We Were Born Canaries – We Were Born Canaries

We Were Born Canaries - We Were Born Canaries

By Richard Wink

Scandinavian music tends to conjure a sense of theatrical fantasy. Whether it is satanic Norwegian Death Metal, impish Swedish pop, or Icelandic maverick music makers such as Bjork and Sigur Rós; but what of Denmark? We Were Born Canaries look to imprint themselves onto this great Scandinavian fairy tale with an arresting self-titled album which extols the vitality of half-forgotten youth. … Continue Reading

Off! – Off!

Off! - Off!

By Russell Warfield

It might sound paradoxical, but sixteen songs in sixteen minutes is a lot to take in. Press play – fucking hell - done. People talk about appreciating albums which they can fit into the time it takes to commute to work. You can nail this one on a coffee break. Twice. Of course, if you’ve any prior familiarity with Keith Morris’ work as part of Off! – or either of his previous seminal punkrock outfits Black Flag and Circle Jerks – you won’t be too surprised by this news. Off!’s debut LP is largely what you’d expect this pack of hardcore veterans’ debut LP to sound like: sixteen more gut-punches of exactly what came before it. Razor sharp riffs of choppy powerchords, super-tight drum patterns with a dangerous amount of fills-per-bar, searing five-second guitar solos, and Morris’ unmistakable vocal growling and snarling and spitting – all packed into tightly controlled explosions of thirty to sixty seconds. Hardcore punk exactly like they made it in the eighties. … Continue Reading

PS I Love You – Death Dreams

PS I Love You - Death Dreams

By Harry Bainbridge

The inspiration for Ontario heavy pop duo PS I Love You’s second offering Death Dreams is, funnily enough, vocalist and guitarist Paul Saulnier’s nightmares based around his own mortality. Whilst on tour last year he began to experience reoccurring dreams that would shape the direction for the band’s next LP. A suitably dark premise to start from, then. … Continue Reading

Damon Albarn – Dr Dee

Damon Albarn - Dr Dee

By Kenny McMurtrie

If John Adams ever writes a musical setting for the Latin mass there’s a good chance it will sound like large parts of Damon Albarn‘s Dr Dee. His efforts may be more listenable however, as Britpop this is clearly not. Nor are there any obvious African influences, given Albarn’s forays into the musical milieu of Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent years. Some sort of Olde English song cycle is maybe the closest reference point with his own vocals being more in line with The Good, The Bad & The Queen than Blur or Gorillaz. … Continue Reading

The Cribs – In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull

The Cribs - In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull

By Richard Wink

If you believe in a band, you tend to expect greatness will one day come. I’ve always believed that The Cribs have been capable of making a truly ground breaking indie rock album – it’s just that I never expected them to actually do it. Getting straight to the point In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull is the best album The Cribs have recorded.

The Jarman brothers have managed to harness everything golden they’ve previously said and done, and pertinently, present it on this album. After Johnny Marr hitched a ride on the good ship for Ignore The Ignorant before deciding to move on to a new solo venture, the Jarmans have revisited their simpler, less intricate stateside college rock influences. Most of the song skeletons were put together by Gary and Ryan during riotous road trips across the Pacific North West. You can imagine left of the dial mess-arounds sketched on the back of tomato sauce stained diner napkins. … Continue Reading

Lone – Galaxy Garden

Lone - Galaxy Garden

By Greg Salter

Lone – real name Matt Cutler – has spoken about Galaxy Garden as feeling a little like his first proper album and, if you explore his back catalogue, you can see what he means. Early albums like Everything Is Changing Colour and Lemurian were clearly indebted to hiphop, while later material like the critically acclaimed Emerald Fantasy Tracks from 2010 and last year’s Echolocations EP brought in elements of rave and Chicago house, just as several other UK producers were embracing similar influences. Though this was all strong, consistent material, you felt like this was music that paid tribute to particular eras and genres, like faithful exercises in nostalgia. … Continue Reading

Stay+ – Arem EP

Stay+ - Arem EP

By Rosie Duffield

Imagine this as the soundtrack to Skins.  It’s a journey through an epic night out, taking you up and chilling you out.  That’s the first impression that Arem presents, at least, which is probably more straightforward than the band itself.

Stay+ are a duo shrouded in mystery; allegedly from Manchester, Matt Farthing and Christopher Poole are rarely seen (they once sent a balloon artist to do a Radio 1 interview on their behalf) – but, it seems, are always heard. … Continue Reading

Kwes – Meantime EP

Kwes - Meantime EP

By Russell Warfield

For someone who’s ostensibly so prolific – working on songs since he got obsessed with a little electric piano at the age of four – Kwes hasn’t amassed a desperately substantial body of work since releasing his debut single ‘Hearts In Home’ over three years ago. There’s been an addictive second single, a collaborative mixtape with fellow pop screwball Micachu, and an EP of instrumentals, but we’re still waiting for something which feels like his definitive, flag-in-the-ground  release. And, although it’s his first collection of bona fide vocal-songs, and debut release through the natural outlet of Warp , Meantime still doesn’t give the impression that Kwes has truly arrived – just three songs (the opening track being an ambient sketch which bleeds into the EP’s single ‘Bashful’) not boasting enough substance to showcase his clearly considerable talents effectively, nor making a truly lasting impact on the listener. … Continue Reading

James Yorkston And The Athletes – Moving Up Country (10th Anniversary Edition)

James Yorkston And The Athletes - Moving Up Country (10th Anniversary Edition)

By Tom Bolton

The ten years since James Yorkston and the Athletes released their debut album, Moving Up Country may have raced past, but it has certainly been long enough to forgot what life before Yorkston was like.  Combining success with a profile just low enough to allow him to get on with what he wants, he is a confident enough musician to have created his own mini-genre, a sort of Scottish country folk.  Associates and admirers come from many musical backgrounds though, including the Waterson dynasty, Alex Neilson, Kieran Hebden and Yorkston’s Fence Collective mates.  Oh, and he used to be a punk. … Continue Reading

Death Grips – The Money Store

Death Grips - The Money Store

By Russell Warfield

Although it’s arguably the most intense cut taken from an album of borderline-violent intensity, ‘Hacker’ still stands out as being perhaps the most beginner-friendly starting point to the post-apocalyptic hip-hop aneurysm that is Death Grips‘ major label (I repeat: major label) debut LP The Money Store. Standing as the outfit’s closest approximation of a dance floor number, with its gut-slicing rhythms and just-about discernible chorus, the track also forcefully introduces you to their hyper-confrontational and anarchistic approach to sampling and arrangements – beats collapsing from under the song for split second periods, jangling guitars joining in for a bar, rhythm provided by heart-shattering bass, and rapper (in the loosest sense of the word) Stefan Burnett’s abrasive mixture of social commentary and unfathomable gibberish (“NOW WE’VE GOT ALL THE COCONUTS, BITCH!”). It’s noise pollution at its most exhilarating and, like the album at large, a complete fucking mess. And I’m still not a hundred percent sure if I mean that as an endorsement or a criticism. … Continue Reading