Track: Dream Wife – Hey Heartbreaker
London based three-piece Dream Wife prove they’re a riot grrl fantasy with the lead single from their debut EP.‘Hey Heartbreaker’ opens with a tantalizingly long riff before Rakel Mjöll’s sugar-frosted vocals kick in, reminding me of Liela Moss from The Duke Spirit at her most sultry. Then the snarling chorus, “hey hey hey” shouted backing …
Track: Tacocat – Talk
Tacocat compel us to listen to their clever pop-punk with new single ‘Talk’. This is the second single from their highly anticipated album ‘Lost Time’, which is due for release on 1 April via Hardly Art Records. ‘Talk’ begins with an addictive riff supported by hand clapping, an intense bassline and pounding drums. The track …
Album Review: Tuff Love – Resort
If you’ve already been seduced by Tuff Love’s fuzzy indie pop, you probably own the three EPs they released between 2012 and the end of 2015. If so, you can stop reading this review. Go and listen to those EPs back to back and congratulate yourself on having great musical taste. Everyone else please read …
Album Review: Savages – Adore Life
It is rare that I will just sit down and write an album review after my first listen. I like to give my brain some breathing space, to come to terms with what I’ve heard and collect my feelings. Not so this time.The new album from London post-punk four-piece Savages has compelled me to start …
See: The Shimmer Band release video for ‘Shoot Me Baby’
The Shimmer Band pack a psychedelic punch with new single ‘Shoot Me Baby’. The Bristol five-piece – Tom Newman (singer), Willz Hatcher (drums), Tom Smith (guitar/synths), Tom Kuras (bass) and Babsy (guitar) – are set to make heads spin with their pounding and twisting blend of psych-rock and pop. This reflected in a particularly trippy, …
Album Review: Hinds – Leave Me Alone
With the release of their highly anticipated debut album, ‘Leave Me Alone’, Hinds melt away the January blues with twelve songs full of attitude, charm and Spanish warmth. The Madrid quartet started out as a duo called Deers in 2011 before Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote were joined by Ade Martín and Amber Grimbergen …
Live Review: Big Scary – The Lexington, 8 December 2015 plus Gallery
After impressing audiences throughout Europe supporting Courtney Barnett, Big Scary brought their funky indie pop to The Lexington on the last of two debut headline shows in London. The Australian duo of Tom Iansek (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and Jo Syme (drums, vocals) are joined on stage by a bassist/saxophonist to reflect the layers of sound …
Live Reivew: Courtney Barnett – Kentish Town Forum, London 26.11.2015, plus Gallery
With her award-winning album ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit’ appearing in most album of the year lists (including ours), Courtney Barnett’s appearance before a sold out Forum was obviously highly anticipated. For someone with so much momentum behind her, Barnett is refreshingly unassuming. When I first listened to the album …
Live Review: Tuff Love – The Victoria Dalston, 12 November 2015
If the crowd’s reaction to Tuff Love’s fuzzy indie pop at this east London pub is anything to go by, they could shortly be the band name on everyone’s lips. A lot of music writers are talking about Tuff Love, and rightly so, but you may not have heard of them. You will soon. 2015 …
Live Review: Ex Hex Live Review – The Scala, 02.11.2015, plus Gallery
Ex Hex tore through a set of rock ‘n’ roll that lifted the gloom of a Monday night in foggy London. As we’re standing outside the Scala on a murky night in Kings Cross Ex Hex drummer Laura Harris comes running towards us, carrying what looks like her cymbals, and is frantically ushered into the …