Music
News: Nordic Giants announce 7 Depths of conciousness tour
Quite why Nordic Giants aren’t the biggest thing in music right now is a mystery to me. Situated somewhere between Mogwai and Sigur Ros, their recent debut album A Séance Of Dark Delusions, released earlier in the year through Kscope showed that the mysterious UK (not Nordic at all) band could make soundscapes and beguiling …
Track: Darkstar – Through the Motions, plus tour dates
Ahead of the release later in the month of their new album ‘Foam Island’, out on 25th September via Warp Records, Darkstar are back with a new song, Through the Motions. The duo, James Young and Aiden Whalley, have blended their electro/dance floor sound, as seen best on earlier releases such as Aidy’s Girl is …
New Music: David Ward – Mother
Vancouver singer songwriter David Ward is a rather special talent. He’s back with a new song, Mother, taken from his forthcoming album ‘Transitioning. Mother is an object lesson in new (nu) soul, as his voice, this instrument capable of overwhelming beauty, steers it’s course somewhere close to Stevie Wonder. Underneath all of that is some …
Say Psych: Album Review, Frid by Hills
Hills are one of my favourite bands, and the 2011 album ‘Master Sleeps’ is one of my most played. I love the coming together of dance rhythms with drone and a healthy dose of reverb, a heady mixture that I find myself lost in again and again. However, on first playing the new album ‘Frid’ …
Not Forgotten: Ray Davies – The Storyteller
The rock star’s autobiography is big business these days, but rarely are they as revelatory, or as informative as they could be and even rarer do they actually make for enlightening reading. There are, of course, honourable exceptions. Indeed, both volumes of Julian Cope’s autobiography are wildly entertaining (whether you are actually a fan of …
Not Forgotten: Thin Lizzy – Live and Dangerous
The live album was a right of passage for the majority of 70s rockers. By and large it was a great leveller, as it could find otherwise massively successful acts amplify their lesser qualities (Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same, Yes’s Yesshows, etc), on the other hand it could be a handy document of …
Album Review: Lucy Rose -Work it Out
Lucy Rose has moved on since the release of her folk fuelled debut album Like I Used To. While her vocals continue to have a distinctly delicate sound anyone who describes new album, Work It Out, in the same way isn’t giving the 26 year old singer-songwriter the credit she’s due. This is an album …
Track: The Hanging Stars – The House on the Hill
Featuring members of The See See and Dan Michelson and the Coastguards, London quintet The Hanging Stars are a collective as much as a band, and have brought their own brand of rootsy, swampy psychedelia to bear on their debut album, tentatively titled Over a Silvery Lake. From it comes a new song, ‘The House …
Album Review: Halsey – ‘Badlands’
It’s a rare thing to find an album that is a complete experience, where it’s emotions, themes and atmosphere jump right out of the audio and leave you with the knowledge that you’ve felt something as opposed to just hearing it. The debut album from Halsey is exactly that. There’s going to be artist comparisons …
Track: Primetime – Anyway
Following on from their self titled EP which dropped on La Vida Es Un last Summer, Londons messy punks Primetime are back with a new song, ‘Anyway’, recorded by Lindsay Corstorphine of Sauna Youth and Primitive Parts. Anyway slithers away with this punk lilt, it describes issues of letting go and gleefully losing your mind. …