A world of arson, moonshine, loves lost and others found, fishing boats, liver failure, troubled families and dark nights spent in the embrace of a single malt. Gigs alongside equally humble pantheists, British Sea Power, the skulduggerous Brakes and the woozy Walkmen culminates in an album that sits somewhere between the wicked, confessional narratives of Nick Cave and the bookish, folkish quietude of fellow miserablist, James Yorkston. Imagine an offshore party of fishermen and artists drowning in a barrel of Continue Reading

At the back of a warehouse in Berlin there is a place that is forever eighties. A waxwork figure of Vince Clarke holds court on a dance floor that fizzes and bangs with all manner of static-charged beats set against a super white background as a glitterball explodes in glorious slow-motion, splintering the ghostly make-up of the crowd, grazing their fashionably astonished faces and tearing to shreds their solarized leather bondage gear, just at the point Steve Strange in a Continue Reading

I’m not usually much taken with press releases, but I have to say Emancipator’s list of achievements is quite impressive ‘Emancipator escaped from the Underground Railroad Chain Gang in the 11th century. He invented the hot air balloon, with which he chartered the Amazon River. He invented wine. Emancipator found the formula for the crystallization of ice during a quiet Japanese winter. He perfected the art of agriculture. He can climb trees faster than you.’ And not least amongst his Continue Reading

A preposterously sunny pop vibe defines the latest offering from sadly neglected hip-hop outfit, Arrested Development, the guitar strumming, booty shaking candyfloss of the sharp and friendly chart seeking missile, ‘Down and Dirty’ (Clap Your Hands) filling in all the gaps between 2004’s ‘Hey Ya’ and last year’s Lily Allen. And whilst Since The Last Time is unlikely to reclaim former glories, or recover a market long since lost to Gangsta Rap and the Republic of Diss, it does build Continue Reading

Including the singles ‘Organ Donor’ by Lefties Soul Connection, the funk remake of Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force’s ‘Planet Rock’ and Jim Dunloop’s The Mexican’ More MPM Sound mashes up past, present and future music tenses with a shockingly fine, uncut diamond of a record that recreates using the latest DNA technology a fair likeness of what hip-hop, jazz and funk used to look like before the Beverley Knights, the Eminems and Jamie Cullums of this world confined decent music Continue Reading

Credit where it’s due, the press sheet that accompanies the first release in six years from drum and bass pioneers, 4Hero does its level best to persuade me that the band’s long established critical acclaim, their 1998 Mercury nomination, their MOBO award and indeed, the band’s widespread respect within the chin-stroking enclave of a ‘real music’ fraternity paves the way for a multi-dimensional, densely layered and lush foray into futuristic soul. And whilst I’m not sure it fits this handsome Continue Reading

Thank heaven for Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages. Just as I was about to regale you with tales long and short about Franz Kafka, a disambiguation page puts me right back on track with a well-timed reference to the post-punk sounds of early eighties Edinburgh band – Josef K. Signed to the ridiculously prickly Postcard label along with Orange Juice and Aztec Camera in an era that rattled to the art-punk sounds of Television and a local scene that literally throbbed with Continue Reading

‘Kitsuné – creating high quality new classics. A simple mix of sharp tailoring, cashmere knits, Japanese denim and jersey basics using traditional artisan factories.’ Or that’s at least how Kitsuné’s fashion founder, Masaya Kuroki would have us see it. Skinny school uniforms might describe it better, the kind you used to grow out of in under three months during the late 1970s and spill no end of bean juice down while scabbing the last 10 minutes of Magpie after jumping Continue Reading

That’s a big name he’s got, possibly too big. And Crud, for a while, also misread him as ‘Heckler’, which is really quite wrong. Abrasive, obnoxious, loud, damning, embarrassing – not a single one of those adjectives apply. He’d have been better shortening that first name to its initial, much like M.Craft and M.Ward in fact – much subtler, much more fitting. And as it happens he shares more than just a common initial with those two modern folk troubadours. Continue Reading

Imagine Rough Trade, Domino and 679 Recordings getting together to round up some of the best the year had to offer. Let’s face it, it’s likely you’d have bands like The Futureheads, Mystery Jets, Arcade Fire, Jarvis Cocker, Sufjan Stevens and Brakes rubbing shoulders with the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, James Yorkston, Four Tet, Franz Ferdinand and Clinic. Pretty impressive, yeah? Well, to a large extent this is pretty much what you have with Top Of The Class 2006; a top-notch Continue Reading