indie
theartsdesk in Groningen: Uniting Europe with MusicSunday, 24 January 2016
The nature of Europe, its administration, institutions and its porousness are hot topics. Sectors of Britain’s media and political class hyperventilate over trumped-up concerns while real issues which are just about impossible to address remain... Read more... |
CD: The Besnard Lakes - A Coliseum Complex MuseumMonday, 18 January 2016
A Coliseum Complex Museum is defined by its density. The Montréal band’s fifth album begins with a flurry of percussion which gives way to treated guitar and frontman Jace Lasek’s almost-falsetto vocal. Opening cut “The Bray Road Beast” is initially... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Still in a Dream - A Story of ShoegazeSunday, 17 January 2016
Head straight for Disc 2, Track 4. A drum thumps while spring-loaded guitar feedback pulses. Suddenly, a wall of cascading guitar hurtles forth like an electric hare pursued by greyhounds. A distorted, amelodic guitar solo contrasts with the sweet... Read more... |
CD: Daughter - Not To DisappearSunday, 17 January 2016
All eyes are on Daughter to see whether the indie-folk trio’s second album Not To Disappear can live up to the first. If You Leave (2013) was lauded a critical success, and the band fronted by North Londoner Elena Tonra earned a fiercely loyal... Read more... |
CD: Tindersticks - The Waiting RoomThursday, 14 January 2016
The waiting room is a despondent place. Wherever it is a staging post for is not bringing its occupants delight. Unsurprisingly, as it is by the perennially sombre Tindersticks, The Waiting Room is a grey-hued album which does not suggest imminent... Read more... |
CD: Odd Nosdam - TrishWednesday, 06 January 2016
Originally available on cassette only, Odd Nosdam's Trish has now become the producer and former member of hip-hop pioneers cLOUDDEAD's first release for the Sonic Cathedral label. With six tracks coming in at just under half an hour, it falls... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 15Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Is language a barrier to international recognition? Is English necessary to make waves worldwide? Musicians from the African continent and South America regularly perform in their native tongue beyond the borders of their home countries. But often... Read more... |
Albums of 2015: Alina Orlova – 88Monday, 21 December 2015
Choosing an album of the year is an exacting process. For an album to be arresting, it either has to come as a bolt from the blue or build on what’s come before in a way which represents an identifiable artistic development which takes things to new... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: LushSunday, 20 December 2015
The news that Lush have reformed didn’t come as surprise. Their comparable contemporaries Ride and Slowdive had also done so over the past couple of years, and My Bloody Valentine – an influence looming over all three – returned in 2007 after over a... Read more... |
CD: Astrocolor – Lit Up: Music for ChristmasMonday, 14 December 2015
Any Christmas album worth its salt draws from the classics. Versions of, say, “We Three Kings”, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Silent Night”, “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” and “The Little Drummer boy” are compulsory. What is not so... Read more... |
CD: Olivier Heim - A Different LifeSunday, 06 December 2015
After opening with a flurry of wobbly, woozy, Durutti Column-ish guitar, A Different Life travels through nine distant, foggy ruminations which suggest dissociation. Titles like “Far Apart”, “It’s Getting Better”, “Dive” and “Drive-by” posit Olivier... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Reykjavík: Iceland Airwaves 2015Sunday, 15 November 2015
The attack is relentless. Its power pummels like a gale. The 2015 model Mercury Rev begin their set at Iceland Airwaves as they meant to finish. Never has this band been so forceful, so kinetic. Yet their trademark balance of filmic drama and... Read more... |
