Club Homage, out on the 29th April, follows on from Somerville’s (yes, he of Bronski Beat and The Communards fame) disco album of last year called “Homage”. Now I’m a bit of a sucker for disco and love some of the people who are involved in remixing some of the tracks from Homage for Club Homage – TomMoulton, Felix Gauder, Robbie Leslie, John Winfield and Sebus & Larzo – so was well pleased when this CD (in limited, black vinyl effect) landed on my desk. More »
Most readers who have heard the name Alan Davey will naturally associate him as the bass player for space-rock stalwarts Hawkwind where he manned the bass from 1984 to 1996 and the again between 2001 and 2007. But he’s had loads of other projects away from Hawkwind including Bedouin, Ace Of Spades, Gunslinger, Eclectic Devils and The Psychedelic Warlords. He’s probably my favourite bass player… period and so I got myself both the double vinyl copy and the CD release of this album. More »
Ray Lamontagne first came to my attention with his 2004 Trouble album which was rooted in the Americana movement and was influenced by Tupelo Honey-era Van Morrison. It was a very enjoyable album as was its follow up Till The Sun Turns Black. After that though, Lamontagne disappeared from my radar and I failed to keep up with his music. More »
Way back in 1984 – was it really 31 years ago? – Los Lobos’ album How Will The Wolf Survive? quickly became one of my favourites and has remained so over the years. Despite that, although I have a smattering of other records by the band in my collection, I’m guilty of not having paid close attention to all of the band’s output over the years. More »
It is not unusual for a band to start off as one thing and end up being an entirely different beast. The Beatles went from lovable mop tops to hairy psychedelicists , and don’t we love them for it. When Steve Hackett left Genesis, it seemed unlikely that massive queues of people would line up to urinate in their direction should they spontaneously combust. They went on, however, to become world-straddling pop chart toppers. I’m pretty sure that happened although maybe it was just a bad dream I had after eating too much stilton. More »
Released in 2014 Syro is certainly not a new album and it came 11 years after the previous Aphex Twin record, which is a long time to wait for any die-hard fan or follower. I remember his previous album entitled ‘Druqks’ received mixed reviews, mainly due to the inconsistency of decent full length tracks. As a strange run-through concept album however, I thought the album was strong and that it felt like a glitchy-beat journey interspersed with fragments and recordings of his life. More »
Steven Wilson is an artist I only recently discovered about a year ago, mainly through his 4th album ‘Hand. Cannot. Erase’. This newest release entitled ‘4 1/2’ is named because it’s the mini album between his 4th and 5th, made up of a mixture of new material and tracks that didn’t make it onto his previous albums. More »
The Vinyl Collection brings together seven studio albums recorded by Deep Purple between 1972 and 1987, these albums being: Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are, Burn, Stormbringer, Come Taste The Band, Perfect Strangers and The House Of Blue Light. More »
For this month’s Classic Album, John Scott engages warp drive and blasts off into space in the company of Hawkwind and their epic Space Ritual album. More »
From my musical perspective, i’ve been noticing artists coming back into their music stride after many years of being quiet, or some new artists putting their musical twist on old classics. The internet has got a lot to do with this, as well as the close interaction we have between artist and fan. Twinned with the resurgence of vinyl, some artists seem to be borrowing musical styles or bringing ‘album etiquette’ from the past back into their work. Below i’ve reviewed 4 different artists who either bring something new to the table, or have re-packaged old songs/albums in an interesting way. More »
That’s correct, the band is actually called LNZNDRF. That’s kind of because it comprises of three members – Ben Lanz (from Beirut), Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf (both from The National), i.e. Lanz ‘n’ Dorf, geddit? Okay, it’s not as snappy a title as, say, CHVRCHES or ALVVAYS – but at least they stood a good chance of registering an internet domain name! More »
It’s with a good degree of anticipation and trepidation that I pressed play when the promo for this new album by space rock stalwarts Hawkwind arrived on my desk this damp and miserable Friday afternoon. I’m a huge Hawkwind fan, seen them loads of times and have a shelf dedicated just to their CDs on the rack…and a good few of their albums on vinyl too… and I so didn’t want this to be a rehash or a remix of old tunes. I needn’t have worried as this is Hawkind as I like them best. More »
This month John Scott continues his Classic Album series and takes a look back at David Bowie’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. What else? More »
I first became aware of the film Whiplash when Mr and Mrs Pig both raved about it on Facebook so I was delighted when my son’s girlfriend arrived home one evening with the DVD. Whiplash is indeed a terrific film. I won’t give away too much about the story but basically a talented young jazz drummer is driven almost to breaking point by his music college teacher. It’s a bit like a jazz version of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Full Metal Jazz Cat maybe. Or maybe not. More »
Pure Hell, very much a punk band in the original form, hail from Philadelphia and were active in New York from 74 to 78 along with the likes of New York Dolls. Their sound is inspired, as many bands of this time were, by The Stooges and The MC5.
The title of Darlene Love’s latest album is of course ironic. Darlene had her first hit in 1962 with He’s A Rebel as the lead singer of The Blossoms, although the single was credited to the better-known Crystals who were out on tour and were unavailable to record the song at the time. He’s A Rebel, Today I Met The Boy I’m Going To Marry and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), all recorded under the direction of Phil Spector, have ensured Love’s immortality in the pop firmament. With Introducing Darlene Love, she shows signs of perhaps actually being immortal – this is a 74 year old woman belting out songs with the vigour of someone half her age. More »
Space Rock, I LOVE Space Rock and Spirit’s Burning are a bit of a who’s who of the genre. The albums are put together from a disparate group of over 45 musicians all overseen at a distance by American producer Don Falcone.
“A blackstar need not have an event horizon, and may or may not be a transitional phase between a collapsing star and a singularity.” More »
Wikipedia has this to say about the genre that is Shoegaze “Shoegaze is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and reached peak popularity in the early 1990s. The style is typified by significant use of distortion, feedback, obscured vocals and the blurring of component musical parts into indistinguishable “walls of sound”. More »
New Hifi Pig contributor Daniel Brown takes a look at some of the albums and EPs that he has discovered during the last year. Much of the stuff is very different to the usual audiophile fodder and there is some great stuff in here, so read on and you may well discover something new yourself! More »
Bittersweet, fragile, sad, angry, reflective – collectively these are all emotions which neatly lay the groundwork for Daughter’s sophomore album ‘Not To Disappear’. Though the band’s sound has developed since 2013’s highly successful debut ‘If You Leave’, it has not progressed so much that you would now struggle to recognise it. I guess the overriding initial message here is “if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it”. More »
Ok, the first album review of 2016 isn’t an album at all but we won’t let that get in the way of things shall we!
On the front of Arguments Yard there’s a picture of Attila wearing a black T Shirt that has a quote on it and the quote says “ Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people” It’s a quote by Adrian Mitchell and I like it. It pretty much hits the mark because when most folk think of poetry they think of poncey aristos writing guff that has about much relevance to them as something with no relevance whatsoever. For me at least this perspective of poetry shifted a little with the advent of the likes of John Cooper Clarke and Attila The Stockbroker. Gone was the stuffy old crap and to replace it came poetry with attitude that spoke directly to me and with wit and with humour. With the advent of punk, poetry, although still on the sidelines of interest, suddenly became much more pertinent and with a message I and many others could relate to. More »
John Scott throws a log on the fire, pours himself a wee dram and puts on his copy of Mike Oldfield’s Ommadawn as part of his Classic Albums series of reviews. More »
Spizzenergi are remembered principally for two things: their 1979 single Where’s Captain Kirk?; the first single to top the UK indie chart where it remained at number one for seven weeks, and their tendency to change names at the drop of a hat. Starting as Spizzoil, lead singer Spizz went on to lead a variety of line-ups as Spizzenergi, Athletico Spizz 80, The Spizzles, SpizzOrwell, and Spizz And The Astronauties amongst others. More »
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