SEE: another marvellous shoegaze rush from Citrus Clouds with ‘Honey’
CITRUS CLOUDS, the excellent Arizonan shoegaze trio who are inspired by those big, big skies above their home city of Phoenix, have just released a second single from their forthcoming second album, Collider. We were delighted to premiere the first single from the sessions for the new album, “A Pastel Sky”, back in July. We …
TRACK: Landshapes – ‘The Ring’: first single teases November album
LANDSHAPES, the London four-piece with a nifty line in synth-driven indie psychedelia, have readied the third long-playing instalment of their recording career for your delectation after five years away. Following two fine and well-received albums for Bella Union in the shape of Rambutan and Heyoon, they’re set to explore loneliness, isolation, alienation, the need for …
NEWS: Arab Strap return: watch the lyric video for ‘The Turning Of Our Bones’
CRIKEY, eh? If ever a band there ever there was could reap the crop of a life in 2020 and use it as the richest, most fertile, dystopian source material, you’d maybe wish for Falkirk’s sharp studiers of the greyer side Arab Strap. If only, eh? Its actually 15 years they’ve been gone now. Malcolm? …
NEWS: Hot Chip announce ‘LateNightTales’ mix, release Velvets cover
HOT CHIP. I can’t think of any other British band since New Order who have so straddled the indie-dance divide so successfully; and with such love from us listeners. They have a way with a sweet melody that gets ya, even if synthiness isn’t really your thing. And they’ve announced they are curating the latest instalment …
ALBUM REVIEW: Ambassadeurs – ‘Human Stranger’: majorly uplifting, humanist floor-fillers
AMBASSADEURS is the project of Sussex producer Mark Dobson, a man who’s approach to music is deeply personal, involved. He doesn’t churn it out because he has the means; he fashions and creates and recreates and channels, he sends tunes out into the world when they’re ready to communicate what is intended. He’s got one …
ALBUM REVIEW: Sam Prekop – ‘Comma’: further into wordless ‘tronica melodies
EMERGING from that Chicago scene so ripe with cross-fertilisation and ideas around the turn of the century, Sam Prekop was part of that fountain of creativity that brought us Tortoise, Bobby Conn, Jim O’Rourke’s shift into pop melodicism, Freakwater; many more. Sam himself cut his recording teeth alongside Archer Prewitt and John McEntire in The …
ALBUM REVIEW: Sally Anne Morgan – ‘Thread’: homespun Appalachian warmth from Black Twig Pickers’ player
QUIETLY collaborating away in some of the finer, truest to tradition acts of the Americana movement such as the Black Twig Pickers, the time is now ripe for multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan to step forward with an album under her own name. Chicago’s Thrill Jockey label is a fine seeding ground for talent, and it …
ALBUM REVIEW: Matt Costa – ‘Yellow Coat’: an affair of a decade made song
TO BREATHE a little life into an old cliche, I bet my bottom dollar you’d find Matt Costa in the kitchen at parties. He’s that kinda guy. (And this is, of course, totally a compliment). He’s supremely interesting and interested, you can tell; would charm a small and randomly corkscrew-searching bunch of just-mets with wit …
NEWS: Super Cool Drawing Machine: with no gigs, musicians are touring art instead
NO GIGS. No. Gigs. Now imagine pulling a random aside in the corridor at some New Year’s party at say, ooh, 1.34am, as the beer can fortresses advance across every available surface, as a minor tiff erupts by the record deck, and slurring into this stranger’s ear: “Y’know, thissh year, there wont really be gigs. …
ALBUM REVIEW: Susanna – ‘Baudelaire & Piano’: recasting the poet in solo dusk
TWO things to note from the off about the Norwegian chanteuse fatale born Susanna Karolina Wallumrød: firstly, she is both a deep appreciator and fashioner of the arts – no throwaway, careerist pop remixes her, no dalliance with song for song’s sake. Music, and art more broadly, is far too important business for frippery; life …