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 […]
Back in 1985, the brilliant guitar pop of ‘Go Out And Get Em Boy’ was the Wedding Present’s first single, and in the intervening decades, it’s fair to say that David Gedge and the Wedding Present have done exactly that. Their blend of shimmering guitar tunes, often with a rockier overtone, and lyrics capturing love […]

INTERVIEW: THE WEDDING PRESENT – CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF INDIE GREATNESS!

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 10 OCTOBER 2025

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 […]
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 […]

ALBUM REVIEW – LONG FLING: LONG FLING

ALBUM REVIEW – FLOCK OF DIMES: THE LIFE YOU SAVE

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 […]
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 […]

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

EP REVIEW – SPARKS: MADDER!

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 […]
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 […]

EP REVIEW – HOLYBONES: I GOT A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 OCTOBER 2025

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 […]
A glance at a record’s list of songtitles often offers an indication of its type of music. The Antlers’ ‘Blight’ is deceptive in that respect. In addition to the title track, there are songs called ‘Carnage’, ‘Calamity’ and ‘A Great Flood’ which suggests that they could be accompanied by some brutal, pummelling Napalm Death type […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE ANTLERS: BLIGHT