New music
Tom Carr
Since his time fronting the hardcore band Gallows, Frank Carter has established himself as a figurehead of modern British punk-rock. His current project, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes is among the most lively and exciting live acts in the UK.On previous albums they have regularly tackled subjects such as mental health and toxic masculinity. Their last effort – 2021’s Sticky – was a free-spirted affair, cutting loose after the containment of the lockdowns of the previous year.Having honed a streamlined, yet powerful, sound heavily tinged with punk and hardcore, combined with Carter’s Read more ...
Liz Thomson
With this her third album, Bronx-born-singer-songwriter Lizzie No promises “an apocalyptic journey from exile to liberation” – a bold promise. Halfsies is certainly an album of musical contrasts: on the one hand the freneticism of “Getaway Car” or “Lagunitas”, on the other the gentle, delicate beauty of “Mourning Dove Waltz” or “The Heartbreak Store”.From folk to rock and back again, this is a beguiling album that’s tough and tender and full of sly humour. Listening to it, you can see why the audience at last year’s Celtic Connections was won over.No grew up singing in the church choir Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Shaun Ryder is now known mostly for being Shaun Ryder, via any random TV programme that will pay him a couple of quid. In this light, his musical achievements have lost some of their shine over the decades. But, if given the chance, a couple of those Happy Mondays albums and the first Black Grape album still own the room. It’s 30 years since that first Black Grape album, It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah (they weren’t!), but the band's two albums since have both been, well, pretty good, actually. And the same can be said for their fourth.The band now consists of just Ryder and his old Read more ...
joe.muggs
There are musicians on the UK dance underground who doggedly identify with particular scenes and evolve with them. There are those who adapt stylistically in order to move from scene, or manage to be part of several at the same time. And then there is Londoner Danny Native aka Altered Natives. He is truly the outsider’s outsider.He’s made tracks over the years that have been played by mainstays in scenes like house, broken beat, UK funky, post-dubstep and elsewhere, but by a combination of accident and design is part of none of these things. With a distinctively cantankerous and mordant wit, Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Around the time the time that he retired his Ziggy Stardust alter ego, David Bowie put out an album of covers, done in a Glam/Proto-punk style. This included tunes by the Yardbirds, the Kinks and various other Garage Rock bands that were somewhat outside the mainstream at the time.Fifty years or so later (yes, really), Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and Neal X, most famously of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, have put together a new outfit with Mat Hector and Ben Ellis of Iggy Pop’s touring band and James Beaumont, called The Loveless, and have done the same – albeit with a couple of fine original tunes for Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The Bull And The Lion was originally released in 1976 by Jo'burg, a South African label which opened-up for business in 1973 with a couple of singles and the first album by black singer Margaret Singana. Her debut LP was titled Lady Africa. The same year, the imprint issued the second single by Rabbitt, a white pop-rock band whose guitarist Trevor Rabin became internationally known when he played with Manfred Mann and then joined Yes.Jo'burg, it seems, was not bound by genre limitations and the strictures of working within Apartheid-era South Africa. After 1973, Singana and Rabbitt remained Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Nailah Hunter’s debut album occupies a domain where trip-hop, Lana Del Rey were she recording in a deep, echo-filled cave and ambient-slanted pop overlap. There’s a kinship with FKA Twigs and Julia Holter, but Hunter’s propensity to channel what feels like a mystical experience means that Lovegaze is more inscrutable than what’s generated by first impressions.Her voice is distant, a low-ish soprano set in a wash of synths. Pattering percussion and the glissando of her Celtic harp pierce the aural mist. On the relatively sparsely arranged “Adorned” – which has a slight Alice Coltrane feel – Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis hasn’t made large waves this side of the Atlantic. Perhaps this is because her appeal has partly been rooted in Latin communities across the US and, indeed, Central and South America. Last year her third album, Red Moon in Venus, reached the Top 5 of the US album charts. At the time she said she already had her next album ready, a Spanish language affair. This is it and it’s a slightly feistier creature than its woozily narcotic predecessor.Uchis’s current default setting remains sexy-stoned. Her voice is a seductive instrument. She silkily rolls language Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
January 2024 marks the beginning of a new era for leading UK pop-punks Neck Deep, their upcoming 10 track LP captures a moment of harmony between their global success and their dedication to staying true to their roots. Following huge tours and top 5 records, the band opted to write and record their self-titled album in their own warehouse space in Wrexham, and from energetic opener “Dumbstruck Dumbf**k” all the way through to introspective closing track “Moody Weirdo”, Neck Deep expertly represents the band. It’s pop-punk perfection with a distinguishable Neck Deep stamp on it.The familiar Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is the Vaccines’ sixth studio album and their first since the departure of original guitarist Freddie Cowan. As with previous releases, it’s rammed with catchy hooks wrapped in in fizzy pop rock tunes – but despite Justin Young’s claim that “it’s about the loss of dreams”, it is also distinctly lacking any nuance or real soul.Over the course of their previous five albums, the Vaccines’ music has frequently been dismissed as little more than contrived and light-weight power pop that wears its influences just a little bit too heavily. Not that picking up on the Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The album’s opening track is titled “Silver Train.” Built around a choppy acoustic guitar refrain, it features Hammond organ, spindly electric guitar lines, pattering percussion and has a vibe – with a gospel edge – suggesting a familiarity with Let It Bleed- and Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones. Or, in a different time, the Primal Scream of “Movin’ On Up.”However, East Village recorded their sole album Drop Out in January 1990 and the Primal Scream single came out in January 1992. And, compounding the chronological issues, Drop Out was initially shelved and issued in early 1993. East Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
As a lifelong blink fan, there was no competition for my album of the year. One More Time… was undeniably the musical highlight of 2023 for me, a perfect token of the next chapter of blink-182. Accompanied by an intimate Zane Lowe interview and a tour that were as joyous and emotional as the music itself, 2023 was the year that blink reminded the world of their magic.In signature blink-182 style, the album is extremely moving at the exact same time as being the epitome of fun. It’s everything that's great about the band with an extra sprinkling of excitement because of the time that has Read more ...