ALBUM REVIEW: KIM DEAL – NOBODY LOVES YOU MORE

“Just want a girl as cool as Kim Deal” The Dandy Warhols sang in 1997. Not many musicians have had such songs of adulation written about them, but then not every musician has dominated the alternative music scene like Kim Deal. It seems remarkable that this is her first solo album in a musical career […]
With his 2022 album, ‘Chloë and The Next 20th Century’, it appeared that Father John Misty was trying to dial down the ambiguous signals that had permeated his earlier releases. Its mixture of golden era Hollywood and cruise ship opulence signified an artist happy to embrace the mainstream, an arena for which his outstanding melodicism […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FATHER JOHN MISTY: MAHASHMASHANA

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 15 NOVEMBER 2024

An ultra busy week with lots of tantalising releases. Here is our summary of what’s what. Xeno & Oaklander     Via Negativa (in the doorway light)               Refined retro-futurist synth pop with a tension between Teutonic, utopian synthetic pop and lyrical narratives of ghosts in silos, ruined mills, and the traumas of mineral excavation. The Green Child          […]
What a joy it is to discover a new favourite record label. It can open entire new colourful worlds of sound. Over the past month alone, Glitterbeat Records has offered up an extraordinary collection of new releases, a veritable magic pick and mix. From Turkey has come the psych rock mayhem of BaBa ZuLa’s ‘İstanbul […]

ALBUM REVIEW – JULIAN MAYORGA: CHAK CHAK CHAK CHAK

GIG GUIDE: NOVEMBER 2024

We have trawled through the forthcoming gigs in and around Manchester so you don’t have to. We believe that if we are going to recommend a gig to you, then it should be exactly that, a recommendation. There’s always plenty of great gigs going on in Manchester, too many to cover them all, but here’s […]
Unquestionably, Tomo Katsurada’s ‘Dream of the Egg’ has the week’s most intriguing concept. It is a collaboration with visual artist Shoko Otake for which Katsurada provides the soundtrack to a 20-page picture book inspired by the 1920’s children’s story, ‘Yume No Tamago (Dream of the Egg)’. In addition to the picture book, the package consists […]

ALBUM REVIEW – TOMO KATSURADA: DREAM OF THE EGG

ALBUM REVIEW – PETER ALEXANDER JOBSON: BURN THE RATION BOOKS OF LOVE

It is rare if not unique that an album lands in the Silent Radio inbox for which Les Dawson is cited as an influence. Fortunately, Peter Alexander Jobson’s ‘Burn The Ration Books of Love’ does not contain any mother-in-law jokes and the piano playing is of a far superior standard to Dawson’s onstage shenanigans. Instead, […]
There’s something uniquely cathartic about the marriage of bright, gleaming synth pop textures with tortured emo lyricism that you get on Moody Joody’s debut EP. Maybe it’s how it speaks to the time we live in and how one might stick on a smile to mask their real anxiety amid an increasingly uncertain world. Maybe […]

EP REVIEW – MOODY JOODY: DREAM GIRL

ALBUM REVIEW – THE WOOD: DAYS

To release a debut single and announce a debut album not long after, you must have a set of bollocks and confidence in your work which The Wood have. Consisting of scousers Alex Evans and Steve Powell, who met whilst Powell was recording Evans in his ARK recording studio and was blown away with his […]
There is a healthy bundle of new releases this week. Here they are: Our Girl             The Good Kind             New signings to Bella Union, their dynamics permeate the record, from heavy guitars and soaring lead lines to ear worm choruses and intimate vocal moments. Filled with warmth and honesty, The Good Kind is a celebration of […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 8 NOVEMBER 2024