ALBUM REVIEW: GORILLAZ – CRACKER ISLAND

A first post-pandemic album by the group avoids market rollouts and a concept-heavy narrative in favour of showcasing the band’s effect on pop’s today and tomorrow, to include a strong new future.  I finally won! I finally did it! I listened to a Gorillaz album and absolutely loved it. Involving nuance features that arguably differ […]
Habibi Funk is a German-based record label that has been dedicated to releasing an eclectic range of high-quality unknown or neglected music from the Arab world since 2015. Their latest excellent release marks a departure for Habibi Funk as the acts they featured previously experimented with soul or funk for a couple of tracks before […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE FREE MUSIC: THE FREE MUSIC (VOL 1)

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 […]
It’s testament to the musical ambition of Mogwai that more than twenty-five years years after they started they can now sell out Manchester’s Albert Hall so fast a second date had to be added. Not bad for a band whose spellbinding tunes mostly consist of epic instrumentals with minimal vocals. Having recently spoken to Stuart […]

LIVE: MOGWAI – 10/02/23

ALBUM REVIEW: MOZART ESTATE – POP-UP! KER-CHING! AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF MODERN SHOPPING

Over seventeen studio albums Lawrence has given us some of the finest off kilter guitar pop melodies with his bands Felt, Denim and Go Kart Mozart, now with his latest project Mozart Estate, his brand of wonky pop takes another turn as he focuses firmly on modern day consumerism.  Recent single ‘Relative Poverty’ finds him […]
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