“So much to see here in the darkness…” Australia (and indeed the world) is enjoying a wealth of heavy music right now. Metalcore, new-school thrash, death and progressive metal are all thriving and our newsfeeds are chock full of new releases, gigs, tours, mind boggling arrays of sub-genres and all manner of heavy goodness. Yep, […]
Kathryn Williams is Liverpool-born but resides in the fine city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Crown Electric, the company Elvis used to drive for before finding fame, is her tenth album and her first solo record in four years. The album is the distillation of over sixty songs that were narrowed down to the thirteen we hear on […]
If you’re new to Drugstore (and I am) then here’s a brief history lesson. They’re labelled as a dream pop (whatever that is) band who formed in 1993 and debuted with an eponymous album which reached 31 in the UK charts…their second album from 1998, “White Magic for Lovers”, reached number 45. In total they’ve […]
Big Sexy Noise is made up of Lydia Lunch, James Johnston and Ian White of Gallon Drunk fame they offer an all out brutal attack on the senses with this double album – the band’s last studio album from 2011 and a live recording made in Italy. The studio album “Trust the Witch” is proper […]
Goldfrapp have spent the past decade teasing us. Their 2002 debut ‘Felt Mountain’ is rightly regarded as indispensable, but since then the London duo have bounced uneasily between electro-pop, ambient melancholia and trip-hop without ever quite delivering the baroque masterpiece we know they’re capable of. Frustrating, yes, but on the strength of the leaked single […]
This, on the Righteous label, arrived in the post on Friday and come Friday night it was on constant repeat on the CD player. Northern Boys is an album crammed full of Northern Soul tunes made “famous” by clubs such as the Blackpool Mecca and Wigan Casino and it is a really infectious collection. Most […]
It’s been 8 long years since The Arctic Monkeys first smashed their way onto the indie rock scene. They sure came out swinging, brandishing the adrenaline fuelled foot stomper “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” and its parent album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ which both went straight […]
This popped through the letter box from those helpful chaps at Cherry Red a couple of weeks ago and I was a bit surprised that they’d sent me something from the mid 70s. Actually this is a re-release of the ninth album from Man, – originally released on UA Records – this one is released […]
Snip Records is a new record label which focuses on high resolution digital music and this is the debut album from the group “ti-an-guis” an international group which play folk music from all over the world. The band’s name is derived from the Mexican word “tianguis” which is an open air market and reflects the […]
Cupid’s Head (Kompakt CD 110) is Berlin based Swede Alex Willner’s fourth full length album since his debut “From Here We Go Sublime” and it’s a good one! The cover gives nothing away as to what to expect being plain black with The Field and the album title written in black. The album kicks off […]
“It costs ten bucks or go fuck yourself”. A nice personable accompaniment for the album’s release from Trent Reznor himself. He’s obviously not terribly fond of the “pay what you want” system as championed by Radiohead… never mind Trent, thousands upon thousands of people will pay absolutely nothing besides a bit of bandwidth for it. […]
Kitchens of Distinction formed as a band in 1986 releasing just four studio albums, as well as a few singles and EPs on the One Little Indian label, before disbanding in 1996. Lead vocalist Patrick Fitzgerald explains the gestation of their first album in 19 years, “Folly”: “These songs came together over a two-year period […]
Ok, so a few of you may be familiar with Mr Cat (Stephen Bruner to his friends), either from his recent role as bassist in LA superpunks Suicidal Tendencies or his collaborations with Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus. If it’s the former, this album will really come flying out of leftfield for you, but those […]
“Sometimes I wish you were here….weather permitting…” Well, the weather apparently does permit because Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand are back with their fourth full length album. The band has been plying their trade of innocuous but eminently danceable indie rock for over a decade now and have achieved some pretty massive success, most notably from the […]
Whilst I enjoyed the Polyphonic Spree’s first album “The Beginning Stages of…” they were never really a band that I explored further than that one album and perhaps this has been a mistake on my part given how much I loved “Yes, It’s True”. The first album was a gloriously positive and uplifting offering from […]
This is not a new album having been released in 2004 but it looked interesting and so I thought I’d give it a whirl anyway. It’s a collaboration between Jim Lampi and the German producer Zeus B Held (what a fabulous name that is!) with input from Australian musicians including Craig T and Damian Armstrong […]