ALBUM REVIEW: THE MURDER CAPITAL – WHEN I HAVE FEARS

As anyone who knows me will testify, I can waffle on about my love for Sonic Youth all day long, so any band that has elements of the much missed soaring guitar sounds and otherworldly eeriness about them, is always going to grab my ears, however I wasn’t expecting this… Sometimes bands come along and […]
Watching Sleater Kinney at the Albert Hall in 2015 on their first tour since reforming, was a reminder of how much of a gap in my musical world there had been in the intervening years since they split. I was lucky enough to see them numerous times over the years, and even managed to grab […]

ALBUM REVIEW: SLEATER KINNEY – THE CENTER WON’T HOLD

ALBUM REVIEWS ROUND UP – THE REST OF THE BEST NEW RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH

Dead Nature: Taking My Shadow EP From the ashes of the great but underrated band Spring King comes Dead Nature. I loved Spring King, a band who should’ve been massive with their brand of fuzzed up guitar melodies, and new project Dead Nature doesn’t disappoint either. It’s the work of Tarek Musa former chief songwriter […]
Whatever the history of punk, it’s impossible to deny the huge impact that this short-lived, intense burst of energy, ethos and political statement had on the music scene not just in the US and UK, but across the world. The striking substance-over-style aesthetic to the music, the boundary-pushing, taboo-breaking socially unacceptable behaviour, even the fashion […]

ALBUM REVIEW: COMPILATION – OPTIMISM/REJECT (PUNK AND POST PUNK)

ALBUM REVIEW: JADE IMAGINE – BASIC LOVE

Let’s face it, if the blurb in the press release says signed to Courtney Barnett’s record label, you’re gonna take notice, well, I am anyway cos I think she’s great, and yes, I am easily swayed by this sort of thing! So, having not heard anything by these Aussies before, purely on the Courtney Barnett […]
What do you think of when you think about covers?  For me, it’s the following: bad (but enthusiastic) karaoke, buskers (and the cover is almost exclusively Wonderwall) and Michael Bublé crooning away 24 hours a day seven days a week during the Christmas period. I’m not saying I don’t like them – more that when […]

ALBUM REVIEW: KARINE POLWART – SCOTTISH SONGBOOK

LIVE: BLUEDOT FESTIVAL 2019

-JODRELL BANK OBSERVATORY, CHESHIRE- Thursday Arriving at the festival late Thursday afternoon, we are just in time for Emma Gene Thackery. After finding a space in the busy camping ground to pitch, we make our first journey through the festival grounds. The festival is full, ready for the Halle Orchestra who are just as much […]
-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- Slap Rash You’d think having two wheels on a car would be a disadvantage in terms of road-worthy technicality; likely it would but since I’m using it as an analogy for this half-quartet, exception is granted. The labour constraints compel the duo to juggle their rhythm-but-also-lead instrumental roles with a […]

LIVE: SHONEN KNIFE / SLAP RASH – 23/07/2019

LIVE: QUEENS OF THE ELECTRONIC UNDERGROUND – 20/07/2019

-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- With a title as pompous as displayed above, flattering claims about the performers and MIF’s growing international esteem enticed me enough to think I could actually withstand 6 hours of standing (I did). Largely ignoring the initial DJ set by the event curator, I start to take notice when the first live […]
It was one, if not the, best New Order gig I’ve ever been to – the band, and a backdrop resembling a climbing frame of squares, each one containing a synth player, in the old Granada Studios where their friend and label co owner Tony Wilson worked and where the band themselves had played as […]

ALBUM REVIEW: NEW ORDER – SO IT GOES