The Cribs - Chi-Town
Now Playing – twice every week, a roundtable of our writers will give their views on some of the recently-released new tracks. It’s as simple as that! If you want to tell us what you think of the song, feel free to leave a comment below.
Track: ‘Chi-Town’ by The Cribs
Burial - Kindred EP
By Greg Salter
The first 50 seconds of Burial’s ‘Kindred’ feel familiar, mournful and comforting – there’s the synth washes rising steadily on minor chords, the flicker of a distorted, androgynous vocal somewhere in the mix and the ambient patter of heavy rain, broken by thunder. Suddenly, the beats kick in – they’re the familiar hollow, metallic beats that Burial gave us on his 2006 self-titled debut and much-loved 2007 breakthrough Untrue, but far more aggressive. While Untrue was widely embraced (and widely imitated) for its emotive approach to the then-still-underground genre of dubstep, then ‘Kindred’, briefly, does something Burial’s music has never done before – it unsettles. Further to that: if Untrue cast the faded glamour of UK garage in monotones and memories, the‘Kindred’ brings in elements of jungle and even drum and bass to create something altogether more intense and threatening. … Continue Reading
Jessie Ware
Now Playing – twice every week, a roundtable of our writers will give their views on some of the recently-released new tracks. It’s as simple as that! If you want to tell us what you think of the song, feel free to leave a comment below.
Track: ‘Running’ by Jessie Ware
Band Of Skulls - Sweet Sour
By Dannii Leivers
So Southampton. Not the first place you’d think to look for sexed-up, bourbon-soaked blues. Yet in 2009 that’s exactly where we found it – with Band of Skulls’ debut Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, which, set somewhere in the American South, howled, stomped, sashayed and chugged, one eye on our craniums, the other on our knickers. … Continue Reading
Phenomenal Handclap Band - Form And Control
By Kenny McMurtrie
Not that I’ve made a great effort to hear new works in the year so far (mostly I’ve been playing stuff from last year or earlier that I’d not properly got to grips with) but it occurred to me that by the end of February 2011 I’d already scribbled down five or so titles that constituted the beginning of my personal top twenty releases of that year whereas in 2012 I’ve so far got no candidates for the list. Phenomenal Handclap Band‘s Form And Control could therefore realistically find me still giving it the thumbs up in ten months time. … Continue Reading
Josh Ritter - Bringing In The Darlings EP
By Melanie McGovern
Saccharine songwriter Josh Ritter follows up 2010′s So Runs the World Away with a stripped down, acoustic folk EP which harks back to his beginnings as a solo balladeer.
Recorded in Brooklyn during the winter of 2011, Bringing in the Darlings precedes the LP entitled simply Darlings, and is comprised of the tracks which didn’t make the final cut, but which do, unsurprisingly, all contain the word “darling”. It’s an intimate recording featuring only Ritter and longstanding producer Josh Kaufman assisting on the vast majority of instrumentation. … Continue Reading
Lambchop - Mr M
By Kenny McMurtrie
Having spent a large part of the festive season playing Lambchop‘s early compilation Tools In The Dryer, I was pretty well primed for tackling this, album number 11 proper from the band. The downside of that early aural limbering up being of course that the likelihood of there being some upbeat remixes on Mr. M is slim to naught and sure enough the regular path of Americana is trodden once more in the course of the 11 tracks contained herein. … Continue Reading
Damien Jurado - Maraqopa
By Russell Warfield
If nothing else, ‘Nothing Is The News’ makes for an arresting and audacious opening track to Damien Jurado’s tenth LP Maraqopa. As can be the case with long standing tortured-man-and-his-guitar acts, Jurado found himself in something of a rut sometime during the last decade, even without conceding an accompanying drop in songwriting quality. Nevertheless, having pushed out the same old (and arguably exhausted) textures and emotions for a few throws too many, Jurado’s 2010 effort Saint Barlett enlisted the help of producer Richard Swift, coming into the fold as more of a bona fide collaborator and partner than a producer, such were the intensity of his fingerprints on Jurado’s sound. ‘Nothing Is The News’ is the logical extension of Jurado’s new production-focused renaissance. As an act primarily recognised for reedy vocals, maudlin lyricism and delicately strummed acoustic guitars, this opening track opens the floodgates even more widely to new sounds, ideas and ambitions. … Continue Reading
Sam Sparro - 'The Shallow End'
Now Playing – twice every week, a roundtable of our writers will give their views on some of the recently-released new tracks. It’s as simple as that! If you want to tell us what you think of the song, feel free to leave a comment below.
Track: ‘The Shallow End’ by Sam Sparro
Frightened Rabbit, by Julia Stryj
By Julia Stryj
February 10, 2012
First up on stage for tonight’s HMV’s Next Big Thing are Fatherson. The Glaswegian three-piece (or should I say quartet, as a female cellist joins the three guys for one song) have some good turnout considering they are on pretty early. And while a lot of the audience seems to be family, friends and fans, they manage to win over the rest with their Scottish folk indie tunes and their cheery attitude. The Picture House is filling up more and by the time We Are Augustines are on, there isn’t that much space any more to move about. After talking to the three guys from Brooklyn it is strange to stand in front of them with a camera hiding my face.
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