We always had PJ Harvey down as a terse madam, possibly a bit of a narcissist, difficult to be around certainly, challenging to work with probably, cold, guarded, fiercely creative, protective. Etcetera. She’s got a back catalogue of musical open wounds, gothic death-stares in photoshoots and less than forthcoming public image to thank for that. But she’s not, none of it! Not all of it anyway. She’s bloody lovely, so she is. In a when-are-they-bringing-out-the-PJ-edition-of-Barbie, put-her-in-your-pocket lovely. We watch her Continue Reading

Some band or other already copped ‘Funeral’ as the title for their own record the year before last, which is a shame. It sure would have fitted snug like a grave digger’s glove here. ‘The Spell’ is adequate enough though, if we’re talking black magic; darkness, cobwebs, potions, druid beats, the sudden onset of dense fog. That sort of thing. The pace is decidedly funereal, wrapped by the creeping inertia of chugging minor chords, and we’re not talking any old Continue Reading

We feel in oddly retro territory talking of rock/hip-hop cross-over, which should be a contradiction in terms in today’s eclectic musical climate, it should be something we take for granted, and perhaps on its fringes it is. But listening to the introductory portion of Akala’s intense, hook and bruise-laden debut we’re taken back to a time when Public Enemy were breaking boundaries hooking up with Anthrax, and of course lest we forget Aerosmith with Run DMC. And if that seems Continue Reading

At the very first strike of the sitar and the announcement of a thin, wiry, treated vocal I knew we were in for a bumpy ride. Billed as the ‘third wave in psychedelia’ (the first being the shit Harrison stuff on ‘Revolver’, the second being brought to a swift conclusion by Neil’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’) Northern Star Records have pooled some of the wackiest, tripped-out crack on their roster and come up with 70 odd minutes of swirling, spirally Continue Reading

You can admire Hard-Fi from afar, like they’re dots on a grainy screen – the devastatingly effective simplicity of the artwork, the straightforward identification you feel with the song content and the truths spoken therein, the innate unfussiness of the music, their lack of direct affiliation with any passing fad, that sort of thing. But get closer up and things become less than convincing. We realise that to be so very ordinary is perhaps the point here, triumph of the Continue Reading

 ‘Uninvited Like the Clouds’ is the ambiguous new album by 30 year-old, cult Australian four-piece, The Church. To be confronted with another band whose name begins with ‘The’, I was pleasantly surprised with this eclectic mix of music presented here.  If you are looking for a summery, cheerful, ice cream and flip flops kind of album, then I am afraid you‘re likely to be sorely disappointed. The front man, Steve Kilbey has a lilt similar to that of Bono, and Continue Reading

Excuse me, but do you carry a licence for that voice, sir? Almost everything about Absentee has great weight to it, from their surefooted pace through to the maudlin gravity of the failure and black comic hopelessness informing the lyrics. But no aspect carries more clout than Dan Michaelson’s obscenely hefty vocal chords. It is possibly the eighth wonder of the indie world, they could handle the security duties of a medium-large category venue single handed and could certainly blow Continue Reading

Another short, sharp shock of electric from the leftside. Raising the pace slightly on last weeks ‘Get Lost!’ compilation is the latest ‘Bugged Out Mix’ session, this time from that kitsch, camp, eurotrashing record pusher, Miss Kittin. The third in Resist Record’s ‘Bugged Out’ series following Erol Alkan (2005) and Felix Da Housecat (2003) the globetrotting sexoid Miss Kittin has subtitled her own mix session ‘Perfect Night’, a  representative mix of her current club style which is by turns ambient, Continue Reading

What works for some people, doesn’t always work for others, and whilst the shape-shifting, side-winding, theatrical burlesque perfected by Stephin Merrit’s ’69 Love Songs’ works for Stephen Merrit, the same display of outrageous versatility in the hands of ‘proper’ bands like ‘Gram Rabbit’ seems awkward by comparison. You see, Stephin Merrit is one man. The Magnetic Fields too are ostensibly just one man. One man can lunge, lurch and leap and the whole thing still seems coordinated, but when a Continue Reading

There’s some music that really isn’t meant to be written about, and ‘Position Normal’s ‘Jimmy Had Jane’ featured on the beautifully loony, ‘Get Lost!’ compilation illustrates this point rather adequately. It’s not really dance, it’s not really jazz, it’s not really easy-listening, it’s not really a song. It’s not really one thing or the other, in much the same way a Pot Noodle is neither a square-meal in itself or a satisfying snack. And not knowing how to describe it, Continue Reading