ALBUM REVIEW – REBEKKA KARIJORD: THE BELL TOWER

The seventh album by composer Rebekka Karijord has a multifaceted backstory that captures the imagination. Six years ago, she contacted the linguistics department at Stockholm University who undertake voice research with contact microphones used by people that have hearing and vocal disabilities. After the university made a few microphones for Karijord, she created a sample […]
When an album has such a high-quality, diverse set of influences (Dusty Springfield, Gal Costa, Minnie Riperton, Ennio Morricone, Neil Young and Sly & The Family Stone) and an individual way of realising them, it would require a complex mathematical formula to explain what has happened. It would not be fair to say that Hannah […]

ALBUM REVIEW – HANNAH COHEN: EARTHSTAR MOUNTAIN

ALBUM REVIEW – BAMBARA: BIRTHMARKS

Sex, death and religion. Karaoke bar violence and holy relic theft. ‘Wild At Heart’ meets ‘Seven’. Those familiar with Bambara will by now have come to expect that an album means not merely a collection of darkly alluring songs, but a narratively driven, complex and atmospherically potent cinematic trip in which each song plays out […]
The notes that accompany Will Stratton’s eighth album, ‘Points of Origin’, state that it is a work of fiction and that any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. It is the type of statement that would normally form the caveat at the start of a film and offers […]

ALBUM REVIEW – WILL STRATTON: POINTS OF ORIGIN

ALBUM REVIEW – HELEN GANYA: SHARE YOUR CARE

On her previous album, 2022’s ‘Polish The Machine’ the Brighton-based musician Helen Ganya had begun with the words “I had a fear of the ordinary.” That was apparent in a style that contained echoes of Kate Bush, The Cocteau Twins and Bjork. However, her new album, ‘Share Your Care’, marks a progression into extraordinary realms. […]
From its earliest days, pop music’s number one topic has been love. Now in an era where politics and social interactions seem ever more divisive and views are screamed with greater vehemence into echo chambers, the need to take solace in love songs is understandable. The fifth album from Chris Duncan, ‘It’s Only A Love […]

ALBUM REVIEW – C DUNCAN: IT’S ONLY A LOVE SONG

ALBUM REVIEW – WHITE DENIM: 12

Five years after reports of Covid emerged from China, the pandemic is still having an impact upon a significant number of albums being released now. The twelfth long player from White Denim, appropriately enough called ‘12’, containing twelve tracks and being released in the twelfth month, has been shaped by different working conditions. As has […]
There is a great sense of detail in The Innocence Mission’s latest album, ‘Midwinter Swimmers’. It is apparent in lyrics that have a poetic precision and colourfully capture place. The music is imbued with a fragility reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan and mingles lo-fi charm with subtle shifts to create a cinematic palette. It is a […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE INNOCENCE MISSION: MIDWINTER SWIMMERS

ALBUM REVIEW – FATHER JOHN MISTY: MAHASHMASHANA

With his 2022 album, ‘Chloë and The Next 20th Century’, it appeared that Father John Misty was trying to dial down the ambiguous signals that had permeated his earlier releases. Its mixture of golden era Hollywood and cruise ship opulence signified an artist happy to embrace the mainstream, an arena for which his outstanding melodicism […]
For those of us in northern England, the word ‘champion’ might have a different meaning than to other people. “Aye, it’s champion” symbolises a grudging respect, a down-to-earth admission that something is pretty good, rather than the triumphalism of Queen’s or a sporting crowd’s boast of “We Are The Champions”. For Norwegian band, Pom Poko, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – POM POKO: CHAMPION