New music
CD: Beach House – BloomThursday, 10 May 2012
Traction isn’t a very rock‘n’roll word, but sometimes it’s difficult to understand why one act achieves a hold where another doesn’t. So it is with Beach House. They are great, but so are – say – the similarly positioned and styled, but less-lauded... Read more... |
Captain Scott's Antarctic DJ Mix Finally ReleasedWednesday, 09 May 2012One of the lesser known facts about Captain Scott's doomed 1910-1912 expedition to the South Pole was that the Gramophone Company (later renamed EMI) gave them two His Master's Voice record players and hundreds of 78 RPM 10" records to take with... Read more... |
Dexys, Shepherds Bush EmpireWednesday, 09 May 2012
Kevin Rowland always did march to the beat of his own drum. Whether it was purloining his album’s master tapes from his record company or refusing to consort with the music press, he constantly straddled a wobbly fence between control freak and... Read more... |
CD: ...and the Native Hipsters - Original CopyWednesday, 09 May 2012
One of my formative musical experiences, small but important, was tuning into John Peel’s late night Radio 1 show, early in the Eighties, and hearing …and the Native Hipsters’ “There Goes Concorde Again”. It was, quite simply, the weirdest “pop... Read more... |
Surprise Guillemots release is first of four this yearTuesday, 08 May 2012Avant-garde Birmingham four-piece Guillemots (or gUiLLeMoTs, as they would prefer to be stylised) release new album Hello Land! today after gloriously-named frontman Fyfe Dangerfield played two tracks on BBC 6 Music yesterday. The album is the... Read more... |
Offspring offer first taste of ninth studio albumTuesday, 08 May 2012Everybody's favourite 1990s guilty-pleasure punks The Offspring release ninth studio album Days Go By next month, and the band has just made the title track available as a taster. Take a listen below."I don't know why but I felt sort of serious... Read more... |
CD: Best Coast - The Only PlaceTuesday, 08 May 2012
Any concerns that Best Coast might have abandoned the sun-kissed California scuzz-pop sound that made their 2010 debut, Crazy For You, such a runaway success are answered in its opening - and title - track. “So leave your coat behind / We’re gonna... Read more... |
CD: Simian Mobile Disco - UnpatternsMonday, 07 May 2012
This is a techno album. A techno album on a British label best known for the indie-est of indie rock, from a duo whose last album featured rock vocalists Beth Ditto and Alex Turner among others, but a techno album nonetheless. It's all about pulse... Read more... |
Help! Are you a John or a Paul?Sunday, 06 May 2012
One day soon Beatles scholars and Professors of Fabology will emerge from their caverns and their ashrams to inform us that it was 50 years ago today. On 5 October 1962 “Love Me Do” was released and, to recycle a phrase often appended to lesser... Read more... |
CD: Keane - StrangelandSunday, 06 May 2012
To recap the Keane story so far: in 2004 three precocious middle-class boys stormed the charts with bland anthemic radio-friendly rock that used no guitars. Over the next six years, they then went on to experience the kind of growth that George... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Small FacesSunday, 06 May 2012
Small Faces: The Decca Album (Deluxe Edition), From The Beginning (Deluxe Edition), The Immediate Album (Deluxe Edition), Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Deluxe Edition)Kieron Tylertheartsdesk’s reissues round-up is usually dedicated to three... Read more... |
CD: Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky's EdgeSaturday, 05 May 2012
The shock could barely be greater if he turned up in loon pants and a tie-dyed T-shirt and swapped his quiff for an afro. As soon as the first track on Richard Hawley's new album roars out of the speakers it signifies a change. "She Brings the... Read more... |
