Album Reviews
Album Review: Garry Gray unveils fascinating anthology album featuring the legendary Sacred Cowboys, as well as his post Cowboys work, and announces additional live date following sell out show.
Sacred Cowboys have been – and still are – a legendary bunch of misfits together in various forms since 1982, but always with Garry Gray as a mainstay at the reins along with Mark Ferrie. They essentially began in 1982 as a supergroup with Gray from seminal new wave outfit Negatives and Ferrie from the …
Album Review : Plantfood –‘Carnivores’ : An energetic and explosive jazz fusion calling card.
Given that their name links back to their student beginnings during lockdown in a bedroom-come-practice space full of houseplants, Plantfood’s music is not what you’d describe as pastoral. This tight collective that formed in Leeds around 2020 seem intent to bust into the UK nu-jazz arena and beyond with their energetic fusion of punk jazz, …
Album Review: The Nature Strip is in pristine condition with their new album ‘Domesticated Beast’: a cornucopia of delights.
With the welcome regularity and relief of a southerly buster after a stinking hot Sydney day, the esteemed The Nature Strip are back with another album packed full of pop goodness, delivered with their usual wry sense of humour and an uplifting lilt that’s as infectious as the crowd in a mosh pit these days. …
EP Review: Kaeto – Intro
Kaeto’s music is the culmination of a period of sonic self-discovery for the Scottish-born, London-based artist. It was back in 2019 that Kaeto first entered the studio with outside producers and began building a sound that would be all her own, but the route she’s taken since is a mark of her maverick and inventive approach …
EP Review: HotKid – Downtown
HotKid is the creative vision of Canadian producer, songwriter, and guitarist Shiloh Harrison. Along with Harrison, the EP features Jesse Bellon on guitar, Andrew DeVillers on bass, and Mike McKeever on drums. The full-band tracks were recorded live off the floor at the National Music Centre’s Studio Bell in Calgary. This new EP has a …
Album Review: Eric Pan – ‘Travel Poems. Chapter 3. There is no path back.’: An inventive and intimate jazz journey.
It’s hard to pin down pianist and composer Eric Pan’s music, he is a troubadour and traveller both literally and creatively. Pulled towards jazz during his studies at the University of California, Santa Cuz, he’s been at the heart of New York’s vibrant grass roots scene for some time as well as building a strong …
Album Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead” : intense, probing and cathartic contemporary rock.
Let’s start with some facts. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are a seminal alt rock, orchestral collective formed 1994 in Montreal. People who write about contemporary music see their early noughties trilogy (F♯ A♯ ∞, Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven and Yanqui U.X.O.) as definitive long form, instrumental statements. If you are reading …
Premiere: The ethereal Cloud Tangle is ‘Dreaming Again’ and the result is an album of enticing sonic bliss.
Meanjin/Brisbane’s Cloud Tangle, the nom de plume of the glorious Amber Ramsay, is releasing her third album ‘Dreaming Again’ this week, and you can get an early listen of this exquisite album premiering here thanks to the dynamic duo of 4000 Records and False Peak Records. Cloud Tangle creates sonic architecture that lives up to …
EP Review: Balancing Act – Tightropes and Limericks
The second EP from these guys continues the great work they demonstrated with Malice In Tone (read our review here). Recorded across multiple studios, the band self-recorded sections at Studio Alouette in France, some parts with Joshua Rumble (Gang of Four, Black Country, New Road) at Big Red Studios in Cheshire, and also spent time …
Album Review: Frank Sultana proves his legacy to the Oz blues scene and beyond with release of powerhouse new album, Have Band Will Travel.
Still riding on the coat-tails of his win in the 2023 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, Frank Sultana has kept busy writing and recording, with the resultant The Ghosts of Sun 2023 being quickly followed up by this masterful release, Have Band, Will Travel. While largely steeped in blues tradition, this album also nods …