Posts Tagged ‘2010’

Small But Massive…

Read it again. That’s Glasgowbury. Not to be confused with Michael Eavis’ Worthy Farm extravaganza – this is Glasgowbury, and it’s got nothing to do with anything in Scotland. Glasgowbury is Northern Ireland’s premier independent festival which showcases almost universally home-grown talent.

As the brainchild of Irish singer-songwriter Paddy Glasgow (now the name makes sense!) the non-profit event has gone from strength to strength. Starting in his back garden with a hundred people in attendance, this year it shouted “Happy tenth birthday!” from the top of the Sperrin mountains to thousands of music lovers.

‘One Born Every Minute‘ is the brand new single from Roses Kings Castles, and with it’s simplistic but yet endearing approach, you have to wonder what more is to come from the Adam Ficek project. For those of you that don’t know, Adam Ficek is, or was, whatever the case may be, the drummer for Babyshambles. In his downtime from the band, Adam put together this wonderful side project that let him create whimsical and stunning pop music.

Coming from the same school of nu-folk/soul artists such as Adele, Kate Nash and Laura Marling, Peggy Sue have a lot to live up to. Formerly known as ‘Peggy Sue and The Pirates, a more quirkier name you have to agree, the band have been around the scene for a few years now. Doing shows and releasing singles and EPs just as a double act. The two lead female vocalists, Rosa and Katy, both sing harmoniously with each other and create a very deep and soulful presence. Dark and haunting at times but also remain quite pastiche in their approach. Now joined by drummer, Olly, and also the inclusion of electric guitars has certainly made this band a more complete creative force. It’s been 3 years since this writer has waited for an album release from Peggy Sue, I just hope it lives up to my expectations.

Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip are the double act that fuse street poetry with hard house beats. A successful release in the shape of Angles under their belts, what do the band have to offer when it comes to their second outing, ‘Logic Of Chance’. Before my review of the new album, I managed to catch up with the enigmatic lyricist, Scroobius Pip, and tried to find out a bit more about their brand new album.

Glorious, joyous and frivolous are just three simple words I can think of to describe, what some critics are calling, the perfect pop album. Topic of discussion is the wonderful ‘Odd Blood’ by Yeasayer. Think back to those awkward moments when you were a teenager and life was just full of idiosyncrasies. It was a dream world of discovery at times and for me, ‘Odd Blood’ would have been the perfect soundtrack to my adolescent days capturing an innocence and a magical sense of well-being assuring that  ‘everything is gonna be ok’.

I get a message the other day asking me politely to review a band. This is a common occurrence as a reviewer and most of the time the bands/artist are quite good. Only a tiny minority blow me away and this time I’ll go as far as to proclaim: ‘Sweet Jane are fucking awesome!‘

Getting together back in 2007, Danda, Lydia Des Dolles and Ruairi Paxton formed Dublin’s answer to Velvet Underground. Since then they have toured extensively and have released an amazing EP in the shape of ‘Blackboots & Blackhearts‘. Great critical acclaim has lead them to be signed to Reekus Records and will release their debut LP ‘Sugar For My Soul’ in April this year.

Listening to debut album ‘Strange Part Of The Country’ by the emotionally driven Conil, you get a feeling that this singer/songwriter literally bleeds his heart dry after every song. Powerful, gritty and a drive that most solo artists lack nowadays. Full of heart and emotion which pushes this album along and makes you live this man’s pain.