Soundtrack of our lives: Hattie Briggs
All 12,300 tickets for the 51st Cambridge Folk Festival were snapped up again this year with fans flocking to enjoy the likes of Joan Baez, Wilko Johnson, Passenger, Joan Armatrading and festival favourites the Proclaimers amongst others. Alongside these dyed-in-the-wool legends of the melody and the song was a young lady called Hattie Briggs who …
Soundtrack of Our Lives: Inkubus Sukkubus
Inkubus Sukkubus were formed in 1989 by Tony McKormack and Candia Ridley (now McKormack) whilst both were studying graphic design in Gloucester. Tony and Candia shared a love of paganism, witchcraft and vampirism so their music was always going to be an expression of this… and oh boy is it ever! They have released no …
Not Forgotten: Ice-T – Original Gangster
By 1991, although my roots were still embedded in Hip Hop, the rest of me was leaning ever more towards the ends of indie rock and the birth of britpop. I had just moved to Cirencester from Loughborough and was still getting to grips with the shift in culture when, one lazy and hungover Saturday …
Premiere: Daisy and the Dark release video for Red Planet
Recently I wrote about there being something about the Jones’s…Mr Jones (Counting Crows), (Me and) Mrs Jones (Billy Paul) and then Mrs Jones by Pearl TN. This week I want to talk about the letter K, but not the ‘K’ synonymous with the popular horse tranquilizer. Somewhere between the ghostly gliding and luscious laments of …
Album Review: Pearl TN – A Dog Called Rat
A ‘Dog called Rat’ is the second album from Pearl TN, self-styled ‘Purveyors of Mountain Pop’ with a pedigree in music spanning several decades and genres. It was recorded at Charlie Harts ‘Equator Studios’ as well as at Jools Hollands ‘Helicon Mountain Studios’. Jools is a staunch supporter of Pearl TN and has given them …
Album Review: 10,000 Maniacs – Twice Told Tales
‘In my Tribe’, the third album by Jamestown, New York band 10000 Maniacs released in 1987 remains in my top 50 albums of all time. The Wishing chair, their second album is in my top 100 and the MTV Unplugged sessions from 1993 still makes me shudder slightly…for the right reasons. So imagine my joy …
Album Review: Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys
Roisin Murphy will release her third solo album ‘Hairless Toys’ on May 12th, but after nearly eight years since her second album “Overpowered’ reached number twenty in the UK album charts I’m guessing a few of you may be wondering who Roisin is; Firstly. it’s pronounced Rosheen, like machine, not Roison, like poison or Wassin’ …
Album Review: Grace Jones – The Disco Years
1977 was an important year according to most people I know, and many I don’t. The first Star Wars film was screened, The first issue of 2000AD was published, Apple was incorporated, the rings of uranus were discovered (much to the amusement of most), Led Zeppelin and Elvis Presley played their last concerts, Elvis then …
Track: Laura Marling – False Hope
Knowing very little, in fact nothing at all about Laura Marling, I did what any normal muso with OCD would do and checked my collection. The closest I could get was the miseducation of Lauryn Hill before the alphabetisation leapt to Led Zep, Leftfield, The LemonHeads and the Levellers so I lowered the cherry-picker, washed …
Track: Bred For Pleasure – Better then This pt.2
Out now on Lower East is the debut release from Bred for Pleaasure, a duo comprising of South African producer Quinin Christian (notable for engineering the likes of Rudimental, Bondax and Gorgon City) and Canadian Vandermeer, who has released records on labels such as My Favorite Robot and Rawthentic Music over the years. On pressing …