rock
Tom Carr
Rewind the clock back 10 years, and all seemed very promising for the upcoming rock group Marmozets. Cultivating an energetic sound from a range of influences as diverse as Dillinger Escape Plan and Architects, they appeared to heading to wider success. Tunes like "Move Shake Hide" and "Captivate You" exemplified how they refined their eclectic influences into something truly their own. Their third album in 2017 seemed to only further signify at the time that things were coming good for the Yorkshire group, at the time consisting of - and founded by - two sets of siblings: Becca, Josh Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
The All-American Rejects are back with their first album in 14 years, and their first ever independent release. At the height of their success in the early 2000s, the band had an established place in the pop rock landscape, one foot in emo culture and the other heading into the mainstream, but halted before they inevitably became too radio ready. Their return follows a string of free backyard pop-up concerts, a symbol of their intention to get back to their roots, American kids making fun, high octane rock, and Sandbox is a clear continuation of this energy.With a catalogue of timeless Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
VINYL OF THE MONTH 1Simo Cell & Abdullah Diawy Dying is the Internet EP (Dekmantel) + Simo Cell FL Louis (TEMƎT)
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Where house music has drifted to conservatism, becoming predictable and dull, some electronic producers are still creating dancefloor-adjacent music that rips. One of the very best is French machine-freak Simo Cell. His wonked-out bangers defy definition. He’s been Vinyl of the Month before, with his Yes. DJ EP, back in 2021. These two new releases are also essential. The first, via Amsterdam’s Dekmantel organization, is Read more ...
Tom Carr
For Basement, the post-hardcore rockers hailing from Ipswich, their story is one of promise and unpredictability. With their debut, 2011’s I Wish I Could Stay Here, they took the scene by storm, only to disband after their second album the following year. They had left their mark so deeply though, in a sense it didn’t feel like they went away. And after their mid-2010's return, their sound shifted subtly across their next two albums, settling on a blend of their original style with a straight-up alternative rock foundation. What had really stood them out was an ability to cut Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Mille Petrozza was born in 1967 to a Calabrian father, and a mother who was a refugee from Communist East Germany. He grew up in the Altenessen district of Essen, in Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley, where his father worked in the coal mines. As a young teenager, inspired by a KISS concert, he and school friends Jürgen "Ventor" Reil (drums) and Rob Fioretti (bass) started a band.By 1984, after going by various names, the band was called Kreator, with Petrozza the frontman and rhythm guitarist. Their raw 1985 debut album Endless Pain was followed by 1986’s seismic Pleasure to Kill. The latter Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Lurking within the heaviness and tractor-reversing-through-sludge dynamics of Hastings-based hairies Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s fifth album is a sense of poppiness. In an early Seventies Status Quo way, that is. Although it has a lengthy breakdown section, “Kind Boy” evokes Quo hits such as “Paper Plane” and “Caroline.” The vocals nod to the trademark Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi blend. There is a tune.However, this is not 1972 or 1973. Nonetheless, this power trio – named after the Admiral of the British Fleet and MP who perished at sea in 1707 – are wedded to an approach which might Read more ...
Tom Carr
To say the last few years have been some of the most painful and tumultuous for Foo Fighters would be quite the understatement. The band's long term drummer, Taylor Hawkins, passed away in 2022, followed only a few months later by the passing of band leader Dave Grohl’s mother. Understandably, the band needed time to process and adjust.What followed in 2023, was previous album But Here We Are, arguably some of the most nuanced work yet from the band. Here, Grohl and co worked through all stages of their grief and excised their pain by breathlessly sharing it with the world. With Josh Freese Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Record Store Day 2025 is this Saturday! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been playing through exclusive RSD goodies. Check the reviews. Then check head to your local record shop! See you amongst it. I apologise for the lack of current pop, particularly female pop singers, both established and rising. I spent time chasing such material but none arrived. Our RSD Special, then, lacks this tasty sliver of seasoning, but is still extremely tasty. That aside, DIVE IN!THEARTSDESK ON VINYL’S CHOICEST CUT OF RECORD STORE DAY APRIL 2026Robert Plant with Suzi Dian Saving Grace: All That Glitters Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Stagefront are two silhouetted figures, heads at a strange angle. Like hanged men. Beside each is a robed demon sentinel with a burning torch. Overseeing all is a gigantic, trompe l’oeil devil, gnarly-fanged, eyes a glazed pink blaze. The demons touch their torches to the doomed mannikins who go up in flames. Kreator, amid the enkindled carnage, plough into the utter pummelling of “Endless Pain”, the title track of their 1985 debut album. The moshpit explodes again.The German thrash perennials, over 40 years into their career, are bigger than you might think. They’re filling 3000- Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
Years have passed since the early days of Gorillaz, when the real musicians behind the cartoon band remained hidden from view onstage. Yet some things never change, and while there was plenty of cheering for the arrival of Damon Albarn onstage, it was dwarfed by the roars for the first appearances of 2-D, Murdock, Russel and Noodle on giant video screens overlooking the stage.Those cheers came from a wildly diverse crowd, from kids with their parents to Britpop stalwarts who have presumably followed Albarn ever since. Perhaps some of the younger fans were drawn by the anime style of the band Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Playwright David Hare is on a West End roll. Not only is his new play, Grace Pervades, about super thespians Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, making its way from Bath’s Theatre Royal to the Theatre Royal Haymarket next month, but his 1976 play with songs, Teeth ’N’ Smiles, now arrives at the Duke of York’s. Both are star-laden accounts of performance, with Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison as the Victorians, and Rebecca Lucy Taylor as Maggie the 1970s rocker. Also known as Self Esteem, she’s an Ivor-Novello Award winner last seen as Sally Bowles in Cabaret a couple of years ago. She also Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
Juanita Stein had a simple request for her bandmates. “Don’t fuck this up”, she joked, before the Australian group played a song from their new album for only the second time ever. You could understand the concern, however lightly it was expressed. These are still early days in the band’s reformation, with this year’s “Strange Days” offering the first material in 11 years.Hence the trio, augmented to a foursome here, were back in what Stein called a home away from home – the cramped surroundings of King Tut’s. It is a familiar haunt for the group, while also indicative of the fact that Read more ...