Music
Album Review: Melanie De Biasio – No Deal (Remixed)
Beligian/Italian singer Melanie de Biasio made a record last year, No Deal, a record that showcased her singing, songwriting, even flute playing. With a voice that approached both Karen Carpenter and (more pertinently) Nina Simone, at least stylistically, it was a wake up call that soul jazz was very much alive and well. Despite picking …
Live: THE SELECTER – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 8-3-15
“Are you ready to have a good time?” It’s a question that Pauline Black knows the answer to before it’s left her lips. The Selecter are in town and it’s a full house. Before taking to the stage, Pauline and Gaps were working their own merch stall. Both of them more than happy to chat, …
Track: The Dead Ships – Big Quiet
Here at Backseat Mafia, we can never get enough of the kind if Garage Rock that made something of the Strokes, and continues today in the shape of The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes and the like. So step forward LA-based trio The Dead Ships, who’s new EP, EP1 contains, certainly on the evidence of ‘Big …
Live: The Unthanks at Leeds Irish Centre
It seems unfair these days to label The Unthanks a folk band when they have clearly moved way past the restrictive traditions of that genre which all too often puts people off engaging with our nation’s indigenous music. They are on the road touring their new album Mount The Air and the dynamic live version …
Live Review: Halestorm / Nothing More / Wilson – O2 Academy Leeds 05.03.2015
Wilson would definitely win the award for the oddest yet greatest entrance of the night. Vocalist Chad Nicefield enters the staged dressed as an oversized toy solider wielding a marching band bass drum with “Fuckery” taped across the front, simultaneously leaving the audience confused and intrigued. Chad’s curdling vocals, reminiscent of a mixture between Jason …
Track: Portico – 101 feat. Joe Newman, plus UK tour dates
Now minus the quartet, London trio Portico return with a new album ‘Living Fields’, out on 30th March (a week earlier than originally planned) through the constantly brilliant Ninja Tune label. The three piece, Duncan Bellamy, Milo Fitzpatrick and Jack Wyllie aren’t treating the album as a continuation of their work as/in a quartet, rather …
EP: Vince Watson – Eminesence
Out right now on Osunlade’s legendary Yoruba Records comes Glasgow producer Vincent Watson’s new EP, and first for the label, Eminesence. He’s not a newcomer though, having produced music for over 20 years, and released it on labels such as Cocoon, Ovum Recordings, Bedrock, Poker Flat and Planet E. Eminesence opens with the sparkling ‘A …
Meet: Arejay Hale – Halestorm Interview
Halestorm are a band you have to see live to truly understand what they are about. The Grammy award winning hard rockers have been through the whole sweaty, dingy club show rite of passage that nearly every band has to take before they can hit the big leagues and it shows in their performances. At …
Meet: We meet the legendary Anton Newcombe
Barely a year has gone by since the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s fourteenth (!) long player hit the stores like cloud of dense mauve smoke. Revelation was the first BJM record to have been recorded entirely in Anton Newcombe’s Berlin studio, yet it displayed sonic characteristics already familiar to many long-serving fans: elongated, repetitive structures; layered …
Not Forgotten: Thea Gilmore – Avalanche
It can’t be easy being Thea Gilmore. Widely hailed as one of the best songwriters of her generation, yet receiving almost no radio play and little media coverage. She’s been releasing high quality music now for the last eight years or so, but registers negligible sales. She displays traditional singer-songwriter strengths, but she doesn’t fall …