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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
We live in the age of offence. As we’re all pushed, like it or not, to think twice and thrice before putting any kind of opinion or statement out there, and artistic expression is increasingly constrained by a generalised concern with the risk of offending someone, brazenness may in the right circumstances become a virtue, […]
It might be somewhat of a stereotype that there is a parable with good bands and their early records, where the first is the raw gem breaking onto the scene, the second is the place for dangerous experimentation, and the third is the album of maturity, where some kind of balance is reached and some […]
I discovered Walt Disco at a festival in 2019, when I went to see them on the sole strength of the fact that they had what is objectively one of the best band names I’ve ever heard. I remember a very raw and very energetic performance which placed them immediately pretty close to the top […]
“Letting go” is the powerful message conveyed in Beckah Amani’s first single of 2022, ‘Lebeka Leka’. With spacious vocals, accompanied by simple yet effective drum patterns and rich synth sounds, Amani convinces the listener to let go and live life to the fullest.
“I’m an introvert, I swear” reads the caption of a recent social media post by Foxes — but how are we to know? When met by Louisa Rose Allen, aka. Foxes, the signs aren’t that clear: a bubbly, vivid image is displayed and danced around the room for all to see, one wouldn’t naturally pick […]
Last year’s Nastavi, Calliope EP from Babehoven was one of 2021’s finest releases, an eclectic collection of heart-on-the-sleeve songs that swept across electronica, country and drone-pop with a singular, leftfield take on introspective songwriting. Nastavi’s dense, often claustrophobic, sound, however, has given way to a very different sonic approach on Sunk, the first Babehoven EP for […]
It’s early February, in 2022, and Billie Marten is setting out on a week’s worth of live gigging with indie rock outfit, Palace. Both are out celebrating their respective recent album releases, for Marten, this is 2021’s effervescent foray, Flora Fauna. It represents a time in her music that has symbolised growth for the artist: […]
Heralded by a first single which proudly declared its ambition, this debut EP by Brian Destiny was certainly one of my most eagerly awaited releases of the year. Brian’s Got Talent is a product of the buzzing South London music scene, and is in a sense a perfect calling card for it in the way […]
Black Country, New Road’s debut, For the First Time, was easily one of the most interesting records in 2021. A number of features made it stand out – its ability to pair innovation and traditional sound to create something new, the boldness of the construction of its musical structures, the finesse in the interplay of […]
Independent Venue Week rolls in around this time every year, where the breaking yawns of a new year are gifted some sweet relief by the comings of a celebration, of the UK’s grassroots music venues. Together with the great Can You CIC It? and local promoters and venue owners up and down the country, IVW […]
It has been a big year for the album, pivotal, you might even say. World records have been set, historic numbers have been sold and creativity has been high. Not only have we experienced new works from some of the globe’s most prevalent stars (including Adele, ABBA, Billie Eilish and Coldplay) but there has been […]
Songs tell stories, sometimes these stories have the power to change perspectives, or maybe even inspire change to happen, or at the very least, they can inform and entertain. Opening our eyes to other ways of thinking, other ways of being, enlightening alternate paths to the ones we might currently be taking, but then again, […]
At this point in late October, in 2021, the Deaf Institute has been reopen for a number of months after a grueling year of uncertainty. Standing resilient after a near closure, not just due to a global pandemic, but a change of hands in ownership. The venue, more than ever, stands as a beacon of […]
My first encounter with Jessica Winter’s solo work was at a day festival in London, shortly after the lifting of Covid measures, which turned out, by the way, to be somewhat plagued by organisational woes. In the rather palpable frustration that accompanied said issues, then, it was even more remarkable that her set stood out […]
Partly because of the later relaxation of COVID rules in Wales, partly because of a series of personal circumstances, this early-October serving of alternative rock was my very first live music event in Cardiff in nearly two years; it felt odd, comforting, and slightly tense to be back queuing outside the familiar door of Clwb […]