SINGLE REVIEW: Darkstar – Gold

Last year, Darkstar laid out some concrete foundations with the ludicrously catchy “Aidy’s Girl is a Computer”. Their debut release on Hyperdub, the track managed to make its way around clubs, televisions and home stereo’s alike, and is still firmly lodged somewhere in my brain for the foresee able future (I still love it!) Since […]
– MOHO LIVE, MANCHESTER – The legend, the Master, the Mixmaster. A career spanning 2 decades, winner of the DMC championships for 3 consecutive years, collaborator with an array of different artists (including Ozzy ‘Help me find my penis’ Osbourne?), and who can forget that he represents The Beastie Boys? Gone are his days of […]

LIVE: MIXMASTER MIKE/THE DRUNKEN MUNKS – 16/11/2010

LIVE: GOLD PANDA – 15/11/2010

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – The Manchester gig scene is spoiled for choice tonight. For a Monday the line up is truly epic. This may go some way to explaining the lack of heads in The Ruby Lounge tonight. Gold Panda (Derwin) is deservedly receiving heavy praise for his debut album which is likely […]
– LEEDS UNI, LEEDS – Festivals used to be just for the summer but nowadays it seems like the summer never ends. God bless that pioneering genius who first worked out that you could transport the same amount of festive fun back to the city, minus the trench foot. Constellations, a new festival modelled very […]

LIVE: Constellations Festival – 14/11/2010

ALBUM: The Puppini Sisters – Christmas with The Puppini Sisters

Musically, Christmas is horrible. Each year a massive corporate free-for-all where whatever hermaphrodite boy band/pop act is currently in vogue infects the airwaves with whatever shit excuse for a song they pull out their arses. And just when you think non-industry types have fought a successful campaign against Santa, as with Rage Against The Machine […]
The swash-buckling, sea-shanty-ing troubadours are back with an excellent, rousing single. The band that brought you an 11 minute tale of revenge culminating in a torture scene inside a whale’s stomach, have teamed up with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck (and his magical twelve string guitar) and Gillian Welch. ‘Down by the Water’ actually sounds a lot […]

SINGLE REVIEW: The Decemberists – Down By The Water

LIVE: HAUSCHKA/NANCY ELIZABETH – 13/11/2010

– THE LOWRY HOTEL, SALFORD – Let’s get this out of the way. The main reason I’m here is because the venue for tonight’s show is The Presidential Suite in the Lowry Hotel, and I’m pretty certain this is the only chance I will ever get, in my entire life, to spend an evening (let […]
Though it might be hard to believe, ‘Fits & Starts’ is one of the more upbeat moments from Hold This Ghost – an album of nostalgic, folk mastery. In ‘Fits & Starts’ it feels like Musée Mécanique are holding a warm, living person (though possibly dying), as opposed to a cold, clammy ghost. This is […]

SINGLE: Musée Mécanique – Fits & Starts

SINGLE: Bombay Bicycle Club – Rinse Me Down

Muffled drums without cymbals and purely acoustic guitars give ‘Rinse Me Down’ a sort of ‘farmhouse folk’ feel. It’s all in keeping with the very diatonic, upbeat folk of the moment. It is very lively – in an understated way – especially when the hi-hat kicks in before the second verse, bringing in an uplifting […]
‘My Foolish Pride’ is a lovely, catchy, kitchen sink sing-along tune full of introspection and heart warming self-deprecation, straight-forward, nothing fancy, something lots of people will relate to. As the title may suggest, the song is a tale of regret, reflection, and just a little bit of self-pity, but if it was this and this […]

SINGLE: The Charlatans – My Foolish Pride