Also on the decks:
Nick Mitchell turns his regular attention to a range of new-release singles.
Records :: Album Review 10 Oct 2008
Chris Buckle: After second album Couples failed to set the world alight, a reminder of the glory days when they were feted as the greatest unsigned band in the country is a savvy move from The Long Blondes. However, there’s a suspicion that this Singles collec...
Records :: Album Review 09 Oct 2008
Gillian Watson: Imagine a rain-dampened Go-Betweens, or the C86 bands at their least poptimistic, and you’ll be close to the essence of the “A&B sides, new songs, session tracks and stray dogs” collected on Broken Record Prayers, Comet Gain's dec...
Records :: Album Review 08 Oct 2008
Milo McLaughlin: David-Ivar Herman Dune claims that this is the first album he's recorded when he was happy, and the instrumentation bears him out: upbeat brass bubbles under the surface, Dave Tattersall of the Wave Pictures contributes clean, virtuoso lead guitar line...
Darren Carle: Clutchy Hopkins is something of a self-made enigma, replete with a somewhat unlikely backstory that belies his chilled grooves. It has fuelled rumours that he is actually one, or all three, of the Beastie Boys mucking about. On this collaboration with ...
Records :: Album Review 07 Oct 2008
Jorge Marticorena: When two reputable underground artists such as Justin K. Broadrick (from Godflesh, Jesu, Techno Animal, Final, Curse Of The Golden Vampire, etc.) and Jarboe (from Swans, World Of Skin, all her solo material, and collaborations with Neurosis and many ot...
Gillian Watson: US hip-hop producer Otis Jackson Jr. (more commonly known as Madlib) showcases his abstract style on WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, the last album in BBE's Beat Generation series. The self-styled Beat Konducta's contribution marks a fitting end to this ...
Jason Morton: Sometimes, you’ve got to give a little credit for trying. On Loyalty to Loyalty, Cold War Kids try to build on their soulful, everyman’s rock style previously heard on their middling 2006 debut Robbers & Cowards. There’s bits of e...
Paul Neeson: The main concern with Eugene McGuinness' debut album is that it's hard to tell whether he's having a giggle. That's not to say there's only merit to be found in the darkest of musical corners, but his work has such an absolute sense of whimsy that it p...
Records :: Single Review 06 Oct 2008
Jason Morton: The dance-punk umbrella seems to be ever-expanding, and the latest addition is Glasgow’s own Dance Lazurus Dance. With a playful façade – tracks collected here include Take That Jesus and Faxing Me, Faxing You – it’s almo...
Records :: Album Review 06 Oct 2008
Jorge Marticorena: Araya, the solo work of Inverness-born electronic musician Keir MacCulloch, displays notable experience in the field. From a technical standpoint, The Bridge of Hesitation is very finely tweaked: samples are carefully fitted, the beats are complex when...
Ryan Drever: Since 2005, Copy Haho have been sweet words on many a Scottish music critic's lips, despite a seemingly slow build for the Stonehaven four-piece. This latest release, however, could very well reach beyond mere critical acclaim as Cutting Out the Bad pe...
Ally Brown: Young New Yorker Meredith Godreau may have named herself Gregory & The Hawk to avoid being stereotyped as 'another female singer-songwriter', but the secret will get out somehow. Much in the style of a singer-songwriter, Meredith sings songs that s...
Darren Carle: Broken Social Scene Presents: the other bloke from Broken Social Scene. And with a whole host of ‘Socialites’ - including co-honcho Kevin Drew - on board for parent album Something For Everyone, you have to wonder what all this is about. We...
Records :: Album Review 03 Oct 2008
Finbarr Bermingham: With Mercury Rev's Dave Fridmann perpetually at the mixing desk, perhaps the most surprising thing about the electronic leanings of new album, Snowflake Midnight, is that it has taken the Buffalo veterans so long to start dabbling in earnest. The bassi...
Nick Mitchell: What makes a good live album? That chance shout from the audience between songs, such as the famous ‘Judas!’ at Dylan’s 1966 Manchester gig, recaptured in the Bootleg series? Or simply an artist at the height of their powers, such as...
Finbarr Bermingham: You all know the 'Seasick' Steve Wold story by now: boy is taught how to play guitar by Mississippi blues man KC Douglas; boy leaves home to escape abusive stepfather; boy finds refuge as a hobo, hopping freight trains to make his way round the country...
Ally Brown: What now comprises The Stand Ins was originally intended to be the second disc of a double album with The Stage Names, which was instead released last year on its own. Possessing neither the brash melodic agility of that record, nor the dizzying lyrica...
Jason Morton: The translation from Italian for Putiferio means "chaos", and this record’s not short on that sentiment. Over the course of seven tracks, these continentals follow a trail of dissonant noise rock, experimenting all the way. But the trouble with...
Emma Smith: Can this really be? Yet another meagre, completely unimaginative heap of steaming, power-pop pap? Unfortunately this is what California’s Army of Freshmen are treating us to - for the fourth time no less - with new album Above the Atmosphere. Hyp...
Jorge Marticorena: When Nadja come on you feel like everything should be moving in slow motion. There are countless oblique ways to describe Skin Turns To Glass without directly saying a word about the music (just to get it out of the way, though, it’s essentially ...
