album review
ALBUM REVIEW: Susanna – ‘Baudelaire & Piano’: recasting the poet in solo dusk
TWO things to note from the off about the Norwegian chanteuse fatale born Susanna Karolina Wallumrød: firstly, she is both a deep appreciator and fashioner of the arts – no throwaway, careerist pop remixes her, no dalliance with song for song’s sake. Music, and art more broadly, is far too important business for frippery; life …
ALBUM REVIEW: The Flaming Lips – ‘American Head’: a trippy coming of age about coming of age
DEAR reader: let’s take it you need no introduction to the wayward, playful psychedelic brilliance of Oklahoma’s Flaming Lips. I can see a solitary hand raised at the back, there; where have you been all this time: the proverbial desert island? You mean to say you missed the glorious early burst of “She Don’t Use …
ALBUM REVIEW: Annie Taylor – ‘Sweet Mortality’: A rocking Swiss debut
ANNIE TAYLOR’S debut album is out now via Taxi Gauche Records. This rocking debut is an album of such promise, enthusiasm and desire; it’s one of the pleasant surprises of post-lockdown. Hailing from Switzerland, where they formed in 2017, the band have become into one of Central Europe’s best sounding and hardest touring bands. They …
ALBUM REVIEW: Freak Heat Waves – ‘Zap The Planet’: a dive into trippy electronica
THE IRONY of the current situation isn’t lost on me. I’m sat here in the 35-degree heat, profusely sweating in the same way that Prince Andrew doesn’t, all while writing about the latest album from Freak Heat Waves. I mean, Freak Heat Waves!? The universe clearly has a cruel sense of humour. And so it’s with a head full of these fears about rising temperatures, the inevitable demise of the earth and other …
ALBUM REVIEW: Bill Callahan – ‘Gold Record’: Bill pans for nuggets and strikes again
BILL CALLAHAN. Question: can you imagine a world where we don’t have his grace, his eye for the humanity of the everyday, his profound bass-voiced grace, those songwriting abilities. Scary thought, huh? There’s been enough to scare us in this ill-starred year of our lord, 2020. So we can be grateful that he’s kinda sprung …
ALBUM REVIEW: Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij – ‘Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij’: four deep acoustic atmospheres
YOU MAY know the names involved in this self-titled collaborative LP, brought to you by the twin instrumental and exploratory talents of Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij; you may not. But if you have any interest in the more textured zone where post-rock has bumped into its good friend, post-classical, even out-folk; the world of …
ALBUM REVIEW: Floodlights – ‘From A View’: another great Antipodean guitar salvo
IF THERE’S one area of the world that has always seemed to have had a dialogue and a response to a certain strain of British indie guitarpop, it’s been Australia and New Zealand. Witness the Flying Nun scene and related bands that brought so much to our ears in the late 1980s: The Chills, The …
ALBUM REVIEW: Kelly Lee Owens – ‘Inner Song’: leftfield tronica beauty soars
IT’S been a quite a journey that’s led Kelly Lee Owens to the place where she is now, garnering critical praise from all quarters and Welsh queen-elect of that sweet spot where halcyon pop meshes into intelligent dance music with a deft touch. I really don’t think there is anyone else who has such nuance …
SAY PSYCH: ALBUM REVIEW: Moon Duo – ‘Escape’: fuzz psych-meisters’ debut, expanded
TIME can really slip by. It’s ten whole years – yep, a decade – since Moon Duo span out of Wooden Shjips with that band’s Ripley Johnson teaming up with keyboardist Samae Yamada to forge a psych-side hustle. Hell, that means it’s almost nine years since I saw Wooden Shjips at End of the Road …
EP REVIEW: Max Cooper – ‘Earth’: cutting-edge IDM for our life on it
IN FORMER times, he’s what you would call a renaissance man, a polymath, Max Cooper: active and proficient in so many fields of creativity and science; jack of all trades, oh; master of them, too. A childhood dalliance with the violin proved a false dawn; instead he pursued biology and was awarded a PhD in …