Sasami is in love; maybe that’s the ‘Squeeze‘ of the album title.
Though it’s not so much of a whom, but a when that she’ in love with. And when precisely is somewhere around 1990 (give …
It would be easy to dismiss JOHN as simply IDLES acolytes; particularly on Nocturnal Manoeuvres, where the production finally catches the scope of their sound.
Their music is confrontational and brutal, but with intelligence hidden behind frayed edges. So far, so similar. But basic comparisons miss the point: just because …
K Bay could be a step forward or backward, depending on how you look at it.
After the highly experimental Broken Mirror this is a return to more conventional songwriting territory, but if you’re after the straightforward songwriting of Big Inner or Fresh Blood, think again.
Matthew E. White’s experimenting …
What would a band sound like if they were sent back in time like a musical Terminator and produced by Vangelis or Giorgio Moroder? And then maybe asked to soundtrack a movie?
It’s an unusual question, but then POWER is an unusual album in so many ways. It’s stylised, unapologetically …
Heaven Surrounds You isn’t as spiky and raucous as Nothing Yet or Buds if you take it track-by-track, but that would be missing the point. Heaven… is a much more cohesive and comprehensive picture than those records. What it lacks in …
The language does add a dimension, but the ‘unusual’ really comes from what this record is born from. So many influences abound throughout, and not always from where you expect. As one track leads expectation in …
You could play with its title and say it’s stripped-down, but that’s not why. So what’s different this time? Well, for one thing it’s lean. Clocking in at under 30 mins, there’s absolutely no fat or …
From the topics to the tone to the truths it depicts. Why? Because music surely has to hide behind something, doesn’t it? Psychodrama as a record works on two levels. First, you have what you can hear, and then you have what’s being said.
With …
On their third album Drenge have taken the seemingly unusual decision to recreate an already unique sound. What’s more interesting is the direction they’ve chosen …
The word challenging often has a negative connotation when it comes to album reviews, usually suggesting an artist has lost focus, but what no-one ever says …
Idles playing Live At Leeds 2018 (Gary Mather / Live4ever)
Where and when tonight did righteous fury become poetic, or frustration a shield or honesty a weapon? For Idles it’s not enough to want change, it requires action.Ten Years After once said, ‘I’d love to change the world but …
Instead, he’s attacking the question with a jackhammer. Jet were great, in so many ways. Their obsession with The Stones and The Faces meant everyone always …
Sarcasm drips from every pore of their debut Endless Scroll; it would appear that, for Bodega, subtlety is for fools. In fact, the record is so bitingly sarcastic throughout …
Jim James has spent years creating some of the most impeccably considered and thought-provoking records – Uniform Distortion is not one of them.
Gone are My Morning Jacket’s sprawling …
The only difference is some are meant to. Welcome to Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay’s LUMP. The self-titled record is one of unmitigated experimentalism and unrelenting beauty but it’s also, beneath the layers of fascinating production and …
Drift is a quirky record to say the least. Taken as a whole it feels like a story in reverse; instead of building up to a thrilling end, it …