An American noise pop band. I know what you’re thinking: these guys are just another in a long line of acts who want to have all the impact of the Velvet Underground but have none of the tunes, so what do they do? They throw together a jumble of vaguely familiar hooks, lather it in reverb, squeeze it threw a filter or two and set it against a background of jarring feedback and interminable drones. Sprinkle it with psychedelia, leave Continue Reading
I was actually listening to Poly’s new album, ‘Generation Indigo’ when news came through that she’d lost her battle to cancer (or won her battle to go on to higher places – you decide). It wasn’t an entire surprise by any means in a life that was often ruled by surprises but it was no less galling to be honest – not when you have what amounts to her finest collection of material to date sitting there looking at you. Continue Reading
‘Machinery’ – sexy, smouldering, monster pop, that’s what it is, making you feel a little uneasy and a little horny in equal measures. Take ‘Sweatshop’ – the aural equivalent of bondage gear – dark, relentless and about as uncompromising as a hammer coming down on your John Thomas. It arrives, it enters your head and it stays there. This is the steroid-enhanced follow-up to 2009’s debut, ‘Wait For The Revolution’ and described by the band as a ‘gut-inducing slab of Continue Reading
The last time I listened to an Undertones record with any real malicious intent was when I was tearing around the estate where we lived on my Raleigh Chopper bike. ‘Here Comes Summer’ was in the charts and we had just broken up for the six-week summer holiday. I had a terrific pair of blue corduroy pants shrunk-wrapped to my legs, a blue, orange-lined Snorkel Parka gracing my back, a full packet of Spangles in my pocket and a half-bottle Continue Reading
King Creosote’s Kenny Anderson has called the collaboration a “soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village“ and without knowing what life in a Scottish coastal village is actually like, I’ll have to take his word for it. But if said life in a Scottish coastal village can be best defined by the occasional rattle of cups on saucer, a courteous exchange or two between waitress and customer and the tickling of piano string Continue Reading