Among the many things to grace this year’s Sŵn Festival, now not too far away with the weekend of October 18-20th looming ever closer, there is a sizable contingent of Irish bands. If the UK music scene has been enjoying a moment of particular grace lately, bands across the Irish Sea have been no less […]
As the second wave of artists performing at Cardiff’s Sŵn Festival has now been released, the line-up of the multi-venue festival coming to the Welsh capital next October is looking even more impressive than it already did. There are many reasons why this year’s edition is shaping up to be one not to miss, among […]
Our path towards Sŵn Festival, the multi-venue festival that is going to take over the Cardiff music scene for the weekend of 18th, 19th and 20th October, touches base in neighbouring Bristol yet again, as I discuss musical oddities, the state of the post-punk scene and dark humour with Alastair Shuttleworth, vocalist for self-described satirical […]
There’s something interesting happening in Ireland. Here’s another music scene that seems to have picked up pace in the last couple years, with a number of young bands emerging, and to some extent establishing themselves, with a clear intention to try and do something different and find their own voice. This is also the intention […]
Sŵn Festival is coming back to Cardiff next October, and from the first wave of artists announced it already looks like this year’s line-up for the original Welsh multi-venue festival is going to be one of its most exciting. As the festival approaches, I’ll be talking to some of the artists that are going to […]
Plague Vendor are back, and their new release, the aptly titled By Night, is an uncompromising, restless ride that manages to feel raw and scathing in spite of being, at a closer look, clearly very finely tuned. The ten tracks of the album are, for the most part, uniform in length, most of them ranging […]
With their new EP, Seatbelts (formerly of Hooton Tennis Club) offer a short but ambitious record with a quirky mood, some rather distinct and challenging ideas, and a sound that manages to call back to the greatest glories of past British rock without falling into the trap of easy nostalgia.
There are albums whose release we expect with a very high degree of trepidation, as the (temporary, but no less important for that) end point of a trajectory that we have followed with a lot of emotional commitment. The stakes are always high in that kind of situation – even a partial disappointment would be […]
Birmingham trio JAWS embark on an attempt to recreate the mood of our times – alienated, worried but hopeful, detached but grappling with intense feelings – through music in their third studio album, The Ceiling.
If one word must be found to describe this first EP by Essex band Green Dolphin, the word should probably be ‘promise’. The embryos of many an interesting idea are found disseminated all over the record, though after listening one is left with the impression that none of them is yet fully formed. This is […]
Ambition is always something to be admired in a young, up-and-coming band, and this new EP from Manchester-based trio Too Cool Kid is nothing but ambitious. It comes as close to a concept album as an EP can, and it is accompanied by a series of connecting videos, directed by Ola El Awadly, adding another […]
After causing some well-deserved buzz with their single releases, alternative quintet FLING are now soon to release their first long player, Fling or Die. The Bradford outfit self-describes as ‘wonky pop’, but their sound is pleasantly hard to pinpoint, drawing from psychedelic rock, glam, and a hint of blues, and their aesthetic is an updated […]
If their first record Alas Salvation had caught – for good reason – the attention of both critics and audiences as something bold and new that was worth keeping an eye on, this second release by Yak makes it very clear that they are far more than a simple passing glitch. On the contrary, they […]