The Blue Van – Mama’s Boy

Where did it all go wrong for The Blue Van? 2005’s The Art Of Rolling album was a solid, organ laced monster of psychy, stoner rock and follow up Dear Independence broadened things out to a more Black Crowes level but the craft was still evident. Polishing things up for 2010’s Man Up was a step in the wrong direction however (the same as it was for Mando Diao and, some may say, Kings Of Leon) and that slide towards soulless pop has not it would seem been arrested, based on the evidence available from this insipid single offering. … Continue Reading

Yusuf Azak – Turn On The Long Wire

Much has been made elsewhere of Yusuf Azak‘s slightly wheezing vocal delivery, but anyone familiar with the work of Nick Drake is well catered for here and the singing sounds more “normal” than a lot of the autotuned trash that’s on the market today. Song number two on his new record Turn on the Long Wire, ‘Time To Kill’, actually brings to mind Ian Brown (albeit if he suddenly went all folky). … Continue Reading

Various Artists – Isvolt

Various Artists - Isvolt

“Whose house?” Er, Witch House apparently. Just as I finished typing that though I got it – this stuff all sounds like the incidental music to The Blair Witch Project. I’m prepared to be corrected on the derivation of the name though (seeing as it can also be called Drag and I’m stumped for ideas on that one). Apparently being “developed in bedrooms all around the world”, it certainly has that feel of being put together by dedicated, Goth loners. … Continue Reading

Not Squares – Yeah, OK

Not Squares - Yeah, OK

This is very refreshing. The Belfast trio Not Squares have concocted a masterful effort out of the best bits of The Faint, Orbital and Clinic. Yeah, OK is danceable from the outset, recent single ‘Release The Bees’ (an initially daunting prospect at over seven minutes in length) opens the album in the style which is then maintained for the duration. … Continue Reading

The Diamond Sea – Second Move

The Diamond Sea - Second Move

Seldom can I recall hearing lyrics so trite as on the opening song of The Diamond Sea‘s album, Second Move. “We’ll fly away to Spain and steal a Jaguar/We’ll sit on a beach, drink champagne and eat caviar” they whine before equating France with cheese and Beaujolais. At least when Crass stated the world owed them a living you could imagine them going out and grabbing what they felt they were due. The Diamond Sea sound as if they’ll never open their bedroom door to take the first step in a life of bold brigandry. … Continue Reading

Guards – Guards EP

Guards - Guards EP

Guards, despite the name, is pretty much a one man band in the shape of Richie Follin (also one quarter of Willowz) and this is his seven track debut EP performing under this moniker.

Coming on like quite the lo-fi troubadour, first song ‘Resolution Of One’ sets a resounding tone for the remaining half dozen songs to follow. Caroline Polachek (of Chairlift fame) turns up to duet on the dreamy ‘Trophy Queen’, a drugged up final song at the prom if ever there was one. Follin’s sister’s duo Cults back him up on ‘Sail It Slow’, a spaced out death dirge with one foot hovering over the grave. … Continue Reading

White Lies, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

White Lies

November 16, 2010

White Lies appear to have had a stylist make them over for tonight’s gig, if their stage clobber is anything to go by; gone are the khaki/old man beige outfits of Glastonbury. In their place are a much more respectable Killers/Man At C&A set of duds, sort of keeping with the continued bombast of tunes from their forthcoming album (due out in February 2011), which make up roughly half of the show’s set. … Continue Reading

The Greenhornes – ****

The Greenhornes - ****

This first batch of all new material from The Greenhornes since 2005′s East Grand Blues EP finds the band adopting, for the most part, a sound akin to late 1960′s acts such as The Attack or more modern purveyors of a mod sound like The Embrooks. A bit of a departure then from the rawer garage and soul inflected sound of their earlier years but none the worse for that. … Continue Reading

Brian Eno – Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea

In most fields of endeavour pioneers, at some point or other, stop pioneering – they either redirect their energies to pastures new or settle down to churn out pale relations of their earlier work illumined by the occasional flash of past glories. Brian Eno falls somewhere inbetween these extremes. Having dabbled in both a number of musical areas and those of other arts throughout his career, this pioneer of Ambient is now signed to Warp, itself a pioneer in terms of labels, in what is probably seen as quite a coup by some. It certainly has a fair amount of synchronicity about it. … Continue Reading

Various Artists – Black Hole: Californian Punk 1977-80

Various Artists - Black Hole: Californian Punk 1977-80

Following on from his earlier collections of Tamla Mowtown, Eighties Electro and the musically confusing period when the Sixties became the Seventies, Jon Savage here crosses the Atlantic to gather together 26 tracks from the earliest days of the first flourishing of American punk, in the form many people recognise as deserving that name.

Like many such ventures there are omissions (notably Black Flag and Circle Jerks who both scrape into the 1979 – 80 part of the overall time period covered) and it could be argued that Dead Kennedys are well enough known to not merit inclusion, but licensing rights or the splitting of hairs about what is truly punk and what is an off-shoot (Hardcore etc.) may well be in play as far as the final make up is concerned. … Continue Reading