Album, Single, EP and Live Reviews

Albums: Wolves Like Us - Late Love (Prosthetic)
Rather than wasting time huffing and puffing, these Wolves cut straight to the chase and blow your house down straight away.
Posted on Sep 12th, 2011
Albums: Sun Glitters - Everything Could Be Fine (LebensStrasse)
Finally released in the UK, Everything Could Be Fine is something to cherish
Posted on Sep 12th, 2011
Albums: Death In Vegas - Trans-Love Energies (Drone)
A much over-due, but never-the-less welcome return for Death In Vegas
Posted on Sep 12th, 2011
Live Reviews: 360 Club @ The Library, Leeds 02.09.11
There’s a strong crowd gathered tonight in The Library, though for a duet like Jack, and Gill’s Daughter, this isn’t necessarily a good thing. With just an acoustic guitar and vocals, these are performers used to a more intimate setting. So as to raise them above the lager-swilling crowd, the sound was pushed to unnatural levels which unfortunately clashed with the gentle touch that was intended. However, every other feature of the set was spot on. Jack’s complex, rhythmic, technical style of playing never hindered the magnificent simplicity of the songwriting and the so-called ‘Gill’s Daughter’, Gemma Tilley has a subtle but expressive voice which suited their cover of ‘Glory Box’ perfectly. These are a pair who will wow you by candlelight – just perhaps not by striplights.
Posted on Sep 11th, 2011
Live Reviews: King Creosote & Jon Hopkins @ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London 09.09.11
King Creosote didn't quite appear as one dressed to play the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall, or in fact even expect to be performing there at all: "Always nice to have some guys who didn't win the Mercury Prize on stage" he joked dressed in checkered shirt, baggy jeans with ruffled brown hair. It was of course his collaborative EP Diamond Mine, recorded alongside electronic/contemporary classical musician and producer Jon Hopkins, which captured the atmosphere of a Scottish fishing town and found itself an almost unexpected nominee but never an undeserving one, with the project being mulled over from fruition to completion over a period of some six years.
Posted on Sep 11th, 2011
Live Reviews: White Denim @ Electric Ballroom, London 01.09.11
Texans dazzle technically but are let-down by static stage presence
Posted on Sep 7th, 2011
Live Reviews: Bearded Do Reading Festival - Part 2
Obviously not at all hungover from the night before, we woke up crazy early on Saturday to catch Sharks, the first band to grace The Lock Up Tent. The arrogant indie punks started on a high with their best song 'Trains', but couldn't top it until the end with near-equal track 'It All Relates'. The authenticity and quality of the vocal continuously battled a fairly dull spectacle, but on the whole it wasn't at all bad: a brilliant recorded band, only reasonable live. We then went to check out She Keeps Bees, who we'd heard were alright – they weren't. Sounding like a bad Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the most unspectacular songs and showmanship ever, they definitely qualified as the worst band we saw. They seemed like very nice people though!
Posted on Sep 6th, 2011
Albums: Bill Gould & Jared Blum - The Talking Book (Koolarrow)
The atmosphere that haunts the world of The Talking Book is as palpable as the dust that clogs the grooves of the grainy, crackling vinyl that Bill Gould & Jared Blum have mined for this, their first collaborative work. The Talking Book has the melancholy, sepia-toned feel of a faded old photograph found in a strangers house, full of old ghosts, almost-forgotten memories and a real sense of encroaching decay.
Posted on Sep 5th, 2011
Albums: Alias - Fever Dream (Anticon)
Underground hip hop still has a lot to offer.
Posted on Sep 5th, 2011
Albums: All Pigs Must Die - God Is War (Southern Lord)
Southern Lord continues to go against the perceived image of them as purveyors of arty doom by letting rip with more crust-inflected hardcore, and THIS one is a real doozy.
Posted on Sep 5th, 2011
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