ALBUM REVIEW – BHAJAN BHOY: TO LOVE IS TO LOVE (VOL.1 & 2)

It might be glib to suggest that anyone apart from government sponsored purveyors of dodgy PPE had a good pandemic but Ajay Saggar definitely used the time productively. Between January 2021 and June 2022, he spent most days at his Soundation Studios recording and mixing music aided by a top team of collaborators, the result […]
– Castle Hotel, Manchester – I came across Sophie Jamieson’s astonishing, raw debut album at the very start of the year. Gold Flake Paint, one of the best music blogs around, has a knack of presenting albums to me in their end of year roundup that I’ve never heard of, but because of their brilliant […]
Sophie Jamieson

LIVE: SOPHIE JAMIESON – 02/03/2023

ALBUM REVIEW: GNOOMES – AX OX

A psychedelic twist on electronic music is what Gnoomes have been carefully crafting over their four albums, now having fled their home country of Russia, and relocated elsewhere, their latest album is awash with hypnotic electronica. Opening track ‘Ural Sun’ sounds like a dystopian dream, with deep rumbling sounds which build into a mountainous soundscape […]
It takes bravado to open an album with a track that feels like a close sibling to an all-time classic symphonic pop song, ‘I Saw The Light’. With its piano line echoing Todd Rundgren’s melody, indulging in jigs with dual saxes, a brilliant dip as most the instrumentation temporarily drops out leaving a solitary piano […]

ALBUM REVIEW – H HAWKLINE: MILK FOR FLOWERS

ALBUM REVIEW – JEN CLOHER: I AM THE RIVER, THE RIVER IS ME

Jen Cloher’s latest album is an unashamedly political record but that should not conjure images of angry, shouty music. Thankfully, what is on offer is a warm collection of songs which celebrates community and acknowledges creating art as an act of resistance,  The opening track on ‘I Am The River, The River is Me‘ evolved […]
Following the success of her EP’s ‘This Is What It Feels Like’ (2021) and ‘Minor’ (2020), Abram’s debut album ‘Good Riddance’ was a guaranteed winner. Each track takes us on a journey to a new part of the story told breakup via soothing vocals and melodic riffs, I was hooked from the minute it began. […]

ALBUM REVIEW: GRACIE ABRAMS – GOOD RIDDANCE

ALBUM REVIEW: INHALER – CUTS & BRUISES

With eleven tracks of pure rapture, Inhaler makes the wait so unbelievably worth it. ‘Cuts & Bruises’ is an album that needs to be listened to, screamed to, danced to, and, at a minimum, shared across the entire universe. Following the release of their debut album, ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’, which hit no. […]
The Raincoats are a band whose influence dwarfed their record sales. Most famously, their late 1970s creative post-punk ethos inspired Kurt Cobain and they originally reformed to open for Nirvana, plans scuppered by his death. However, they have influenced subsequent generations as I witnessed when they shared bills with Bis (during their first wave of […]

ALBUM REVIEW – GINA BIRCH: I PLAY MY BASS LOUD

INTERVIEW: DAVID BREWIS DISCUSSES HIS NEW ALBUM, RECORD LABEL, FIELD MUSIC AND THE LIFE OF DIY RECORDING ARTISTS

Since 2005, Field Music have released a string of consistently pleasing records via Memphis Industries, virtually developing a template for sustaining creativity over a lengthy period while gaining sufficient sales to dent the album charts. In addition, David Brewis has recorded three albums under the guise of School of Language but this month sees the […]
David Brewis is fond of a good concept. In recent years, he has created the Trump-based School of Language ‘45’ album and Field Music’s ‘Making A New World’ album consisting of songs based on his research for shows at the Imperial War Museum about tangential discoveries emerging from World War I. With the debut album […]

ALBUM REVIEW – DAVID BREWIS: THE SOFT STRUGGLES