Tribes – Baby

Tribes - Baby

By Jiten Karia

Tribes, the guitar band representative of this year’s Next Big Things, swing a hefty bag of hype as they release their debut album Baby. Popular with The Mystery Jets and Zane Lowe amongst others, and having supported The Pixies, the Camden four-piece are now boldly, and worryingly, about to make a splash on the music radar.

The last few years haven’t been particularly kind to such bands with supposedly promising groups like The Drums and Delphic disappearing as quickly as they appeared in the public eye. While the UK’s infatuation with indie/rock has not died, many news bands since the debutants of the mid-2000s (i.e. Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, etc) have been a little flash-in-the-pan, a trend Tribes hope to break. … Continue Reading

Lisa Hannigan – Passenger

Lisa Hannigan - Passenger

By Jiten Karia

As much as I love Damien Rice, I always found it a shame that Lisa Hannigan’s name didn’t join his on the covers of his albums. Prior to the release of her debut Sea Sew, she existed in the shadow of Rice, playing off his often intensely impassioned voice with her own delicate and almost crystalline singing. You only need to hear ‘9 Crimes’, ‘I Remember’ and ‘Volcano’ to understand the impact Hannigan’s voice has on the overall feel of O and 9. Without her as a foil, I sometimes wonder whether Rice’s music would have had the same emotional resonance. … Continue Reading

Emmy The Great, London, Cecil Sharp House

Emmy The Great

By Jiten Karia

London’s Cecil Sharp House screams intimacy. Or at least it would scream were it not the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, a slight irk for tonight’s leading lady, Emma-Lee Moss aka Emmy The Great, who by self-admission has been trying to escape allusions to folk music for the past four years.

Instead, the walls whisper and coddle you into a very folksy warmth.

Screaming would ill fit this tiny venue with its foot-high stage, polished wood flooring and tastefully decorated walls. It is so quaint and the atmosphere so polite that you’d fear raising your voice would be offensive. Indeed, it is folk-ish to the extreme. … Continue Reading

Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves

Blood Orange - Coastal Grooves

By Jiten Karia

If his musical record is anything to go by, raising Devonté Hynes must have been a trying challenge for his parents.  In the space of six years he has (officially) released four albums under a minimum of four different guises – his stint as Lightspeed Champion arguably the most successful.  Never seemingly able to sit still, he has also produced and written tracks for a host of other acts including Solange Knowles, Diana Vickers and Basement Jaxx. … Continue Reading

Death Cab For Cutie – Brixton Academy, London

7 July, 2011

When Death Cab for Cutie finally emerge on to the stage there is little to suggest that only five days ago they were playing to a Milton Keynes audience monumentally bigger than the 5,000 packing out the Brixton Academy today. There is no noticeable swagger about them and the fact that Ben Gibbard censors himself by saying “What the eff is up?” in his welcome only adds to their apparent humility.

… Continue Reading

Emmy The Great – Virtue

Back in January, I found myself walking rather aimlessly along Regent Street, killing time before meeting a friend.  The sun was going down, it was achingly cold and my toes were freezing through hole-riddled trainers. … Continue Reading

Noah And The Whale – Last Night On Earth

The First Days of Spring was perhaps Noah and the Whale’s saviour from falling into obscurity at a time where they were stuck with the ‘nu-folk’ tag. Emerging from the shell of a broken heart, Charlie Fink’s narrative crystallised post-break up emotions with cinematic overtures and a scale of ambition far beyond what was expected following Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. … Continue Reading

Elliott Smith – An Introduction To Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith - An Introduction To Elliott Smith

Whilst listening to An Introduction to Elliott Smith, the thought occurred to me that there would be no point in ever releasing a best-of collection for Elliott Smith as every one of his track has its own particular brilliance and intricate beauty. Looking at the tracklisting, some of the obvious choices for an Elliott Smith compilation are omitted. Tracks like ‘Say Yes’, ‘Baby Britain’ and any of the No Name tracks would seem like shoe-ins for anyone looking to get into his music, and that is perhaps the reason they are left out. … Continue Reading

Tame Impala – Innerspeaker

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

When you first sit down to Innerspeaker, it’s not advisable to drive or operate any heavy machinery for an hour or so as you’ll likely be awash in a musically-induced euphoric high. Drawing influence equally from The Beatles and Cream (amongst hints of British music of latter decades), the Perth trio Tame Impala serve up an accomplished example of modern day psychedelica that will simultaneously chill spines and liquefy thoughts.

Right off the opening track ‘It Is Not Meant To Be’, Tame Impala capture the drug-addled essence of the 60s and 70s with guitars that lead ears past normal aural boundaries and drums that tether you to conscious planes with hypnotically precise rhythms.  Indeed, a passing listener could easily mistake this album for some classic stoner record from last century.  After all, the effects used on the vocals and guitars give a dated sound, verging on an almost-underwater feel to large parts of some tracks. … Continue Reading

Jonah Maddox – Together We Are Taller

Jonah Maddox - Together We Are Taller

Oh deary dear. It seems Mumford & Sons have gone and upset a lot of people with their Mercury nomination. Though some saw the album as a whimsical folksy departure from the guitar-strewn indie that has dominated a large part of the awards of the last decade, some music purists (i.e. anyone with taste beyond pop laced with folk airs) saw Sigh No More as the equivalent of having a metal stake slowly worked into your temple – a situation not helped by the perpetual airtime ‘Little Lion Man’ still seems to get on 6Music. Unfortunately, it is this kind of divide that has split general opinion about the new era of folk. … Continue Reading