Gretta Ray released her sophomore album this past Summer, it’s called Positive Spin, and it is adamantly a pop record in all caps. And it completely deserves that very description. This album has catapulted Ray’s career into new heights, it’s already seen her play her biggest headline shows yet in her home country of Australia […]
Tag: New Music
LIVE REVIEW: Sŵn Festival 2023
Sŵn Festival has by now become a cornerstone of the Welsh music scene, attracting artists (and fans!) from Wales, England, and further afield for three days packed with music and fun. It is a truly joyous event, much needed at a time when the Cardiff weather feels grimmer than ever, and in its 2023 edition […]
LIVE PREVIEW: Sŵn Festival 2023
October has rolled in, and this can only mean one thing for music lovers in Cardiff: Sŵn Festival is back. Fully back on its feet after the interruption of the pandemic years and following a successful run in 2022, the beloved multi-venue festival is set to bring one of its most ambitious line-ups yet to […]
FESTIVAL REVIEW: Live at Leeds In The Park 2023
Perfectly timed on a rather sunny Bank Holiday weekend, Live at Leeds’ annual outdoor gathering in the park returned to the Temple Newsam estate for a day filled with music, food and fun. In the event’s second year running the organisers have taken onboard what worked last time and also added to it, with a […]
LIVE REVIEW: Billie Marten at O2 Ritz, Manchester
Going to a Billie Marten show feels like a comfort. There’s something innately easing about the way Marten carries herself and the way in which this translates across to her audience. Enough so, that on this night, people sit crossed legged on the venue floor (like one would in school) before the show starts, waiting […]
EP REVIEW: Opus Kink – ‘My Eyes, Brother!’
One of the most intriguing trends in UK alternative music in these post-lockdown years, perhaps fuelled by the enforced stop in touring of the early 2020s but growing seemingly ever stronger in the last year or so, has been the presence of a series of independent bands who simply refuse to play by any rules. […]
FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Live at Leeds In The Park 2023
Last year’s all-dayer in the park was a roaring success, so it returns again, this May, for Live at Leeds: In The Park 2023. A festival bursting with feel-good energy and a satisfying array of indie’s best and brightest. Happening on Saturday, 27th May, in Leeds’ Temple Newsam park, this is where summer (technically) starts. […]
LIVE REVIEW: James Bay at O2 Academy, Leeds
It’s been a whirlwind of a comeback for James Bay, after a few years of not being able to travel and tour, 2022 has seen the show back on the road in many more ways than one. Never to rest on his laurels, the multi-hyphenated musician released his long-anticipated third studio album (it reached top […]
LIVE REVIEW: Sŵn Festival 2022
It may have been a rainy and stormy weekend in Cardiff, but Sŵn Festival brought its own brand of sunshine to the Welsh capital, with three days of quality music taking over the city centre. The multi-venue festival, the biggest of its kind in Wales, has finally returned in its full-scale incarnation, and in spite […]
LIVE REVIEW: False Heads at Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
False Heads have been setting the UK on fire on their recent tour, supporting the release of their second studio album, Sick Moon. Seeing the Essex trio live always comes with a promise of a thrilling experience; they most certainly don’t hold back when they climb the stage, and together with the remarkable amount of […]
LIVE PREVIEW: Sŵn Festival 2022
Summer may be over, but festival season most certainly isn’t, and we have yet another welcome return to celebrate after the lengthy drought imposed by Covid restrictions. Sŵn Festival, the largest multi-venue festival in Wales, is coming back with a bang and taking over the clubs of Cardiff with three days of events celebrating alternative […]
LISTEN: Joel Baker – ‘One More Time’ (Ft. Flores & Maths Time Joy)
Simple is often the hardest thing to achieve. The temptation to over-elaborate or add unnecessary flourishes trips up many a songwriter. Joel Baker, however, has committed nothing but sincerity and bare honesty to the three and a half minutes of his latest single, ‘One More Time.’
TRACK OF THE DAY: Saint Leonard – ‘Soul Survivors’
Saint Leonard is one of those artists where you scratch the surface of their work and find an amazing depth: layer upon layer of meaning, reflection, and craft go beyond just songwriting to put together an experience that is both introspection and connection. It is so with his past music, for which the label of […]
EP REVIEW: Pyncher – ‘Chew’
Fresh from a triumphant London performance and about to embark on their first major headline UK tour, Pyncher have now released their debut EP after having been earmarked as one of the upcoming bands to watch most closely by the likes of NME. Chew is a perfect calling card for Pyncher, both in terms of […]
In Conversation with… PYNCHER
After the end of the lockdowns and the return of live gigs there has been a number of new bands making waves in the alternative rock scene, and Manchester’s own Pyncher are among those leading the charge. With a debut EP seeing the light in July, following a serious of successful shows in their home […]
EP REVIEW: Opus Kink – ”Til The Stream Runs Dry’
Sometimes, when you get lucky, you get a band which takes an approach to rock music that takes it completely, almost devotedly seriously as art. And sometimes, when you get very lucky, that art has a brass section. Anyone who is about to listen to the debut EP by Brighton’s own Opus Kink, out on […]
LIVE REVIEW: The Killers at Emirates Old Trafford
Almost four years had passed since the Las Vegas, Nevada group had played a show in the North West, until they brought their Imploding the Mirage tour to Manchester, at the Lancashire County Cricket Club grounds, in Old Trafford. The Killers’ star continues to rise with each new tour, since 2017 when they played Manchester […]
FESTIVAL REVIEW: Live at Leeds In The Park 2022
The weekend festival is a staple of the summer season, coming in hot with their first-ever staging outdoors, Live at Leeds gave us their In the Park edition. For one incredible day of live music, they took over the grounds of Temple Newsam—a Tudor-Jacobean-era estate hemmed by rolling hills and sprawling vistas of the West […]
TRACK OF THE DAY: Huck Hastings – ‘Jane’
Sydney-based singer-songwriter Huck Hastings released his follow-up single ‘Jane’, an ode to life, “about working, living, and life feeling like a long stretch of time,” last week. The awaited single follows the release of Cheers to Progress, his debut full-length album that was released in 2021, which garnered over half a million streams.
FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Live At Leeds In The Park 2022
Festivals are back, baby. Throughout all of this uncertainty over the past couple years, music has remained high on the mind and a longing for live performance has never faltered. So… good news for all music fans: Live at Leeds, in 2022, has not just one event planned, but two—and first up is their outdoor […]