Reviews

You can picture him can’t you – lounging in his lair, stroking the white Persian cat with dyed red streaks on his lap, perusing his tour returns and royalty cheques from within the depths of his walk-in red, black and white wardrobe, and laughing. Laughing out a big old hearty evil nemesis laugh, through his big crooked moustachioed face. Remember, as we ploughed into the brave new world of an uncharted millennium Jack White made our new obsession an elementary Continue Reading

Dedicated followers of fashion? Leaders of the pack? Some unconfirmed point between the two down to any idea or cultural phenomena suffering an unspecified delay before it can register in Bobby Gillespie’s drug-addled, formaldehyde-sealed medical case study of a mind? Whatever the answer you’ve got to at least give them props for turning a stumbling, mumbling, arm wavering, intoxicated, idealistically clichéd rock and roll fantasy into a reality. This is what many aspire to be; politically motivated, justifiably obnoxious, swinging Continue Reading

Some bands are nourished by change, like it’s a requirement, even if hindsight is needed to ascertain and rubber stamp the suspicion. Stagnation can be dreadfully unsanitary after all. But not Mojave 3, surely? Their stillness has been key to their beauty all along, like slow-motion time-shift photography of a quilted azure sky on an August evening from just behind the safety of a comfortable straw hat. Lolling from chord to chord, slide to slide, ivory tinkle to ivory tinkle Continue Reading

‘Music is something of a joy’. That was the brief put together by Orin ‘Afronaught’ Walters, Paul ‘Seiji’ Dolby, Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi, Cliff Scott, Mark Force and Matt Lord – or Bugz In The Attic to me and thee, a Sarf London collective more commonly known for their beat breaking, boogie down, hip-swivelling nu-jazz remixes for the likes of Amy Winehouse , Macy Gray, Zero 7, Amira, Nitin Sawhney, Jazzanova and Amp Fiddler. Then there was that fizzy, Continue Reading

If you’ve been waiting patiently for The Killers to return to frenetic indie fringes of our increasingly high eighties standards or were disappointed with the shite rolled out by Babyshambles then copping a load of The Rifles while you wipe off your indie tears just might be the best course of action. Hotly tipped to become a success story in 2005 this breakneck London 4-piece have already been charming the likes of former Creation Records boss, Alan McGee and Radio Continue Reading

There’s delays and there’s delays. And we’re talking delays here. Serious ones. ‘From The Roots To The Shoots’ has been a long time coming for Mr Sedgley. Christ, even Fatboy Slim saw the potential of the now almost iconic ‘Happy’ as far back as 2004 and it was written as long back as 2001 in an era before all that terrorism, Iraq and Weapons of Mass Fabrication jiggery-pokery of our beleagured imaginations took hold. Let’s face it; it was a Continue Reading

There’s nothing wrong with having a message. Gang Of Four, Killing Joke, the Clash, all prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that music can and will knock hard at the walls of convention and provide momentum for change. But then you have bands like The Alarm and U2 and the whole thing begins to sound fairly unconvincing; not because there’s anything wrong with the message, but because the rallying call that propelled them from obscurity and inconsequence in the Continue Reading

Moving on the from the intense, wormholing journeys navigated by last year’s ‘The Days Of Mars’, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom offer a further four alienating and diffucult tracks courtesy of the pair’s ‘Relevee’ EP,  featuring remixes from the DFA, Carl Craig and Babyford. And whilst techo geeks everywhere are likely to wetting themselves over the sheer transcendental minimalism of it all, the rest of the record buying public are likely to be left scratching their heads. It’s not unpleasant. Continue Reading

His best album to date? Well that’s what they’ve been saying. And given that the Atlanta-based rapper and the self-proclaimed “King of the South“ has had to make his fourth studio album twice in response to the growing pirate interest in ‘Tip’ Harris, it’s probably just as well. Not that it was going to be easy. The first version leaked months ago, prompting the unofficial mix-tape release of DJ Drama’s Gangsta Grillz: The Leak. Now it’s back again for a Continue Reading

Can enthusiasm be a catch-all defence for everything? It is nice to see people enjoying themselves, isn’t it. And The Automatic are certainly that, it’s either ‘on’ or ‘off’, there is no dimmer-switch for their ready youthful gusto. They’re the kind of chaps who seem to think a point can be proved, an argument won, by simply raising their voices. Or failing that, screeching like they’ve got a biro lid stuck in their throats. Considering they’ve creatively positioned themselves at Continue Reading