 10/02/23

ALBUM REVIEW: MOZART ESTATE – POP-UP! KER-CHING! AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF MODERN SHOPPING

Over seventeen studio albums Lawrence has given us some of the finest off kilter guitar pop melodies with his bands Felt, Denim and Go Kart Mozart, now with his latest project Mozart Estate, his brand of wonky pop takes another turn as he focuses firmly on modern day consumerism.  Recent single ‘Relative Poverty’ finds him […]
Following the success of her EP’s ‘This Is What It Feels Like’ (2021) and ‘Minor’ (2020), Abram’s debut album ‘Good Riddance’ was a guaranteed winner. Each track takes us on a journey to a new part of the story told breakup via soothing vocals and melodic riffs, I was hooked from the minute it began. […]

ALBUM REVIEW: GRACIE ABRAMS – GOOD RIDDANCE

ALBUM REVIEW: INHALER – CUTS & BRUISES

With eleven tracks of pure rapture, Inhaler makes the wait so unbelievably worth it. ‘Cuts & Bruises’ is an album that needs to be listened to, screamed to, danced to, and, at a minimum, shared across the entire universe. Following the release of their debut album, ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’, which hit no. […]
We can’t deny it now can we, these 90’s reunion tours are getting old. But, sometimes when you’ve got such a great drum beat behind the band as well as the vocals, as in the case of Supergrass’ Danny Goffey, the prospect of a new project is a very exciting prospect indeed. I suppose we […]

ALBUM REVIEW: DANNY GOFFEY – BRYAN MOONE’S DISCO PUNK

ALBUM REVIEW – GINA BIRCH: I PLAY MY BASS LOUD

The Raincoats are a band whose influence dwarfed their record sales. Most famously, their late 1970s creative post-punk ethos inspired Kurt Cobain and they originally reformed to open for Nirvana, plans scuppered by his death. However, they have influenced subsequent generations as I witnessed when they shared bills with Bis (during their first wave of […]
David Brewis is fond of a good concept. In recent years, he has created the Trump-based School of Language ‘45’ album and Field Music’s ‘Making A New World’ album consisting of songs based on his research for shows at the Imperial War Museum about tangential discoveries emerging from World War I. With the debut album […]

ALBUM REVIEW – DAVID BREWIS: THE SOFT STRUGGLES