isolar records
Album Review: Bishopskin – Babble
By Mimi Nicholson Bishopskin’s debut album Babble is almost liturgical, with its invocation of religious life and manyrepeated motifs. Rooted sonically in the traditions of folk-revival and London’s post-punk music scene,its thematic wellspring includes Romanticism, medieval mysticism and the Christian Bible. Thiseclecticism carries into the band’s aesthetic; unlike the sleek sexiness you might find in …
Track: Bishopskin – Mother’s Steel Bike
As the wait for their debut album becomes ever shorter, Bishopskin – one of the most unusual and intriguing outfits to have graced London’s alternative scene in recent years – have released a portfolio of singles which is impressive in breadth and depth alike. Listening to all of them back to back gives a good …
Track: Bishopskin – Stella Splendens
Had anyone told me that the catchiest song of Summer 2023 would be a postmodern folk take on a 14th century hymn, complete with lyrics in Medieval Latin, I would have been more than a little taken aback – but this is what happens when you bring into play Bishopskin, one of the most unexpected …
Track: The Ringards – Flaccid Venus
As an old-school punk fan who is also a lover of all things weird, there was no way I was not going to be completely entranced by this new single courtesy of London experimental outfit the Ringards, recently released through Isolar Records (which keeps standing out as one of the new labels with the most …
Track: Bishopskin – Ave Maria
Following a break during the Summer after a triumphant last live show in late May, Bishopskin have returned with a bang, delivering a new single that both refines and redefines their sound. The alternative folk outfit (as much as this description may fit a band that is refreshingly defiant of any sort of genre categorisation …
Track: Children Of The Pope – Junkie Girlfriend
The latest addition to the Isolar Records rosters, Children of the Pope certainly know how to make a striking entrance, showing up with a new single which is a very strong calling card: immediately recognisable, eminently listenable, and brimming with promise. The band has been, for a while now, a well-known presence in the London …
Track: Bishopskin – I Was Born On An Island
Starting out as a lockdown project between vocalist Tiger Nicholson and guitarist James Donovan (elsewhere seen playing for HMLTD), Bishopskin have become so much more than that: there isn’t quite another band, nor possibly has there ever been, that sounds like they do, or that tried to do what they’re bent on achieving. Anyone who …