Album, Single, EP and Live Reviews

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
Live Reviews: Bearded Do Reading Festival - Part 1
It's fair to say that, during the months leading up to Reading Festival, the event was met with a torrent of hostility from music lovers. In the past, one would react enviously to the news that a friend had managed to bank a ticket to the festival, whereas this year such declarations were met with sighs, the rolling of eyes, and downright surprise that anyone would pay £200 for what was considered a meagre line-up, overpriced on-site refreshments and appallingly narrow-minded youth culture. This was supported by the length of ticket availability, with the event selling out just one month before the start date in contrast to previous years, when tickets would sell out five seconds after general sale release.
Posted on Sep 4th, 2011
Live Reviews: Shambala Festival 25 - 28.08.11
Now that the summer festival season starts in May and ends in September – with every single weekend in between graced/blighted with some kind of mass gathering of humans in a field – it is a hard life for the boutique festival that just wants to be different. Family friendly kitsch? Camp Bestival has been there and done that. Plodding dad-rock? Kendall Calling has got that little niche sewn up nicely. In the increasingly crowded festival marketplace, Shambala pulls off a neat trick: it basically doesn’t even try to compete musically, but instead cranks up the fun-o-meter and lets the music fill in the gaps.
Posted on Aug 31st, 2011
EPs: Florian Lunaire - Spring/Summer 2011 (Records Records Records)
The seasonally inspired new EP from Florian Lunaire.
Posted on Aug 31st, 2011
Albums: Tarwater - Inside The Ships (Tapete)
Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram, aka Tarwater, are a German duo specialising in moody, atmospheric grooves overlaid with detached, ambiguous spoken vocals… and sound exactly how you imagine they would.
Posted on Aug 29th, 2011
Albums: The United Sons Of Toil - When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful (Phratry)
Blue collar proletariat precision noiserocker trio The United Sons Of Toil have a manifesto and a purpose - aside, that is, from rockin' your lame asses off – and, unlike some, they mean it maaaaaan.
Posted on Aug 29th, 2011
Albums: Iceage - New Brigade (Abeano)
Post-punk, discordant, with the spirit of New Wave: A welcome release from Iceage.
Posted on Aug 29th, 2011
Live Reviews: Chad VanGaalen @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester 20.08.11
It’s been a couple of years since Canadian one-man musical dynamo Chad VanGaalen was last over here, and tonight at Manchester’s Deaf Institute found him on the very last date of his European tour to promote his latest record, the rather excellent Diaper Island.
Posted on Aug 26th, 2011
Live Reviews: The Low Anthem @ Norwich Arts Centre 18.08.11
From the soft accordion which swells to fill the performance hall as The Low Anthem open their set it becomes apparent that the converted church that is now Norwich Arts Centre is an ideal environment for the hushed and hymnal tones of the Rhode Island group, currently visiting the United Kingdom in support of their 4th album to date: 2011's Smart Flesh.
Posted on Aug 26th, 2011
Live Reviews: Green Man @ Brecon Beacons, Wales 19 – 21.08.11
Green Man returns to a sunny Brecon Beacons, but what does an increase in numbers, and a remarkable turnaround in weather fortunes, do for Britain’s most beautiful festival?
Posted on Aug 23rd, 2011
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