Album Review: Iron & Wine – Ghost on Ghost

Wow!!! On a beautiful day with a chilled glass of whatever your tipple is, Iron and Wine have provided the perfect soundtrack to this summer and summers to come. This album is steeped in sublime folk with a pop feel; yeah it’s the most radio friendly album that Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) has done, […]
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past six months (a particularly deep cave, underwater, on Neptune, with a wi-fi connection that even Virgin trains would condemn as “poor”) then chances are you will have heard at least something about Birmingham based quartet Peace. The hype that’s followed this band is bordering on […]

Album Review: Peace – In Love

ALBUM REVIEW: UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS – MIND CONTROL

The previous long player from Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Blood Lust, became something of a cult classic almost overnight on its release, partly due to the very limited vinyl version (only 400 copies) that had vinyl junkies foaming at the mouth. Linking that exclusivity with gorgeous artwork and packaging resembling the giallo genre of […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – “Is that a Polar Bear!!!” There is a subtle beauty that British Sea Power have always commanded and a fan base that understands this beauty and what it means. The opening ‘quiet set’ affirms this beauty with a warmth of songs like Salty Water that make you feel all fluffy inside. […]

LIVE: BRITISH SEA POWER – 12/04/2013

LIVE: JAMES BLAKE – 10/04/2013

– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Manchester Academy 2 is not a particularly majestic venue, in fact, it looks almost identical to a high school assembly room, so it seems odd that such a place should host an artist like James Blake, a musician who could no doubt fill a space at least three times as […]
Smoke Ring For My Halo was my favourite album of 2011, and though, in retrospect it’s now eclipsed by M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and Slave Ambient by former bandmates the excellently named The War on Drugs, it remains an album I return to from time to time with real relish. What I like most […]

Album Review: Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze

Album Review: Vondelpark – Seabed

I took the review for Vondelpark’s Seabed on a bit of a whim – I know nothing about the band; I just know that Vondelpark is also an expansive public open space in Amsterdam*. I spent this morning listening to Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and the Rolling Stones and Seabed is something […]
– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – Oh Canada! Tonight’s the night Saskatchewan’s blues-rock four piece The Sheepdogs grace us Mancunians with their bearded presence. Having missed the opportunity to catch the boys live in Vancouver over the Christmas holidays, I was more than thrilled to find out they’d be on tour throughout the UK […]

LIVE: THE SHEEPDOGS – 05/04/2013

LIVE: HOOKWORMS – 05/04/2013

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – According to the bastion of truth that is Wikipedia, a hookworm is ‘a parasitic nematode that lives in the small intestine of its host, which may be a mammal such as a dog, cat, or human’. A parasite, something that sucks the life out of whatever unfortunate host it happens […]
Following the critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, James Blake is back with Overgrown. An undeniable buzz surrounds this release. Blake himself has been teasing his fans, releasing previews and giving away free digital downloads of ‘Digital Lion’ creating an excitement that should surround release dates. Overgrown has more of a soulful tone than Blake’s debut […]

Album Review: James Blake – Overgrown