Oxford
News: Oxford’s finest shoegaze pioneers, Ride, announce Australian and New Zealand tour with Mercury Rev supporting.
Ride‘s new album ‘Interplay’, reviewed by me here, is already a contender, for me, for one of the albums of the year. It represents a spectacular continuation of a return from an hiatus and shows a band willing to expand and develop their shimmering sound. We are now treated to the news that Ride is …
Album Review: Ride’s brilliant ‘Interplay’ reveals a band at the very height of their game.
Ride are releasing their much anticipated album ‘Interplay’ this Friday after teasing us with three astounding singles in the lead up. After a period in the wilderness following 1996’s ‘Tarantula’, ‘Weather Dairies’ in 2017 signaled a welcome return to the fray for the Oxford band and the output ever since has just been getting exponentially …
Track: It’s the ‘Last Frontier’ for Ride – their stunning cinematic second single from forthcoming album ‘Interplay’, along with tour news
All is well in the world when we get another release from shoegaze maestros Ride in anticipation of their upcoming album ‘Interplay’, due out March 29 via Wichita and PIAS. This time, ‘Last Frontier’ takes up the baton from earlier single ‘Peace Sign’ (reviewed here) and sets a frenetic pace with all the thunder and blast of the …
See: Ride Share Official Video for Charm Assault
Well for those in the know the wait is over and for those waiting the day is here. Shoegaze trail blazers and original scene pioneers Ride have shared the official video for Charm Assault. Although the (Official Audio) teasers for ‘Home is a Feeling’ and this track ‘Charm Assault’ were unveiled a few weeks ago. …
See: Stornoway reveal new video for Night Drive / Announce farewell tour
After more than ten years of playing heartfelt, affecting indie/folk, Oxford quartet Stornoway are bowing out with an 11 date farewell tour, due to take place next February/March, beginning at the Sage in Gateshead on February 27th and ending with a hometown show at Oxford’s New Theatre on March 12th. It follows the success of …
See: Maiians release video for Parasaur
We’ve long been fans of Oxford instrumental five piece Maiians, so we’re delighted they’re about to furnish us (and the rest of the world) with an debut, self-titled album. Mixing up post-rock and electronica, and making it work in a live setting (and with two drummers…) is what the band set out to do, and …
Album Review: Stornoway – Bonxie
Oxford four-piece Stornoway are back with a new album called ‘Bonxie’, released on 13th April through Cooking Vinyl. It’s the first of Stornoway’s albums to take the services of a producer, their previous releases being very much DIY efforts, but not DIY in quality I hasten to add. The producer in question is none other …
Track: Stornaway – The Road You Didn’t Take
Oxford indie folk band Stornoway are back with a third, as yet untitled album, due out on April 13th. Searching for new ideas and with the lyrical cupboard (that is, his notebook) bare, songwriter and frontman Dr. Brian Briggsford took his family and upped sticks for the Gower Pennisula in Wales, perhaps (and I’m relying …
New Music: Spring Offensive – Hengelo
This is one of those songs that can invite different appreciations – an instinctively personal take perhaps, and an understanding informed by the facts behind the tale. Once you’ve read the inspiration, you might never be able to get back to your own. So here’s the track – think on for a while and then …
Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey
On Jools Holland’s Hootenanny 2010 they won me over. I’d resisted for God knows what reason, possibly because my friend Jo wouldn’t fucking shut up about them before I had even heard a song. I guess it might also be because at that particular time when all I knew was that one of their lyrics was “who …