They might overplay the turn of the century plantation costume drama, complete with corsets and explorations of sanitized slave cabins but eleven years old Rasputina haven’t half breathed new life into gothic-rock. True, they might wield cellos rather than guitars but beneath the petticoats and behind the velvet curtains there beats a dark ,dark heart of purist sulphur. Formed in 1991 by Melora Creager (cellist for hire to Nirvana, Marilyn Manson, Porno For Pyros, Belle & Sebastian, Bob Mould and Continue Reading

‘Gunnamatta’ is a long surf beach on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria that can get pretty ‘wild and rippy’ on occasions. There are sharks there too, apparently. I say this not because it’s the title of the opening track on the album – although it is – I say it because it’s a perfect indication of the unspoiled languor of the album. Too laid back for some, I imagine. But if you wriggle yourself free of all that sweaty, punky Continue Reading

Chic urban disco lizards? Hip Parisian dancefloor chill-out cats? Aloof and debonair lords of the electro manor? Perhaps. On a good day, when nobody’s asking too many questions. Wolves in sheep fur coats when they do. But after ’10,000 Hz Legend’ nobody could be heard denying they were a prog band with a makeover who just got it right. Their debut ‘Moon Safari’ itself was quintessentially no more than a jazz-funk lounge odyssey, but dressed up like it was going Continue Reading

If every band had the same sparkling effervescence and energy as Stereolab, the world would be a much better place. It may not lead to the public execution of Tony Blair and his muppet government, but it would at least make it more hospitable. For a day at least, we could all swarm about in the same wildly merry cosmic glow as the late Mary Hansen and her chums, spaced-out on the very glad tidings of life and the universe. Continue Reading

Skimming the curd and waste from the milk of desperation and domestic violence may not be everybody’s idea of a good time, but for the perennially Bristol-based Experimental Pop Band, scouring the bus shelters, service stations, arcades, council houses and dredging the rivers for all the miraculously ordinary things that happen in life has become something a cause célèbre. Originally on City Slang records through which they released the albums ‘Homesick’ and ‘Tracksuit Trilogy’ the band are now in the Continue Reading

You know those shots in films and on TV, the ones where the camera pulls away sharply to reveal a vast functional world swamping the concentrated area on which you’ve been focused feverishly for the last 90 minutes, as a reminder – should you require one – that any tale told is part of a richer, wider tapestry. Hitching in on that metaphor, this might be a bit mid-budget, the camera won’t stretch much beyond the rooftops, but you get Continue Reading

One minute your lifting CDs from one room to another at your job at Mushroom Records, the next your lifting melodies off Oasis’s ‘Songbird’ – itself a less than complex steal off a ‘Yoko’ period Lennon. And here, complete with poorly executed harmonica (‘executed’ being a reasonably accurate phrase) deliriously happy nasal vocal, clatter-bucket acoustic guitars and shuffling wash-board daftness is a bright, breezy and cheerful lo-fi rainbow of a tune. Italian born songwriter Francesco Cinelli (vocals, guitar, harp) and Continue Reading

Earl Slick is one of those artists you didn’t know you knew. The kind of name you’d recognise in a pub quiz if you hadn’t been drinking, but whose name you might forget well before the end of the night when you’ve had a couple. The reason? Earl Slick has teetered precariously at the fringes of genius for years now, having already played alongside David Bowie (with whom he’s now touring), John Lennon and even the great but sadly unrecognised Continue Reading

If you thought producer Dave Fridmann was just a one trick pony, you’d be wise to consider this kick-ass thrusting beast of a record. Gone are the tender, timber algorithms of his oft-cited production work for The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Longwave and Mogwai and in their place is one blistering big daddy of a wall of sound.  The band may be more famous in their native America for their 2002 tune ‘California’ and for actor/drummer Jason Schwartzman, but pretty Continue Reading

Since the release of his ‘Folk Songs for Train Trees and Honey’ album back in 2000, you might be forgiven for thinking Scott Herren (a.k.a. Prefuse 73, a.k.a. Savath & Savalas) had sailed into a slinky red sunset of his own sumptuous imagination, and retired his meticulous eye for heavenly music in favour of sandals and margaritas. Well truth is, the sandals may still be in use – so too are the margaritas – but if the evidence here is Continue Reading