The 2 Bears – Be Strong

The 2 Bears - Be Strong

By Jim Merrett

A GSOH might be a prerequisite for a lonely-hearts ad, but in the music industry it won’t get you very far. Everyone wants to be taken seriously, so a po-face, skinny jeans and stick-on council estate accent is in, a bear suit is definitely out.

But if there’s one music genre that knows how to have a good time, it’s dance. And of course this arena is not alien to novelty either. No doubt thanks to the availability of cheap drugs, we’ve embraced robots (Daft Punk) and a man with a massive mouse head (deadmau5), now with a typically British low-rent, half-hearted Carry On spirit the 2 Bears lumber into a club near you. … Continue Reading

The Duke Spirit – Bruiser

The Duke Spirit - Bruiser

By Paul Faller

The words ‘criminally overlooked’ are somewhat of an understatement when it comes to The Duke Spirit. Their debut record Cuts Across The Land was a bit of an odd one out in 2005′s indie crowd, its dark and brooding style at odds with the ‘popular’ notion of indie at the time. A follow-up was slow to emerge, but worth waiting for, and 2008′s Neptune married the group’s distinctive style with a hook-laiden sense of immediacy. It seems that three years is about the right gestation period for the band, as 2011 saw third album Bruiser land, get some decent reviews, then fall straight off everyone’s radar, which is pretty criminal in my opinion. Nevertheless, North Americans finally have the chance to get their hands on a physical copy of the record in early February – and as we haven’t reviewed Bruiser before now, it seems as good a time as any to explain why it was one of my favourite records of last year. … Continue Reading

Gonajsufi – MU.ZZ.LE

Gonjasufi - MU.ZZ.LE

By Antonio Tzikas

Crackling and buzzing through your speakers like a transmission from the depths, MU.ZZ.LE is a solemn and experimental mixture of broken, disjointed, lo-fi hip-hop and haunting, croaky soul. The latest offering from Warp Records’ Gonjasufi (Sumach Ecks), this record was written out on the road, recorded back at his home studio and acts as a compilation of experiences and emotions garnered throughout his travels. The ‘weary traveller’ element of the songs comes across as much in the production as it does in the songwriting and lyrics, the same grating distortion that defined the aesthetic of his critically acclaimed and highly recommended 2010 debut, A Sufi and a Killer. … Continue Reading

FOE – Bad Dream Hotline

FOE - Bad Dream Hotline

By Paul Faller

FOE is the alter ego of 21 year-old Fleet-based musician Hannah Clark, who started out this project with a £40 Technics organ and a distinct sense of not fitting in. But while early influences PJ Harvey and Nirvana do inform her debut album Bad Dream Hotline to an extent, there’s a deliciously dark world to be discovered within, and it’s very much her own. … Continue Reading

DJ Food – The Search Engine

DJ Food - The Search Engine

By Kenny McMurtrie

DJ Food‘s The Search Engine starts off with one of those annoying but occasionally amusing deep voices that advertise films. Given that the album’s created entirely from samples it probably is just exactly that. Thankfully it disappears after the first track (‘All Covered In Darkness (pt. 1)’). This consistently surprising album then throws up a pretty major one right on track two with a 30 year old song being sung by its originator – Talk Talk’s Matt Johnson does ‘GIANT’. Ten and a half minutes of unadulterated danceable goodness. … Continue Reading

Chairlift – Something

Chairlift - Something

By Russell Warfield

While it’s true to say that Charlift’s 2008 single ‘Bruises’ didn’t become as embedded into the public consciousness as something like Feist’s ‘1234’ when it was used in an iPod advert a few years ago, it nevertheless drew plenty of positive attention from the exposure all the same. But in an almost Herculean effort to not capitalise on momentum, Charilift went into radio silence for four years, underwent a course of inter-band relationship drama, lost a member, and only now return for their second bite of the cherry. … Continue Reading

The Big Pink – Future This

The Big Pink - Future This

By Stephanie Stevens-Wade

After their support slot for Muse’s arena tour back in 2009 The Big Pink‘s confidence and cockiness led them to convince themselves they would be bigger than the headlining trio. With the release of their debut album A Brief History of Love that year they were only starting to show people their natural proclivity for pop. But UK multi-instrumentalists Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze have unleashed another bold statement – their second album Future This. … Continue Reading

Chris Devotion And The Expectations – Amalgamation And Capital

Chris Devotion and the Expectations - Amalgamation and Capital

By Kenny McMurtrie

Bursting forth like a Scottish Gaslight Anthem, Chris Devotion and the Expectations rock out with their, er, roosters out from start to finish on this debut album. Just been dumped? Stick this on. Pining for your ex? Stick this on. Off to do something about getting back together? Listen to this to get psyched up. Failed to pull it off and still single? This and a few beers will see you through. Unlike a number of current soul & roll bands plying their trade around the place just now there’s no weak songs here that will need a live performance to realise their full potential. Not that there’s actually much soul here. Mostly it’s just rock although that’s in need of being spelt RAWK! … Continue Reading

Pulled Apart By Horses – Tough Love

Pulled Apart By Horses - Tough Love

By Dannii Leivers

“Slow your breathing! You haven’t got balls!” shrieks Pulled Apart By Horses’ front man Tom Hudson on the first line of Tough Love opener ‘V.E.N.O.M’. And bang, just like that we find ourselves recatapulted into this loony Leeds lot’s chaotic, bloodied and slightly sordid world. Damn it feels good to be back.

The band’s 2010 debut was a brutal, havoc-wreaking exercise in party hardcore, as doused in goofy charm (typical lyric “I’ll make you dance with my balls on fire”) and pop choruses as it was in bludgeoning metal and serrated guitars. And now, in a time where articles heralding the death of guitar music appear on a daily basis, the band seem to have pulled off a coup by slotting their annihilated asses in amongst the likes of Rihanna and Pit Bull on the Radio One play list. … Continue Reading

Bill Wells – Lemondale

Bill Wells - Lemondale

By Steve McGillivray

It’s probable that most people will come to Bill Wells on the back of last year’s collaboration with Aidan Moffat. In my humble opinion the pair released the best album of 2011 with Everything’s Getting Older. Wells handled the compositions, marrying them to Moffat’s dour outlook on life and together they released something bordering on genius. For his next project, Wells headed out to Japan to try and bring together elements of the experimental scene with his own vision and produce something contemporary. Also on board the project was Jim O’Rourke, a friend of Bill Wells from years gone by and a pretty talented musician himself. … Continue Reading