INTERVIEW: CATHAL COUGHLAN

Cathal Coughlan has with a new album, the brilliant ‘Song of Co-Aklan’, his first in ten years. Seamlessly blending his lyrical prowess with fine indie melodies, the former Fatima Mansions and Microdisney man has returned with possibly his greatest work yet. We caught up with him to find out what’s behind the making of one […]
Seeing Teenage Fanclub live again at the Academy 3 in 2018, reminded me just how uplifting music can be, well, their music at least. A large amount of time in my youth was spent listening to their records, whatever mood I was in, putting on a Teenage Fanclub album seemed to make the world that […]

ALBUM REVIEW: TEENAGE FANCLUB – ENDLESS ARCADE

ALBUM REVIEW: CATHAL COUGHLAN – SONG OF CO-AKLAN

“I could listen to Cathal Coughlan sing the phone book” said DJ John Peel many years ago, and he wasn’t wrong. Having done numerous Peel sessions over the years in his former bands Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, Coughlan’s distinctively rich vocals won the hearts of many. Fast forward to 2021 and Coughlan’s vocals still propel […]
They may have been part of the Creation Records scene in the early 90’s but The Telescopes are a band who have led the way in psychedelic swirling indie for over thirty years. Now very much the solo project of Stephen Lawrie, The Telescopes have a new album on the horizon, ‘Songs Of Love And […]

INTERVIEW: THE TELESCOPES

ALBUM REVIEW: THE KILLS – LITTLE BASTARDS

As a happy accident of this devastating, pandemic situation, Domino Records’ boss Laurence Bell came up with the wonderful idea of gathering The Kills’ B sides and rarities in a double album, aptly titled “Little Bastards”: A bunch of 20 lost, hidden-in-digital-platforms gems that the British-American duo released between 2002-09.  All tracks have been remastered by […]
“Hello I’m Johnny Cash” sings Bill Callahan as the opening line on ‘Pigeons’ the first track on his new album ‘Gold Record’. Perhaps a cheeky nod to those who have noted that over the years Bill Callahan has slowly transitioned from indie rock quirkiness with his Smog output into  more mellowed, yet no less acerbic, […]
Bill Callahan Gold Record

ALBUM REVIEW: BILL CALLAHAN – GOLD RECORD

A Certain Ratio Loco

ALBUM REVIEW: A CERTAIN RATIO – LOCO

Which band can claim to have had The Beastie Boys at their debut NYC gig, Madonna supporting them in the early 80s, and also labelled ‘that jazz band from Wythenshawe’? Welcome back, A Certain Ratio.  I used to listen to ACR on the long bus journey from Wythenshawe to Altrincham on my Walkman (yes I […]
The second album can always be a challenging experience for any artist or group, but for The Aces they make it seem so easy. Coming off the back of their well-received first album ‘My Heart Felt Volcanic’ and a tour supporting 5 Seconds of Summer, they continue their streak of creating infectious pop songs. The […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE ACES – UNDER MY INFLUENCE

ALBUM REVIEW: A A WILLIAMS – FOREVER BLUE

In a world in a current flux of damage and unaware of how to mend itself, perhaps it’s forgotten what pain ‘actually’ feels like? We have the comforting wet cloth and band aid that is a new release. Though the majority of us are stuck in a confusing landscape that seems to have less clue […]
‘Breathe Deep’ is the highly anticipated debut album from Oscar Jerome who is part of London’s burgeoning nu-jazz scene. Now, before we continue, don’t let the term, jazz, put you off. For anyone who has been following how the scene has developed over the last few years you’ll know that Jerome and many of his […]

ALBUM REVIEW: OSCAR JEROME – BREATHE DEEP