Music
Album Review: White Hills-So You Are…So You’ll Be
White Hills are one of those bands that are pretty much fearless. They’ve run the gamut on their records over the years from Sabbath gut busters to spaced-out Hawkwind to Tangerine Dream-esque ambient interludes. And the crazy thing is that they can pull them all off quite well. Their 2010 double album H-p1 seems to have …
Album Review: Justin Currie – Lower Reaches
It’s an inevitable result of the relentless passage of time that our social circles change as we grow older. As jobs evolve into careers and relationships develop into families, your life shuffles into a new shape and you inevitably lose touch with some of the people that, in your younger days, you felt would always …
Meet: We chat with The Magic Numbers, with new album news
You know sometimes you get this sort of blinkered memory of something, or somewhere. Like when I first went to Whitby and I thought it was this fantastic place where I had literally had the food of the gods (well, the best fish and chips ever), but every other time I’ve been I’ve so looked …
Remembering: Archie Shepp interview, 40 Years on from Attica Blues
Let’s get the background out of the way first. Archie Shepp is a jazz legend. Maybe not one of the big names of jazz, but a browse of the mans discography shows this guy could, and did, mix it with the very best. Born in 1937, his early collaborations included work with Don Cherry, legendary …
Track: Son of Dave – new single and kickstarter campaign
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable, so said Janis Joplin, before she went ahead and gave her audiences the blues by administering a reportedly strong batch of heroin into her own veins and promptly passing away. But Blues audiences have never really seen anything like Benjamin Darvill, a.k.a. Son of Dave. Although he’s …
Meet: Ranking Roger interview and The Beat’s ‘Wha’ppen reissue’
Following on from the critically acclaimed ‘I Just Can’t Stop It’ released via Demon Records in April earlier this year, Demon Records have released The Beat’s ‘Wha’ppen?’. Recorded from the original cassette tapes, it will be strictly limited to 500 copies and comes with the download card that includes bonus tracks. The Beat’s second album …
News: The Temperance Movement announce European Tour, plus New Album
I used to love the Harlem Globetrotters. I remember growing up they used to occasionally be on World of Sport or Grandstand, one of them anyway. They were cool and funny and had these outrageous skills that (it seemed to me) no other team had, and certainly no-one would attempt in a ‘proper’ game. Along …
New Music: Seawaves – Born To Fly
I’ve just come back off holiday. I went to the little Channel Island of Alderney. It’s this small bit of rock, where everything happens, well, whenever. I sort of love the Island and its charms, but one of the thing i don’t like, even a little bit, is getting there. Firstly, I had to fly …
ALBUM REVIEW: THE POLYPHONIC SPREE – YES, IT’S TRUE
Ten years ago I got hugely into what was being referred to as the ‘Cosmic Americana’ scene, a loose sub-category of American alt-rock that had given us such instant classics as Deserter’s Songs, The Soft Bulletin and The Sophtware Slump. An act I had initially lumped in with the likes of Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips …
Album Review: Medicine – To The Happy Few
When you hear a song like “Long As The Sun” -the opener on Medicine’s excellent new album To The Happy Few– you don’t think that this is a band that has essentially been stored in moth balls for 18 years. You think you’re hearing The Beach Boys ran through the Jesus and Mary Chain warpulator. …