ALBUM: JOHNNO CASSON – WINDOW SHOPPING

Ah, Coinstar Day. £21.47 redeemed from jean-pocket oblivion, all thanks to your charitable counting-machine friend. Know the feeling? Well, stand by: the improbable satisfaction that comes from just such little victories fills Johnno Casson’s delicate, quirky album, Window Shopping. Colchester singer-songwriter Casson, armed with previous self-releases under the name Snippet, delights a growing internet fanbase […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – It’s certainly the night for a mind-altering statement. At the very same time as one great Mancunian artist is subverting all expectations in front of a global audience, another group of them are tapping into the dark recesses of our imaginations on a far smaller scale. But whereas Danny Boyle […]

LIVE: PLANK! / HOOKWORMS – 27/07/2012

ALBUM: MOEBIUS + TIETCHENS

There comes a time when most music lovers will claim to have heard it all before. Of course, the battle against jaded apathy is constant, and must be fought on all fronts. However, unctuous press releases try hard to extol the virtues of their offering, pitching it as the Third Coming and a cure for […]
– The Deaf Institute, Manchester – The blow of missing the first two local Savages gigs this year – in a cage in a bunker in Salford and at Islington Mill in June – has been eased now that I can witness ‘everyones favourite new band’, in my favourite venue. Parma Violets are the main support, I saw them at […]

LIVE: SAVAGES – 24/07/2012

SINGLE: MAJOR LAZER – ‘GET FREE’

The pioneers of booty shaking, reggae fuelled, dancefoor smashers; Major Lazer, rope in the talents of Amber Coffman from Dirty Projectors in their latest release; “Get Free”. A much more downtempo outing than their previous material but by no means lacking in quality. The track kicks back at a dub-paced flow with light smatterings of […]
It’s been 3 years since Sheffieldite, Richard Hawley, released an album. Even though he teased fans with guest vocals on an Arctic Moneys track earlier this year, Hawley returns with his punchy, rock ‘n’ roll fuelled 7th album, Standing On The Sky’s Edge. And fuelled with Rock ‘n’ Roll it certainly is. ‘Down In The Woods’, […]

Single Review: Richard Hawley – Down In The Woods

SINGLE REVIEW: Electric Guest – Awake

As one of the showcasing artists at this year’s SXSW festival, a great deal of attention has been thrown Electric Guest’s way. In May, I saw Electric Guest perform to a sparse crowd during Liverpool Sound City and it’s their newest single, ‘Awake’, that has the potential to rouse the music aficionados and create a […]
Laetitia Sadlier, erstwhile singer with 90s influential experimental krautrock pop band Stereolab and main member of Stereolab side project Monade, follows up her debut solo album, The Trip, with her second album for Drag City, Silencio. On first listen, Silencio immediately comes across as a more fleshed out sound with more nuanced textures than The […]

Album Review: Laetitia Sadlier – Silencio

LIVE: OF MONSTERS AND MEN – 11/07/2012

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – There are few more cherished moments in a band’s career – the breakthrough song has found a handle on a niche audience, the underground buzz has begun to filter out, the debut album will drop in less than a month. The band rock into town, and play upstairs in the attic of […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – Dangerous, unhinged and unpredictable are all words I would have at one time used to describe The Brian Jonestown Massacre. An opinion I had formed after hearing numerous fan’s accounts of the band’s on tour antics and more so after watching the 2004 documentary ‘Dig’, which until now was my […]

LIVE: THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE – 08/07/2012