Liam Finn – FOMO

As the offspring to a much revered musician parent, the path towards potential success can be handled in one of two ways; your family name can hang around your neck like a crippling anchor, forever impeding creativity for fear of being accused of piggy backing. Or, you can fearlessly show off the name, brimming with family tree pride and making little effort to tread too far from where mommy or daddy previously trod. It takes only a few seconds of Fomo’s opener ‘Neurotic World’ for it to be clear that Liam Finn has chosen that second option – this is a Finn album, no doubt and one that dad, Neil, would be very proud to call his own. … Continue Reading

My Morning Jacket – Circuital

I’ve recently moved house. It’s given us an opportunity to take stock of the baggage my family has accrued over the years and though we have more room for our ‘stuff’ now, this feels like a chance to properly de-clutter and settle. Why am I telling you this? Just to make conversation really. No, no, of course, I’m doing one of those analogy things. … Continue Reading

ATP Curated by Animal Collective – Butlins, Minehead

13-15 May, 2011

We live in hard times, friends. Not hard like it was back in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s obviously, or even the early 80s of course but you know, bread is pricey these days, so pretty damn hard. The enforced economic cutbacks are far reaching and have inevitably spread to everyone’s favourite indie-cred festival, ATP. Now down to just one May festival from the previous years’ 2, one will become none in 2012 due to a big dip in ticket sales caused by all manner of possible reasons; a perceived lack of quality in the curators and invitees of recent years, too much choice in the festival peak season, general overkill and that phrase much used of late: ‘tightening of the belt’. … Continue Reading

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Backlashes against popular, critically lauded debut albums are all but inevitable in the often snobbish world of music fandom. Fleet Foxes was undoubtedly a very strong first long player, becoming a beacon and standard-bearer for 2008’s love affair with folk music. … Continue Reading

Jesca Hoop – Snowglobe EP

“It’s not who you are, it’s who you know.” – a phrase that might at first seem appropriate to Jesca Hoop’s slow rise to relative prominence. Originally a nanny to Tom Wait’s children and then championed by our very own champion, Guy Garvey, it wouldn’t be overly cynical to say that Hoop has been given a helping hand to get her where she sits today. At the same time, it’s “who you are” that first gets you noticed by “who you know” and if Hoop’s smoky vocal tendrils hadn’t ensnared Garvey, then there would have been countless others in his place. … Continue Reading

Danielson – The Best Of Gloucester County

If Danielson’s 2006 album Ships was the sound of an excitably tireless toddler who’s just sneaked into the food cupboard and eaten a bag of sugar, then The Best of Gloucester County is the same child grown up, suitably admonished for past silliness and with a freshly garnered grip on reality. That’s not to say that Daniel Smith and his myriad of backers have lost their sense of fun and playfulness, it’s more that they’ve found a counterpoint to the mayhem and are as confident and comfortable in playing it straight and low key. … Continue Reading

Amplifier – The Octopus

Merely mention the phrase ‘prog rock’ to most music fans and they’ll turn their nose up as if you’ve just unwrapped a block of ripe Stinking Bishop before them. The genre does tend to conjure connections in one’s mind; that chin scratching, real ale drinking, beardy nerd who thinks that Terry Pratchett is the funniest man on Earth. The kind of people who don’t ‘feel’ music but dissect it. Even the phrase itself ‘prog’, as in progressive, has a kind of holier-than-thou feel, as if it’s more than just your bog standard rock. It might as well be called ‘pedestal’ rock. But the ‘p’ word doesn’t have to be a dirty one. For every chin stroker band like Yes and Rush (entertaining as they are), there are more restrained, sensible proggy alternatives such as Anathema and Porcupine Tree and it’s in this camp that we find Amplifier. … Continue Reading

Torche – Songs For Singles

Torche - Songs For Singles

Releasing an EP must be a liberating experience. It gives a chance for any band to smash the shackles of expectation associated with the album making process, unburdening the artist from any stylistic choices imposed by themselves or the studio. In the case of Songs for Singles, Torche have cut their own reigns as the eight slabs of pop metal on offer here practically fly out the stalls, sounding suspiciously like they’re pumped up on performance enhancing drugs. … Continue Reading

Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle

Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle

Some people go through life playing it safe. They order the same meal from their local Chinese take away every time, they go on holiday to the same place every year and they only ever wear plain black t-shirts cos black goes with everything doesn’t it? These people buy albums from certain bands because they have expectations that these bands aren’t going to deviate from their previous releases. You can probably see where I’m going here and although this analogy might be a little harsh on Blonde Redhead and their fans (of which I am one) you can always tell a Blonde Redhead song after the first 10 seconds and as an extension of this, you always know what you’re going to get from a new Blonde Redhead album. … Continue Reading

End Of the Road Festival, Larmer Tree Gardens, North Dorset

End of the Road Festival

September 10-12, 2010

The natural post-festival chat which keeps revellers awake on their long journeys home invariably revolves around the pros and cons of the festival. It’s telling that the worst we could come up with on our drive home from End of the Road was that it rained for a while on Saturday morning. The organisers seem to have gone out their way to improve every facet of this cosy festival but even they can’t do anything about the great British “summer”. With the cons so easily dealt with, what of the pros? … Continue Reading