TRACK: Hen Ogledd – ‘Trouble’: further glorious wonkpop from Richard Dawson’s quartet
WHAT started as a side-project for Newcastle’s premiere exponent of passionate out- and wyrd-folk, Richard Dawson, to find an outlet for other musical stylings, has come to take on a wonk-pop life of its own. Originally a side-salad duo with harpist Rhodri Davies, the addition of Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington has fleshed it out …
TRACK: Black Marble – ‘Johnny and Mary’: Robert Palmer gets the lofi synth look
EVERYONE loves a cover version, there can be no argument there; what do they do with the song? Do they tread carefully and deferentially; do they take a sledgehammer to it; do they make it their own? Do they make it something very odd indeed, such as Robyn Hitchcock’s a capella take on “Kung Fu …
ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler – ‘Con’: Tangerine Dream man’s ’78 LP gets first UK issue
Tangerine Dream founder’s 1978 LP of synthy motorik receives its first UK issue: spacious, eerie and polyrhythmic by turns
ALBUM REVIEW: Fair Mothers – ‘In Monochrome’: marrow-deep dark-folk truth and nuance
THE OCCULT poet, painter and writer Ithell Colqohoun advanced the premise in her book, The Living Stones of Cornwall, that your local geology births you as much as nurture and nature. She felt that the granite of West Cornwall gave rise to a certain hardened, otherworldly, stoicism. And you can see a certain geology at …
TRACK: 0171 – ‘Photograph’: yearning Hackney synthpop
COMING at you out of Hackney – that dialling-code epithet giving away their inner London roots- synth-pop duo Joe Bedell-Brill and Georgie Hoare, who record as 0171, have shared their vision for a retro-future pop form with “Photograph”, the fast-cut video montage for which you can watch below. “Photograph” has this pure pop yearn, set …
ALBUM REVIEW: GLOK – ‘Dissident Remixed’: Andy Bell’s tronica alter-ego gets a comprehensive rerub
OUT OF all the four members of Ride – Mark, Andy, Loz and Steve, it’s hands down Andy who’s had the most varied and viable extra-curricular activities. There was Hurricane #1, his Britpoppish outfit from immediately following the black nite crash of first-era Ride, who grazed the top 20 with “Only the Strongest Will Survive.” …
ALBUM REVIEW: El Goodo – ‘Zombie’: at the corner of Haight and (Mountain Ash)bury
SOMEWHERE in the Welsh village of Resolven, deep in the Vale of Neath, there is a tap. As with all such fonts, miles of pipes lead the one end to the other, far up above in the Welsh hills, to a reservoir. As you approach that source, in your mind’s eye, you notice the visuals …
SEE: Jorja Smith – ‘By Any Means’: passionate civil rights Britsoul
UK singer-songwriter Jorja Smith has shared the lyric video for a slow, heartfelt tale of empowerment,“By Any Means”, in which she brings her graceful, smokey soul tones to a stripped-back groove that gives her voice – and her message – absolute centre stage. It’s the lead single to be taken from Roc Nation’s upcoming Reprise …
TRACK: Andy Shauf – ‘Judy’: low-key baroque folk brilliance
HE’S one of those gorgeous, nuanced, baroque-pop songwriters we could all do with spending a lot more time with, is Andy Shauf. Like fellow countryman Patrick Watson, he has this way with a beautiful pop arrangement that for me puts him firmly in a lineage that stretches back to The Left Banke and Emitt Rhodes: …
SEE: Daniel Blumberg – ‘On & On & On & On & On’: pushing songcraft into new shapes
THERE’S really no point in gathering together fancy wordsmithery here: if you like your music tending towards to the acoustic auteur with a personal vision, an artist who’s not necessarily content to take a finely wrought and heartfelt tale and sit inside it, not try to stress-test it, push the further boundaries of the song …