Spirits Burning – Starhawk
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.
Music News
David Bowie – Blackstar
“A blackstar need not have an event horizon, and may or may not be a transitional phase between a collapsing star and a singularity.”
Various – Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-1995 (Cherry Red)
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”.
Great EP’s and Albums I Discovered in 2015
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!
Daughter – Not To Disappear (4AD Records)
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 […]
Attila The Stockbroker – Arguments Yard (35 Years of Ranting Verse and Thrash Mandola) Cherry Red Books
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 […]
Ommadawn – Mike Oldfield
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.
Spizzenergi / The Rezillos – The Liquid Room, Edinburgh
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 […]
The Proclaimers – The Playhouse, Edinburgh
Craig and Charlie Reid have come along way since they signed off the dole in a bleak benefit office on Edinburgh’s west side and signed onto the government’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme, with which they helped to fund the first six months of their musical career as The Proclaimers . Ten albums, a musical and a […]
Turtle Records – Pioneering British Jazz 1970-1971
Peter Eden produced twenty albums between 1968 and72, which were labelled “progressive British jazz”, fr labels such as Deram, Harvest, Argo and Island, but he also released three albums on his own Turtle Records imprint in 1970 and 71and ot is these three recordings we have here.
Percy Faith “Malaguena: The Music Of The Cuba & Kismet: Music From The Broadway Production”
It’s that time of the month again when I eagerly open the padded envelope containing a CD from record label él. I say this every time I review one of their offerings, but it’s a great experience not really knowing what you are going to get. And so here we have Percy Faith “Malaguena: The […]
Cymande – A Simple Act Of Faith
Some readers will know the name Cymande (Sah Mahn Day) from their three albums (Cymande, Second Time Round and Promised Heights) released in the early to mid-seventies, whilst others will be aware of some of their tunes (The Message) via samples used by De La Soul, Gang Starr and others.
The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
John Scott looks at the classic album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks as part of the ongoing Classic Album series. “The Kinks was chosen as a name by the band’s manager Larry Page because it was slightly outrageous in the pre-swinging Sixties.”
Roger Waters – Roger Waters – The Wall (Columbia)
Music has power. The power to stir emotions and paint pictures in our imagination. When Pink Floyd released their high-concept double album The Wall in 1979 its listeners were left to flesh out the storyline that the music and lyrics provided with whatever visual concepts their own brains provided. Like no album before it though, […]
The Downes Braide Association – Suburban Ghosts (Cherry Red Records)
Geoff Downes and Chris Braide released “ Pictures Of You”, their debut album as The Downes Braide Association, in 2012 after meeting at a Buggles reunion show in 2010. Downes was already familiar to me from his work with The Buggles – I’m a big fan of their Age Of Plastic album – Yes and […]
Various – Escape In Time: Popular British Television Themes Of The 1960s (él)
Let’s get this straight from the outset… the él record label is absolutely nuts!!! And I love its quirkiness and bottle for putting out albums of music that otherwise would be unlikely to see the light of day. Regular readers will have read other reviews I’ve done of the label’s output and it is nothing […]