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Album review: Craig Fortnam – ‘Ark’: North Sea Radio man gathers his world in a prog-pastoral-folk craft of intricacy and thoughtfulness
ARCH GARRISON, whose lovely odyssey of modern Wessex psych-pastoralism The Bitter Lay we loved for all its exploration of thorny byways last year; a half-dozen or so long-playing outings in the North Sea Radio Orchestra; even back before the century’s turn, a solitary album with Shrubbies. In all these incarnations we’ve enjoyed and explored the …
Meet: Is this Pop? Colin Moulding (XTC) has a chat about his new single, the old stuff and the secret to writing pop songs
It’s been over 3 years since ex XTC singer/bass player Colin Moulding teamed up with ex-XTC drummer Terry Chambers under the moniker TC&I to record the brilliant EP ‘Great Aspirations’ and the follow up live album ‘Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre’. Moulding of course wrote some of XTC’s most iconic pop songs including “Making Plans For Nigel’, …
Track: Courtney Barnett takes a gentle, wry look at ‘Rae Street’ and announces third studio album, ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’
Australian indie icon Courtney Barnett has just announced the release of her third studio album ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ on 12 November 2021 through Marathon Artists and released the first single, ‘Rae Street’. ‘Rae Street’ is a gentle, reflective track with Barnett’s signature wry observations on the vicissitudes of life: immediate real and acute …
Track: Jeb Loy Nicols releases new 7 featuring album favourite ‘The World Loves A Fool’
Taken from his recent album ‘Jeb Loy’, the aforementioned American born, Welsh based singer Jeb Loy Nicols has released the final single to be taken from it. Titled The World Loves A Fool and backed by another album cut, the beautiful Not There Yet, its out now on rather lovely 7inch vinyl on the Timmion …
Track: The Golden Dregs are back with the stunning new single ‘John’ and tour news
Released back in June 2019, ‘Nobody Ever Got Rich (By Making People Sad)’ by The Golden Dregs, still remains for me one of the most outstanding singles I’ve ever reviewed for Backseat Mafia. For some reason, I never got to review the later album, the brilliant ‘Hope is for the Hopeless’, but The Golden Dregs are back …
Album Review: John Grant – Boy From Michigan
Michigan boy John Grant has always moved to the beat of his own drum. If you were to ask me to fit him into a box – a genre that he could comfortably placed in, then I could only call it John Grant. From the dream-pop beginnings of his debut solo, Queen of Denmark, to …
Track: Puppy unveil the thundering ‘Angel’: dark themes, scuzzy guitars married with celestial vocals
London-based trio Puppy have just released a stunning single with video entitled ‘Angel’ that fuses a thundering Smashing Pumpkins spine to a framework of sparkling Beach Boys harmonies. The dark themes that pervade the lyrics add another gothic dimension to this layer of contradictions, and creates a whole that is immeasurably satisfying and quite unique. …
Track: Once Human – Dead Lock (Feat Robb Flynn)
LA five-piece, Once Human have shared their new single ‘Deadlock’, taken from their forthcoming album, Scar Weaver, set for release in February 2022 via earMUSIC. The track features a guest appearance from Machine Head frontman, Robb Flynn, friend and former bandmate of Once Human guitarist, Logan Mader. The collaboration needs no explanation, but front woman Lauren Hart remains thrilled by the whole experience: “It …
Album Review: Maple Glider’s ‘To Enjoy is the Only Thing’ is a breathtaking debut filled with an exquisite sense of longing and beauty
Maple Glider – the moniker of Melbourne resident Tori Zietsch – has a voice and delivery that is like someone whispering softly in your ear: it’s close and warm and very personal. There is a delicious immediacy to her music – recalling that Danish concept of Hyyge – a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality …
Droppin’ Knowledge: 03CAS, Hip Hop’s Monet, Creates Painterly, Impressionistic Music That Defies Easy Categorization
When the musician and experimental hip hop iconoclast 03CAS emigrated from South Africa to the United Kingdom, he landed at London’s Heathrow Airport with little more than the clothes on his back. “It was the first time I was on a plane,” recalled the artist, born Caleb Mateus, as he recently recounted his early days …