ALBUM REVIEW – FATHER JOHN MISTY: CHLOE AND THE NEXT 20TH CENTURY

Music can delight for many reasons. Often it is not an entire song but an individual moment, be it the audacity of an instrumental flourish or the ecstasy of a vocal yelp. With Father John Misty, while the pleasure may come from the beauty of the song’s orchestration and the early 1970s singer-songwriter melodies, it […]
Luis Roberts is a Welsh wonder! A songwriter who sings in the Welsh language, yet his songs have a universal appeal, steeped in a gentle folk psych pop forest of lush melodies, delicate guitars and pianos. His debut album ‘Cloeon’ has hints of Talk Talk’s expansive soundings, mixed with Elbow’s subtle melodic ways, and is […]

INTERVIEW: LUIS ROBERTS – NEW WELSH WONDER RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM: A DELICATE FEAST OF FOLK POP WITH HINTS OF TALK TALK AND ELBOW, A WELSH LANGUAGE ALBUM WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ALBUMS YOU’LL HEAR ALL YEAR

INTERVIEW: CLAIRE WELLES – LIVERPUDLIAN QUEEN OF ELECTRO POP, HAS SUPPORTED TIM BURGESS AND JANE WEAVER, NOW RELEASES NEW ALBUM

Claire Welles creates an electronic kaleidoscope of sounds, with lyrics spanning an ocean of topics from snooker, self doubt, motivation, and social media trolls to finding true friendships and the sheer joy of creating music, all delivered with her astutely observed take on life. She has previously supported Tim Burgess and Jane Weaver amongst others, […]
Despite it being her sixth album, the buzz around Japanese-American songwriter Mitski has remained swarming. Her recent success on TikTok is understandable, and her music has a whole generation in an emotional chokehold, that she won’t be losing grip of anytime soon, especially with the brilliance of newest album ‘Laurel Hell.’ The synthy opening track […]

ALBUM REVIEW: MITSKI – LAUREL HELL

Midlake

LIVE: MIDLAKE– 10/04/2022

– Albert Hall, Manchester – How does a band who haven’t released a record in nearly a decade until very recently, haven’t toured for nearly as long, and no longer have their OG frontman who performed some of their most beloved songs, mount a credible comeback that people will be bothered about? The answer lies […]
– Cathedral, Manchester – It’s hard not to be seduced by Dead Can Dance. A look at one of the band’s pretty record sleeves, or a read-through of an intriguing list of track titles seemingly drawn from the same well of thought as ex-4AD label mates Cocteau Twins, and resistance becomes futile. The desire to […]
Dead Can Dance

LIVE: DEAD CAN DANCE – 08/04/2022

LoneLady

LIVE: LONELADY – 07/04/2022

– The White Hotel, Manchester – I’ve somehow gotten this far without ever seeing LoneLady (aka Julie Campbell) live, and I’m not sure how this happened. I’ve been a fan since her superb second album ‘Hinterland’ from 2015, a brooding, funky, post-punk masterpiece that seemed to reflect the stark, post industrial wastelands still found in […]
– Deaf Institute, Manchester – “This one combines my love of the 70s with my love of bastards…” deadpans Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson with a nod and a wink, as she introduces her next song ‘Peter Bogdanovich’ (“I like you Peter, I wish you were a wife-leaver”), taking to a stool clutching some kind of 80s […]
CMAT

LIVE: CMAT – 02/04/2022

ALBUM REVIEW: PLACEBO – NEVER LET ME GO

Placebo have always walked the line between clever lyrics, and a dark melodic edge, with guitarist and singer Brian Molko and bassist Stefan Olsdal being  the two original members who have kept the Placebo flame burning bright for over twenty five years. Molko has always had an astute lyrical wisdom, which thankfully is still as […]
In the overwhelming majority of cases, it is easy to guess what a band will sound like based purely on its name. Without any knowledge of their respective catalogues, it would not take a genius to work out that Napalm Death were going to have a more abrasive sound than, say, Lush. However, Destroyer are […]

ALBUM REVIEW – DESTROYER: LABYRINTHITIS