Album Reviews
New Music: Unruly Girls, Cruel Tales
Many years ago in the nascent years of Backseat Mafia, we wrote about a number of exciting Italian bands creating distinct indie rock with style and attitude. One of these was a wild and brilliant band called “Sweet Jane and Claire” who (as their name suggested) were very much a Velvet’s-influenced attitude-laden breath of fresh …
Say Psych: Album Review: Juju – Our Mother Was A Plant
Rating: 9/10 JuJu is the project of Italian multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti who also works with Lay Llamas. Following on from his successful debut album in 2016, Valenti has teamed up with Fuzz Club Records to release second LP Our Mother Was A Plant on 22nd September, the same day he is billed to return to …
Say Psych: Album Review: L.A. Witch – L.A. Witch
Rating: 8/10 L.A. Witch, who’s name is a partial misnomer, hail from Los Angeles but do not partake in any sort of witchcraft, unless you class creating soundscapes of hazy Californian nights many years prior to their birth. This ability to conjure a specific time and place through their sound has ensured increasing support and …
Album Review: Flyte – The Loved Ones
‘The Loved Ones’ is the long anticipated debut from London four-piece Flyte. It’s been some time in the making – about 3 years in fact. Flyte separately admit that as early as age ten, a career in music was their only ambition. Drummer Jon Supran and bassist Nick Hill met guitarist and lead vocalist Will …
Album Review: Alvvays – Antisocialites
Alvvays may have to contend with unreasonably high expectations of their second album, but – trust me – ‘Antisocialites’ is that good. The first time I heard the Toronto-based group was in Rough Trade East on a balmy August evening in 2014. I’d read a brief write-up on one of their singles that same day, …
Album Review: Everything Everything – A fever dream
Everything Everything has been building a really solid career throughout their nearly 10 years of existence. From the 2011’s weird, fresh and intense debut album Man Alive, to the melancholic, introspective Arc, the band has seen the career grow at a satisfying pace. The political, upbeat and angry Get To Heaven, featuring lyrics with darker …
Album Review : Queens of the Stone Age ‘Villains’
I’m not the biggest QOTSA fan in the room. There are others that their love and admiration for Josh Homme and crew far outweigh my own. I really didn’t come around to them till Lullabies To Paralyze. Even the massive Songs for the Deaf wasn’t enough to peak my interest in the desert rock monoliths. …
Album Review: Various Artists: Manchester North Of England: A Story Of Independent Music Greater Manchester 1977-1993
Compiled by the team behind other Cherry Red box sets (Scared To Get Happy, Still In A Dream, Millions Like Us, Action Time Vision, etc.), this 7 CD box set tells the story of how indie music exploded in Manchester after the rush of Punk and the seminal release of the Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch EP. …
Album Review: Jordan Rabjohn – JR2
Singer-songwriter and bow-tie aficionado Jordan Rabjohn has been a busy boy of late. Since his debut album JR came out last year, he’s put out numerous videos for songs on his YouTube channel, as well as taking his track Numbers to the Vodafone future breakers finals. JR2 (I don’t know how he comes up with …
Album Review: DJ Hell – Zukunftsmusik
After the successful release of first single ‘I Want U,’ an enthralling collaboration with L.A. based Tom of Finland Foundation and new single ‘Car, Car, Car,’ DJ Hell announces his 5th album ‘Zukunftsmusik,’ set for release on May 12th (physical: June 9th) via International Deejay Gigolo Records. The techno revolution 30 years ago, where boundaries and walls crumbling down. …