album review
EP REVIEW: Magik Markers – ‘Isolated From Exterior Time: 2020’
CONNECTICUT’s foremost ragged, slacker squall-rockers Magik Markers have descended from their years-long recess and deigned to bless us with the benison of a new four-track, download-only EP for Drag City, Isolated From Exterior Time: 2020, their first release of any kind in five years. The band, Elisa Ambroglio, John Shaw and Pete Nolan, said: “The …
EP REVIEW: The Ricos – ‘Spirit State’
PHILADELPHIA’S languid, lofi outfit The Ricos is the brainchild of artist Joseph (Joe) B. Purcell. The band rose from the ashes of Purcell’s past projects with the intention to provide fuzz-ridden indie-pop, on which Joe’s vision is fleshed out by multi-instrumentalist/producer Connor Wynne and local human drum machine Daniel Fisk-Kallish. And their first steps into …
ALBUM REVIEW: Aārp – ‘Propaganda’
MAKE no mistake, the debut album from classically trained experimentalist Aārp has serious conceptual intent. Entitled Propaganda, and out now on Paris-Lyon-Berlin imprint InFiné, it is pointedly political. The title is predicated on the media portrayal of death of Steve Canico, the French techno fan found drowned after an altercation with police at a festival …
ALBUM REVIEW: Leeches – ‘Easy’: big up the West Country stoner vibe
SPEAKING as a West Country lad myself, it comes as no surprise, with all the plaudits and freewheelin’ fertility surrounding the harder end of the Antipodean jam-psych scene – led forth into the multicoloured haze by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Pond – that the South West would, at some point, answer back …
ALBUM REVIEW: Check Masses – ‘Nightlife’
FOR MY money, Edinburgh is the most beautiful first-division city in these isles. Its architecture, its hills, its views north and east over silvered cold seas. And, god, the culture. But it’s also the city of Ian Rankin’s crime noir; of the graffitoed walls and burnt-out cars of Royal Academician Jock McFadyen; of some Irvine …
Album Review: PJ Orr – Tightrope Walker
There is a calming beauty in PJ Orr’s new album ‘Tightrope Walker’ which incorporates the vibrant genes of fellow Australian indie bands – both past and present – and packages this into its own distinctive, mellifluous tones. For PJ Orr are unashamedly Australian: the undisguised vocal twang, the raw lyrical exposition and a jingle jangly …
ALBUM REVIEW: Surprise Chef – ‘All News is Good News’
ALL NEWS Is Good News is the debut album by Melbourne instrumental funkmasters Surprise Chef. Originally released in a very limited pressing on the band’s own College Of Knowledge label last November, it was devoured by the breaks cognoscenti and sold out within a week. Receiving heavy rotation at that home of the contemporary groove, …
SAY PSYCH: album review: Venus Furs – ‘Venus Furs’
IT’S an album that’s been even longer in the creation than My Bloody Valentine’s legendary Loveless. Five years to write, five years to record and hone; but finally Montreal psych-shoegaze perfectionist Paul Kasner is poised to release Venus Furs’ self-titled debut LP. Paul says: “”This album has been a long time coming, and I could …
Album Review: Key Out – Anthropomorphia
Key Out are proving to be one of the more exciting bands in Sydney – even the world – at the moment and this is never evident than in their new album ‘Anthropomorphia’. It is brimful of shimmering guitars and songs that seems to perfectly reflect the bright blue summer skies of Sydney. Skies that …
ALBUM REVIEW: The Gist – ‘Interior Windows’
CARDIFF’S Young Marble Giants subverted the revolution while the fires were still lit. In an age when guitars were razor-loud and lyrics were spat, the Welsh four-piece turned it right back down to a female-led fragility. One album was recorded for Rough Trade before fragmentation and the group’s main protagonists went firing off in different …