It’s funny to think Tugboat Captain may never have existed. After writing a collection of songs for a private project, the Captain himself Alexander Sokolow, was content to just sit on the material and that be the end of it. However, as the songs got passed around from one friend to the next, he was […]
Monday night saw the O2 Academy Leeds host alt-rock legends Weezer for the start of their UK run of tour dates, supporting their imminent new album ‘Pacific Daydream’. The band were on spectacular form and treated the sold-out crowd to songs spanning their entire catalogue. A masterclass in playful, feel-good rock.
Stroud-based Low Chimes released debut album ‘Illumine’ earlier this month – the collection of ten boasts a far-reaching quality and a joyous contemporary flourish of folk, indie rock, and progressive textures. Obtaining great inspiration from the natural world and the vast landscapes that surround us, the four-piece has carefully crafted a sonic exploration like no […]
Where to start with Grizzly Bear…? It’s undeniable that they’re one of the most prestigiously talented and inventive acts around, but their idiosyncrasies can be off-putting to the casual listener. They’re critical darlings, with a reputation for immaculate musicianship, dazzlingly intricate live performances, and Jonny Greenwood says they’re his favourite band. With this years release […]
Reaching a pivotal marker in her career, Siv Jakobsen released debut full-length ‘The Nordic Mellow’ in August 2017. The glacial collection of ten takes in moments of exquisite voice, narration of great intimacy, and forever emotive evocation. The stories aren’t tales of the imagined, they are photo-frames of the eternally alive – once lived, can’t […]
Bitter Sweet Symphonies’ Zoe Peck speaks to Wolf Alice lead guitarist Joff Oddie, ahead of the release of much anticipated second album ‘Visions Of A Life.’ Conceived in the silence succeeding a two-year world tour, the album is the alt-rockers’ answer to their hugely successful 2015 debut album – ‘My Love Is Cool’ which reached #2 […]
Music is a transcendent force. A harbour for expression and reflection, a collage of sound and texture, a conduit for further thinking – it wields the power to resonate and can sometimes even shift a person’s outlook. We continue to be intrigued, astonished and drawn into these worlds in which the artist creates, none more […]
Courtney Marie Andrews has been playing the music game for a good while. Andrews is no novice when it comes to both writing and performing, having put out six LP’s since 2008, but it’s the latest of these, ‘Honest Life’, that’s seen Andrews really breakthrough worldwide.
On a fine August evening, I sat down to interview Dom Ganderton, the eclectic mind behind recently re-invigorated Superfood. In 2013, they put out a well received Blur-esque rock album as a four-piece guitar band, but there were hints that something a little more idiosyncratic lurked beneath their Midlands rock-friendly exterior.
The road so far has seen the Hackney group of superb-voiced musicians, trailblaze with their authentic talent and stun with their carefully crafted songwriting. Now with a Burke Reid-produced debut album and a flurry of exciting endeavours waiting in the wings, Flyte prove that they’re more than just a one-trick pony – ‘The Loved Ones’ […]
Pulled downwards by a voice somewhere between Dylan and Springsteen (courtesy of singer Adam Granduciel), we sink slowly into the swirling cauldron of sulkiness that is the upcoming album and major label debut from The War On Drugs – ‘A Deeper Understanding’. Switching between apathy and angst, the album’s a lethargic, daydreaming teenager with a body […]
There is a moment right at the end of Warm Healer, the closing track from Everything Everything’s third album ‘Get To Heaven,’ where suddenly, the lights dim. “You don’t want me sucking you down”, intones frontman Jonathan Higgs as an ominously pulsing bassline does exactly that, his disembodied, pitch-shifted voice warped and shrouded by atrophying […]
The six-piece Australian outfit released their debut album, ‘So Long and Thank You’ on 4th August 2017 – for some, the release may have gone unnoticed, whilst for the select bunch aware of the matter, the occasion proved to be a monumental victory lap.
On a warm summer evening in early July, I met Jamie Cameron, the vision behind The Last Dinosaur, in a shabby old East End boozer near Bethnal Green. I had reviewed Jamie’s magnum opus ‘The Nothing’ previously; he had enjoyed the review and asked if I’d consider writing a more involved and personal piece. We […]
GANG base their musical aesthetic on the principle that the creeping unease felt at your worst never truly leaves you. They are the soundtrack to your anxious thoughts at night that never let you sleep.
Inevitable Daydream are always happy to see me. Maybe it’s because I usually write glowing pieces about them (this will be another one), or maybe it’s just because one of the best bands in Britain are just really nice m8s.
Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy purportedly once said that there were only two subjects worth writing about; life and death. So much the better for Jamie Cameron, the primary lyricist behind duo The Last Dinosaur, who elegantly tackles both those familiar subjects in his scintillating opus, ‘The Nothing’. This collection of songs constitutes a […]
As I sit in amongst the breezy post-spring blues in Brighton town, I’m struck by ‘Vine’ – the first and title track in this ethereally majestic album from Jen Gloeckner.
Finally. The long anticipated self-titled album from our beloved tear-jerking Texans, Cigarettes After Sex, is to be released on 9th June 2017.
In the five years since their Mercury Prize-winning debut album, alt-J have managed to stay at the top of the off-kilter pile that is quirky British rock music. Many parts of their second offering, ‘This Is All Yours’, felt like a continuation of the first album, while other parts brought out more sides to the […]