New music
Album: Plantoid - TerrapathMonday, 29 January 2024
Terrapath is a prog-rock album with a large dash of jazz-rock fusion. When the styles were in their Seventies pomp, an album side could be occupied by one cut. Both sides might feature, at most, four, maybe five tracks. Yet Plantoid’s debut LP fits... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Fantastic Voyage - New Sounds For The European CanonSunday, 28 January 2024
In October 1977 Glasgow punk band Johnny & the Self Abusers decided to change their name. This was a problem for Chiswick Records, who were about to release their debut single. The records were pressed, the sleeves printed and the press release... Read more... |
Album: Sarah Jarosz - Polaroid LoversSaturday, 27 January 2024
Critically acclaimed in the US, singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz has won four Grammies during the course of her career. Born in Texas, spending most of her adult life in New York, her seventh album was created in her new hometown of Nashville, with an... Read more... |
Album: The Smile - Wall of EyesFriday, 26 January 2024
Since The Smile drummer Tom Skinner’s bandmates Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are two-fifths of Radiohead, the trio is often designated a “side project”, or satellite, as if its music pales beside the mothership’s. On the strength of its second... Read more... |
Album: Alkaline Trio - Blood, Hair, And EyeballsThursday, 25 January 2024
Alkaline Trio’s gruesomely named 10th album, Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs, is a commentary on the modern world through the dark, poetic lens that the band have honed over their 25-year career. In both theme and sound, it captures their identity while... Read more... |
Album: Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me FreeWednesday, 24 January 2024
Halfway through this album, “They Sold My Home to Build a Skyscraper” unlocks it. On first listen I’d been nodding along with the first few songs, enjoying how they find glimmers of more or less forlorn hope in amongst sadness and middle-aged... Read more... |
Album: NewDad - MadraMonday, 22 January 2024
When Ed Sheeran sang about a Galway girl in his radio-friendly folk number of the same name, he hadn’t met NewDad vocalist and guitarist Julia Dawson. This Galway girl doesn’t play a fiddle. She fronts an ethereal foursome re-energising a classic... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Long Ryders - Native SonsSunday, 21 January 2024
Native Sons joyfully reframed musical styles of the past for the present. Even so, the freshness and oomph of The Long Ryders’ debut album meant revivalism was sidestepped. Originally issued in October 1984, it was a landmark in helping to nurture... Read more... |
Album: Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes - Dark RainbowSaturday, 20 January 2024
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.... Read more... |
Album: Lizzie No - HalfsiesFriday, 19 January 2024
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... Read more... |
Album: Black Grape - Orange HeadThursday, 18 January 2024
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... Read more... |
Album: Altered Natives - Time Decays All ThingsWednesday, 17 January 2024
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... Read more... |
