New Music Reviews
Drenge, Institute, BirminghamSunday, 12 April 2015
Drenge made themselves known to the world some 18 months ago, surfing on the back of their abrasive self-titled debut album and some unexpected PR assistance from West Midlands MP Tom Watson. Back then, the Loveless brothers were a loud and lairy duo that took rock music by the scruff of the neck and knocked seven bells out of it with their stripped-down sound. With the recent release of their second album, Undertow, however, there have been some changes. Read more... |
A Place To Bury Strangers, Rainbow, BirminghamWednesday, 08 April 2015
Dry ice began billowing from the stage of the Rainbow even before the house lights had dimmed and the between-band PA had faded out, allowing New York noiseniks A Place To Bury Strangers to slip behind their instruments unnoticed and burst into set-opener “Straight”, emerging from the fog like mighty sea creatures breaking the waves. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: FotheringaySunday, 05 April 2015
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theartsdesk on Vinyl Volume 4: Motorhead, Adrian Sherwood and moreSunday, 05 April 2015
Record Store Day – 18 April – has been whipping up discord among independent labels. Notably, Sonic Cathedral are boycotting it, instead releasing 365 copies of an EP by Spectres and Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, one a day, over the next year. Read more... |
Wolf Alice, Shepherd's Bush EmpireSaturday, 04 April 2015
They’ve yet to release an album, but the London-based, alt-rock four-piece Wolf Alice have already been called everything from shoegrunge to Brit-country, via indie-dance and riot-grrrl. Last night they gave another compelling display of musical shape-shifting, which demonstrated why they’re known for seeming not to know what they are. Read more... |
CD: Brian Wilson – No Pier PressureSaturday, 04 April 2015
There are certain things that you approach a Brian Wilson album expecting. Melody and harmony of course, but also a certain kind of approach: a fearlessness to experiment. When he finally completed the famously unfinished Smile in 2004, it was a landmark moment (though not, if we’re honest, as satisfying as the old demo versions). Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 13Thursday, 02 April 2015
Very often, the greatest impact comes without shouting. Subtlety can have a power lingering longer than the two-minute thrill of a yell. So it is with Bridges, the eighth album by Eivør. In the past, the Faroese singer-songwriter has collaborated with Canada’s Bill Bourne, the Danish Radio Big Band and Ireland’s Donal Lunny, and taken turns into country and jazz. Read more... |
Future Islands, RoundhouseWednesday, 01 April 2015
It’s been just over a year since Future Islands’ Samuel T Herring famously gyrated, and chest-thumped his way through the band's latest single on American TV. The show was Letterman and the singer looked like a stevedore undergoing primal scream therapy. Within days the footage had gone viral. People have been talking about it ever since. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The SpecialsSunday, 29 March 2015
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The Subways, Institute, BirminghamTuesday, 24 March 2015
Not unreasonably, anyone might imagine that a band might lose a bit of their usual vigour if they found themselves four albums into their career playing in a room not much bigger than a church hall, miles from home on a cold Monday evening. Not so the Subways. Read more... |
Fotheringay: Nothing More – The Collected Fotheringay
The Specials: Specials, More Specials; The Special AKA: In the StudioPages
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