Album Reviews
Album Review: Phantogram – Voices
Phantogram could’ve very easily gotten lost in the massive wave of boy/girl electronic duos that made their way into our ears since 2009. They’ve rode the wave along with bands like The Bird and the Bee, Matt and Kim, Chairlift, and Sleigh Bells into that hip hop-inflected indie dance pop that was either catchy or grating. …
Album Review: Nate Connelly – A dream about being lost
Since graduating from Leeds College of Music a decade ago, St. Annes born Nate Connolly has concentrated on writing and scoring film scores, totaling approaching a couple of dozen. But he does have a history with hard house, raves and drum and bass dating back to his teens. At first sound, it seems like one …
Album Review: Pompeya – Tropical Remixed
Following hot on the heels of their first US release, Tropical – an album that showed that pop/funk/disco/new wave (yes, really, all of those things) could convincingly be mashed together into dancefloor sized pieces and thrown out there all the way from Moscow, comes Tropical Remixed. It’s an album that does exactly what it says …
Album Review: Temples – ‘Sun Structures’
With half of the country under water, the rest battered in to submission by relentless winds, it’s pretty hard to imagine sunshine and gentle breezes. But help is at hand. The debut album from Kettering quartet Temples is here and it’s more than capable of transporting you away from the deluge and back to the …
Album Review: Papir – IIII
Not too long ago I found this little slice of musical heaven located in Denmark. It’s a little record label that goes bythe name of El Paraiso Records. It was started by some guys in a band called Causa Sui in order to release their records to the listening public. As well as releasing Causa …
Album Review: Mogwai – Rave Tapes
It was July of 2004 and my best friend and I headed to Chicago to the Curiosa Festival. We were psyched, man. The Cure, Interpol, The Rapture, and a bunch of other bands. Who cares who else was there? The Cure and Interpol, that’s all we needed to know. So we arrived in the early …
Album Review: Tom Brosseau – Grass Punks
There are certain records that seem like they are nurtured, almost organically, like a gardener in his allotment allows things to grow. North Dakota songman Tom Brosseau’s new record, his first in five years, but his seventh overall, certainly has that feeling about it. That was perhaps expected in his music to a certain extent. …
Album Review: Suzanne Vega – Tales from the Realms of the Queen of Pentangles
The new album from Suzanne Vega is a mixed bag. The themes of the songs are fascinating, calling on aspects of Tarot, the Bible and feelings about a playwright and politician Vaclav Havel amongst other subjects. She refers to her songs as stories and parables, and the lyrical content is always diverse, even if we …
Say Psych: Album Review – Sky Is Hell Black by Has A Shadow (Captcha Records/ Fuzz Club Records)
In the past musical trends have tended to be broadly geographical: the Merseybeat scene, West Coast Flower Power, German Krautrock, NY Punk, Coventry’s Two Tone, Madchester – I could go on. One of the amazing things about the current psychedelic scene, however, is that it is truly global. Facilitated by social networking and the digital …
Album Review: Quilt – Held In Splendor
As soon as Quilt’s new long player Held In Splendor begins playing you get the feeling you’ve been transported to 1968. The room is a little wobbly, the air is thick, and the beanbag you’re sitting in is strangely comfortable. A goofy grin forms across your face and opening track “Arctic Shark” has done its job. …