indie
CD: LCD Soundsystem – Electric Lady SessionsSaturday, 09 February 2019
Jimmy Hendix’s Greenwich Village studios are the venue for LCD Soundsystem’s third live album, which features the most recent touring line-up playing a set heavy with songs from 2017’s American Dream album along with a smattering of covers. ... Read more... |
CD: Mercury Rev - Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete RevisitedWednesday, 06 February 2019
The Delta Sweete was Bobbie Gentry's second album. Issued in February 1968 six months after her single “Ode to Billie Joe” topped the US charts, it did not make the US Top 100. Nonetheless, it is classic southern-gothic country and a peerless... Read more... |
CD: Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community CenterMonday, 04 February 2019
In recent weeks, you may have noticed signs for the Better Oblivion Community Center, from billboards to park benches, all displaying a mysterious helpline telephone number. This was not some new community support project, but a surprise... Read more... |
The Dandy Warhols, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - a silver jubilee jaunt with plenty of new tunesThursday, 31 January 2019
This week, the Dandy Warhols rocked up in Birmingham to begin the UK leg of their 25th anniversary tour with a gig in the Institute’s shabby but beautiful main hall, with its dusty neo-classical alabaster reliefs and almost comically antiquated... Read more... |
CD: Girlpool - What Chaos Is ImaginaryMonday, 28 January 2019
Few bands have grown up in real time in quite as interesting a way as Girlpool. It’s partly a question of timing: Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker were barely old enough to play bars around the release of their precocious 2013 debut EP, with its sing... Read more... |
CD: James Blake - Assume FormSaturday, 26 January 2019
There is an inevitable change that comes with moving from the realms of self-produced bedroom blubstep to slickly-produced West Cali smoothness that will cause chaotic realms of loss of self, fans and at some level, originality. But let’s not forget... Read more... |
CD: Kikok - SaunaMonday, 21 January 2019
Russian trio Gnoomes have created small waves over the last couple of years with their woozy psychedelia. One of its defining factors is the way the band have utilised Soviet-era synthesizers. During the Cold War it wasn’t only weaponry and the... Read more... |
CD: The Twilight Sad - It Won/t Be Like This All the TimeSunday, 20 January 2019
The disappearance of a band for a while calls for a re-set. A reminder, perhaps, of why you fell for them in the first place. "[10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs]", the four minutes of minor-key chaos that opens the new album from The Twilight Sad,... Read more... |
CD: Pedro the Lion - PhoenixSaturday, 12 January 2019
It’s hard to see the first album under the Pedro the Lion name in 15 years as anything other than a homecoming. There’s the title, Phoenix, for one thing: a dual-purpose nod to both songwriter David Bazan’s hometown and the mythical bird, reborn... Read more... |
CD: Lorelle Meets the Obsolete – De FactoThursday, 10 January 2019
De Facto is the fifth album from Mexican duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete and the first to be recorded in the home studio of core members Lorelle (Lorena Quintanella) and The Obsolete (Alberto González). The change has certainly served them well,... Read more... |
CD: You Tell Me - You Tell MeMonday, 07 January 2019
This 11-tracker begins with 35 seconds of rhythmically bedded instrumental colour which opens the curtain for a lovely, folky slab of art-pop titled “Enough to Notice”. Odd touchstones surface: Skylarking XTC, Stackridge, Dirty Projectors. Yet there... Read more... |
CD: Yak - Pursuit of Momentary HappinessSunday, 06 January 2019
“Are you tired of being pissed and confused?” opens the epic title track of Yak’s second album. Later on singer Oli Burslem brokenly croons, “For now I’m in pursuit of momentary happiness; it’s vacuous and a game gonna lose [sic]. Do you remember... Read more... |
