Reviews

Just under 30 seconds into ‘Divorce’, the virgin moments of the opening track on the debut album from streamlined post-rock Essex boys Red Jetson, random ethereal insignificance gives way oh so suddenly to a crushing explosion of heavy-headed lament, a dense plummeting mass of punishing world-weariness. It’s like, I imagine, being regrettably sucked through the window of an airplane at 30,000 feet and recalling the event with reflective cinematic depth, in studied slow-motion, as you float on slipstreams shortly afterwards Continue Reading

You have to admire the restraint really, don’t you. Conceived at the height of grunge’s commercial success, when it was tricky to even nip down the shops for a pack of custard creams without treading on a fuzz pedal, their commendable mission-statement was to create music as quietly and as slowly as possible. Purveyors of (s)lowcore, whether through a reactionary stubbornness or genuine artistic desire, their methods paid great dividends. Songs developed like sketches of landscapes in the dim light Continue Reading

Athlete have gone soft. Sorry, what’s that, you say? Soft, I say. But Athlete were already soft, you say. Ahh, but not so, I say. That was a popular misconception forced upon them by short sighted folk who reacted badly to the fact that they favoured a close shave, looked like they might not be averse to a moisturising lotion and became a fairly regular fixture on Popworld and the like. You were never going to cut yourself on them Continue Reading

Here comes trouble. Just when you think you’re getting to like brother-sister duo The Fiery Furnaces they tie your shoelaces together, rip the final chapter out of your book and run off giggling delectably, leaving you aggravated and unfulfilled, but unable to rule out giving them a second chance. Their albums thus far have been investigations into the sturdiness of patience – watch a monkey throw daggers at an ice-cube for eternity and the law of averages will have him Continue Reading

The debut album is a gift ravaged graciously by many – creative buds given the berth to burst wide open for the first time, foundations laid, curtains raised, debts paid, a world of possibilities either realised or borne afresh, all tumbling freely amongst the entwined ambitions of the tracklisting. Or not. Alas The Others, apparently allergic to the medium’s potential, manage to make their debut album already seem a step too far. They were, up until fairly recently, little more Continue Reading

It’s amazing, but on occasion it is possible for a guitar to make a wiseass tolerable. It’s true (though obviously not everyone can be saved, some just get more amplified – see the insufferable Jack Black). Of course we’re making presumptions here, based on the evidence available. And the evidence available suggests a guy who’s witty rhyming couplets and like todally easy going attitude completely define him. Take away the guitar and you’ve probably got the type of bar-fly who Continue Reading

To nit-pick, or not to nit-pick; that is the question. Or it’s my question at least in respect of Feeder’s fifth studio album, ‘Pushing The Senses’ whose ruminative introspection threatens to plod like an elephant over thumping tigerish efforts like ‘Buck Rogers’, and leave big, baggy pools of melancholy in its wake. Many would argue that it was previous album, ‘Comfort in Sound’ that really marked the departure from the razor-sharp power-pop of breakthrough album ‘Echo Park’ – but the Continue Reading

Our own and the future’s love affair with the 1980s continues in solid style with the release of the hugely enjoyable and retrotastic ‘Phantascope’ by the inevitably New York centered ‘Anubian Lights’. Brought together in 1995 by Tommy Greñas and Len Del Rio through a mutual love of Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Warp and Factory Records the band made their debut in 2001 with Nazbar via the now defunct Disc Hot Wax! Label. This time, however, the boys have brought in Continue Reading

Comparable to the likes of Amp Fiddler in her tenacious and eclectic pursuit of a nu-soul groove through the jittery ravages of drum and bass and the smooth, fluid heartaches of classic r n b, Oakland, CA born singer, songwriter, and spoken-word artist, Jennifer Johns at the very least manages to wrestle with innovation and complexity even if she doesn’t completely master it on first album, ‘Heavyelectromagneticsoularpoeticjunglehop’. The Eastern backdrop to the graceful and hypnotic ‘Heavy (808-jungalastic afro freak) even Continue Reading

Lord knows Pete Best had it hard enough living up to expectations as fifth Beatle (alongside a baker’s half dozen other fifth Beatles) so inevitably, Money Mark’s mantel as fourth-Beastie Boy prepares a similar difficult path to follow. What did he do for the Beastie Boys? Well in addition to a spot of carpentry and repair for the boys on G-Son Studio and Grand Royal’s main office, Money Mark – long time friend of other fifth Beastie Boy, Mario Caldato, Continue Reading