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News: A Certain Ratio reveal details of ‘ACR:EPC’; see the video for the wired dazzle of ‘Emperor Machine’
MANCHESTER’S legendary proponents of the post-punk soulful funk A Certain Ratio, fresh from the release of their excellent ACR:EPA EP, four tracks from the final session that the band laid down with Denise Johnson (see the video for the hypnotic “Wonderland” here) are marching on in such a sonic hot streak as they announce the …
News: Andy Shauf announces a British and European tour for next year; see the video for the caustic tale, ‘Living Room’
EXPONENT of beautiful baroque pop Andy Shauf has unveiled a 26-date tour of Europe and the UK in support of his excellent 2020 album The Neon Skyline, a lovely addition to his canon which of course, what with viruses and all, he hasn’t as yet been able to bring across the Atlantic. You’ll find those dates …
See: Conchúr White’s ‘Dreamers’ tackles that small town yearning for another life in rousing indie-folk
NORTHERN IRISH singer-songwriter Conchúr White has today doubled down on his single drop from early March, the lovely late-night tumble of “Vocation Vacation” with the just-add-water-and-stir absolute anthem, “Dreamers”, the video for which we’ve got below. If you liked the folk-Bunnymen stylings of that last single, you’ll likely fall hard for the widescreen fire …
Track: Trippers & Askers – ‘Chance’s Wake’: warming, spiritual Americana lays out the path towards an album drawing on the near-dystopian classic, ‘The Parable Of The Sower’
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a Californian African-American science fiction author whose 1993 novel, Parable Of The Sower, has rippled out with staying power across culture, with its tale of the marginalised attempting to survive a (really, very) near-future ecological and economic collapse. it was only written less than three decades, in the lifetime of many …
See: Craig Fortnam – ‘Ark’: North Sea Radio Orchestra man sets course for a July solo album, two by two
DEEPLY rooted in a leftfield English folk music tradition, composer and singer for North Sea Radio Orchestra and Arch Garrison (whose excellent last album, The Bitter Lay, we reviewed here), Craig Fortnam is finally to step out solo with an album, Ark, due for release mid-July. In announcing that today, he’s revealed the video for …
News: Steve Kilbey announces tour and double album ‘The Hall of Counterfeits’ with Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels
The busiest and most creative man in the music industry is at it again. Not that long after releasing the magnificent ‘Jupiter 13’ with Martin Kennedy (see my review here), Steve Kilbey has just announced he will be touring with The Winged Heels – a sort of local supergroup – and releasing a double album …
News: Sydney’s legendary indie giants RATCAT announce 30 year anniversary gig
RATCAT will always have a special place in any indie band’s heart in Australia for the way they muscled their way into the general commercial charts in the early nineties through sheer people power and without any marketing. But then, they were so good. With an insouciant attitude, stunningly good looks, a thundering three chord …
News: The iconic Dark Mofo Festival – Come to the Cross – returns to Hobart from 16–22 June 2021. And there was much rejoicing.
We have been assiduously covering the glorious Dark Mofo Festival in the deepest south of the Southern Hemisphere almost since inception – a record blighted by the festival’s necessary cancellation last year due to COVID. And a bleak winter it was without this shining beacon of darkness. Dark Mofo is back this year with a …
News: Erasure to release ‘The Neon Remixed’ to end July – watch the lyric video for a new track, ‘Secrets’; British and European dates announced for the autumn
STRIDING across the synthpop world for 36 years now in a career absolutely without parallel, Vince Clarke and Andy Bell are back with a remixes take on last year’s album, The Neon; and they’ve also announced a string of dates across the UK and Europe for the autumn. Double whammy! The Neon Remixed collects together …
See: Brisbane’s iconic The Goon Sax unveil video for track ‘In The Stone’ and announce new album ‘Mirrors II’ and Australian/UK tour
Steeped in the legendary vibes of Brisbane’s proud and influential indie history, The Goon Sax are exemplary standard bearers for the new generation. They have an arch sensibility, a fey and literate approach to their music and in doing so have shrugged off any comparisons to their predecessors and contemporaries: they have forged their own …